North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>]

Looking at the literature on compost teas generally does not support their use. Sometimes their effect is negative, sometimes it's positive, and frequently they have no effect. People who use it believe in it very strongly, for some reason not necessarily based on objectivity.

Lee Reich, PhD

http://www.leereich.com/

Books by Lee Reich:

A Northeast Gardener's Year

The Pruning Book

Weedless Gardening

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden

Landscaping with Fruit

On Mar 21, 2009, at 2:54 PM, <dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com> <dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com> wrote:

Kevin,  have you ever used compost tea?  There is an interesting discussion thread on Michael Phillips's we site athttp://grou.ps/groworganicapples/talks/202727 about the use of it to fight apple scab.

 

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
Office (815) 648-4467
Mobile (815) 228-2174
Fax (609) 228-2174
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Kevin Moore

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:29 PM

Subject: Re: [NAFEX] mychorizal fungal rip off?

I think you are right on the money with that. However, tree plantations that have been sprayed with fungicides may need to have their fungal flora reintroduced. Personally, I like to innoculate trees at planting time with edible species of mycorhizae. If they take I not only get healthier trees, but an understory crop of mushrooms. (Eventually. Some mycorhizal mushrooms such as Chanterelles can take a decade or more to start fruiting.)

---

From: Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:16:49 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] mychorizal fungal rip off?

When I was in hort school the research on mychorizal relationships was still pretty fresh and I was enthralled to the point of reading a lot of it in their library just out of curiosity.  It was amazing to think that all the trees in the forest are connected by these fungus which makes the whole forest seem to be one organism.

 

When the products came out touting the benefit of applications of these organisms I assumed that it was just typical marketing BS.  The research I read indicated that these fungus aren't very species specific beyond trees not having relationships with the same species as prairie plants.  The conclusion was that anywhere trees grow there are already plenty of M. fungus in the soil, tree compatible, unless it is in a strictly prairie environment or where strip mining has been practiced.  In these sites a few shovels full of forest soil would accomplish any needed inoculation. 

 

Is there any reason to think anything different?

 

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