Re: [compost_tea] Application rate
I have just returned from South Africa, and I was lucky enough to get some time at a game reserve. Wow! Saw all but leopards of the Big Five and you name it of the rest! I bagged them all in my camera!
AND the best of all, there will be a Soil Foodweb Lab in South Africa. Precise location to be determined, so if you have input, please let me know! The tech for the SA lab will be here at Corvallis lab mid-May, through until August. So, again, if you have ideas and thoughts, please stop by the lab to chat while he is here!
But, the question I am answering, now that I am back (phone connections in the bush are non-existent, so I hope you will all forgive the lack of interaction during the time I was gone), is this one from Bill -
> I need to determine the gallons per acre for one application assuming:
> 3 applications per season
> the crop is soy beans
> no manmade chemicals will be applied
> field was fallow last year
> located in eastern Arkansas
The basis of this answer needs to be in solid data. Please get the Compost Tea Brewing Manual, where there is clear data on the answer. But to summarize, the consideration is COVERAGE on the leaf surface. If you get the leaf surfaces concered, top and bottom, by AT LEAST 65% bacteria, and 5% fungi, we have always been able to protect the plant foliage from diseases.
Please note that this is NOT a pesticidal effect. We are not killing anything. We are occupying the leaf surface with beneficial critters that do not cause disease. This is a very hard concept for people that are used to relying on chemicals to grasp. But it works. Same with human beings - prevent disease. Combatting disease once it is established means you are fighting a horrible battle. Don't go there.
So, how much tea is needed to establish 65% bacterial coverage, and a minimum of 5% fungal coverage?
IF you have good tea (see SFI standards for compost tea), and you apply that tea so the organisms are not killed, then you will have that kind of coverage, if you spray 5 GALLONS of GOOD COMPOST TEA PER ACRE, in however much water (as a carrier) as you need to srapy the 5 gallons of tea out evenly over that acre.
You need to spray a minimum of three times through the growing season - once at first true leaf stage, once pre-bloom, once post-bloom. Why the focus on bloom? Because it is easy for growers to know that the plant is at certain stages, and be able time spraying based on something the plant tells you, not on whether you have the time to do the spraying.... Grin!
IF WEATHER RESULT IN PERFECT CONDITIONS for the diseases to grow, then you have to spray more often. You need to make the leaf surfaces better for the "good guys" than the "Bad guys", which means some effort on your part to change the leaf surface conditions. So, then you start spraying perhaps every other week, and if conditions are really perfect for the pathogen, spray once a week.
OK?
Bill wrote:
> Vendors have suggested from 5 to 24 gal. I would like to get close to the minimum effective amount, the point of diminishing returns, to minimize expense. Is there any field trial data applicable to this?
> Bill
>
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
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
http://www.soilfoodweb.com
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Received on Thu Apr 29 2004 - 11:08:17 EDT
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