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Re: [compost_tea] CT Strawberries?
We used CT last year on strawberries in Western Australia. The strawberries
were not inoculated (pre plant) unfortunately as the CT machine was not
ready in time.
The crop was planted in winter and had some CT applications coming out of
winter, at the end of winter there was noticed a little Powdery, chemicals
were used to control and then we switched back to CT every 2 weeks at 50 to
100 litres per ha. CT was run through the irrigation at 100 litres per ha to
reduce Rhizoctonia and other root diseases. The field was gassed prior to
planting, heavy applications of chook manure and sawdust were used pre
plant (Jarrah sawdust which has proven phytophera inhibition).
Fert program was dependant on slow release fert as well as soluble
fertigation.
CT was used consistently from late winter till late spring, 3 months, with
disease levels acceptable to good compared with conventional systems. Late
spring powdery mildew levels were unaceptable and things became too
difficult for the grower to continue with the CT (he was folia spraying 2 or
3 times a week with other biological materials etc).
CT continued to be used through the irrigation till middle of summer then
stopped. The grower is not convinced of the effectiveness of the CT however
there was a point in time when he was explaining to me that there was some
Powdery on his plants ( very small amount but significant). Another
conventional grower up the road had been using Sulphur to control the
Powdery and had a higher level of Powdery on his patch!
CT is no magic bullet !! I believe it is very difficult to get minimal
disease pressure unless whole plant nutrition is addressed. See Albrehct,
Rheams Tanio (balancing plant pH) etc.
This grower however has had the most sucessfull year in the last 3 years
with other growers in the area commenting on the quality of plants and
production levels. I have not been out to look recently but he is still
producing after 7 or 8 months.
The reason for his success is addressing soil and plant biology in line with
SFI info as well as good nutrition management.
CT was fungal dominated high quality.
So for 3 months CT was effective, one problem I had was the grower decided
not to use the CT regularly as he believed it would be ok. CT must be
applied weekly as a preventative to ensure effectiveness.
Regards Mike Harvey
New Life Soils
www.composttea.com.au
----- Original Message -----
From: <laura_s@vaxxine.com>
To: <compost_tea@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] CT Strawberries?
> we'll be trying it on strawberries this year and would be interested in
> forming a working group if others are interested.
>
> Where do strawberries fall within the progression from annual crops to
> deciduous trees ? equal bacterial and fungal ?
>
>
>
> At 08:22 PM 02/04/2003 -0600, you wrote:
> > Nothing recent and lots of repetition of the same study on the
> >web. Cheers, Jeff
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> >
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> Laura Sabourin
> EcoVit Ecologically Sound Horticultural Products
> Tea-riffic Aerobic Compost Tea and Acadian Seaplant Products
> RR # 1
> St Catharines, Ontario L2R 6P7
> http://www.ecovit.ca
> http://www.compost-tea.ca
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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