Thanks for the answer.
Flat-out
statements are always bad. Oppps, here I
am making another flat-out statement.
Anyway,
reminds me one the favorite ways Chinese
people used for suicide. Eating salt. A few table spoons
can kill you. We can’t really say that salt is always bad.
Same for sugar or everything else.
So
the quantity of sugar to be added to any soil has to be
decided upon several aspects like soil aeration ( soil porosity ),
soil microbiology, the amount of other nutrients that will be added
along
with the sugar, soil tilth ,etc…
As
for the statement that “ Compost Tea doesn’t
work” ,
time will show those people that they are totally wrong.
In
a matter of a few years those people will look ridiculous.
Try
to tell to one of my clients that have 3 CT machines and used to
spend almost US$ 10,000.00 a year in agri-chemicals
to control
soil borne diseases that compost tea doesn’t work. Today he spends
like US$ 500.00 a year and have the situation under control.
But,
hey that is very bad for the economy, right ? If
people starts to
spend less money there will be less jobs, etc, etc……
Thanks
again
Jose
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
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