Hello friends, On Saturday, April 27, 2002, at 05:41 PM, Gil Robertson wrote:
> We have had two serious cases of bacterial poisoning that has been > traced back to > Organic growers. Have they identified exactly what bacteria it was? > In some parts of Oz, as good as no rain may fall during the whole > time some salad vegetables are in the garden. Should we make sure these > are given > one or more over head waterings, between applying compost tea and > harvest? I just got back from a fantastic seminar given by Elaine Ingham. She showed slides of a properly inoculated leaf. The idea is that there is full coverage of the leaf surface so that there is no place for pathogenic bacteria or fungus to set foot. The creatures in the compost tea glue themselves to the surface of the leaf within just several hours of spraying. From my understanding this should not just wash off. If we get another chance to ask her questions this might be one to check on. The bacteria we are attempting to culture should not be harmful in the human gut. And of course there are some brave friends, in Australia especially, whom are drinking compost tea and swear by its health effects. The problem is if the compost tea was one that had gone anaerobic and they cultured e-coli or one of several other nasties that will make folks very sick. So it stands that they need to know what kind of bacteria it was that caused problems. There are a number of folks making stuff that they claim is compost tea and what they may be doing is culturing bad bacteria. I would also watch out for sabotage by those who stand to lose a lot of money if more people go to organic farming methods. It appears that someone is spreading dis-information about Elaine, attempting to discredit her. I missed this earlier, but Allan wrote: Are there some tests that ag universities can or would do on compost >> teas that would give a farmer some feed back on how well his brewing >> is going? One thing I'm going to be doing with my compost tea is checking it for the ph level. The anaerobic substances go way acidic; about 2 or 2.5 . This would give me another tool in making sure my brewing is getting the right bugs cultured. The other question Allan asked was answered by Elaine at the seminar. >> >> How expensive is equipment like the Oxygen sensors About $400 >> I, for one, really crave immediate feedback on how tea is progressing >> and when it is as 'brewed' as it's going to get. Elaine says that your best tool is at hand; your nose. We also got a chance to peer through the $25,000 microscope at some freshly brewed compost tea. Saw a beautiful, healthy fungus spore sending out its newly sprouted hyphae. It was a baby fungus, just developing as we watched. It was as exciting as seeing a planet through a telescope for the first time. Thrilling! Elaine's presentation was splendid and I learned a lot. Bonnie
