>
>Allan Balliett wrote:
>
>> *Compost teas. Where does she see this technology going? What is
>> the frontier of compost tea? (from Steve Diver)
>
>I see compost tea replacing toxic chemical pesticides for the most
>part. BD preps work the same way, I think. Why? They have the
>organisms in them that inhibit, compete with and consume the
>disease-causing organisms. I think we could do alot to making certain
>that the BD preps "work" every time if we understood the organisms in
>the preps better. Just as we have done for compost tea.
>
>The frontier of compost tea is multiple. We have to assess tea
>quality issues. How do you know every time you make a tea that it
>will have the right set of organisms. We have compost issues - most
>"compost" sold in the US is not compost. Most of it is putrifying
>organic matter. True compost is AEROBIC, most of the stuff sold is
>lacking adequate oxygen. Where did the oxygen go? The organisms use
>it as they grow and they can grow so fast that they use it up faster
>than oxygen can diffuse into the pile. And then you make alcohol -
>which is what causes most phytotoxicity. Roots are killed by less
>than 1ppm alcohol, and anaerobic conditions produce more than 15 ppm
>within just a few minutes. Dead roots, disease attacks those roots,
>stressed, sick plants.
>
>Education of the public is necessary. If it stinks, don't use it. If
>your nose tells you it is bad, it is bad. Refuse to buy it. We need
>to educate people about what tea is - it is not anaerobic. It has to
>have the organisms in it. Beneficial organisms. Those organisms have
>to make it to the leaf or root surface, alive and doing their
>functions. We have to stop killing them with chemicals.
>
>So, compost tea or compost can replace the sets of organisms that we
>have killed by using pesticides and high levels of inorganic
>fertilizers. By getting the right life back on plant surfaces, we can
>reduce, and usually out-right do away with, pesticides.
>
>There are also human health related issues here. Body-odor is
>typically the presence of a set of bacteria on your body surface
>growing on the exudates your body produces. Body-odor comes from the
>metabolites those bacteria produce. Change the community composition
>of your bacteria, and quite often the problem with body-odor goes
>away. The foods you eat influence body-odor, and acne, by altering
>the exudates your body puts out. And you change the set of bacteria
>growing on your surface.
>
>But how do you change the community of bacteria on your skin? Take a
>bath in compost tea? Well, it's a thought. Needs to be tested,
>clearly.
>
>I envision a future where pesticides are not used, except in rare
>instances. That's the future of compost tea, of compost. We have to
>shift the paradigm people have from "nuke it if you don't want it
>there", to "select for the beneficial life that should be present".
>Major mind shift for the American public!
>
>And I hope that we can all work on doing this shifting together......
>
>Elaine Ingham
