I had hoped to be in the middle of our compost tea field trials by now,
but mother nature had different plans.
Back in April, I set set up compost tea field trial beds
and finished planting them out in May.
The plan was to make actively aerated compost tea every other weekend,
and to apply a foliar spray of the tea to plants in the test group,
while spraying the control group with an equal amount of water.
To assess the impact of compost tea, I was going to weigh the harvests
and keep a video record of any plant health issues.
Of course, you don’t want to apply compost tea when it’s raining or about to rain,
because the rain would wash the tea and beneficial microbes off the plant leaves
and limit any possible benefits.
So, with frequent rain in the forecast in late May,
I waited until June for a break in the rain.
Then June arrived and delivered 9.53 inches of rain in Illinois.
That’s 5.33 inches above average June rainfall,
and the wettest June on record.
Still, I hoped to begin the trial in July, but the rain continued,
and it now looks like we’ll have record setting rainfall in July as well.
So, though I held out as long as possible,
it is now obvious that the 2015 compost tea field trial has been rained out.
Going forward, I may try to conduct a compost tea trial next year,
but outside of the trial plan to stop using compost tea for 4 reasons:
First, I want to see how close I can get to a true do-nothing gardening approach,
while still getting excellent results.
Second, Compost tea doesn’t add nutrients beyond the
compost and other inputs used in the brewing of the tea.
So, instead of making compost tea, I can simply add those inputs directly to the garden.
Third, even if the compost tea adds beneficial microbes to the soil,
do we really need more microbes at this point?
Won’t compost, worm castings, and mulch add enough?
Given our huge earthworm population,
I’m confident the soil is sufficiently rich in microbial life.
After all, earthworms feed on bacteria, fungi, and other soil microbes,
and you won’t have a large earthworm population without them.
Fourth, peer reviewed research has not shown compost tea to be effective.
Through The Garden Professors Blog Facebook page,
Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott and others
have been very helpful
in helping me better understand what the research says about compost tea.
According to Dr. Chalker-Scott,
When and if there are positive, significant benefits published
in good quality, peer reviewed journals,
you can be sure that both Jeff Gillman and I will publicize them.
Unfortunately for the pro- compost tea camp,
the best articles coming out really show no significant effect
unless abnormally concentrated levels of compost tea are used,
which are economically prohibitive.
So, my plan is to simply stop using compost tea and see what happens.
So far this year, with no compost tea applications,
the garden is doing great -
better than ever in many ways, despite lousy weather.
We also used very little compost tea last year because of frequent rain.
So, we’ll soon have 2 growing seasons under our belts to assess the impact of this change.
Having used tea in the past, I didn’t come to this decision easily,
but I’m confident that compost, worm castings, and mulch alone
will be more than enough to keep the microbial population booming
and the soil healthy and productive.
Well, that's all for now.
Thank you very much for watching,
and until next time remember
you can change the world one yard at a time.