Compost Teas: 24 hour, EM, IM, BD & fermented plant extracts

["Tom Jaszewski" <tomj AT lvcm.com>]

Over the course of two years we haved produced some "lousy" tea....poor
results from SFI.
This poor tea was put into the landscape. Perhaps because the soils here are
so lacking in anything
beneficial we have had NO problems. Only improved vigor and reduced disease
loads.

I can still get great results with fertilizers and fungicides in most
ornamentals,
it just seems and incredibly costly and continous circle of "events" with
that methodology.

After three years of this new paradym I still get nervous too, so far the
only failures have been
from my holding back and following Elaine's advise verbatim.



-----Original Message-----
From: compostteas-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:compostteas-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of D
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 11:22 PM
To: Jeff Lowenfels; eddington AT lvcm.com; Compostteas AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Compostteas] Some info re EM in response to D


I found Elaine's comment "The actinobacteria are really hard on the
beneficial fungi." very interesting.

Is it possible that by using compost tea that is not properly balanced we
could do more harm than good in the long run to our soilfoodweb.

From what Elaine said it sounds like people using EM could suffer from a
serious lack of beneficial fungi in the future.

Could CT's cause similar problems?  If we don't have a balanced mix in the
tea or if the mix of organisms is thrown out of whack by filters and spray
equipment.

I look a the N-P-K situation.  When people first started focusing on those
Nutrients they were having great results.  Now, so many years later that
trip has turned into a nightmare.

I get nervous messing to much with mama nature and trying to do too much
adding or subtracting.

I'm a big fan of the idea of compost tea and plan on using it but at the
same time I'm a little nervous.....