Probiotic Garden - Comparison of tomato plant experiment using compost tea

Join Will today as he discusses how he teams with nature by enlisting the help of bacteria and fungi in actively aerated compost tea in the care of his garden. Will explains an experiment he has run this summer using two tomato plants. In this experiment Will has watered one plant with water only and the other with water and actively aerated compost tea twice per month. One result of the experiment has shown that the compost teas Will makes was able to sufficiently cover the root and leaf surfaces to out compete and stop an infection of early blight on the tomato plant.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• probiotic
• compost tea
• AACT
• natural fertilizer
• natural gardening
• organic garden
• natural remedy to fungi

[rolanded4]

Controlled, replicable experiments do not support compost tea as a powerful antimicrobial agent capable of combating pathogens associated with foliar diseases. (Litterick et al., 2004 and Scheuerell & Mahaffee, 2002)

A soil microbial boost, sure. A foliar pesticide, no.

[TeamingWithNature]

@rolanded4 I agree with your comment. Wouldn't you consider fusarium a soil based fungal issue?

[morriswil32]

did you notice a difference in fruit flavor?

[TeamingWithNature]

@morriswil32 Absolutely! That's what the refractometer measures. It measures the percent of sugars in plant juices. The theory is the mineral content parallels the sugar content. So, the higher the sugar, the higher the mineral content, therefore the higher the nutrition.

Fun stuff! Enjoy!

[SwimCoachC]

Nice video. Compost tea is amazing stuff, I used it everywhere. Check out siberian tomatoes, they do better with cooler climates and often can be found growing all the way up into some parts of Alaska. Cheers!

[TeamingWithNature]

@SwimCoachC Thanks for the tip on Siberian tomatoes. Makes sense. That's teaming with Nature!

[Oufghan]

waow research is so easy these day it can be done in your backyard, i wonder why people spend millions of dollars to reach conclusions and generalise them.

[AOZXRAY]

Nice crop of leaves on those tomatoe plants.  Might search

Kacper tomatoes

for an interesting and rare way to grow more fruit

[TeamingWithNature]

@eyk71 While there wouldn't be a problem to water with compost tea with every watering because you can't over apply it, the benefit declines. In other words, there is no added benefit to watering with it every time compared to every couple weeks. You see, you are adding microbes to the soil and those microbes proliferate there. So, no need to reapply so frequently. I suppose if you had an acute imbalance there would be benefit in more frequent application. Try it and see!

To health!

[TeamingWithNature]

@marshallhenderson81 Thanks for the kind words. I did shoot some raw footage of my tea brewing methods, but haven't put them into a video yet. If you subscribe to the channel you will get an update when I do post it!

To health!

Will