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compostteas - [Compostteas] Re: Reply to Steve Diver NUTRITION ?

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

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  • From: Steve Diver <steved AT ncatark.uark.edu>
  • To: compostteas AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Compostteas] Re: Reply to Steve Diver NUTRITION ?
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 12:04:11 -0500

Lloyd Charles makes a good point about the plant food
and biostimulation value of compost teas, which I agree with
heartily.

In the ATTRA publication from 1998, "Compost Teas for
Plant Disease Control," I mention compost tea brewing at
the Tanimura & Antle vegetable farm in California.

Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/comptea.html

Elaine Ingham and Frank Sanses were consulting with T&A in
a biological farming coversion, when I tagged along on a tour of
the research plots back in 1995.

I recall that one plot of celery received 100 gallons of compost tea
per acre, and they packed out an extra 200 boxes of celery per
acre in comparison to the control plot. That's a lot of food
production.

It is a common observation to see plants "green up" after
compost tea applications. The soluble nutrients and the
biostimulants are a big reason for this shift in crop health.

You can see that metabolism is kicking into gear and photosynthates
are being produced; sugars and amino acids will therefore be present
in plant sap. In this respect, a refractometer may be a useful tool to
see what's going on.

In my other post I suggested dipping plant leaves into a test
solution to get some kind of colorimetric test result. By the same
token, if such a test were available, the first thing you could
do is dip some test strips into your compost tea, to see what
biological groupings you can detect after brewing.

Steve Diver








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