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

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Compost tea and bugs in a jug
  • Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 19:50:04 -0600


Of course you can do anything you want. My position is simple, no tea, no
shortcut can substitute for building healthy, humus-rich soil in the first
place. I don't argue that nothing good comes from compost tea. I notice in
your list - Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa - you leave out Mycorrhizae - which
according to our resident biologists is what forms Glomalin - which is the
"glue" that forms aggregated soil that retain nutrients against leaching
and absorbs 80% of its own weight in water while draining well. Does
compost tea turn poor soil into a sponge that holds moisture that way? Does
it produce that earth-smell, black, crumbly soil so prized by growers?


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 6/12/2006 at 7:25 PM Ryan Albinger wrote:

>I am a user and believer in aerobic compost tea. I encourage anyone to
>give it a try, it's not rocket science and you don't have to spend a
>fortune. You just need good compost and/or worm castings, possibly some
>good additives, and a compost tea brewer that will get maintain oxygen
>concentration in the solution. For my little compost tea brewer, I built
a
>little bucket bubbler brewer that cost me $21. (and for those following
>Soil Food Web results, the lab stated Excellent Bacteria, Excellent Fungi,
>Adequate Protozoa, and no Nematodes with the compost and ingrediants I was
>using) Easy step by step instructions and parts list have been put
>together by Bruce Dueley and David Hall and are available at:
>http://dchall.home.texas.net/organic/teamaker/ . Or without hassle or
>worry, buy a Bob's Bitti or Bobolator.
>I focus my response to nay sayers like this. If you think it works, it
>works, and it can go the other way. If you attribute the benefits of the
>compost tea to just the nutrients- well, at least you know you seen
>benefits. On that line, I would also add the ability of foliar nutrients
>to be absorbed by the plant are greater than soil applied of the same
>amount. So if extracting nutrients from compost by leachate, extraction,
>and/or aerated brewing, well that is a low cost, simple way to get those
>nutrients effectively into the plant and getting some biology that you may
>or may not believe are of help the plant and soil. Spend the time and a
>couple bucks on a good compost tea brewer, learn how the believers are
>making good tea by their standards, and experiment for your situation. If
>the good biology helps, wonderful. If it's just there, so be it.
>Aerobic compost tea has been shown to do good. Some say it does nothing.
>I have yet to hear it does bad. In light of the potential benefits, why
>not give it a try? Where else can you get benefit from less than $1 an
>acre product? With my products and homemade brewer, I brew aerobic
compost
>tea for about $.035 per gallon including equipment expensed, electricity,
>labor, and product purchased and produced. Applied at 10 gallons per
acre,
>and more could be better, it costs me $.35 an acre for the brewed tea at
10
>gpa. I call myself crazy for not trying it sooner.
>
>Ryan Albinger
>
>
>> [Original Message]
>> From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net
>> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Compost tea and bugs in a jug
>>
>> On a backyard scale, I've used some compost water on container plants,
>> simply because I couldn't add compost or worm castings to the soil level
>in
>> the container. But I didn't give it time to multiply the bacteria
because
>I
>> just wanted some goodies from the compost that would leach into the
>> containers without raising the soil level too much. Now, in starting my
>> growing beds and wide rows I use compost - lots of compost - but trying
>to
>> make good use of it I work it into the soil instead of leaving it on top
>to
>> dry in the sun and wind.
>>
>> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
>> listowner
>> ---------------
>







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