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Compost Tea - The Garden Professors™
Compost Tea - The Garden Professors™
Compost Tea - The Garden Professors™
Look at the boxwood comparison and you tell me why the compost tea didn’t do a darn
thing. Look at the grass comparison while you’re at it.
Throughout the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society’s website there are all kinds of op-
portunities to find out how to make and use compost tea, including courses at Meadow-
brook farm. Now that Elaine Ingham is at the Rodale Institute (Which is in Emmaus
Pennsylvania) they have all kinds of classes on it there too. Even Longwood Gardens is
Getting into the act (scroll down and click on the compost tea link). So what I want to
know is, why have the Compost Tea Gods invaded my home state of Pennsylvania?
What makes the keystone state so attractive to people who want to promote snake oil?
I just don’t get it. Is it the cheesesteaks? Maybe the scrapple?
No, I’m pretty sure it’s the Rolling Rock….or maybe the Yuengling – America’s oldest
brewery (their Black and Tan is one of the best beers in the US – second only to any-
thing brewed by the Surly company). Yeah, that’s gotta be it.
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Don’t be snookered
Just a short (but irritated) note about the latest fawning over compost tea. Please, peo-
ple, as Jeff pointed out nearly two years ago on this blog, just because Harvard (and
now Berkeley) buy snake oil it’s not transmogrified into science. Middle America would
be better served by using compost as a mulch and letting nature make the tea.
September 13, 2011 Linda Chalker-Scott Knock It Off compost tea, mulch 11 Comments
In September of 2010, I received a ticket for parking longer than 2 hours in a restricted
zone. Now, there was no way I committed this infraction; I had hard core proof that
could not be rationally challenged. So, armed with my husband’s affidavit as to my
whereabouts, as well as a dated receipt showing I was at the post office at the time
when I was apparently parked several miles away, I went to court to challenge the
ticket. During our briefing, the sitting magistrate told us we would need to provide a
“preponderance of the evidence” to win our respective cases. For me, it was an anticli-
mactic turn of events, as the citing officer (whom I’d subpoenaed) did not show up, so
the ticket was dismissed for lack of evidence.
And thus we return to today’s subject – use of compost tea without a “preponderance of
the evidence.” Jeff took Harvard to task for buying into this “bullpucky”, I think he
called it, and now Berkeley has decided to drink the Kool-Aid. One of my dear col-
leagues at University of Washington forwarded me a link announcing that Berkeley
Botanic Gardens was adopting compost tea as an “eco-friendly fertilizing method.”
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1) as a disease suppressant
I’ve written a lot about compost tea, and I’ve reviewed journal papers on the topic as
well. In a scientific nutshell, there is no solid evidence to support use of compost tea,
particularly aerated compost tea, in disease suppression. Likewise, there is no evidence
to support a nutritional role (I just finished reviewing a manuscript on this topic and
the data were unconvincing). Finally, I cannot understand why spraying compost tea
onto the leaves of a plant would reduce its water requirements. The “preponderance of
evidence” is truly lacking.
Students at Berkeley have the dubious honor of supporting this nonsense through their
student fees: $11,000 has been spent on a 300 gallon tank, worm composting bins, and a
spray tank.
Whatever happened to using good old compost, and letting nature create its own “tea?”
(Compost used as a mulch also helps reduce irrigation needs.)
March 10, 2011 Linda Chalker-Scott Knock It Off compost, compost tea 9 Comments
Compost tea…again
My not-fan Justin has emailed me again with some more substantial comments of my
criticisms of compost tea. I’ve posted his email here, along with my responses in a
point-counterpoint format:
1. “Compost teas do vary from batch to batch, the same way galaxies vary. Without the
complexity and biodiversity present in the tea, you might as well just be using water.”
Yes, they do vary, and this is why it is so difficult to conduct replicated and repeatable
studies on the efficacy of compost tea. The comparison to variability in galaxies is re-
ally not relevant, nor is it conducive to experimentation.
2. “Generally speaking though, this can be overcome by the purchase of virtually any
microscope capable of achieving 400x field of vision or greater. By looking at what is
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present in the tea and a little bit of background knowledge, one can make an educated
decision as to whether or not it will improve conditions on one’s plants and soil.”
3. “I assume that these steps were not taken in these experiments, because of the gen-
erally lacking method in what has been come to be labeled (tobacco science).”
The steps referred to (I assume in point 2) are not useful in assessing efficacy of a prod-
uct – in other words, demonstrating an effect not seen in the control treatment. What
would be the control? Not looking under a microscope? Not having background
knowledge? An experiment requires experimental variables. I hadn’t heard of “to-
bacco science” and had to look it up. Apparently it’s “science that is skewed or biased,
especially toward a particular industry.” The only industry I see in this discussion is
the compost tea industry – and yes, it’s an industry.
4. “First of all you are trying to disprove compost tea as a foliar pesticide only. You do
not do a relatively new science justice by not looking at the wholeness. Any and all fo-
liar applied pesticides are palliative in nature, and symptoms will recur if you do not
deal with the source problem. Compost tea (aerated) is to be used in the rhizosphere
first, foliage second, and surrounding environment third. If you are not talking about
this mode of application, you are not talking about compost tea.”
I do agree with Justin, however, that symptoms (of disease or whatever) will recur if
the underlying problem isn’t addressed. There are scientifically testable, consistently
reliable methods for improving soil health and plant health. At this point, compost tea
is not one of them.
5. “In order to disprove compost tea, you must first explain to the reader how balances
of microbial life (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, earthworms)
are different in various stages of ecological succession. You must describe how the
OVERALL HEALTH of any plant depends on how it has evolved to live in the soil condi-
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tions in which it is planted. You must describe how human activity effects soil food
webs and how soil disturbed or treated with substances toxic to microbial life
will move the soil backwards in succession. This will create a soil that favors weeds
over crops by reverting the soil to bacterial dominance.”
Disproving any hypothesis (e.g. “compost tea prevents foliar disease) relies upon scien-
tific evidence. What Justin is asking for is not experimental but explanatory. (There
are several inaccuracies in what he outlines above, but in the interest of sticking to one
topic I’m ignoring them.)
6. “If you are going to debate compost tea you must disprove its ability to create a more
fungal soil and inoculate the rhizoshpere with arbuscular mycorrhizae, improving soil
born nitrogen. Excuse me, soil born proteins in the form of microbial biomass that are
released as ammonium or nitrates in detritus, when consumed by predatory
microbes, that are generally found to be lacking in human disturbed soils.”
The first point is incorrect, and is one of the hallmarks of pseudoscience – reversed bur-
den of proof. It is up to proponents of compost tea – or any other product or practice –
to demonstrate efficacy. (Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the characteristics of
pseudoscience.)
7. “You must prove: that most garden or Ag soils have a stable food web, the food web
is not necessary, or that compost tea does not create a more complete food web. You
must create a fair experiment (not paid for by cargill) that tests foliar applications on
crops planted into a healthy rhizosphere with a complete food web.”
No. Compost tea proponents must demonstrate that compost tea has an effect. Period.
(It’s also important to understand that science doesn’t “prove” anything. It either sup-
ports a hypothesis or disproves it. That’s why scientific inquiry is a dynamic process –
you never know when new evidence will lead to a paradigm shift.)
8. “If you cannot present your findings in this way, you are misleading your readers
knowingly. I was raised to classify that as a lie.”
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my criticism of compost tea on my web site over 10 years ago, it’s likely that the infor-
mation is not misleading.
The second was in an email from a colleague at the EPA on a new journal article.
Here’s what he said:
More potting soil and Legionella, this time in Scotland. (Eurosurveillance, Volume 15,
Issue 8, 25 February 2010). Note that “other countries where L. longbeachae outbreaks
have been reported” includes the U.S. but there is no required labeling here, though it
is in Australia, New Zealand and possibly much of Europe. Also note the association of
Legionella mainly with droplets, and the possible connection to compost sprays as seem
popular among do-it-yourself pesticide makers.
“The exact method of transmission is still not fully understood as Legionnaires’ disease
is thought to be acquired by droplet inhalation. The linked cases associated with com-
post exposure call for an introduction of compost labeling, as is already in place in
other countries where L. longbeachae outbreaks have been reported.”
February 25, 2010 Linda Chalker-Scott Cool Research compost tea 2 Comments
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Linda sent me a link to This Comic the other day. Funny stuff — and not a little bit
analagous to our friends who think that compost tea is the cats meow!
In any case, kudos to Jimbo and Diana for their thoughtful comments – and for zoom-
ing in on the problems. Indeed, Jeff and I conclude there is likely a fertilizer effect on
the plants – and a healthy plant is better able to resist insects. Secondly, the speculation
at the end of the paper regarding root uptake of phenolics from the vermicompost –
compounds that weren’t even measured, much less monitored for uptake – is totally
unsubstantiated and in fact is not feasible, given root physiology. I’ve pasted my draft
to the journal editors below, which explains this a bit more. (Jeff also has some choice
things to say, and I’ve added his comments as well.)
From LCS: “I recently read the article by Edwards et al. entitled “Suppression of green
peach aphid (Myzus persicae) (Sulz.), citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri) (Risso), and
two spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) (Koch.) attacks on tomatoes and cucum-
bers by aqueous extracts from vermicomposts” (29(1): 80-93).
“The article presents evidence that the use of vermicompost teas increased the resis-
tance to damage from these pests. As the authors state “there are many reports in the
literature of organic nutrient sources decreasing numbers of pest arthropods.” This
seems a logical conclusion given that the authors have provided an additional nutrient
source to their treated plants (vermicompost extract) that was not available to the con-
trol plants (which were drenched with water). The treated plants were better able to
manufacture anti-herbivore compounds as a result.
“Yet the authors then venture into unsupported speculation that this resistance was
due to the uptake and transport of water-soluble phenols by the roots and into the
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leaves of these plants. In the authors’ words: “these diverse results all point to the
probability that water-soluble phenols, extracted from the vermicompost during
aquatic extraction, taken up into plants from soil receiving drenches of vermicompost
aqueous extracts, could be the most likely mechanisms by which vermicompost aque-
ous extracts can suppress pest attacks.”
“Not only are there no data or other direct evidence to support this speculation, but the
likelihood of such uptake is highly unlikely if not impossible. The water/nutrient up-
take mechanism in plant roots is cellularly regulated, particularly at the endodermis,
where all solutes must pass through cell membranes prior to entering the vascular tis-
sue. No such transport has ever been documented in the literature, though the authors
report “There have also been suggestions of these effects being due to the uptake into
plants of phenols from organic manures (Ravi et al., 2006).” This latter paper, however,
measures the presence of phenols and their associated enzymes in the plant tissues, not
the uptake of soluble phenolics. Plant physiologists and biochemists have long known
that plants are capable of synthesizing a wide variety of phenolic compounds used to
ameliorate abiotic and biotic environmental stresses. I am surprised that the authors
did not discuss their theory with plant scientists at their institutions.
“It is disappointing that the authors were not discouraged during the peer-review
process from making unsubstantiated, fantastic claims about the mechanisms underly-
ing their research results. ”
From Jeff: “Though we do not discount the possibility that compounds may have been
present in the vermicompost that could have been taken up by the plant’s roots, we
think it much more likely that there was a fertilization effect which caused the plants to
grow more rapidly and/or which allowed the plant to defend itself more effectively us-
ing its own defensive mechanisms. The authors of this paper discount this effect by
stating that “It could not be caused by uptake of soluble nutrients since all of the exper-
imental treatments were supplied regularly with all the nutrients that they needed
from Peter’s Nutrient Solution, which was applied to the experimental plants three
times a week.” but do not include any evidence to back this statement up. This is a fatal
flaw. In fact, the authors don’t even provide any data regarding the concentration of
nutrients that were added. Simply stating the analysis of the Peter’s fertilizer which
was used provides us little data as they could have mixed this up at any concentration
before applying. Was nitrogen applied at 10ppm? 600ppm? Likewise, though the au-
thors tell us the concentration of nutrients in the vermicompost used, no indication of
the amount of nutrition in the compost extracts is given. If these analyses of nutrient
content turned out to be too expensive the authors could simply have grown additional
plants without exposing them to the insect pests. By then comparing plants which had
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been grown with extracts to those grown without the effects of the extracts on growth
would have been made obvious. Another significant problem with this paper was the
lack of information regarding the variety of tomato which was grown. Tomatoes have
various resistance mechanisms to defend themselves from insect pests including, but
not limited to, both glandular and non-glandular trichomes. Many papers over the
years have shown that the density and chemical composition of these trichomes is af-
fected by both the plants parentage and by nutrient concentration.
“In short, it is difficult to believe that even a novice researcher would provide the
paucity of information and experimental data that these researchers did which might
elucidate the presence or absence of a fertilization effect. The fact that the first author
of this study is a seasoned researcher gives the impression that the objectivity of this
research has been compromised. This impression is only strengthened when we dis-
cover, at the end of the paper, that this research was funded as a subcontract to a grant
for small businesses, in this case the Oregon Soil Corporation. It seems logical to as-
sume that this paper was published as a gimmick to promote the business interests of a
producer of vermicompost rather than for any furthering of science. You have done
your journal a great disservice by publishing it.”
November 23, 2009 Linda Chalker-Scott Friday puzzle, Uncategorized compost tea
8 Comments
Briefly, what one expects from a scientific article is (1) a statement of the research
question (the hypothesis) to be investigated, (2) a clear description of the materials
used and procedures followed, (3) a listing of the results, along with their statistical sig-
nificance, and (4) a discussion of the results, including whether they supported the
hypothesis.
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Both articles focus on the use of vermicompost teas as a way of reducing pest damage
on greenhouse grown crops. If you’re not familiar with this product, it’s made using
worm castings and water in an aerated system. The researchers conducted one large
experiment and divided the results into two parts for publication. Therefore, the mate-
rials and procedures were the same for both articles, and you’ll also see that the con-
clusions are likewise the same. (My point – you really only need to read one of these
articles.)
(1) Read the methods section carefully to understand the differences between the
treatments (the vermicompost tea addition) and the control. Can you think of an alter-
native reason for the results the researchers found?
2) What additional flaw do you see in the discussion section in terms of the proposed
mechanism of protection conferred by the vermicompost tea treatment?
On Monday, I’ll post the draft of the letter that we’ve drafted to the journals.
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Oh, and if you have any questions, please post them! We will answer them the best we
can.
November 20, 2009 Linda Chalker-Scott Friday puzzle compost tea 2 Comments
Disclaimerage: I nor any of the other Garden Professors endorse this activity, nor any
claims as to its usefulness, scientific relevancy, harrumph harrumph, etc,. etc,. etc. We do,
however, fully endorse garden-related humor!
********
Head gardener Philip Whaites is urging his male colleagues to pee on the straw bale to
activate the composting process on the estate’s compost heap.
He said the “pee bale” is only in use out of visitor hours, since “we don’t want to scare
the public”.
He said: “For eight weeks now, male members of our garden and estate teams have
been using the outdoor straw bale when nature calls. The pee bale is excellent matter
to add to our compost heap to stimulate the composting process; and with over 400
acres of gardens and parkland to utilise compost, we need all the help we can get.
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“There are obvious logistical benefits to limiting it to male members of the team, but
also male pee is preferable to women’s, as the male stuff is apparently less acidic.”
By the end of the year, it was calculated that the 10 men from the 70-strong garden and
estates team will make more 1,000 individual trips to the pee bale, contributing to-
wards the compost for the estate. The estate said it will have saved up to 30% of its
daily water use by not having to flush the loo so many times.
Rosemary Hooper, Wimpole estate’s in-house master composter, said: “Most people can
compost in some way in their own gardens. Peeing on a compost heap activates the
composting process, helps to produce a ready supply of lovely organic matter to add
back to the garden.
“Adding a little pee just helps get it all going; it’s totally safe and a bit of fun too.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/8357134.stm
© BBC MMIX
November 17, 2009 Holly Scoggins Amusing Facts, Just do it, Stories compost tea, home
remedies 6 Comments
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She didn’t say it explicitly, but I think she thought I’d get a laugh out of it. And I
did….Along with a funny feeling in my stomach.
After looking at the article I just couldn’t resist going to Harvard’s website
(http://www.uos.harvard.edu/fmo/landscape/organiclandscaping/) and finding out all of
the stuff that they’re doing to make their grass look wonderful. And, to be honest,
much of it is great. They’re aerating more, they’re adding compost to the soil, they’re
using fewer pesticides. All of which I wholeheartedly agree with.
And then they’ve got this whole compost tea thing going on. In fact, they actually in-
clude information on how to make a compost tea brewer and different recipes for these
compost teas.
For the uninitiated, compost tea is a mix of water along with other things — such as a
carbohydrate source (like molasses, or flour, or sugar, etc) and maybe even a little bit of
organic fertilizer — into which a “teabag” (usually something like a burlap sack) is
dipped which contains compost. Air is usually bubbled through the mixture, in part to
reduce the likelihood of bad bacteria, like E. coli, infesting the mix (research has shown
that this doesn’t work). Supposedly the good microbes from the compost start growing
in the spiked water producing a “tea” which is packed with microbial goodness for
your plants. The microbes are supposed to revitalize the soil as well as, potentially,
helping it to ward off plant diseases.
Bullpucky.
This isn’t to say that I don’t think soil microbes are important because I do — they’re vi-
tally important! But why is it that some people think compost tea is needed to add
them? As a researcher and professor I’m supposed to try to stick to saying what the re-
search supports. Following those rules I’d like to add to a comment that Linda made
the other day. The research currently shows that compost tea is unlikely to do a darn
thing for you — at least in terms of the microbes which it adds. Compost teas, like the
ones from the recipes at Harvard, will often have nutrients in them from the added
compost (nutrients will leach into the water from the compost), or from fertilizers.
These nutrients can obviously provide some fertility to the soil (or to the foliage). Be-
yond that fertility I am completely unconvinced of the value of compost tea.
So why are the people at Harvard raving? Well, it looks to me like they did a bunch of
good things, incorporated one Voodoo science technique, and then attributed an inap-
propriate amount of their success to the Voodoo science technique. Go Harvard!
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I’m going to close with an image of some roses (these are a small sample from a larger
experiment) that I treated with compost tea to protect them from disease. Don’t they
look nice? I have a number of researcher friends who have also tried these teas. None
has had a positive experience.
November 12, 2009 jeffgillman003 Diversions, Knock It Off compost tea 31 Comments
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