Re: [compost_tea] Re: organic??

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 02:41:26 EST

 
Hi Ron -
 
Please be aware that by using the term fermentation, you are by definition,
referring to something that is ANAEROBIC.
 
When you produce alcoholic beverages, you ferment. And therefore, you mean
anaerobic.
 
Anaerobic brewing means you will lose nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. It
means you may be placing alcohol on the plant, which will solubilize tissue,
and result in cell death. You may be producing low pH acids, which may harm
plant tissues.
 
You may in addition be killing some surface pathogens with these same
materials, but you can see where balance is extremely important, to have enough
toxic material to kill the pathogen, but not too much because you don't want to
harm the plant tissue.
 
Now, vermicompost, or worm compost, or worm castings can be outstandingly
great material, if you make certain that the worms are doing well in the worm
compost.
 
Worms are aerobic organisms, so look for worms in the castings you are
making, so you know you have the right material.
 
Worms have some really great species of bacteria, fungi and protozoa in
their digestive systems. These bacteria, fungi and protozoa will result in some
really interesting, and usually beneficial, enzymes, hormones and plant root
growth promoting materials.
 
So worm compost can be superb material.
 
But I'd still mix with some good thermal compost, just to improve diversity.
 
 
The more diversity, the more likely you are to have the organisms that will
function in any environmental condition. And that's important ,when you
think of all the combinations of temperature, moisture, humidity, foods, organic
materials and soil types that are possible for your roots to grow into.
 
An alternative to molasses, which the NOP seems to be terrified of because
it might help pathogens grow, if someone if un-intelligent enough to allow an
aerobic conditions to develop, is something like fish emulsion.
 
Pull the oils out of a fish hydrolysate, and you have something that is as
good, if not better than, molasses at growing bacteria.
 
If you want fungal growth, then make sure the oils get left in the fish
solution.
 
You can test this easily, by having two compost tea containers, filled with
tea from the same batch. Add the material in question to one of the
containers, and add the same amount of water to the other container. Test the tea in
both containers after 1, 8, 24, and 48 hours to see what happens to the
organisms. then you know - did the test material kill important organisms, not
do anything, or improve some portion of the organisms?
 
Hope this helps!
 
Elaine



At the risk of bring up a topic that has been covered before I joined
the group, I'd be interested in your (and others) opinion as to the
relative merits of compost vs. vermicast aerobic teas. Having use
compost tea for several years, last year I switched to a vermicompost
inoculum, mostly as it provided a high titre starting material that
allowed for fermentations with little or no lag time. Spot testing a
couple of batches on single plantings, it appeared the result were
more dramatic than previous treatment with ACT. Now that I have my
process under control, I will attempt some controlled side-by-side
experiments. In the mean time, what do you folks think?

Ron Chiarello

P.S. If molasses is a no-no, are there any organic alternatives for
those of us the prefer fermenting to ultrahigh microbial densities




Elaine R. Ingham
Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon
Soil Foodweb Inc., Port Jefferson, New York
Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia
Soil Foodweb Institute Cambridge, New Zealand
Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan, Mexico
Soil Foodweb Inc., Jerome, Idaho
Soil Foodweb Inc., South Africa








Received on Thu Feb 17 2005 - 03:12:22 EST

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