Re: [compost_tea] Reply to "TO BREW OR NOT TO BREW?

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:20:10 -0500

WE've done a fair amount of work with pivot application of tea, where tea is applied, from the same batch, for 18 to 35 hours. It takes a minimum of 18 hours, usually, for the pivot to get all the way around a 130-something circle.

We do not see an area in the field where the tea was not effective because it was put out between 10 am and 3 pm. Sunlight, even in bright sunny places like Idaho, eastern Washington, or Oregon, where the tea is applied to potato, does not have an impact on the critters.

So, is the UV concern about sunlight bogus? A little more data needed, I think. What we see is if the droplet size being applied is fairly large - 1 mm drop size, or the drops coalesce after spraying - then sunlight does not impact the organisms. They are safe from UV, because the droplet size attenuates the UV.

Soil versus foliar spraying isn't the concern with time-to-time spray, because it's a UV thing that was the concern. When applying to the soil, if the droplets go through the air, UV is something to consider. If the tea is applied via dripline, then a whole different set of concerns, not UV concerns, apply.

Anyone else have observations to support or not-support these observations?

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
www.soilfoodweb.com

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Received on Mon Nov 17 2003 - 14:08:11 EST

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