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

["Lloyd Charles" <lcharles AT webfront.net.au>]

Greetings again from the land of OZ
Just scream when you're sick of this and I'll go away
Steve diver wrote>
> The foliars that Arden Andersen talks about are sophisticated
> mixtures of soluble minerals (e.g., calcium, phosphorus) and
> liquid organics (e.g., humic acids, fish).
In my experience easier to put these together than to brew a good fungal CT

> I'll be curious to hear what people have to say about brix
> readings "before" and "after" foliar application of compost
> teas, based on their experience or field tests.
Me too, much more than just curious!
>
> The essential benefit of compost tea application is the
> inoculation of plant surfaces with beneficial microbes,
> thus enhancing microbial abundance and diversity in/on
> the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere.
Yes BUT if we dont try to improve the nutritional status, arent we then just
doing the same old treadmill thing that chemical agriculture is promoting
all the time - we have problems of disease and insect pests because of poor
or imbalanced nutrition - so we spray CT to combat the disease or bugs -
again and again and again - just like the guy down the road with his crop
protection chemicals! - Why apply a foliar treatment to a growing crop and
not look for a nutritional improvement? - to me this would be a waste of
time, resources, and opportunity. I would be really surprised if any good CT
was not doing this but with all the talk of testing (and the associated
costs) we should be looking at this. Its easy to do and cheap!
>
> Though certainly, soluble nutrients and bioactive compounds
> and metabolities of microbes, such as enzymes, are also present
> in compost teas.

And they all are superb plant food too !
>
> A quick test to ascertain changes to the microbial community on
> a leaf surface is one thing;

If this is available, by all means lets do it!

> the physiological effect of  foliar feeds on plant metabolism -- which is
essentially what brix readings provide -- is another.

We should never neglect the nutritional effect of anything that we spray
onto our growing plants

Regards to all
Lloyd Charles
>
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