Compost tea and additives causing pathogens

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by riceke

I can remember as a young man serving my country in the orient watching young oriental boys and women carrying with what seemed to be a yoke across their backs with buckets of some liquid sloshing as they walk to the rice fields. Watched them pour it in the rice paddies. Come to find out it was human waste both liquid and solid of nature.

Also, my father tending his tomatoes would scoop out some strange liquid out of a 5 gallon can in the garden and pour it around his tomatoes. He told me that he would take some horse manure, put it in a burlap bag and soak it in collected rainwater. That was his fertilizer.

Now why is it today, that E coli is contaminating everything we eat when before using the same stuff that it comes from was used as fertilizer and at least no one in our family or others that I knew of that used the same technique got sick from it?

My Dad was in Japan and he said they had apples the size of grapefruit and all they used was human waste. Land is at such a premium there and grazing for livestock is nearly non-existent so cheap sources of fertilizer are very hard to come by. Did you know that Japan buys nearly one half of all the alfalfa produced in this country in the form of cubes and pellets?

[beeman]

Originally Posted by riceke

Also, my father tending his tomatoes would scoop out some strange liquid out of a 5 gallon can in the garden and pour it around his tomatoes. He told me that he would take some horse manure, put it in a burlap bag and soak it in collected rainwater. That was his fertilizer.
Now why is it today, that E coli is contaminating everything we eat when before using the same stuff that it comes from was used as fertilizer and at least no one in our family or others that I knew of that used the same technique got sick from it?

The operative words here are "pour it around his tomatoes" this would tend to negate any pathogens. Use the same stuff 'over' the plant then look out for problems. It's only in recent years we use 'foliar sprays'.
This is what caused a number of out breaks in the US, the most famous was the spinach deaths caused by 'dirty' contaminated water used to 'cleasne' the spinach before packaging.

[David Marek]

Originally Posted by riceke

I can remember as a young man serving my country in the orient watching young oriental boys and women carrying with what seemed to be a yoke across their backs with buckets of some liquid sloshing as they walk to the rice fields. Watched them pour it in the rice paddies. Come to find out it was human waste both liquid and solid of nature.

Now THAT is recycling. Even if we don't water our gardens with sewage, there are better ways to treat it before dumping it in the river. Where do the heavy metals come from, anyway?

Article worth reading: http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/...7/sponges.html

[ALLGOLD]

Well i'm no expert on Humanure but Joseph Jenkins has written The Humanure Handbook, and its already in its 3rd edition. He apparently delves into the science of pathogens as well.

Has anyone read this?

[riceke]

Originally Posted by David Marek

Now THAT is recycling. Even if we don't water our gardens with sewage, there are better ways to treat it before dumping it in the river. Where do the heavy metals come from, anyway?

Article worth reading: http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/...7/sponges.html

Good article!...maybe there is some hope for mankind in preventing us from perishing in our own waste!

[easttx_hippie]

Originally Posted by Blueaussi

....should do their own risk assessment and make their own informed decision. But that's just me.

Risk assessment: .....hmmm, I don't use manure on my compost and nothing larger than the opening in window screen can get into my compost tumbler....unless I open it....and anything that small can't leave enough hazardous poop to contaminate 30-40 gallons of compost cooking at any given time......hmmm, not much of a risk there. I guess my decision will be to continue adding supplements to my tea.

Keep your compost clean and there shouldn't be a problem. I'd be more concerned about stray cats using the garden for a litter box than about anything in my compost. But, that's just me.