TRUE FERTILITY REVISION DAY – DR. Elaine Ingham (time approx 6 hours)

“Revision Day” has past attendees sharing, questioning and deepening their knowledge from practical experiences learnt since applying the skills from previous attendance in past years at the “True Fertility Workshop – Combining Soil Biology, Chemistry and Structure”. It was a great opportunity to get in depth answers on the spot from Elaine. 

True Fertility Compost & Compost Tea [REVISION DAY] 

Compost Tea & Extracts

• Can I get compost teas done in 8 hours?
• If you are applying it to a soil as a drench to feed the soil biology you can use a compost extract which will only take 30 minutes.
• If you are making a compost tea you need a minimum of 18 hours to grow the organisms.
  How to make a compost extract.
• Is there a minimum temperature for the water when brewing?
• Wouldn’t advise freezing water but if colder it will be slower
• How to monitor the brew.
• Just use a microscope to keep a check on your organisms and their diversity. Water quality is also very important.
• What food do you add to a brew?
• Why fish? Why kelp?
• How much in a 20L brew?
• What to test if your brew isn’t right?
• The benefits of a simple brewer

The Type of Brewer & Water Quality

• Will cleaning the brewer using a stocking, vinegar and caustic soda cause problems for the next brew?
• Does the pH of the water select for fungi or bacteria?
• What should you consider when using dam water?
• How to deal with varying water quality, particularly town water with chlorine?
• Is there any sequence of adding the foods to your tea?
• Read the labels and neutralise any preservatives in the nutrient eg fish or humic acid.
• Make sure your molasses does not contain sulphate.
• Why you should store your foods in a cool place.
• Where does e-coli come from?
• Is in-vessel composting a good system?

Composting

• The importance of temperature being maintained at 55 degrees C
• How uniform does the temperature have to be in the whole pile?
• How good is the result from using a front end loader?
• Backyard Composting as seen in “How to make organic compost” Film
• How hot is the compost pile?
• Can you compost toxic materials?

The Use of Herbicides & How To Increase Fungi

• What is the impact of herbicides on micro organisms?
• Find out how the herbicide affects the micro organisms.eg Glyphosate, dieldrin have different affects.
  How would you buffer amine etc?
• How do you get rid of cape weed, bindi etc. biologically?
• Maintain the right biology for the species that you want to grow.
• Does clover cause bloat in dairy cows?
• Alfalfa is known to cause bloat. Is it still a problem with organic farming?
• Compost/ compost teas increase protein content by up to 60%
• To grow the best lucerne you need rhizobium, a bacterium which requires the fungi and you will also add VAM spores.
• How do add VAM to plants that are already growing?
• Do mychorizal fungi spread from one plant to another?
• Do perennial plants maintain the mychorizal fungi?
• Results show that planting into a dormant pasture show a better response than planting into a ploughed paddock that has been sprayed

What is essential when starting out? A walk using your eyeballs!

• A penetrometer
  Isn’t moisture important?
• Good compost Tony Evans, Camperdown Compost and others – ask Gerhard Grasser
• Make your own compost.
  A good thermometer, shovel/pitchfork
  Collect or grow materials – high nitrogen, green and woody
• A brewer or extractor
  An air pump, a container, a sprayer
  Note: Nozzle size
• A spreader/sprayer
• Can you put herbicide into the compost tea?
• Check your spray equipment for possible damage to the micro organisms.
• How long will the compost last in dry conditions?

What is the difference between compost tea and compost extract?

• How do you select against weed seeds?
• What do you use to spread the compost?
• On broad acre can you compost in place with green manure?
• Will the soil biology survive IF it gets dry?
• Do we have to worry about carbon/nitrogen ratios?

Discussion of Crops and Soil Biology

• Is there an optimum time to cut the crops?
• If you spray a tea or put an extract on a straw mulch is that going to work?
• How specific can you get with getting the right biology?
• Is there any data on bacterial/fungal ratio for plants?
• If you want to change the crops planted each year, how do you change the biology?
• Why rotate? Is it necessary? Is it detrimental to rotate?
• How do you use compost on broad acre?
• To get more fungal growth add fish hydrolysate or humic acid. Leonardite also can be used.
• How do you establish trees in grassland?

What is VAM?

• What is ectomycorrhizal fungi?
• What is ericoid mycorrhizal fungi?
• Mycorrhizal fungi do NOT survive composting. To colonise them put them next to the plant.
• How do you get a compost tea into the soil?
• Is there a substitute for fish hydrolysate?
• How does pine oil used as a herbicide in the soil effect the microbes?
• What difference does the different animal manure make to the soil microbes?
• How do you culture nematodes?
• What conditions does kikuyu like?

Reports from students of the course.