The National Organic Program requires pile temperatures to exceed F for 15 days and piles to be turned at least five times The Organic Center, Piles may exceed F, which can destroy the beneficial microbes, causing a decline in microbial activity and slowing the process. If this occurs, chances are the piles have too much nitrogen. Adding carbon, making the piles smaller and digging holes in the pile are ways of cooling the pile Carpenter-Boggs, Turning manure is essential to composting manure.
Turning compost incorporates oxygen into the system, homogenizes the pile and breaks up clumps. Mixing allows more contact of manure with microbes. Producers have various ways to turn the pile. The two most common methods for turning compost are with a windrow turner Figures 7 and 8 or bucket tractor. Turners may be self-propelled or attached to a tractor or skid steer.
Turners mix the compost by an auger, rotary drum with flails or an elevating conveyor. Some turners require power from the attached implement, while others are self-powered. Figure 7. Front-mount composter. This compost turner cleans pens, windrows and turns the pile in the same pass. Figure 8. A pull-type compost turner that is turning windrowed bedded feedlot manure for the first time. Producers have many factors to consider when selecting a turner. Determining the amount of manure to turn is a good starting point.
Bucket tractors or skid steers work well for small operations or testing if compost fits into your operation. However, turner implements work better for larger operations. Turners range in various sizes from 6 feet wide to as much as 20 feet wide. A foot-wide turner may turn 1, yards per hour, while a foot turner may turn as much as 2, yards per hour.
Implements that run a turner must have a creeper gear and go as slowly as 20 feet per minute. Turning becomes easier throughout the composting process. Some front-mount turners clean pens and windrow the manure in the same pass. The benefit of this is that space and time are saved by eliminating the external pad and not hauling the manure out of the pen.
Other ways to incorporate oxygen include using passively aerated windrows and aerated static piles. Passively aerated windrow systems require peat moss, wood chips or some type of material to be added to increase porosity. Perforated pipes are placed within the pile to allow airflow. No mechanical mixing is required, but the windrow should be constructed above 6 to 12 inches of compost or peat moss and covered by a layer of compost or peat moss.
This covering insulates the pile and absorbs excess moisture. An aerated static compost pile is similar to passively aerated windrows but has fans that force air through the perforated pipes. Rynk et al. After the heating cycles have subsided, compost usually is piled for storage while awaiting field applications. This month long or longer process is known as curing. Applying immature compost can cause issues that include malodors, insect swarms, nitrogen immobilization and phytotoxicity Mathur et al.
Compost maturity is strongly related to microbial activities during the composting process. Producers have many options to assess compost maturity.
Options include sending samples to laboratories, checking pile temperatures to ensure that the pile is near the ambient temperature Figure 3 and kits that give colormetric readings of carbon dioxide and ammonia emissions.
Manure composts not only improve soil physical and chemical characteristics; they also are a good source of fertilizer for crop production. However, much of the nitrogen is tied up in complex organic compounds immobilized and is not immediately ready for plant uptake, whereas commercial fertilizers are predominantly plant-available. Cropland soils and compost should be tested for nutrients. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium tend to be the most limiting nutrients required by crops Coyne and Thompson, Applications of compost must be based on crop needs.
Manure applications usually are based on nitrogen needs for that crop North Dakota Department of Health, Because of this, nutrient management plans may need to be based upon phosphorus management.
This change in management can prevent nutrient loading and high levels of phosphorus that can accumulate when not properly managed and monitored Spargo et al. Sampling and testing soil for nutrients can alleviate nutrient loading. Crop and environmental benefits may not occur if the finished composted product is not tested and properly applied.
Once cured, compost samples should be taken within the pile at various points and mixed thoroughly to account for variability. Samples should be tested as soon as possible or kept in cold storage until they can be sent to a laboratory for analysis. Keep in mind that many testing labs treat compost nutrient availability as if it were raw manure approximately 50 percent nitrogen, 80 percent phosphorus and 90 percent potassium of the total nutrients are plant-available the first growing season.
Compost nutrient availability is different and producers need to account for the differences. This difference is due to the increased stability of compost. Eghball and Power found in a four-year study that 15 percent of the total nitrogen in beef feedlot compost was plant-available the first year and 8 percent of the nitrogen was mineralized the second year.
Wen et al. A greenhouse study conducted by Bar-Tall et al. Because of immobilization and the possibility of nutrient loading, compost fertilizer applications may need to be supplemented with conventional fertilizers. Eghball and Power tested different management strategies compost applications based on nitrogen or phosphorus and conventional fertilizer. They found that managing composts based on phosphorus and supplementing the other nutrient requirements with conventional fertilizers yielded equal or greater corn yields.
Compost should be applied with a calibrated spreader. This ensures that the proper amount of nutrients is applied and also lessens the chance of polluting. Manure spreaders can be calibrated various ways. Manure needs to be managed properly to be composted properly. This ensures that the pile will heat and convert to compost effectively. Surface and ground water proximity are important for compost site selection.
The compost site needs to be in an area not prone to contamination of groundwater by leaching or where leachate can run off to surface water. Instead of viewing manure as a waste, producers can begin to view it as a product that can be substituted for commercial fertilizer and as an economic resource. Composting is an effective manure management tool that reduces volume, kills pathogens and weed seeds, and also improves soil health and fertility. However, soil and compost should be tested for nutrients.
Applying compost with a calibrated spreader ensures that crop yield goals will be met and reduces the chance of pollution. The volume reduction of composting manure can save producers money. Bar-Tal, A. Yermiyahu, J. Beraud, M. Keinan, R. Rosenbery, D. Zohar, V. Rosen and P. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium uptake by wheat and their distribution in soil following successive, annual compost applications. Carpenter-Boggs, L. Composting animal mortality resource notebook. Morris, Minn. Coyne, M.
Math for soil scientists. Eghball, B. Nitrogen mineralization from field-applied beef cattle feedlot manure or compost. Soil Sci. Phosphorus- and nitrogen-based manure and compost applications: corn production and soil phosphorus. Flavel, T. Carbon and nitrogen mineralization rates after application of organic amendments to soil. Grewal, S. Rajeev, S.
Sreevatsan and F. Micheal Jr. Persistance of Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis and other zoonotic pathogens during simulated composting, manure packing, and liquid storage of dairy manure. Larney, F. Weed seed viability in composted beef cattle feedlot manure. Buckley, X. Hao and W. Fresh, stockpiled, and composted beef cattle feedlot manure: nutrient levels and mass balance estimates in Alberta and Manitoba. Michel, F. On farm-scale composting. Midwest manure summit, Green Bay, Wis.
March , Miiler, R. Biological processes affecting contaminant fate and transport. In Pollution Science. Pepper, C. Gerba, and M. Bruddeau eds. Academic Press, San Diego, Calif. North Dakota Department of Health. Rynk, R. Willson, M. Singley, T. Richard, J. Kolega, F. Gouin, L. Laliberty Jr. Kay, D. Instead they send strand-like parts of their body, called hyphae, directly into their food; they secrete chemicals to break the food down into simpler molecules; and then they absorb the food directly into their cells.
Mycelium are an irreplaceable member of the nutrient cycle. Fungi recycle carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorus from dead plants and unlock minerals such as copper, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and iron. Without the nutrients released by mycelium, the roots of farm crops become undernourished and underdeveloped.
Mycelium expand through hyphal networks. Hyphae tips secrete polysaccharides, glyco-proteins, enzymes, acids, antibiotics, and messenger molecules. Fungi break down organic matter at every stage of decomposition. Primary fungal decomposers are the first to grow on a stick, leaf or blade of grass, opening it up for further decomposition by other organisms.
Secondary fungal decomposers typically grow in compost with more diverse communities of microorganisms. There are 4 basic categories of fungi: Saprophytic, endophytic, mycorrhizal and parasitic. Saprophytic fungi are the first to grow on a stick, leaf or blade of grass. They chemically repel bacteria, insects, and other fungi. Mycorrhizal Fungi form mutualistic relationships with plants. Amazingly, studies have revealed that these mycorrhizal mycelial networks can transport nutrients from one plant to support another Stamets VAM grow into the root and exchanges nutrients for exudates; these VAM fungi are preferred by most vegetables except brassicas and chenopodiacaea , grasses, shrubs, perennials and softwood trees.
EM fungi colonize outside root hairs forming a protective sheath. EM tend to associate with hardwoods and conifers, and are a major factor in storing carbon in soil Stamets Protozoa, Nematodes, and Micro-arthropods Protozoa, nematodes and micro-arthropods are busy eating bacteria, fungi and each other for carbon energy, nutrition and leave behind waste plant available nutrients.
They engineer the larger holes in the soil. Along with nematodes, micro-arthropods are mostly responsible for the mobility of bacteria through the soil.
However, there are many more species of nematodes that do not harm plants and actually feed on parasitic nematodes. Root feeders, the smallest of the nematodes, tend to be more of a problem when soils are compacted because there is not enough space in the soil for the larger beneficial nematodes to move and populate the soil. My suggestion is to keep an open mind toward these critters because there is so much more to learn.
I could go on for pages about the unique functions of the different protozoa, nematodes and micro-arthropods. The takeaway here is that soil bacteria and fungi are like bags of fertilizer and the rest of the soil organisms are like fertilizer spreaders. Earthworms Any discussion of the soil food web would not be right without celebrating the role of earthworms. They are intimately involved in the shredding of organic matter, the aeration of soil, the aggregation of soil particles, and the movement of organic matter and microorganisms throughout the soil.
The species composition in soils and compost piles vary. This is caused by different environmental conditions and the biological process of worm digestion. Worm enzymes are geared toward digesting cytoplasmic materials, not organic matter. Interestingly, studies have found that when E.
This suggests that certain earthworms can help remove human pathogens from soil. Clearly, the value of supporting high populations of earthworms in your farm and garden soil gets greater with time. It is wise that we cater to these dirty little friends right now and forever. Soil life creates soil structure and produces soil nutrients.
The activities of its members bind soil particles together into microaggregates as they create air and water pores. The chemical and biological activity in the thin layer of moisture around aggregates convert nutrients into soluble forms that roots can absorb via ion exchange.
Unlike applications of fertilizer, soil nutrients in living soil releases slowly over time; they are available when plants need them. The proximity of microbial action in the rhizosphere is what makes mineralized nutrients far more bioavailable than soluble fertilizer forms. Why are nutrients from biological nutrient cycling more bioavailable than soluble fertilizer forms? This is a key question that underscores the essential value of adding biology through compost and compost tea.
The answer to this question will illuminate the importance of farming and gardening with the soil-food-web. Different nutrients are more or less soluble at different pH levels, but the optimal pH for most important plant nutrients is at pH 6. However, there is usually little correlation between plant uptake and soluble nutrient concentrations Ingham Adding This means that it is the form of the nutrient that counts, not just the inorganic soluble concentration.
This is the primary role that the soil food web plays in the nutrient cycle. Plants need certain nutrients at certain times, and every plant is different.
Therefore it is far superior to have stabilized, chelated nutrients, available in abundance at all times. Plants depend on a biological nutrient cycle for making sure nutrients are available when they need them. Enter: chelation. A chelated nutrient is a nutrient that has been combined with amino acids or protein.
Once a nutrient is chelated, pH becomes unimportant in determining solubility. Biological processes typically perform chelation. The truth is that pH is largely a result of the microbial community present. Successional Dynamics and Nitrification This makes more sense when looking at soil biology and succession. Early successional grasses as well as brassicas prefer a more bacterial dominated environment, with a fungal to bacterial ratio around Later successional grasses along with most annual vegetables prefer a slightly higher ratio of fungi, with a fungal to bacterial ratio around ; these crops also thrive with endomycorrhizal relationships.
Shrubs, vines and bushes prefer slightly more fungal dominated soils at around This ratio defines forest edge ecology, and is an ideal target for developing a soil food web in orchards and perennial forest garden style polycultures Phillips 1. Lastly, conifers and healthy old growth forest soils should be the most fungal dominated soils at a range of to This information is laid out in a nice neat table in Appendix 2.
The successional dynamics between plants and microorganisms also plays out in terms of the form of nutrients certain plants prefer. One well researched example is the all-important nitrogen. The ratio of fungi to bacteria determines, for the most part, the amount of nitrogen readily available. Remember, this is what the SFW means to plants: When an organism is eaten, some of the nitrogen is retained by the eater, but much is released as waste in the form of plant-available ammonium NH4.
For example, a single flagellate type of protozoa needs to eat 6 bacteria to fulfill its carbon needs; the flagellate will in turn release 5 nitrogen for every 6 bacteria. Thus, simple math, each flagellate meal leaves behind 5 available nitrogen molecules for whatever lucky plant root is nearby. And so in a healthy soil food web, where there are thousands of protozoa in every teaspoon of soil, applying extra nitrate fertilizer will no longer be necessary.
And as you will see below, the soil food web does a far superior job ensuring the plant has the right form of nitrogen available at the right time. All forms of nitrogen are not created equal. If you manage to fix nitrogen in your fields or garden beds, it will first be made available to your plants in the form of ammonium NH4. Perennial plants require more ammonium than nitrate. Most of the plants humans grow for consumption, from asparagus to soy beans to apples, prefer a mixture of the two.
The only real way to ensure plants have what they need when they need it is to let the soil food web do it for you. The image below represents this spectrum of nitrification along the stages of succession. It also displays the fungal to bacterial preferences of the plants in succession.
Rendered with permission from Dr. Elaine Ingham! Additionally the higher ratio of fungi will push the pH slightly toward acidic conditions, which create the specific chemical nutrient dynamics for ideal absorption.
Bacteria, fungi, and other soil dwellers transform and release nutrients from organic matter. Here I am just emphasizing the importance of organic matter in the nutrient cycle as a whole. Many understand organic matter as dead plant material; other forms of organic matter include living organisms microorganisms, earthworms, living roots, etc , root exudates, and any variety of carbon-based surface residues such as cardboard, paper, etc. Organic matter is simply a carbon-based compound, and there are a near-infinite variety of such compounds.
Some organic compounds are more useful to soil organisms than others. Active organic matter is the portion available to soil organisms. As land managers, it is wise to utilize practices that support the long range addition of soil organic matter, which results in the buildup of humus. Humus, or humidified organic matter, are complex organic compounds that remain after many organisms have transformed the original material; this is the stuff that holds water and nutrients in the soil.
While the percentage of total soil organic matter may fluctuate, the ratios between the different types of components making up the total can be generalized. Put simply, without microbes organic matter would never become fertile soil.
Likewise, without organic matter, soil microorganisms would not have enough food. Depending on what type of organic matter you use, you will be selecting for a certain community-dynamic of microbes. Part 2 will address the myriad strategies for developing the proper soil food web profiles for your plants. By now you should be able to see why it is so crucial to team with microbes. So far this has been an overview of the science of how microbes interact with plants to turn organic matter into nutrients at different levels of succession.
Introduction So finally, finally we come to the point where we can approach composting with a mean purpose! By now you should be salivating for the step by step instructions for unleashing the raw untamed power of the soil food web on your precious farm or garden. As you know, there are as many variations of compost piles as there are farmers and gardeners.
What is Compost? Compost, like soil, is a living ecosystem. Technically, compost can be defined as oxidative aerobic decomposition of organic matter. Compost is the backbone of any healthy farm or garden.
It does primarily two things: Provides food for the full array of organisms, via organic matter, and inoculates the soil with a wide spectrum of microorganisms. The hallmark of good compost is active microbial biomass, and is in fact dominated by soil food web organisms. Table 2. Take a look at these figures from research done by Matthew D. Slaughter and Elaine Ingham:! Compare that with the microbe numbers in healthy soil from Table 1 p.
It comes in many forms. As you can see in Table 2 above, dry mulch is not a form of compost because it does not provide the abundance of soil organisms and readily available nutrients that good compost does. However, understanding the benefits of mulch will enable you to get the most out of your compost and support the long-term fertility of the soil.
Most gardeners are familiar with the standard reasons to use mulch in the garden: A thick enough layer smothers out weeds and keeps weed seed from germinating, keeps the soil cooler in the heat of the summer and conserves moisture, prevents topsoil erosion as well as compaction from heavy rains, and protects roots from hard winter freezes.
A ground cover of living plants helps dry out poorly drained soil more effectively. Early vegetables may need bare soil which warms faster in the spring. Take all this into consideration when you decide to mulch or not to mulch.
Soil arthropods are able to live in mulches, accelerating decay by shredding and exposing ever smaller interfaces where bacteria and fungi can go to work, thus cycling more nutrients into the web. It is important to know, however, that without healthy populations of nematodes and micro-arthropods soil nutrients will be tied up and immobilized in the bodies of bacteria and fungi.
Nutrients will only become mineralized and made available to plants if a healthy soil food web is present. In general, the smaller the mulch -the more surface area available- the more quickly nutrients will be cycled and made available for uptake by the plants.
As mentioned in the section on the nutrient cycle and successional dynamics, different types of organic matter feed different communities of microorganisms.
The ideal mulch for a vegetable garden will be different than that for an orchard. There are many types of materials suitable to use as mulch; use your knowledge of the soil food web to determine which mulch is best for your growing scenario.
I would like mention two unique types of mulch: mushroom mulch and ramial wood chips. Mushroom mulch is a byproduct of commercial mushroom cultivation and is often used as a wonderful soil amendment; because it has been cycled through several composting cycles it is often rich in humus and can contain an abundant array of mineralized nutrients.
Ramial wood chips are trimmings of bushes and trees containing a balance of lignin-rich nutrients that support saprophytic and mycorrhizal fungi; nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium and so forth in the green cambium layers of the young branches support the soil food web even more; strategic use of these chips, often made available in abundance from utility companies, can be a tremendous mulching solution Phillips See Appendix 2 for more information and uses for these unique types of mulch.
Certain materials such as pine needles and cedar wood chips contain terpenes - volatile chemicals that are toxic to many plants. However, pine needles are no longer an issue after they have aged a bit, and most other wood chips, sawdust and chipped bark are great brown mulches and work fine Lowenfels and Lewis The more selective and intentional you can be about your mulching materials the more success you will have developing an abundant and vivacious soil food web.
As you can see from the chart above, anaerobic conditions are not hospitable to the beneficial organisms that do such wonders for your plants. Thus, in general a healthy compost pile must maintain aerobic conditions; the minimum threshold is 6ppm oxygen. See Appendix 1 for specific indicators of anaerobic conditions and how to measure moisture content.
Besides air and moisture, compost requires heat and organic matter with the right carbon to nitrogen ratio. Heat in the compost pile the byproduct of high microbial activity.
Determining the right balance of organic matter depends on the specific plant- range you want to thrive. For composting and mulching purposes organic matter is separated into 3 categories, which are based on the carbon to nitrogen C:N ratio of the material:! Brown Material with a C:N ratio of or wider. All materials in this category are a result of plant sugars leaving the plant body, i. This includes fall leaves or plant residues left at the end of the season, like straw.
See Appendix 2 for a more extensive list of common compost materials and their C:N ratios. Building compost piles with certain percentages of these three categories of materials will enable you to select for certain microbial communities. A pile will be more or less fungal dominated depending on how much brown material is in the pile. A pile will be more or less bacterial dominated depending on how much green and high nitrogen material is in the pile.
There are 2 main ways to make compost: Thermal hot and Static cold. Thermal compost Hot compost is the most rapid and labor intensive way to get finished, matured compost. It is made with the highest percentage of high nitrogen material of the two methods, and requires close monitoring for temperature and moisture. The ideal thermal pile should reach a minimum threshold of degrees F within several days, and can actually get hot enough to spontaneously combust at degrees F if not managed properly.
Hot compost needs to be turned either manually or with tractor equipment to moderate temperature and ensure proper aeration. Specific timing is important to manage multiple turns, watering, and monitoring. See Appendix 1 for general and specific instructions. Hot compost piles can reach maturity in less than a month, or after 5 turns above degrees. Be wary of thermal compost piles that are black in color. In general, healthy humus is a rich dark brown color, but anything darker than that is a bad sign.
Black compost is a result of anaerobic conditions and too much heat. This means that the pile was either too wet, not turned frequently enough, or had too much high nitrogen starting materials. Black compost will be nutrient depleted from the excessive ammonia that is left behind.
Piles can generally be made much larger, since there is no need to turn them more than once at the most. But not to worry, everything in a cold pile is food for decomposition, so the end product can be just as good as a thermal pile. A static pile can be best utilized on a home-garden scale to recycle food scraps and garden waste. People have had great success utilizing cold composting on a farm-scale to deal with massive amounts of material, including dead animals, manure, and food waste; research Malcolm Beck, founder of Garden- ville, for an example of this.
Both small and large scale cold composting is achieved by combining equal parts brown and green materials to form a medium in which to bury and distribute high nitrogen materials in specific ways. Specific recipes and instructions for these types of piles can be found in Appendix 1. Cold compost can add a great diversity of macro-arthropods to your farm or garden ecosystems.
Macro-arthropods are the creepers and crawlers you can see with the naked eye. The lower temperatures and longer amount of time it takes for a cold pile to decompose provides more opportunities for macro-arthropods to populate the pile.
They are critical members of the soil food web because of their shredding ability, which exposes more surface area for the accelerated decomposition of organic matter. Vermicompost is another form of cold compost that deserves a special section of its own. See Appendix 1 for basic instructions on how to start a worm bin. It is important to note that worms do not neutralize weed seeds, which can still be viable in finished vermicompost. Vermicompost is almost always bacterially dominated and will stay that way after the worms are gone unless fungal foods are added, in which case healthy fungal populations can and will develop over time.
The finished product of a vermicompost system is nothing short of gold for the farm and garden. The waste left behind by worms is of the most fertile and nutrient rich material on earth. Thus vermicastings are as much as seven times richer in phosphate than soil that has not been through an earthworm.
They have ten times the available potash, five times the nitrogen; three times the usable magnesium; and they are one and a half times higher in calcium.
All these nutrients bind onto organic matter in the fecal pellets. Finished vermicompost is not entirely castings, but is a combination of soil, microorganisms and castings. Obviously, you can see the promise in composting with worms.
Like I said at the beginning, there are an infinite number of methods and materials people use to make fantastic compost. The guidelines for thermal and static compost should enable farmers and gardeners to think critically about how to turn waste materials into a resource for the farm. Most of the time, adequate compost materials are available for free on site or from other farms, the utility company, or municipal recycling centers.
As always, be wary of contamination or toxic materials going into municipal recycling or leaf collection centers. No matter what, both beneficial and pathogenic microbes will be present throughout the soil and on every surface of every plant. The importance of proper watering cannot be emphasized enough. The key to ensuring the maximum value from compost applications is to keep the soil moist.
The best times for applying compost are in the spring after last frost, or in the fall before first frost. Assuming that spring brings rain, the added moisture will give the microbes a good start at populating the garden bed and partnering with plants from the get-go. Believe it or not, some of the most rapid rates of decomposition have been shown to happen under a blanket of snow!
Market Garden For farmers using raised beds at larger scales, tons per acre can be applied, concentrating the compost on the beds only. Given sufficient moisture and hospitable conditions after application, the beneficial microbes can extend well beyond the upper inches of soil surface. This can be a very cost- effective way to inoculate the surrounding soil in the field or raised bed with a robust range of soil microbes.
Orchards and Edible Forest Gardens In orchard systems, compost can go down as mulch under tree rows once in the fall, once in the spring and then lightly incorporated. In orchard systems, always be sure to add fungal dominated compost at a general rate of 2 tons per acre, which equates to a pile 4 cubic yards in volume. Start inches away from the trunk and spread the compost a few feet beyond the dripline outer edge of the canopy.
Broad-Scale Grain and Grass Farmers broadcasting seeds to grow fields of grain can roll seed in the compost with a mycorrhizal innoculum before seeding fields. If possible, spread additional compost with the seed. As is likely the case for large-acre grain or pasture farmers, compost will be too expensive or not available at the proper scale. In this case, consider the use of teas or extract, as well as cover-crop strategies and keyline subsoil plowing.
More on those in a minute. It's important to have the right tools. Table 3. Here are the main ways to apply compost:! Compost Tea and Extract Compost teas and extract, as well as herbal teas and liquid fish sprays can all be used to compliment, supplement or supplant the use of compost. Compost Extract Compost extract is the most basic way to transfer soluble nutrients and microorganisms from compost. This is achieved by placing the highest quality compost possible into a mesh screen bag and agitating the bag for several minutes until the water has thoroughly passed through the compost.
Let the bag sit in the water for 5 or 10 minutes and then agitate again. Remove the bag. Extract can be applied to plants and soil directly as a drench, direct root injection, or foliar spray. Extracts contain fewer numbers of organisms than teas, but can be a more effective method for transferring a greater diversity of microbes and fungal strands from compost to liquid; the constant bubbling aeration when brewing teas tends to break up fungal strands.
For this reason, it is generally recommended to use extract and not tea when applying to later-successional plants like trees. Aerated tea is good for distributing beneficial microbes on large tracts of land, as well as on plant surfaces i. A well made compost tea enables you to dramatically increase microbial diversity to the soil and to plant surfaces; as a result we see: Disease suppression and increased immunity of plants, increased nutrient cycling, decomposition of toxins, nutrient retention, improved soil structure.
The higher the number of organisms there are in the tea, the greater the coverage of leaf surfaces will be; this will increase the competitive advantage of beneficial microbes over disease-causing ones.
In other words, the more beneficial populations are present on the leaf surface, the greater the competition against disease Lowenfels and Lewis Compost tea is one of the best ways to make that happen. For an example of how compost tea can improve plant health, see table 4 below:! Groups of tomato infected with blight, obtained from a local nursery, were treated with water control, all of which died within a few days, data not shown , with tea 1 and tea 2. Different methods of assessing compost tea organisms were performed, in order to demonstrate which set of assays is most effective at predicting which tea will be able to prevent blight in tomato; only direct microscopy method most effective shown.
These anaerobic teas can have some beneficial characteristics but harbor organisms that can be toxic to plants and harmful to human health. My suggestion is to steer clear of anything that has sat stagnant for over 12 hours.
A high quality tea depends on controlled conditions, adequate oxygen, and proper extraction. For specific brewing instructions and application rates, see Appendix 1. Compost extract and tea are the primary ways to apply liquid compost. It is recommended to use high quality thermal compost or vermicompost for extracts and teas; this is because of the effectiveness of these methods to kill dangerous pathogens. Further, vermicompost is of the most abundant substance in plant-available nutrients, most of which will be transferred into the extract or tea for plant uptake.
These varieties of sprays provide nutrition to plants and microbes an have disease-suppressing characteristics as well. Some advocate for a combination of these sprays to avoid the hassles of aerated brewing. Michael Phillips has a nice chapter in his book The Holistic Orchard, which outlines these other methods and how they have worked for his farm.
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