Compost Almanac

Butler Green Organics

I have been farming for 25 years. I have moved from monocroping salad greens sold wholesale to retailing through Farmers' Markets and my CSA. I have worked with aerobic compost tea for two seasons and I see it improving fertility and defeating disease.

In the past I have grown the crops that do best in the Pacific Northwest. I did not plant crops that are hard to grow in this climate. Farmer's Markets and my CSA require me to produce things that are a little bit harder to grow, like tomatoes and peppers. Not many people are successful at growing tomatoes here. Almost every year there have been problems with virus or fungi attacking the tomatoes. In the last few years we have had real problems with late blight; farmers have lost whole crops. With the advent of aerobic compost tea I have had healthy crops for both my CSA and the Farmers' Markets every year.

I have also diversified with fruit. West of the Cascades fruit is another crop that is prone to scab and leaf curl. I have been experimenting with aerobic compost tea as a foliar spray and a ground soak. By using aerobic compost tea I have been able to prevent disease in my fruit trees even with the warm moist summers that we have. The results are pretty amazing.

The whole process really means dollars and cents for the farmer or gardener. In the past, pure organic growing has been hard because of the cost and difficulty of getting nitrogen into the soil and acquiring or creating compost. The amount of money that I am going to save per acre is going to be considerable. I also know I am going to see the effects increase in the future. I imagine with crop rotation, cover crops and application of aerobic compost tea I might not even need to supplement the soil with any sort of nitrogen from other sources.

For the organic farmer aerobic compost tea promotes good fertility and tilth of the soil. It has the ability to activate the necessary biofood web in the soil. The BioBlender allows you to be able to have aerobic compost tea on hand when you need it without a big fuss.

Brian MacWhorter
Butler Green Organics
Bainbridge Island, Washington