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

[Lmvine1 AT cs.com]

Hi all. Below is excerpt from an exchange between Elaine and I regarding compost after a CT analysis that showed poor fungi from another source.  I have XX out the names of the compost suppliers but they are both on SFI list.  BTW I had my compost tested and it was in good range.  Note the info on compost maturity.  Any idea about "extract humic acids from the material (worm compost)" in the last line?  DL

Lmvine1 AT cs.com wrote:

Compost: Both my thermal (cow manure/leaves) and vermicompost smell "earthy" and had reasonable numbers in report 92675.  The EXXXX compost and a sample of FXXXX compost I have both have very little odor.  Does the lack of odor mean anything?
Any other suggestions to get the fungi up?
Dan Lynch, Long Mountain Vineyard

In a message dated 6/3/02 8:03:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time, info AT soilfoodweb.com writes:

Hi Dan - Your compost looks like it is good stuff.  I like the earthy odor, indicates more life. No smell typically means pretty mature compost, and for tea you want slightly immature, still active compost.  Seems you might
have really good fungi in your compost too. To get the fungi happier, you might want to use some Ascophyllum nodosum.  Humic acids.  If you have any worm castings or worm compost available to you, you can extract the humic acids from that material to use in the tea. Hope this helps - Elaine

--- Begin Message ---

• From: "Soil Foodweb, Inc." <info AT soilfoodweb.com>
• To: Lmvine1 AT cs.com
• Subject: Re: SFI report
• Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 17:05:07 -0500

Hi Dan -

Your compost looks like it is good stuff.  I like the earthy odor, indicates more life.

No smell typically means pretty mature compost, and for tea you want slightly immature, still active compost.  Seems you might
have really good fungi in your compost too.

To get the fungi happier, you might want to use some Ascophyllum nodosum.  Humic acids.  If you have any worm castings or worm
compost available to you, you can extract the humic acids from that material to use in the tea.

Hope this helps -

Elaine

Lmvine1 AT cs.com wrote:

In a message dated 6/3/02 12:45:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, info AT soilfoodweb.com writes:
 
 

Tried e-mailing Friday and the message bounced.

Second try

Elaine

Thanks Elaine.  Some curious results summarized below:

                  Bact                 Fung    Molasses     Kelp     Liq Fish    Compost                      SFI Report#
                   A/T                  A/T

1st tea         46/4314           .81/2.6     4  oz         4 tbls      4 oz      mine thermal/vermi           92673
2nd tea        26/3853            0/.07       1.75 oz      4 tbls      4 oz      Earthworks                      93439

Reduced molasses at your suggestion.  I also increased aeration from first to second teas because first was reported anaerobic.  Second tea also reported anaerobic and suggestion was to reduce amount of Dramm liquid fish.

Compost: Both my thermal (cow manure/leaves) and vermicompost smell "earthy" and had reasonable numbers in report 92675.  The Earthworks compost and a sample of Freedom Organic compost I have both have very little odor.  Does the lack of odor mean anything?

Any other suggestions to get the fungi up?

Dan Lynch
Long Mountain Vineyard

--- End Message ---