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

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  • From: Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Compost tea and bugs in a jug
  • Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:14:07 -0500 (GMT-05:00)

Michael -

Compost teas vary in efficacy for disease suppression
and/or plant growth promotion depending on several factors,
namely the source of compost, the brewing method,
the geographically-influenced agroclimate, and the crops
being treated.

Many organic farms perform quite well without ever
using compost teas.

Other biological amendment products and soil management
practices can achieve the desired results of disease
suppression and plant growth promotion. Some of these
perform more consistently.

It would be great to read your comments on these
other products and methods. What works in your
experience.

Fyi, the popular articles on Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott's
web page are written for gardeners and landscape
owners.

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/%7ELinda%20Chalker-Scott/

Her statement you shared, "Aerated compost teas have
no scientifically documented effect as a pathogen suppression",
is inaccurate or outdated, as demonstrated otherwise by several
peer-reviewed journal articles and by presentations at
scientific symposiums such as American Phtyopathological
Society.

If you have a link or a citation to the arboretum study,
apparently a compost tea field trial that she conducted,
please post the link.

Steve Diver



>From: Soilsecrets@aol.com
>
>Ryan,
>
>You may say that nothing bad can happen concerning Compost tea. But not
>being exposed to several million dollars a year worth of damaged crops on
>commercial farms like we at Soil Secrets are exposed to, you are sheltered
>from
>this bad news. I and my staff of PhD Soil and Crop Scientists must contend
>with
>this all the time as we are hired by professional and commercial farmers
>who
>got sucked into the Compost tea concept. As one client said to me last
>summer after he had purchased a 500 gallon compost tea brewer and hired the
>famous compost tea person to advise him on using this machine and
>evaluating the
>finished product - "She has gone from his hero to zero club".
>
>There are studies where an increase in foliage disease did occur, caused by
>compost tea. Check out the City of Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum
>study
>done that showed if nothing else no difference between spraying water and
>spraying compost tea. In fact in some cases the compost tea caused an
>increase in foliage disease in this study. Dr. Linda Chalker Scott did the
>study.
>One of her conclusions and I agree 100 percent because I done 30 years of
>trying to make compost tea work as well: "Aerated compost teas have no
>scientifically documented effect as a pathogen suppression"
>
>Dr. Michael








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