[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: RES: [compost_tea] in-furrow soil insect prevention?




HI Jose -

I was on planes all day yesterday.  Left my hotel in Hilversum, The Netherlands at
7 am Central European times, and got home at 8:45 pm PNW time.  Long day.  and of course, here I am, wide-awake at 4 am, because my body thinks it is mid-afternoon, and what am I doing in bed all-day? 

So, hopefully the body will come to an agreement with the sunshine sometime today......  I hope there will be sunshine today in Corvallis!

Anyway, so much for my excuse on not gettting back right away to Jose' question.

He asked -
Would  sugar activate bacteria in the soil, thereby increasing nutrient
cycling and
and retention and consequently reducing nutrient looses ?
Has Dr Elaine seen any data on the utilization of sugar + Chemical or
Organic fertilizers as a way to improve fertilizer utilization ?


The folks at the University of Georgia (Cooleman, Hendrix), Michigan State (Robertson), and at Colorado State University (Klein, Wall, Hunt) have shown some interesting  results.  The Tilth lab at Iowa State (Cambardella), and some of the compost program work at UC Davis (Jackson).  Hum, Mike Allen at San Diego State.  Oh yeah, and Ehrenberg's work at Rutgers.  And Jayne Belnap with the USGS. 

The problem is that they don't always tie the combination of fertilizer with carbon  back to plant production.  Or they are not aware of the anaerobic conditions that excess simple carbon (a more general term for sugar, or maybe other forms of organic compounds) can develop.  Instead of carefully monitoring the amount of carbon, and the form of the carbon, they dump material into the soil and conclude that addition of carbon is detrimental.  Instead of realizing there is a gradient of response, they extrapolate their results to all conditions everywhere.

When anyone, but especially individuals in the extension service, USDA, and universities make all-inclusive statements like "compost tea doesn't work", you should learn to just exit from that person's presence.  They have an axe to grind, and it is clearly anti-new methods.  They aren't interested in figuring out the conditions that result in positive results, they just want to negate the method completely.

Sorry, I'm off on a tirade this morning, but I really want people to understand this.
Compost tea works - but not under all conditions, everywhere.  You have to understand what you are doing.  When has rote performance ever been successful for anything. 

Water is a good thing, right?  All the time?  How about when you have too much, in which case water will drown you.  Or not enough can be just as deadly.  What is the right amount, and in what conditions?  The right amount of water for rice will kill cactus.  

Someone the other day asked if compost tea could kill plants.  Well, defined as it should be defined, no, compost tea will not kill plants.  But if you make compost tea wrong, (and it's not compost tea), then really, what do you expect?  Of course "it" will kill plants.  But it's not compost tea then.  Be really careful how people define compost tea.  Manure swirled in a tank isn't going to work most of the time.  Rare exceptions, because of how they made it, but it isn't compost tea.

Put too much salt in your water, and drinking the water will kill you.  So, what kills the plants when manure is liquified?  anaerobic? too high salt?  too much nitrate?  Could be any of those things.  How do you make sure liquid manure is going to be beneficial, and not detrimental?  that's what we have to work on, not on flat-out statements that liquid manure is bad.  Because it isn't always bad. 

And the same with sugar, kelp, or lignite.  Too much sugar will be really bad because the soil goes anaerobic.  Not enough sugar, and the organisms don't have the food to grow and do what the plant needs.  You can add too much kelp and kill your plants because you get too much N.  Too little, and you lack the micrnutrients the plants need, especially if you've leached all the micronutrients from the mineral parts of your soil by poor management.   Lignite?  Only useful if you have the biology you need to break it down. 

Hope this helps -

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
compost_tea-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.