Thanks for the answer.
Flat-out statements are always bad. Oppps, here I
am making another flat-out statement.
Anyway, reminds me one the favorite ways Chinese
people used for suicide. Eating salt. A few table spoons
can kill you. We can’t really say that salt is always bad.
Same for sugar or everything else.
So the quantity of sugar to be added to any soil has to be
decided upon several aspects like soil aeration ( soil porosity ),
soil microbiology, the amount of other nutrients that will be added
along with the sugar, soil tilth ,etc…
As for the statement that “ Compost Tea doesn’t work” ,
time will show those people that they are totally wrong.
In a matter of a few years those people will look ridiculous.
Try to tell to one of my clients that have 3 CT machines and used to
spend almost US$ 10,000.00 a year in agri-chemicals to control
soil borne diseases that compost tea doesn’t work. Today he spends
like US$ 500.00 a year and have the situation under control.
But, hey that is very bad for the economy, right ? If people starts to
spend less money there will be less jobs, etc, etc……
Thanks again
Jose
HI Jose -
I was on planes all day yesterday. Left my hotel in Hilversum, The
Netherlands at
7 am Central European times, and got home at 8:45 pm PNW time. Long
day. and of course, here I am, wide-awake at 4 am, because my body
thinks it is mid-afternoon, and what am I doing in bed all-day?
So, hopefully the body will come to an agreement with the sunshine
sometime today...... I hope there will be sunshine today in Corvallis!
Anyway, so much for my excuse on not gettting back right away to Jose'
question.
He asked -
Would sugar activate bacteria in the soil, thereby increasing nutrient
cycling and
and retention and consequently reducing nutrient looses ?
Has Dr Elaine seen any data on the utilization of sugar + Chemical or
Organic fertilizers as a way to improve fertilizer utilization ?
The folks at the University of Georgia (Cooleman, Hendrix), Michigan
State (Robertson), and at Colorado State University (Klein, Wall, Hunt)
have shown some interesting results. The Tilth lab at Iowa State
(Cambardella), and some of the compost program work at UC Davis
(Jackson). Hum, Mike Allen at San Diego State. Oh yeah, and
Ehrenberg's work at Rutgers. And Jayne Belnap with the USGS.
The problem is that they don't always tie the combination of fertilizer
with carbon back to plant production. Or they are not aware of the
anaerobic conditions that excess simple carbon (a more general term for
sugar, or maybe other forms of organic compounds) can develop. Instead
of carefully monitoring the amount of carbon, and the form of the
carbon, they dump material into the soil and conclude that addition of
carbon is detrimental. Instead of realizing there is a gradient of
response, they extrapolate their results to all conditions everywhere.
When anyone, but especially individuals in the extension service, USDA,
and universities make all-inclusive statements like "compost tea doesn't
work", you should learn to just exit from that person's presence. They
have an axe to grind, and it is clearly anti-new methods. They aren't
interested in figuring out the conditions that result in positive
results, they just want to negate the method completely.
Sorry, I'm off on a tirade this morning, but I really want people to
understand this.
Compost tea works - but not under all conditions, everywhere. You have
to understand what you are doing. When has rote performance ever been
successful for anything.
Water is a good thing, right? All the time? How about when you have
too much, in which case water will drown you. Or not enough can be just
as deadly. What is the right amount, and in what conditions? The right
amount of water for rice will kill cactus.
Someone the other day asked if compost tea could kill plants. Well,
defined as it should be defined, no, compost tea will not kill plants.
But if you make compost tea wrong, (and it's not compost tea), then
really, what do you expect? Of course "it" will kill plants. But it's
not compost tea then. Be really careful how people define compost tea.
Manure swirled in a tank isn't going to work most of the time. Rare
exceptions, because of how they made it, but it isn't compost tea.
Put too much salt in your water, and drinking the water will kill you.
So, what kills the plants when manure is liquified? anaerobic? too high
salt? too much nitrate? Could be any of those things. How do you make
sure liquid manure is going to be beneficial, and not detrimental?
that's what we have to work on, not on flat-out statements that liquid
manure is bad. Because it isn't always bad.
And the same with sugar, kelp, or lignite. Too much sugar will be
really bad because the soil goes anaerobic. Not enough sugar, and the
organisms don't have the food to grow and do what the plant needs. You
can add too much kelp and kill your plants because you get too much N.
Too little, and you lack the micrnutrients the plants need, especially
if you've leached all the micronutrients from the mineral parts of your
soil by poor management. Lignite? Only useful if you have the biology
you need to break it down.
Hope this helps -
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand
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Received on Tue Feb 11 2003 - 21:27:52 EST