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Re: Beneficial Soil Microbes





I think we already established that molasses is NOT a simple substrate.  Please see previous posts.

AND compost tea NEVER has just molasses in it.  You need kelp and perhaps humic acids as well.  Plus all the soluble carbon materials from the compost itself.

PLEASE, realize that the NOSB did NOT accept the Compost Task Force recommendation that molasses, sugar and soluble carbon materials not be used.  They found, as others have shown, that the "research" the Compost Task Force was told about was bogus. 

No reputable science has been published to document that compost tea, made with decent compost, has E. coli or human pathogens just because you add molasses, sugar or soluble carbon material. 

Do you shift the sets of organisms when you add food resources?  Yes, but the reason you add these food resources is to grow BENEFICIAL bacteria and fungi.  The particular beneficial species lacking in the soil because they have been killed by pesticide sprays, by pesticide drift, by air pollution, by high levels of inorganic fertilizer addition. 

Aren't these beneficials present in the soils of an organic farm?  If you live on the earth today, your soils have been impacted by pollutants of one kind or another.  You need to add back some of the beneficials that have been killed. 

Which ones have you lost?  You can send samples into SFI and have us test your soil, compost, or compost tea for the presence of those organisms, or you can just figure you have lost a serious number. 

How do you get them back?  Make GOOD, aerobic compost with a maximum diversity of good starting materials, or use BD preps such as 500, 501, 502 (yes, well-made BD preps contain a HUGE biomass and diversity of beneficial organisms, we tested them).  Spread that compost out on your soil.

If you don't have large amounts of good compost, or the BD preps, then make a compost tea from them so you inoculate these organisms, and some of the soluble carbon materials from them, into your soil or onto your leaves.  If you know your forest soil is healthy (do you know that for certain?), then add a handful of your forest soil to the compost, so you can increase those beneficial organisms to high numbers to inoculate them out onto acres of your land. 

That's the beauty of compost tea.  If you don't have enough good compost, or if you have a hard time spreading that much compost, tea makes it easier.

Elaine Ingham


Won't growing these thousands of bacteria and fungi in a very
simple medium (like molasses solution) radically change the
bacterial/fungal composition/ratios compared to what exists on the
soil, which is an extremely complex growing medium?

Roberto Verzola
Philippines



President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com