--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, Matt Leamy <sharku_at_p...> wrote:
> There is an issue with a company who have set up to commercially
supply CT , with no As, which are brews that are extracts from
vermicast that supply spores. (They are not calling it CT). They
tell me that they are extracting the full range of beneficial
spores, I have yet to see testing that supports this claim.
Reply: Without some way to back up their claim, I would say it's
just advertising. How do they propose to assure their customers of
this? How are they assuring themselves of this? And by the way,
what exactly are "the full range of beneficial spores"? Is this
their phrase or if not, exactly what is being said?
>The idea that they are supplying a high diversity of spore
extracted from vermicast is surely sound.
reply: So far, from what you've said it's just an idea, a concept.
No matter how interesting and intriguing the concept, the rubber
must meet the road. If the claim is being made, then these people
need to provide some way of establishing the claim is accurate.
Elaine Ingham has said that whether or not vermicompost produces a
fungal or bacterial tea has to do with what the worms ate (I think
she said it about vermicompost, not castings, but same would seem to
apply IF Elaine was referring to source of spores and not simply the
nutrients the worms turned into compost -- which may well be her
point. Elaine?? Are you there??). So, depending on what Elaine
says about food source and whether it's relevant in this case, you
could ask them what the worms are eating and are they gathering the
worm castings from their own worms or other sources? That would
give you a clue as to what their knowledge base is about what
they're doing.
The next question is same as it is for compost tea. If you start
with good source material, how well does your extraction method
work? How hard are spores to extract from worm castings or
compost? Is this extracting method going to extract a greater
amount of spores than an AACT method? Less?
If we can't verify the extraction method's efficacy, then why are we
using the extract instead of the castings themselves?
Now, maybe the company is going to tell you that they don't need
tests because all they need is results. Then maybe it would be more
reasonable to be promising results under certain conditions, not
stating something they can't prove or demonstrate.
I wonder if it would be possible to grow out the spores in this
product in a sterile medium, such as would be done for raising
specific types of mushrooms? I don't know what one would be able to
understand about a mycelial mat, but at least maybe a comparison
could be done between a tea-inoculated medium and a castings extract
inoculated one?
>
> Perhaps questions without good answers?
>
> Any thoughts? Any experience with similiar products would be
helpful.
>
>Matt, questions without good answers are very useful and thanks for
bringing an interesting topic to the board. I, too, look forward to
learning from those with more insight on this than I have.
Chris Reid
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Received on Thu Dec 04 2003 - 12:40:10 EST