Re: [compost_tea] same recipe - compost free in water
Hi Ted -
So I have tested a number of times before and after extraction.
Great, that's what is needed!
What I have found is this:
1. The biomass before extraction is reduced by any pumping system used.
There are some pumps that do not reduce organism numbers, or perhaps the more
precise statement is, some pumps in the place and way they are configured do
not reduce organism biomass or activity.
Don't ask me which ones. The testing was done on someone else's dime, and
they don't want the information shared. And I'm not enough of an engineer to be
able to make generalizations about types of pumps.
2. Any sprayer using fresh water to dilute the spray causes a shift in
osmotic pressure and many bugs die from that. The action of the spray also shreds
any fungi and kills some of the bacteria.
You should not make generalizations of this nature. Survival on addition to
water depends on the quality of the fresh water, and what is in the "fresh"
water. Many fresh waters have enough hardness that there is no loss of organism
biomass or activity.
Many sprayers do not shred fungi. In fact, most sprayers do not shred the
fungi. The critical factor appearst to be the nozzle configuration, and, again
the pump.
3. Bacterial/fungal mass after spraying -- of the types of sprayers we tried
-- was disrupted. However, enough was foliar applied to get results.
That's why testing what ends up on the leaf is the most useful measure. If
you get adequate coverage with bacteria and fungi, then the fact you may have
lost some critters to get there doesn't matter.
4. After spray with dilution, the dimunition of biomass was in proportion to
the dilution.
Dilution is not the appropriate way to talk about this. You need to think in
gallons per ac applied, or in gallons per 100 sq feet. If I stand and spray 5
gallons onto one spot, it doesn't matter how much water I used during that
time, it matters how many critters end up on the leaf.
Water is just the carrier. Figure that you need to get coverage. Water
isn't the important point, it's how much tea actually hit the surface.....
So effective coverage tested less dense. Since there was some food left in
the tea, there is every reason to expect that some of the bacteria/fungi kept
growing on the leaf. This showed during leaf assay. UV eventually wiped it
all out on upper leaf surface but the biology was still present on the lower
leaf surface after three days.
Yep, that's why adding food to the tea is a good idea. Food that the
organisms did not consume during the brewing cycle.
The organisms use the glue that they make to protect from UV. So I doubt it
was the UV that killed the critters on the leaf surface. Dust. Air
pollution. Pesticide drift. That's what kill the organisms on leaf surfaces most of
the time.
The bottom line seems to be that any transfer method kills some of the
biomass and some of the protozoa. UV wipes out bacterial fungal populations within
72 hours but probably sooner if the conditions are correct.
Lack of plant nutrition probably also plays a part - if the plant is healthy,
then the plant should be feeding the organisms. Un-healthy plant - maybe no
food.
I have brewed and seen nematode growth and was looking for microarthropods
but never seemed to find them. After picking up a book at a library sale about
plant propagation, I came across a photograph of dilluted soil showing parts
of microarthropods. While they can and do exist in compost, it seems that a
rapid food change or water change like breweing shreds these things. When I
re-examined some of my brew samples, I was seeing bug parts but not whole bugs.
We generally turn compost way too much for microarths to want to hang around,
or for nematodes to want to reproduce. So compost is usually lacking in
these critters. Except for Mark Sturges' worm compost, of course! Worm compost
is more likely to have the bigger critters. .
24 hours isn't long enough for nematodes or microarths to reproduce, so they
won't grow in the tea.
I found an interesting wormlike bug in a sample of reduced compost. We had
been attempting to reduce the compost mass and produce a product suitable for
brewing without the mass of compost. We could then refrigerate the "compost"
extract and put the microbes to sleep. When brewed, the microbes would wake up
and start multiplying. Anyway, I found these funny segmented worms. Some
made up of three and up segments. Ninety-nine percent of them were dead but a
couple lived. So straining and refrigerating killed off these worms. It
didn't effect the fungal mass or the bacterial growth though and tea brewed with
this stuff actually brewed the same as tea with compost but with a longer time.
The brewing cycle is typically 72 hours with the biomass really growing in
the last 24 hours. I had to come up with a different feeding strategy but all
in all, this method holds some promise.
You were seeing insect larvae.
Microscopic examination revealed a lot of fungi and rod bacteria. Protozoa
were everywhere from little amoebas doing their gig to large swimming water
bears and lots of paramecium (smaller). In difference from other brews, I found
virtually no stalked cilliates and I attribute this to the lack of animal
fecal matter in the compost but I am not 100% on this.
Vorticella and Volvox (the stalked ciliates typical in soil or compost)
relate more to anaerobic conditions, stagnant situations. Manures are generally
anaerobic, so can have many stalked ciliates. But many other conditions also
result in high numbers.
We are just starting to use this in soil and I will send the reports when I
get them.
Great!
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 Wed Mar 17 2004 - 16:30:53 EST
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