Re: [compost_tea] Deep roots

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 14:45:19 -0500

Depp roots require good soil structure. That means compaction at a minimal degree. You should be able to drive a rod through the soil with just your hand, without grunting.

Building soil structure, and building it so well that driving a tractor across the soil even when the soil is wet (but not too wet - that's the question we have yet to answer. How wet is too wet?) still doesn't compact the soil, requires a fully functional and complex food web. That means not only bacteria, but fungi, protozoa, nematodes (just the good guys, please), and microarthropods. And not just their total biomass, but ACTIVE biomass.

We could expect that you would have to buy each species separately and apply them (whoa! think of the cost!), but luckily we have compost which, if made right, supplies all the critters. Thermal compost will be a little short on the microarthropods, so a touch of worm compost too.

OR

Compost tea can be used to add back everything but the microarthropods (although we still need to work on how to get nematodes numbers higher in good compost, so we can extract high numbers into the tea).

Easier to apply the liquid in many cases. But remember, fungi, protozoa and nematodes DO NOT SURVIVE in tea that has lost oxygen.

People selling "compost tea" have to document that they have the biology in the tea, or at the very least, document that the tea did not go anaerobic during the brewing cycle.

Or you have to conclude that you are getting bacteria alone. And possibly some pretty nasty bacteria. Combat black spot? Sure, they do a job on black spot. Take out mildew? Not in the studies we have run.

So, if you want to have deep roots, you have to build soil structure. The biology does that. Compaction means you don't have the right biology. So fix it.

Deep roots means you don't have to water nearly as much (perhaps as great as 70% reduction, but more likely 30% reduction in water needs), you don't need the inorganic fertilizer (the roots access the nutrients you put down last year, the year before, and which leached below your compaction zone).

So, to grow deep roots, you need actively aerated compost tea (AACT), not fermentative tea, not anaerobic tea, not a tea that went anaerobic for awhile and returned aerobic.

An aerated compost extract can give you this as well, but you then have to add the foods for the organisms to the soil. Compost extracts don't generally work for foliar applications, as the organisms need to be active in order to stick to the leaf surface.

Examples of where tea did work are appreciated. also, examples where tea did not work are useful, so we can figure out why it didn't work, Analysis of the biology, and conditions during tea production usually lets us know why something did not work.

Get those roots going deep!

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
http://www.soilfoodweb.com

 

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Received on Sun Jan 25 2004 - 15:47:36 EST

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