>Why do you need to know about the bugs? I thought it was just the >forces in the preps that we use, what have the bugs got to do with >it?
Well, again, yes and no. People have already received good reports on the soil foodweb analysis of their BC. The Pfeiffer Sprays actually have bacteria added to them. We know that the preps work well with benign microbes. It would be nice to actually take a look and find out more of what is going on with the preps on a biological level. This is not meant at all to forget about or overlook their spiritual purpose and value. While we talk a lot about spiritual food for mankind, we also talk alot about how healhy plants do not have disease or insect pests. And then we talk a lot about how to treat those plant diseases or insect pests. When you listen to Elaine for a while, and not just her theories but her trials and experiements, I at least realize that Elaine is talking about the sort of every day physical success I was hoping to always have with my plants if I applied the preps in the fall and spring. Many times I get those same successes, but sometimes I don't. Elaine's model, for me, is the first model I've seen that really explains those differences and to me they make tremendous sense. (Nowadays, of course, I apply preps more frequently.) Annual plants evolved in complex symbiosis with a foodweb that was already millions of years old. Today, the devestation of the soil is so total that even in the forests there are few examples of healthy complex foodwebs. (We are losing our hemlocks here because the soil foodweb of the woods has been 'damaged by acid rains.') When Al Kapuler spoke at my confernece several years back he said, "Hey, if I were going to innoculate with bacteria on a farm scale, this is what I'd do: I'd take a small amount of a microbial dense source and stir it for about 1 hour in about 3 gallons of warm water and then I'd splash large droplets of it over the land towards evening time, work it into the soil if I could and make sure to not do that just before a rain." Al Kapuler, former research scientist for Seeds of Change, is a Phd in microbiology. These tests are in no way meant to point a finger at the preps and say "It's the bugs!" From my point of view they are to encourage the use of barrel compost and perhaps the use of Pfeiffer Field Spray in the ways that Elaine uses compost tea. And they are way that the BD person inspired by Elaine who wants to use BC more often in confidence that he's doing as well as the brewers can do the same sceintifically and not through dogma. And, I think many of us think this is a way to show off the array of microbes that BD has been using all along. In no way, in my mind and my humble opinion, would these tests contradict the spiritual power or intent of the BD preps. -Allan
