> >> How are we to create a superior fungal-bacterial compost to spray on >> commercially worked farmland to improve and maintain a high level of >> fertility [shown by life in the soil???] SStorch > >Hello S. Storch - > >The way to achieve a more fungal compost is to add more fungal foods. >Typically, the recipe we use for compost is about 25% high N plant >material (manure, legumes, young grass clippings), 35% green plant >material (normal C:N ratios with lots of sugars, proteins, carbs), and >40% woody material (sawdust, chipped wood, chunky stems, paper, >cardboard). This gives a fairly well balanced fungal-to-bacterial >compost. If you also add some humic acids, fish oils, yucca, and things >like this then the compost usually is fungal-dominated. > >Once you have high fungal compost, you then need to extract the fungi, >bacteria, protozoa and nematodes from that compost into the compost >tea. Tea means that the organisms are extracted, as opposed to extracts >or leachates where only the water-soluble nutrients are extracted. >Mixing or agitation of the compost is critical to achieve extraction of >the organisms. Most of the compost tea machines on the market do an >adequate job of extracting organisms; two of the machines on the market >do not do an adequate job, so you have to ask for data from the machine >maker to know which machine gives decent results. If the tea machine >maker will not give you data on their machine, don't buy the machine. > >If you have a good fungal compost, and add humic acids, fish oil, yucca, >fruit pulp, etc to the tea, you will enhance fungal growth in the tea. >Bruce Elliott has done a great deal of ressearch with me on this topic, >and he sells the resultant recipe that made the fungi grow extramely >well in the tea. His e-mail is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] There are some >tea machine makers who, because their machines do not extract decent >levels of fungi, or whose food resources do not allow fungi to grow in >the tea, say that fungi do not grow in tea. This is poppycock, but you >can see why they say these things. > >Fungi are critcally important to disease prevention, to protect your >plants from pests, and to form good soil structure. Want to reduce >water use in your lawn? You MUST get the fungal component back into >your soil. > >Need good fungi in the compost? Feed them the right foods. Need good >fungi in the tea? Feed the extracted fungi the right foods. Humic >acids (the brown color in compost), fish oils (Dramm makes a great >liquid fish as does Nutrapathic. Other liquid fish that we've tested >have been too high in salt, or they removed the oils which means they >are more bacteiral foods, not fungal), and yucca (NO >PRESERVATIVES!!!!!!!!) work well. > >What are the wrong foods? Nitrate. Nitrate helps the fungal pathogens >grow. Anaerobic organic acids help pathogens grow. > >Lack of oxygen helps the pathogens grow too, that's why it is critical >that tea, or compost, stay aerobic. In aerobic conditions, the >pathogens will be out-competed by all those beneficial organisms. But >if oxygen concentrations drops, then the E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, >Pythium, Phytopthora, Fusarium, etc can "win" for those foods. Tea can >go anaerobic and then get re-aerated, but then you have developoed a >less than wonderful community of bacteria, and lost most of your fungal >community. > >People who make anaerobic tea have a view that fungi aren't important, >because fungi don't survive well in anaerobic conditions. But, disease >suppression is much, much higher if the beneficial fungi are present. >How much higher? We can apply 5 gal of tea per acre and protect plants >from disease and most pests, if the organism density is appropriate. If >organisms are lacking, then you have to apply 10, 50, or even as much as >100 gallons of tea before you can protect your crops. I have heard >Jerry Erickson of Soil Soup say that they recommend 100 gallons per acre >of the tea their machine makes. Well, yes, you have to put that much on >to get leaf coverage because the organisms in the tea are that low. >Earth Tea machines, Microb-Brewers, Sotillo machines, and Xtraktors all >only require 5 gal to the acre, given the use of good compost, molasses >and kelp. > >Do BD preps have a good concentration of organisms in them? I don't >know for certain, but the few preps we tested had great organism >numbers. But to be scientifically acceptable, we need more >replication. Statistics requires three replicates, minimum, of the >prep, but three replicates of a control, such as water, to compare the >prep for the organisms. > >It would be even better to assess the soil, or the leaf surfaces the >prep is sprayed onto to find out if the organisms on the leaf surfaces >is improved, or the life in the roots around the plant is enhanced. >Again, three replicates of an area sprayed with the tea, or to which the >compost was added, as compared to three replicates from an area without >any tea sprayed, or compost added, but which has been treated the same >in every other way as the treatment. > >Hope this answers your question - > >Elaine
