Re: [compost_tea] Re: Flow rate for air pumps
Most people in the US live in conditions where oxygen concentrations are NOT
in the reduced oxygen range, even during the middle of the summer.
How odd, that most people live in zones where they can breath. Sorry for
the sarcasm, but I get tired of people who say they are sorry, but don't mean a
word of it.
But, for example, fish kills in rivers, in the summer, are usually the
result of oxygen dropping below the aerobic level.
When bacteria and fungi grow on contaminants like sewage in river or lake
water, they can start growing fast enough to use up oxygen faster than oxygen
can diffuse into the water under summer high temperature conditions. when
that happens, then the fish die.
Quite often exactly what happens in people's compost tea brewers when too
much food is added when temperatures are too high happens in rivers in the
summer.
If the oxygen level in the tea brew falls below oxygen ranges that allow
aerobic growth, then the beneficial fungi expire from lack of oxygen, protozoa
that require aerobic conditions expire because they lack oxygen, and
beneficial nematodes, which also require oxygen above certain ranges, expire as well.
On average, in general, that range is 6 ppm, or 6 mg oxygen/L.
If your tea lacks the organisms that make nutrients available to your plant,
is your tea of good quality? How are you going to grow your plant without
nutrient cycling? You like using inorganic fertilizers, that are salts, that
destroy water quality?
If your tea lacks the organisms that compete with, consume or inhibit
disease-causing, low oxygen level-requiring bacteria, is your tea of good quality?
How are you going to prevent disease-organism growth, if you have made the
conditions in the tea brew those that allow pathogens to grow?
ALL human pathogens that we worry about are FACULTATIVE ANAEROBES. Aerobes
will NOT be able to out-compete the anaerobes when oxygen concentrations are
too low to allow the aerobes to grow. What is it that you think addition of
sugar does to organisms and therefore oxygen levels?
If your tea went anaerobic, and bacteria grew that volatilize nitrogen, in
the form of ammonia have grown, if bacteria that volatilize sulfur in the form
of a gas has grown, then what is the likelihood that your compost tea will
have any fertility left to grow your plants?
Is it a good quality tea if many of the nutrients have been lost from the
brew?
If your purpose is to kill weeds, then perhaps anaerobic tea is of good
quality, for the purpose you made the tea.
Can anaerobic bacteria cover the surfaces of a plant? But how long will
they stay in place? If the plant's surfaces are aerobic, and your tea only puts
anaerobic bacteria on the plants surfaces, how long will that application of
anaerobic organisms benefit your plant?
I talk about all these things in the compost tea courses I teach. I talk
about all these things in the Compost Tea Brewing Manual, fourth edition. All
these things are discussed in the Field Guide about compost tea. Perhaps you
should actually go through all the posts that were made to this list serve
about aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and the plus and minus points relative
to each, that have already been discussed here.
Maybe there is some usefulness in having someone summarize all those posts
and put them in a well-ordered compendium where it is easy to find the
information, instead of searching through disordered posts to try to find what you
want.
Criticisms of the Field Guide as being worthless, because everyone can find
all those posts and read them from the list serve are herewith shown to be
less than helpful. Spend some time perusing that publication, because I have
discussed the aerobic - anaerobic division many times before.
So, if your compost tea drops into reduced oxygen conditions, have you lost
the biology you need?
The answer is yes. That is why TESTING THE BIOLOGY IN THE TEA is so
necessary.
Maybe people who don't get the benefits from their compost tea that I talk
about being possible are losing the biology they need because they don't pay
attention to important factors.
Can you still get benefits from less than perfect tea? Sure, but you will
NEVER get all the possible benefits.
Why pay someone for tea that can't possibly deliver all the benefits
possible, because they can't recognize that they lose the biology in their tea when
oxygen drops to too low levels.
Why pay top dollar for a product that isn't top dollar?
Elaine Ingham
--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, soilfoodweb_at_a... wrote:
>
> Instead of trying to confuse people, why not put in an explanation
of what
> you are doing in these examples?
>
I'm sorry you find the examples confusing. It seems clear from my
examples that at relatively normal seasonal temperatures one cannot
exceed the charted DO at the stated pressure and temperature. Eveyone
I have spoken with who will honestly talk about their DO readings
charted throughout their brew cycles, have disclosed at LEAST a 2-4
mg/liter drop. If your "data" is correct, our tea is of poor quality?
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 Fri Feb 18 2005 - 23:35:51 EST
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