[compost_tea] Re: Tea and powdery mildew
Hi Kirk,
Concerning the foam; I was first turned on to brewing tea by a
farmer who has become a good friend. I copied his methods and he
always judges the tea to be finished by the foam. The smell also
seems best when there is lots of foam (ie no more fish or molasses
odour). I use my soup to nuts recipe as a carry over from anaerobic
EM fermentations. My friend does not use the same ingredients as I
but has used only ACT for about 4 years. Zero fertilizer. He has one
of the most successful cut flower farms in the Vancouver area. He
overcame a very serious erwinia (sp?) infection with the tea and his
tea has been tested and tested better than a large commercial ACT
supplier which shall remain unamed. He and I both use homemade
venturi(s) and water pumps. His brewer is 5000 gallons.
Cheers,
Titel
--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "Kirk Leonard" <kirkleon@o...>
wrote:
> Thanks for further comments, Titel. I look forward to your recipe
and
> process info. Keep up the "hillbilly" research efforts... I think
I'm in
> that group, too, although I've recently gained access to a good
microscope
> (and someone to help me learn to use it...) which has been
fantastic, a new
> level of learning.
>
> The phenomenon and function of foam in ACT is still a mystery to
me, and
> while many of my batches have foamed as much as you describe,
variously in
> batch time, most have not, so I am not sure about that as an
indicator of
> tea being done. A few thoughts: Might foam be a function
primarily of
> nutrient load or specific organism dominance or oxygen saturation
or simply
> barometric pressure changes? This was discussed some time ago but
I don't
> think it was resolved.
>
> Titel said:
> > I do sort of doubt that extraction is better with compost
contained
> > rather than loose in the water. We use a bag made from landscape
> > cloth to protect our equipment. I think that a free suspension
air
> > bubble system would be superior for fungal brews which I believe
are
> > more suited to soil drenches than foliar disease prevention.
> >
> I can see this. If you have big fungi in your compost they
probably aren't
> going to make it out of containment. But fungal hyphae are very
delicate,
> and if you have a good roil in your machine, no micro-bubble
issues, how
> likely is it large fungi are going to make it through, anyway?
> Additionally, if you spray the ACT, how likely is it large fungi
make it
> through whole? I can see what you're saying but think it would
only work
> with poured teas. Seems like any kind of pump action would shred
the big
> guys.
>
> I think "fungal" teas depend on lots of little guys getting
through and
> succeeding in growing on application, and that the visible, large
fungi are
> just an indication of good fungal content in compost, and the big
ones don't
> actually make it through the process... And I'm reaching here, but
I want to
> remember that fungi provide substantial benefits in foliar sprays,
also.
>
> Butch said:
> > Second thought, the reference to compost tea
> > controlling powdery mildew has been questioned. Could
> > it be that the particular batch did in fact control
> > powdery mildew because of some particular organism
> > which occurred in that batch or an organism in unusual
> > numbers. If so then everyone who is serious about how
> > they batch tea could send a sample to a central
> > testing site for storage. If some unusual result seems
> > to occur then that sample could be tested to see if
> > something is special.
> >
> Ya! Good ideas, though I'm not sure about "storage"(?). In
addition to a
> particular organism or unusual numbers of an organism, how about
the
> possibility of a built-in set, or even a succession of organisms
in the tea?
>
> Kirk
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Received on Sun Oct 24 2004 - 18:17:05 EDT
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: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:32 EST