I
have used Bio-Trek 22G (I think this was isolated at
Cornell?) which contains a strain of the beneficial soil fungus,
Trichoderma
harzianum, prior to our CT program. IMHO CT and its diversity
have been far more effective even in a “not so sustainable”
methodology.
It seems to me we
should be focusing on diversity rather than trying to isolate specific
antagonists. That’s what biological scientists have been focusing so hard
on, how they can isolate, grow, and maximize profits. They’re missing the
paradigm.
I remember some
years ago when we had a huge outbreak of root knot nematodes in a multi
million-dollar palm population. I read In “Common Sense Pest Control” that
an isolate had been found in tomato roots that controlled the beasties. I
called the research project in New South Wales. Yes the fungi existed but no
scientist had yet figured out how to produce it. As for me I’ll leave the
monocultures to the scientists and work on natures
diversity.
Tom Jaszewski
www.livesoil.com
702-595-7012
-----Original
Message-----
From:
laura_s@vaxxine.com [mailto:laura_s@vaxxine.com]
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 6:39
PM
To:
compost_tea@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [compost_tea] Re: killer fungi
!
Trichoderma
species are strongly antagonistic to other fungi. The
exact
nature of this relationship is still not clear, but it
appears that they
kill other fungi with a toxin and then consume
them using a combination of
lytic enzymes. This suggests they
are actually microbial predators.
.