[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: RES: [compost_tea] Nutritional effects
Hi Lloyd -
There is more worth to CT than just nutritional. The primary reason for using CT for most growers is disease suppression. Second, start getting the soil into better tilth, decrease watering requirements, improve aeration in the soil, etc. Third is to improve plant nutrition.
For many growers, the overnight improvement in plant color and improvement in disease prevention in enough evidence for them. IF YOUR TEA has the organisms needed, if it contains the nutrition your plant is lacking, and you get the organisms growing on the leaf surface.
What if you don't see these benefits in the next couple days after application? You might suspect there was something not-right with the tea, or the application method. Then you need to play detective. What wasn't correct?
Next question then:
Do all teas improve plant health?
What if your plant is already healthy? Then the tea is a preventative and dramatic plant growth changes may not be apparent.
So, the point here is that CT is not used for one thing alone. The expectation should be multiple improvements, because the right organisms on leaf and in soil control a number of processes and functions. Return the function to the system, and the plant cannot help but respond.
Can CT be detrimental? Not if it is made correctly. Aerobic. The correct set of active organisms to match the plant's requirements. Can't over-do it, until the point that you start saturating the soil with water.
And I've seen people do that. Getting the right organisms back into the soil improves soil structure, increases water-holding capacity. In tests on potato at Oregon State University, the researchers would not reduce the water going onto the CT trials. Even though the soil was continuously moist in our plots, and not in the other plots, disease did not occur in our plots. But would the OSU scientists recognize this? Not a word......
So, can CT be detrimental? Not if it is made correctly and used with attention to the fact that the soil will be changed. Your current practices may have to be altered.....
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor |
ADVERTISEMENT
![]() | |
![]() |
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
compost_tea-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.