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



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 dayand 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 RutgersAnd
Jayne Belnap with the USGS. 

The problem is that they don't always tie the combination of fertilizer with carbon  back to plant productionOr 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 developInstead 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 detrimentalInstead 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 presenceThey have an axe to grind, and it is clearly anti-new methodsThey 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, everywhereYou have to understand what you are doingWhen has rote performance ever been successful for anything

Water is a good thing, rightAll the time?  How about when you have too much, in which case water will drown youOr not enough can be just as deadlyWhat 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 plantsWell, defined as it should be defined, no, compost tea will not kill plantsBut if you make compost tea wrong, (and it's not compost tea), then really, what do you expect?  Of course "it" will kill plantsBut it's not compost tea thenBe really careful how people define compost teaManure 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 youSo, what kills the plants when manure is liquifiedanaerobic? too high salttoo much nitrateCould be any of those thingsHow do you make sure liquid manure is going to be beneficial, and not detrimentalthat's what we have to work on, not on flat-out statements that liquid manure is badBecause it isn't always bad

And the same with sugar, kelp, or ligniteToo much sugar will be really bad because the soil goes anaerobicNot enough sugar, and the organisms don't have the food to grow and do what the plant needsYou 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.   LigniteOnly 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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