Re: [compost_tea] Re: Weed Control using Compost Tea
I have to agree with Steve Diver about weed control and compost tea.
Compost tea is not a magical cure-all. You have to understand what a weed
MEANS in your soil.
The soil habitat, the condition of organisms, temperature, chemical
availability, moisture and so forth was conducive to allow that weed to
germinate and grow more rapidly than any other plant whose seeds happened to
be present at the time.
Just by applying compost tea, you are going to solve a multitude of problems?
The problems that allow those weeds to pop-up faster than anyone else?
Take a few minutes and figure out what what information that weed is telling
you.
Too high nitrate level? Then apply a tea that will result in organisms
growing that will suck up that extra nitrate.
Too low calcium? Then apply a tea that will help bring up the calcium level
and keep that calcium in the soil.
Anaerobic conditions? Build soil structure. That means a FULL foodweb must
be in place.
Mother Nature has set a book before you. Learn to read it. The book is a
complex detective story. You have to be a soil life inspector in order to
understand the clues, but all the clues are there before you. Learn to solve
the mystery.
But the answer is not "Apply compost tea". The answer is in changing the
habitat that allowed the weeds to grow. You have choices in the way you
change the habitat. You can nuke the weeds, and always be in nuke mode. Or
you can solve the mystery, and never have those weeds again.
Set the habitat in your soil correctly to grow the plants you want to grow.
Compost tea can be part of the process of making the habitat correct. It's
up to you to understand what is needed to change the habitat.
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand
"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things
turn out." -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
Received on Sat Mar 22 2003 - 22:49:16 EST
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