Elprune,
I know John Evans, he has visited with us in Spokane, and I have had many
phone conversations and email exchanges with him and yes, for his giant
plants, he has indeed selected plants that grow into rather large sizes.
Compost tea and nutrients alone do not cause those plants to be giant
plants. He has a strong focus upon seed selection based upon genetic
potential and growth history going on with his giant plants.
John's tea is not just some kind of extract from humus or compost. He has
purchased a number of products containing select, high performing bacteria,
along with several other ingredients that he mixes together with dried
molasses. This combo of ingredients is what he calls his "bio activator".
So the live critters in his tea do not all come from the humus or compost
when using his bio-activator.
John starts his giant plants months before they are put out into the soils
to grow. If he didn't do that, he would not have giant plants at the end of
his short growing season. The special giant celery seed which he received
from M.Williams, UK, takes 8 months to grow.
John also spends a considerable amount of time and effort making a rather
sophisticated and complicated compost which he puts into his soils. Without
these rather rich materials he adds to his soils, he would not have the
nutrients available for the bacteria in his tea to produce the nitrogen for
his specially selected giant plants. He also warms up his water
considerably before putting that water on his plants and hills up his soils
and uses clear plastic to warm those soils and he grows plants in containers
that can be warmed up too.
According to the Agriculture Research Service, "Interior Alaska's long days
promote rapid growth and N uptake." Those long Alaska summer days most
certainly have an influence upon the plants John is growing. He warms up
his soils with heated water and clear plastic, adds a lot of nitrogen
through his rich compost and green manures, and then loads up his tea by
adding bacterial products to his bio activator ingredients so a high level
of nitrogen is made available for rapid uptake in those long Alaska days.
That fits nicely into what the Agriculture Research Service has stated.
The key to making this work in Alaska: Warm the water and soils, make
plenty of nitrogen available in the organic materials, make plenty of
minerals available, select seed from plants that most definitely are
selected to grow larger, load up your tea with lots of bacteria that will
make the nitrogen available... along with minerals, etc. John has figured
out how to get that high nitrogen release with those long Alaska days in
soils that would normally be quite cold and would not allow these high
levels of bacteria to function near as well.
You can also purchase Alaska Bounty Brewers from
http://www.tandjenterprises.com that include John's special bioactivator
ingredients. We don't have the expensive shipping cost from Alaska.
Sincerely,
Thomas Giannou
http://www.tandjenterprises.com
----- Original Message -----
From: elprune
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 1:02 AM
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: CT on HGTV
Does he mention that he plants huge fruiting varieties to begin with
and that long sunlight days are contributing factors?
--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Lowenfels" <jeff_at_g...>
wrote:
> HGTV will be running a special this weekend "Garden Giants"
>
>
> March 30, 2003 9:00 PM EST and March 31, 2003 AM EST. Fellow
tea maker, John Evan is one of the featured gardeners. John has 9
world records on large veggies. He explains to the audience that it
is compost tea and not sunlight that causes his records. He is
shown making tea etc. I think you will all get a kick out of the
show and its positive promotion of Compost Tea.
>
>
>
> Enjoy!
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Jeff
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
compost_tea-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
DVD Rentals with No Late Fees - Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/ZKLNcC/pEZFAA/i5gGAA/0PSxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
compost_tea-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Received on Sun Mar 30 2003 - 13:55:10 EST