Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Martha Rosemeyer
June 25, 2003
rosemeym@evergreen.edu
]utline
m Background- what is compost tea?
m ]rganisms involved
m Does it work?
m How does it work?
m Future research
m Resources
m Plant extracts or
herbal teas for disease
control or plant health,
for example
biodynamic
preparations
Photos: Eliot Coleman¶s European tour (Diver 2001)
hat does compost tea contain?
m plant nutrients and humic acids
m active bacteria (1 billion to 10 trillion
cfu/ml)
m active fungi
m protozoa
m nematodes
m products of microbes that can have
antibiotic properties
Photo from: Compost Food eb slide show
hy compost tea? hy now?
m Increasing societal concern for health and
environment and organic production
m Lack of disease control mechanisms for
organic farmers and gardeners
± Restricting agrochemicals due to recognized
toxicity, for example FQPA
m ]rganic farmers need control methods that
work within a holistic system
]rganic sales increasing at 20+% per year
m Homeowners
ithout tea ith Tea
m hurseries
m ]rganic crop growers
m Golf courses
m ]rganic landscape management Ingham 2001
Diver 2001
Benefits of compost tea
m hutrient application
m Disease control
± Foliar disease
± Root disease
m Inoculation of functioning soil food web
How to make non-aerobic
compost tea
m bubbling
aeration
hat happens in the compost tea
while brewing?
? ?
TESC Student expts:
Scott Chichester and Seth Book
angesinomposttea
dringrewing
reventingdampingoff
ofmarjoram
|
h ppm
20 hrs
From: Book and Chichester
pH > 7.2
Ê
A great resource:
SCS/hRCS,
roil Biology Primer
A functioning food web is
desirable in a compost tea
Mycorrhizal fungus
stained blue
hon mycorrhizal
Photo: Rosemeyer
Oyorrizalfngi link root cells to soil particles. In this photo, sand grains
are bound to a root by hyphae from endophytes (fungi similar to
mycorrhizae), and bypolysaccharides secreted by the plant and the fungi.
Soil Biology Primer, Credit: Jerry Barrow, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental
Range, Las Cruces, hM. From: roil Biology Primer
tinomyetes, such as this r rep omyces, give soil and compost
its "earthy" smell.
Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry Slide Set. 1976. J.P. Martin,
et al., eds. SSSA, Madison, I
From: roil Biology Primer
bacteria
Vampyrellidae attack
fungus ³take all´ of
wheat
From: roil Biology Primer
Most nematodes in the soil are not plant parasites.
Beneficial nematodes help control disease and cycle nutrients.
Credit: Elaine R. Ingham, ]regon State University, Corvallis
From: roil Biology Primer
Interactions:
hematode trapping fungi
Diver, 1998
Is ACT better than hCT?
m Both ferment well-characterized compost in
water for a period of time, with or without
nutrients
m Few studies have actually compared the two
m hCT has been suggested to cause plant
problems and potentially an environment for
human pathogen growth (Ingham)
m According to Scheuerell and Mahaffee, there is
no evidence that phytotoxic symptoms
Apple scab control using hCT and
ACT manure-based spent mushroom
compost (Cronin et al. 1996)
m ACT (7 d) vs. hCT (7d)
m In vitro effect on germination
of conidia of en uria inaequalis,
pathogen of apple scab
m hCT reduced conidia germination, not ACT
unless let sit for another 7 days
Apple scab on leaf and fruit
Powdery mildew of rose
(Scheurell and Mahaffee 2000)