Re: [compost_tea] Re: PLUM CURCULIO ?

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 09:15:42 -0500

Why don't the biological control methods work?

Just like a person, if you don't set up the habitat so the person can work, then amazingly, the person isn't productive. If you don't feed a person, they don't get anything done.

If you don't give them air, they don't get anything done, because they are dead.

If you don't give them a way to write down their findings, they don't produce any written reports. Worthless person!

So, if you have not fed Beauveria, how can you expect this fungus to work? You dump the fungus in the soil, but still see the insect, you say, "see, it doesn't work", when in fact, it is you not doing your job of feeding the fungus.

When you sanitize your orchard by raking up the leaves each fall, that's fungal food you are taking away. And you wonder why biological approaches don't work.

Food. Water. Air. Comfort.

Did you make the soil habitat right for plum curculio, or did you make the soil habitat right for the fungi that parasitize the larval stages of the insect? Or for the nematode that can spread the bacterial inoculum that will kill the insect?

If you'd like to answer my question - have you measured compaction in your soil? Have you made any effort to make the soil a suitable home for beneficial biology, or have you just assumed that you have done this?

There can be light years between what you think and what actually is.
 
And if you are going to come back at me and say you don't have the money, or interest, or whatever, to test with SFI, that is NOT what I'm telling you to do here.

I have, over and over, explained how to assess compaction in your soil without ever sending a test into SFI.

So, what is the situation with compaction in your soil? Have you given the biology you so easily dismiss a chance to work?

Can we not feed you for the next three months? Can we put you in a water-filled room with no aeration and see how long you continue to function? Can we then say "See, he can't do the tasks we give him, he's worthless."

Is turn-about fair play?

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

 

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

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 Mon Jan 05 2004 - 11:03:03 EST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:14:59 EST