Worm tea choosing your micro-heard.

supercorndogs

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Minuteman
Feb 17, 2014
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Did you know that using carbohydrates and proteins in aerobic compost tea discourages the bad microbes from growing. The bad ones only want a free meal{sugar} and don't want to work to make a carbohydrate into what they want. The good ones are willing to work for the sugar, and in return for the sugar they worked for; they produce hormones that promote plant growth, rooting and fruiting. The same goes for adding protein based nitrogen to your soil, such as feather meal, cotton seed meal, and soy bean meal, or fish hydrolysis for a non plant based amendment, after all plants are carnivores. Nitrates and mineral salts are also an easy meal for your bad guys. Bad guys just want an easy meal.

Don't forget the bone meal, i like 6 parts mammal to one part fish bone meal. The fish bone meal caries some very unique amino acids. Bone meal is critical!

Don't ever use white sugar unless you are trying to culture e-coli.

I wanted to make it "choosing you're micro heard." So, I would know at least Veer would stop in.
 
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Did you know that using carbohydrates and proteins in aerobic compost tea discourages the bad microbes from growing. The bad ones only want a free meal{sugar} and don't want to work to make a carbohydrate into what they want. The good ones are willing to work for the sugar, and in return for the sugar they worked for; they produce hormones that promote plant growth, rooting and fruiting. The same goes for adding protein based nitrogen to your soil, such as feather meal, cotton seed meal, and soy bean meal, or fish hydrolysis for a non plate based amendment. Nitrates and mineral salts are also an easy meal for your bad guys. And bad guys just want an easy meal. Don't forget the bone meal, i like 6 parts mama to one part fish bone meal. The fish bone meal caries some very unique amino acids.



Don't ever use white sugar unless you are trying to culture e-coli.

I wanted to make it "choosing you're micro heard." So, I would know at least Veer would stop in.

It's okay, I'm here. I just wasn't expecting a TED talk on composting.
 
Interesting post. White sugar is one of the worst poisons foisted on the world. As Corney says, everything bad loves white sugar.
 
Hey Corney, thanks for turning me onto the no til. I decided to make the switch. Im going to go this route.
 
I like cover cropping also. The big advantage being the ability to drive carbon, the roots, deep into the soil,a dn give predator bugs a place to breed. The roots build soil structure by driving organic material deep into the soil, as well as beneficial microbes. I still like to mulch to let my peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and what have you get a head start, but I like to mulch with sweet grass and hay. I just go down and get a couple bails of organic horse feed, timothy grass, oat grass, alfalfa hay. Then I plant a cover crop mix into that also clover, soy beans, coy peas, and some nitrogen fixers[clover being one of them, as well as a great mycorrhizae spreader]. Now at the end of this year I will go in with winter rye grass, and lay it down for mulch next year. I am also going to plant a row of peach trees on the north side of my garden, the fruit trees use endo- mycorrhizae, they will keep it active in the soil during the winter, for the tomatoes, pepper, and tomatillos in the spring.

We have been talking giant hoop house.

My grapes are suffering, I think they could use a couple feet mulch also.

You ever planted trees from seed? I watched pretty interesting video about the restriction of the tap root from spouting trees in smart pots. The tap root curls and swirls and restricts flow to the tree. I was thinking of just preparing some spots, and planting some red heaven peach seeds, when the peaches come in from Palisade. They should get cold enough to activate in the winter and sprout on the spring.
 
I like cover cropping also. The big advantage being the ability to drive carbon, the roots, deep into the soil,a dn give predator bugs a place to breed. The roots build soil structure by driving organic material deep into the soil, as well as beneficial microbes. I still like to mulch to let my peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and what have you get a head start, but I like to mulch with sweet grass and hay. I just go down and get a couple bails of organic horse feed, timothy grass, oat grass, alfalfa hay. Then I plant a cover crop mix into that also clover, soy beans, coy peas, and some nitrogen fixers[clover being one of them, as well as a great mycorrhizae spreader]. Now at the end of this year I will go in with winter rye grass, and lay it down for mulch next year. I am also going to plant a row of peach trees on the north side of my garden, the fruit trees use endo- mycorrhizae, they will keep it active in the soil during the winter, for the tomatoes, pepper, and tomatillos in the spring.

We have been talking giant hoop house.

My grapes are suffering, I think they could use a couple feet mulch also.

You ever planted trees from seed? I watched pretty interesting video about the restriction of the tap root from spouting trees in smart pots. The tap root curls and swirls and restricts flow to the tree. I was thinking of just preparing some spots, and planting some red heaven peach seeds, when the peaches come in from Palisade. They should get cold enough to activate in the winter and sprout on the spring.

Now I feel like such a complete amateur again. But I was thinking the same...I have a tree of delicious peaches and I think Ill allow a couple to germinate and plant them out by the road as edible landscaping.

Havent done tomatillios yet but i do love a good salsa verde. I do have some sweet jalapeños and some habaneros that will take paint off the wall. Got any photos of your place?

Sad that (one of) the greatest nitrogen fixer's is illegal, but thats just common sense by the world's standard.
 
Now I feel like such a complete amateur again. But I was thinking the same...I have a tree of delicious peaches and I think Ill allow a couple to germinate and plant them out by the road as edible landscaping.

Havent done tomatillios yet but i do love a good salsa verde. I do have some sweet jalapeños and some habaneros that will take paint off the wall. Got any photos of your place?

Sad that (one of) the greatest nitrogen fixer's is illegal, but thats just common sense by the world's standard.

The tomatillos are prolific, about like tomatoes. In the sentence about tree seeds I meant hard pots. Smart pots or cloth pots are another possible solution as they air prune the roots.

I don't have any pictures yet. I might have to have the wife get some this afternoon. I have an older Nikon digital camera but it doesn't talk with my mac book after the newest update. I have not been curious enough about that to find a solution.

Soy beans and clover are probably the best nitrogen fixers, for my area. Any legumes will fix nitrogen. I cant think of one thats illegal. My favorite part about soy beans is not just that they add nitrogen to the soil, but they make good compost on top too.

You are back east aren't you? You probably already have clover all over, and the feet of deep dark top soil that I am working to build. We are in sand, but I know from my old patch, at the old house. Add enough roots, and life below the soil, and it will perform like a loam. People used to crap when they would go to my garden and not be able to reach tomatoes in the middle of the plants without crawling into it. Or seeing 15 foot tomato vines, people were not used to that. They would ask me what kind of fertilizer I used. i would laugh and tell them, "none." Last year I stumbled onto an old video about compost tea. That led me to a network of people who knew way more about what I was trying to do than I did. I just knew, nature didn't till or federalize, so why should I?

This is the video that started it all for me. The aerated compost teas have really supercorn charged things. Worm gold plus, and Grain fed worm castings are great. I am always wanting to make teas with different casting, and put them to the test under the microscope. Most of them are pretty devoid of life. I am starting my own worm bins now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj4FL0u1wvg
 
Now I feel like such a complete amateur again. But I was thinking the same...I have a tree of delicious peaches and I think Ill allow a couple to germinate and plant them out by the road as edible landscaping.

Havent done tomatillios yet but i do love a good salsa verde. I do have some sweet jalapeños and some habaneros that will take paint off the wall. Got any photos of your place?

Sad that (one of) the greatest nitrogen fixer's is illegal, but thats just common sense by the world's standard.

This is the video that got me really exited about no till. I am a small scale amateur, but I am always excited for next year, to apply what I learned this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPjoh9YJMk
 
This is the video that got me really exited about no till. I am a small scale amateur, but I am always excited for next year, to apply what I learned this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPjoh9YJMk

You may investigate a version of strip till.
Minimal soil disturbance with some benefits in root expansion/soil warming.
Sand is also effective in the right proportions.

R
 
I'll finish the video later. I stopped when he said he got similar corn harvest fertilized vs not. The only thing I can think of that takes more N out the ground than corn is bermuda hay. Both are very N hungry.
 
I'll finish the video later. I stopped when he said he got similar corn harvest fertilized vs not. The only thing I can think of that takes more N out the ground than corn is bermuda hay. Both are very N hungry.

Around here it takes 230ish pounds of actual per acre.
Usually in bean credit(we allow 35#) dry around 36# and 82% knifed in in the fall.
Some have also been adding 20-30# of 28 in the spray first application spring.

R
 
I'll finish the video later. I stopped when he said he got similar corn harvest fertilized vs not. The only thing I can think of that takes more N out the ground than corn is bermuda hay. Both are very N hungry.

Tobacco.

You should see the soil where my ancestors grew tobacco. Just hard red clay now, everything striped away.
 
Coastal burmudagrass for hay is 250# N / ac and you can go over that depending on conditions and the number of cuts. Tobacco is around 75# N / ac. Mom's side is baccer farmers in TN/VA. ;-)
 
I'll finish the video later. I stopped when he said he got similar corn harvest fertilized vs not. The only thing I can think of that takes more N out the ground than corn is bermuda hay. Both are very N hungry.

That is exactly why he said it. When all the proper mechanisms in your soil work, your plant is getting fed every hour of everyday, and fertilizer makes no difference.
 
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You may investigate a version of strip till.
Minimal soil disturbance with some benefits in root expansion/soil warming.
Sand is also effective in the right proportions.

R

Oops missed this one. When I said sugar, I was talking about organic sources. Molasses, cane sugar, agave nectar, mulberry juice, sweets. White sugar specifically drives e-coli. Surprisingly most microbes don't have a very diverse diet, and each one specifically may only want to eat a couple different things, or other microbes. That is the reason my tea has 15 or 20 ingredients. One of them being whole milk. Milk also kills powdery mildew on grapes and squash when used as a foliar. It will also kill soft body insects because they can't digest lactose.
 
Oops missed this one. When I said sugar, I was talking about organic sources. Molasses, cane sugar, agave nectar, mulberry juice, sweets. White sugar specifically drives e-coli. Surprisingly most microbes don't have a very diverse diet, and each one specifically may only want to eat a couple different things, or other microbes. That is the reason my tea has 15 or 20 ingredients. One of them being whole milk. Milk also kills powdery mildew on grapes and squash when used as a foliar. It will also kill soft body insects because they can't digest lactose.

Good stuff.

Ive also read that its good to spray a somewhat diluted mix diretly onto the leaves as they can absorb more through leaves than roots.

Thoughts?
 
I am not sure if they can actually absorb any of the nutrients directly from milk either through the roots or the leaves. It is however a rich food for the microbes in the soil. They in turn break it down into things the plants can use.

Diluting it and spraying is what I meant by foliar application.