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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Compost tea and bugs in a jug

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  • From: Soilsecrets@aol.com
  • To: steved@ipa.net, livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Compost tea and bugs in a jug
  • Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 09:02:48 EDT

Hi Steve,
 
Concerning the benefits of Compost Teas I'll stand by my remarks until legitimate and published studies in peer review journals can be produced that show reliable and dependable benefits of compost tea as far as the benefits coming from the indigenous microbial community of the tea.  If you can site such studies then please pass them on to me, as I've been searching for this information for a long time.  I'll review this information and if I feel it to be worthy of using, I'll pass it on to my clients.
 

Having authored  the paper ‘Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web’ in 1974, which was perhaps the first time the phrase “soil food web” was ever used, I was an early advocate of the use of natural and organic methods of restoring the natural biology of soils.  Compost teas, manure teas and compost were the methods of choice, and have been used for thousands of years by many cultures. One could say that trial and error have proven and justified the cause and effect of what we do.  But are teas and compost a safe and effective way of restoring the natural ecology of the soil?

 

In recent years the sophisticated knowledge of soil microbiology has grown to the level where with DNA Extraction we can now identify which microbes play a vital role in this soil food web.  Some bacteria fix nitrogen, others along with fungi help prevent disease, others are harmful.  The question is, how do we know which microbes are being cultured in our soils, composts and compost teas? Are we succeeding in our quest to grow healthier soils and more healthful landscapes by using these products?

 

A search on the Internet, as well as the various science indices in which published research is catalogued, has revealed  research that backs up my statements concerning compost teas and their lack of effectiveness as far as the microbial content is concerned.  I've searched for real research that had passed the muster of peer review scrutiny, and was published in professional journals. An article that is published in a peer-reviewed journal has methods, results, and conclusions that are found to be scientifically viable by objective outside scientists.  If a study was not publishable, using sound scientific methods with statistical significance, it was not considered for publication.  All life science-related databases such as Agricola, Water Resources, Biosis, Science Citation Index, etc. were used in her search.  Keywords used included compost tea, tea, leachate, extract, compost extracts, disease suppression and disease.   

 

Dr. Michael Martin Melendrez

 




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