Compost Tea or Electroculture

[thediaTOMaceouscity]

Sorry I didn't see that part of your post previously here's a link with some limited information:

electroculture » Electric Fertilizer

Basically, back in the early 1900's there were a few people who became interested in electrifying their fields. In one section they buried a copper plate under their field and a zinc plate under a different field and connected them with rebar. As I understand it there is a measurable charge in the atmosphere that the plates enhance. I haven't done all my background research on it yet. The above blog, in particular he uses a cell phone that is hooked up through two nails and gets measurable results from it.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by thediaTOMaceouscity

Thats an interesting thought Tucker85. Wouldn't it generally wash out of the medium anyway though. If we thought about it as nature, a monkey would poop on some branch and the rain would wash those nutrients down the branch on to the orchid in flushes here and there and wouldn't the orchid absorb those nutrients? Why do you think the Chemical Fertilizers were/are better? I volunteer at a local native plant garden/botanic place and they'll be trying to use this on Cypripediums and Goodyera species.

---------- Post added at 06:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:33 PM ----------

No one's touched the Electroculture part yet!

I agree that it probably would happen in nature but orchids in nature often aren't very impressive specimens. I'm no expert but an article I read said that experiments showed that nitrogen from nitrate was more readily absorbed by orchids than nitrogen from urea or ammonium. When I started using a fertilizer with more nitrogen from nitrate I got better results than I got with Merrill's Compost Tea. I did read one article by an orchid grower in Northern California that said he got better results from urea based nitrogen than any other source. So who know's what to believe. I applaud your desire to experiment. If I had enough space I would do side by side fertilizer experiments myself. If you do experiment, please post the results. I'm always interested in any new fertilizer research. Good luck.

[greengarden]

My neighbour uses a compost tea on all her plants. I think she makes it from cow manure and it just sits there in a plastic rubbish bin out the back and she tops it up with water and occasionally adds some more manure so it's not only there for 24 hours so maybe this helps with the bacterial break down aspect.

FYI it was me with the pellets and they are a pellet made from manure, blood and bone, fish meal and seaweed(and they are organic which works with my desire to avoid too many big time chemicals in my garden as we get lots of wildlife).

[ElectroGrow]

I realize I'm way late to the party here... But did anyone ever do anything with electroculture here, on Orchards?

FYI, it will help with a wide range of things from nutrient uptake, to even helping to improve the bacterial populations in compost teas. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Optimist]

Well I make a tea out of kelp. Not quite compost.

As far as electroculture. Ive heard of it, but in a way plants, orchids that is the roots, create an electrical charge. What use is adding one then? I read a scientific paper about the negatively charged ions in the atmosphere during rain, and how that is beneficial to the electrical system plants already have in the stripping of the two hydrogen molecules, which happens in some zone layer of the roots. All you really need to do to have the same effect is to have the plants outside right at the start of a rain storm. It is fascinating reading, hope it yields you some good facts.

Also wondering what is the point in choosing a CAM plant. They are totally different than say, a tomato vine or a marijauna plant, which is where most of these ideas seem to come from. They are so highly adapted to slow growth that I feel the addition of fertilizers only screws up their chemistry. Is forcing a species adapted to a certain type of growth pattern to try to adapt another pattern a good thing or a bad thing. Not the same conversation as to whether we should try to clone woolly mammoths. Thinking now of those orchids that are on their last stand because of human encroachment, not huge greenhouses in Taiwan.

[ElectroGrow]

Thanks for the info... that paper you referred to sounds interesting... can you find it and share the link?

To add to what you've read about ionized air during thunderstorms affecting growth, the main reason I see the effect taking place is due to the presence of charge build up on active cells, inducing action potentials and then a variety of cascade reactions from there affecting everything from hormone synthesis to gene expression.

With regards to CAM plants and orchids in general, I have not come across much research showing electronic stimulation as being used here.

Forcing changes to growth patterns has been found to be effective, like you mentioned, to tomatoes and cannabis, but for orchids, I'm not sure if it would be helpful - except perhaps in electrotherapy, using small electrical doses to heal them of disease, or to help them with coming with other environmental problems.