Re: [compost_tea] Re: Teruo Higa article on beneficial and effective microorg...
Yes, tea spraying CAN BE redundant. If you get the biology established,
surviving, and growing in the soil, and on leaf surfaces, you should not have to
keep applying.
How do you know you have them in the soil, growing and doing their thing? At
the risk of being taken a pot-shot again about promoting my lab, the answer
is that testing is needed to see if things are present and functioning. I have
discussed, over and over on this list serve, the things you can use as a
visible indicator of the biology working. Or you can send samples in to SFI.
Your choice.
With leaf sprays, you do typically have to apply several times through the
year, becuase air pollution, pesticide drift, and dust will kill the biology on
the leaf surface. So, foliar applications need to be repeated, nad you need
to know if the biology gets on the leaf surface iniitally. The leaf organism
assay tells you when the biology needs to be replaced. I've suggested some
other ways to know good coverage and activity too.
In the soil, it is easier to get the right biology established, and have the
roots keep everyone happy. Applying food is all that is needed, eventually.
Just make sure not to kill the critters you want....
Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc,
1128 NW 2nd ST., Suite 120
Corvallis, Oregon
Soil Foodweb Inc., Australia
Soil Foodweb Inc., New York
Soil Foodweb Inc., New Zealand
Soil Foodweb Inc., The Netherlands
Soil Foodweb Inc., Mexico
Board Member, Sustainable Studies Institute, Eugene, OR
"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense,
no matter how things turn out."
-- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
Received on Tue Jan 27 2004 - 17:18:17 EST
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