Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

Michael -

Alas, I had crafted a long response but my computer crashed. 

At this point let me share two citations.

Edwards, Clive A., Norman Q. Arancon, and Scott Greytalk.
2006.  Effects of vermicompost teas on plant growth and 
disease.  BioCycle.  May.  p. 28, 30-31. 

Grape Marc Compost Tea Suppressiveness to Plant Pathogenic Fungi: 
Role of Siderophores   
F. Diánez, M. Santos, A. Boix, M. d Cara, I. Trillas, M. Avilés, J.C. Tello
Compost Science & Utilization, Winter 2006, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p. 48-53.


They support my statements that compost teas provide a spectrum
of beneficial microbes, microbial activity, and microbial metabolites
as well as soluble nutrients and bioactive substances like humic 
and fulvic acid, plant growth hormones, and related plant growth
promoting substances.

Will send you a few more citations as time allows.

Fyi, hundreds of thousands of sustainable farmers, scientists, 
agricultural specialists, and non-profit organizations have rejected 
the notion that "peer-reviewed" scientfic literature is the bellwether 
for decision making by farmers and land managers.  

Instead, they place value on the horizontal flow of information 
as an alternative to the old heirarchical model.    

In the horizontal model on-farm research and even farmer-practitioner 
observations and experience are valued along with "peer-reviewed" 
research.   People can place "weight" on the source of information, 
accordingly.   

At the same time, the horizontal model -- informally adopted by
sustainable agriculture -- likewise supports the value of research 
published in scientific literature.  The streams and sources of 
information are placed together in balance, thus expanding the 
collective knowledgebase that help us see things more holistically 
in a complex world. 

Best regards,

Steve Diver


-----Original Message-----
>From: Soilsecrets@aol.com
>Sent: Jun 8, 2006 8:02 AM
>To: steved@ipa.net, livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Compost tea and bugs in a jug
>
> 
>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  
>
>