In article , wrote:

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 19:18:01 GMT, "Travis"
wrote:

Drew wrote:
No I am serious !
I got it running right now.
I got water, grass, oxygen and compost accelerator.
It has a "silage" smell but not bad.
I would like to pour it on to a garden area but I want the
pathogens
and seeds to be dead.
Why the scepticism ?
drew

You should have saved yourself the bother and just put the grass
clippings in the compost pile.

Compost tea is hogwash.

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deput...e/Tea/tea1.htm


Unfortunately the page cited uses no scientific source materials for its
recommendations. The one & only authority cited is a pop book by Elaine
Ingham, & the compost tea company belonging to the same author & a
vendor-- a vendor with lots of company propoganda to share but notoriously
lacking in science.

The main value of compost in the garden is to keep the organic component
of the soil optimal. Compost tea adds little to no organic component & it
is absolutely the poorest of all methods for improving soil.

But for those who wish to pursue this waning fad even so, here are a
couple things to bare in mind:

1) The science has pretty much concluded that in a "best case scenario"
all such alleged "benefits" of compost tea like increasing healthful
microorganism population or fighting off plant pathogens is no greater
than the effect of a regular watering schedule with plain water. Keep that
it mind -- even if there is some truth to the claims, the rest of the
truth is that it does not exceed the value of plain water. However, the
effects of compost tea as a tepid fertilizer is rather more measurably
real, though vastly inferior to using actual compost topcoatings in an
established garden or working compost into soil for a new garden.

2) The Pennsylvania website does show how to do it without buying $135 to
$800 or even much more money's worth of equipment which vendors would
prefer you to buy, so the site is good for avoiding being ripped off for
one's funds while pursuing an essentially superstitious fad. The website
does unfortunately link to some of this worthless equipment, but they at
least selected one of the cheaper outfits ($135. plus shipping). Never buy
any of this equipment; even imagining value to compost tea, it does not
take anything but a cheap washtub & 35-cent aeration stone hooked up to an
aquarium pump to aerate the stuff.

3) Aeration, however, is not actually necessary. It speeds up fermentation
but it is not safer, does not increase nutrient value, does not lesson
opportunity for harmful pathogens -- all false claims by vendors hoping to
sell cheaply made but expensively priced aeration equipment. Non-aerated
tea has the exact same value (or lack of value) as aerated, & some minor
data even indicates that the only pathogen lessoned by compost tea
(powdery mildew) is specifically shown for NON-aerated tea. So while the
Pennsylvania website is good for showing how to avoid buying worthless
equipment, it nevertheless recommends wasting electricity & aquarium
supplies for something that can be done passively without such waste.
Because its only authority was Elaine Ingham who wants people to believe
aeration eqipment is essential, the Pennsylvania website tragically fails
to outline the process done without wasting electricity & needless
aquarium supplies.

The alleged "benefits" list provided by the Pennsylvania site need some
corrections:

€ Increases plant growth
at the same rate as a regular watering schedule.

€ Provides nutrients to plants and soil
but at a very minor level inferior to actually fertilizing and/or
topcoating with whole compost

€ Provides beneficial organisms
at the same rate as a regular watering schedule, but does not repair poor
soils that have failed to support beneficial microorganisms due to reduced
organic component -- ACTUAL compost or humus restores the organic
component which support microorganisms; teas do not.

€ Helps to supress diseases
No study shows a predictable or reliable (hence horticulturally useful)
ability for compost teas to suppress plant pathogens, so this claim is in
the main false. The rare "exceptions" have proven irreprodicible or are
restricted to compost tea's ability to lessen but by no means control
powdery mildew (dilute milk spray on the other hand does control powdery
mildew). As a disease suppressor, the value of teas ranges from minimal to
totally absent, & in no case an inevitable or predictable benefit, in no
case superior to a regular watering schedule of soils with a good balance
of organic material.

€ Replaces toxic garden chemicals
Yes, compost tea is better than setting your garden on fire, burying it
under a foot of ground glass, or dumping toxic chemicals all over it. A
more effective soil treatment would be good for the garden in its own
right -- such as using whole organic compost or leafmold topcoatings with
good irrigation practices -- whereas the concluding claim for compost tea
is merely that it is better than poisoning everything. Well woop de do,
wooda guessed it.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
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"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
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