Aerated Compost Tea, The
New Organic Fertilizer
by james ellison
Organic gardeners all
know compost is fantastic stuff. But now, there's
something even better and that's
compost
tea. If you start with a good
compost
you'll have a versatile elixir for all your garden
needs.
Compost
tea helps prevent foliage diseases and at the same
time increase the nutrients to the plant and shutdown the
toxins hurting the plants. It will improve the taste/flavor of
your vegetables. So why not give
this tea a try either by buying it or brewing it
yourself. You won't believe the results!
Four ways that good bacteria work:
Help compete for the nutrients
Dine on the bad varmits
Help produce antibiotics to use against the varmits.
They shove the bad varmits out.
Compost tea that is correctly brewed has a wealth of
microorganisms that will benefit your plants' growth and health
as well as the soil that they live in. Compost tea can
be considered yogurt for the soil. The microorganisms living
there are both good and bad. What the tea does is make
sure the good guys win by introducing helpful bacteria, fungi,
protozoa and beneficial nematodes.
Harmful bacteria lives best in soil that does not have good air
circulation. Good bacteria lives best and will thrive in soil
that is well ventilated with oxygen. This is where a good
compost tea, made the right way, comes in. When you have
well oxygenated compost you automatically get rid of 3/4
of the bad varmits. Also by using harmful insecticides or
chemical fertilizers we reduce the number of beneficial
microorganisms in the soil.
Plants produce their own energy and food and half of that goes
to the roots and some of that goes into the surrounding soil
and guess who gets that? Correct, the good guys, and then it
turns into a beneficial cycle.
The following is taken from the internet and shows
compost tea is becoming a force in gardening.
National Organic Standards Board Compost Tea Task Force Report
April 6, 2004 Introduction In 2003, the National Organic
Standards Board convened a Compost Tea Task Force to review the
relevant scientific data and report their recommendations on
‘What constitutes a reasonable use of compost tea?' The
Task Force was composed of 13 individuals with knowledge and
expertise in organic farming practices, organic
certification, EPA pathogen regulations, compost,
compost tea production and analysis, plant
pathology, food safety and environmental microbiology.
Throughout their discussions, members consistently acknowledged
the growing interest among certified organic and
conventional growers to use compost teas, and the need
to develop effective biologically-based tools to manage plant
fertility, pests, and diseases.
A primary reason for producing compost tea is to
transfer microbial biomass, fine particulate organic
matter, and soluble chemical components of compost into
an aqueous phase that can be applied to plant surfaces and
soils in ways not possible or economically feasible with solid
compost.
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Copyright james ellison - http://www.basic-info-4-organic-fertilizers.com
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