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

["Soil Foodweb, Inc." <info AT soilfoodweb.com>]

Re: working with lab results

"Just received the results from my second sample, really
fast thanks Elaine
and other SFIers!
Looks alot better, higher fungal counts, which I attribute
to adding humates."

Thank you, we try to get the tea results back to folks
within 24 hours of the sample arriving in the lab.
Generally, we get them back to you in a couple hours.

Humic acid is fungal food.  If you have decent fungi
extracted from the compost, addition of humic acids will let
the beneficial fungi grow!

"Questions on results
active bact was 85.8  --- in good range
total bact biomass was 2112 - with a comment that this could
be too high
is the difference between active and total "sleeping"
bacteria or dead ones ?
could this result from brewing too long?"

I like to use the example of a lecture room full of students
to explain active and total biomass.  All the students in
the room is the total biomass of students.  How many of them
are still active and listening to the professor at teh end
of the lecture?  Less than 100%, right?  Some portion of the
student population is not actively performing their function
of learning from the professor.  Some are sound asleep.
Some are going to sleep.  Some are doing other things -
reading the newspaper, writing notes, thinking about the
party last night, etc.  Some portion of students still are
functioning properly - and that's the active population.

In the soil, some part of the total bacterial population is
dead, but their bodies haven't decomposed yet.  Hopefully,
in the lecture hall of students, we don't have totally dead
students - they do get up and move when the bell rings.

Why do we need to know about the totoal population then?
Because they are the ones that will wake up when the
conditions change.  If the soil gets hotter or colder,
wetter or drier, some bacteria will wake up, or go to sleep,
or change what they are doing.  We need to know that you
have an appropriate number of those other bacteria.


"I'm currently working with 2 barrels. One is made fresh
each batch , the
other contains a starter culture kept going from the
previous batch (like
sour dough bread). To the started barrel I had more water
and food on the
basis that the microbes are there now and just need to be
maintained. I
keep the pump and air stones running. Comments ?"

This will take some serious observation to determine if you
are growing good guys or bad guys.  I'd do a plant
"bioassay" every once in awhile.  Take a speedwell try, fill
the little pots with the same compost, or potting mix
through the whole tray.  To the first line, just add water.
To the second line, add 1 cup of material (liquid or solid)
from barrel one, to the third line add 2 cups of material
one, to the fourth line add 1 cup of barrel two, to the
fifth line add 2 cups of barrel two.  Plant two or three
seeds in each little pot.

Keep track of how many seeds germinate in each line.  That
tells you if the stuff in barrel one or two is better or
worse at helping that plant grow.

That's the simple, very practical way to tell whether the
tea, or the compost, or what ever is better than something
else.

"Hyphal Diameter
2.5 on my test
test comments indicate 2.5 to be mainly ascomcete community
with 3.0 or higher being the Basidiomycete which we are
shooting for.
So how do I tweak my tea / compost to produce the larger
type ? habitat?
food ? pH? temp?"

Add foods the feed teh beneficial fungi - that's humic acid.

Hope this helps!

Elaine