Re: [compost_tea] Any Comments or reply to this?

From: RiverValley (madhava@fidalgo.net)
Date: Fri Jan 31 2003 - 00:31:12 EST


Elaine,

When you say, "Wil Brinton is correct, if you brew for longer, and don't pu=
t additional foods in the tea, the tea usually doesn't go anaerobic."

is that without pumping air into the brew? Is that just putting compost in=
 water and maybe stirring occasionally?

thanks,
daniel
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: soilfoodweb@aol.com
  To: compost_tea@yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 7:08 PM
  Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Any Comments or reply to this?


  Thank you, Matt, for a much more sane reporting on what went on at the Vi=
ticulture meeting.

  When I read the post from the BD Now person, I wondered if the people I k=
new that had gone to the meeting and had talked to me had gone to the same =
meeting as that person was talking about.

  The bottom line, in my opnion, is that Vicki Bess overstresses E. coli da=
nger. At the Eco-Farm meeting, in California, it was reported to me by at =
least three people, that the person speaking in the Compost Tea session fro=
m BBC Lab (Bess' lab in Arizona) said that E. coli will be present in compo=
st no matter what. If you add molasses to compost tea, E. coli will grow t=
o high number.

  Now we all read on SANET a few weeks ago, in a nicely documented study, t=
hat if compost is properly composted, it will have no E. coli. So, clearly=
, by making compost correctly, getting it to temperature and keeping it aer=
obic, there will be no E. coli surviving.

  If you don't have E. coli in the compost, it won't be in the tea. No mat=
ter how much molasses you add, if there is no E. coli in the compost, it wo=
n't grow in the tea.

  We have data, and we keep repeating the experiment in different tea brewe=
rs to show which ones make good tea, given the same compost, same recipe, s=
ame water etc. In all the tea makers, no E. coli in the compost, no E. col=
i in the tea, no matter how much molasses you add - even up to 5% molasses.=
 
  ------------
  The point about addition of food resources to tea is a very good one. If=
 you add too much food, the organisms get too happy, grow really fast, and =
make the tea go anaerobic.

  Why do you add foods to tea? So you can have a finished product in 24 ho=
urs, or maybe less. Typical American impatience - we have to have our stuf=
f right now. Wil Brinton is correct, if you brew for longer, and don't put=
 additional foods in the tea, the tea usually doesn't go anaerobic. Good d=
eal, huh?
  ---------------
  But there is one point about which no one is right about so far. Compost=
 tea was "invented" by the Romans. At least as far as we can tell. Cato, =
in his book "De Agriculturia" was the first WRITTEN book on agricultural pr=
ocesses. What does he describe in that book? Basically, the production of=
 compost tea. So, the inventor of compost tea was some peasant farmer in a=
ncient Rome. Everything from then has merely refined the process.

  Elaine Ingham
  President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
  www.soilfoodweb.com
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