>Allan Balliett wrote: > >> What are some practical amendments and microbial stimulants for >> tweaking the teas. > >I've written a 75 page book about this, which you might want to >get. I hate to advertise myself, but just in case you are >interested, the book is: > >The Compost Tea Brewing Manual, $25 plus shipping and handling, >available from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Just e-mail and ask about it. > >You might also want to get the Soil Biology Primer, available from >SFI as well. $6. It explains bacterial versus fungal needs, and >goes over the kinds of foods to grow fungi versus bacteria. > >Good compost is the most important thing in tea. AEROBIC!!!! >Match the foods with which you made the compost with the microbial >needs of the plant. Early successional plants are pretty much >strictly bacterial, crops are balanced one-to-one bacteria and >fungi, while perennial plants like fungal-dominated. Use a compost >that matches the plant you want to grow. Typically you will also >reduce weed pressure if you do this. > >Then, use foods that match the plant's needs as well. Bacterial >foods are sugars, simple proteins, simple carbohydrates. Fungal >foods are complex sugars, complex proteins, complex carbohydrates, >perhaps the most complex of which are humic acids. Humic acids are >not used by fungal pathogens, but by the beneficial fungi. So, by >using these foods, and keeping things aerobic, you get just the >good guys growing. > >There are microbial inoculants available from various sources. >With these, you need to contact us with your specific problem and >we can work with you on getting the specific biological condition >or organisms needed. But there are too many specific situations >for me to give out general information about these interactions. >If you want to e-mail again with your specific problem, I'd be >happy to consdier it. Just remember, there's alot we don't know >much about! :-) > >Elaine Ingham
