Brix Bounty Farm

We are really looking forward to our first full season trialing BioNatural’s Blooming Blossoms bio-inoculants.  They have 2 different soil application products and a foliar product; all 3 are focused on harnessing the capacity of Azotobacter to fix Nitrogen.  They are just one of many folks marketing biological inoculants; you can see a list of other suppliers on the new Bionutrient Food Association website.

Their NutriFoliar  has proven to actually “fix” Nitrogen directly on the leaf surface.  We have been pleased to secure our supply through Crop Services International in Michigan; Juneau Sales in Minnesota is another supplier.

We’ll report back later this season with details (and hopefully some pictures) of our results.

At the recent SEMAP Ag & Food Conference I had the pleasure of catching Carl Brodeur of Arborcare present a workshop on Actively Aerated Compost Tea (AACT).  Carl did a great job presenting some of the basics and keys to utilizing compost tea.  Below are a few of the resources his highlighted in his presentation as well as additional links which may be of interest.

• *Microbe Organic (Tim Wilson) – http://www.microbeorganics.com/
  

• http://www.microbeorganics.com/#So_You_Wanna_Build_A_Compost_Tea_Brewer




• It’s Tea Time with Tad Hussey – http://www.gardeningwithmicrobes.com/teaarticle.shtml

• Importance of Water Quality with Compost Tea – http://www.simplici-tea.com/water_quality_article.htm

• “Compost Tea:  Promises and Practicalities” by Elaine Ingham – http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Dec03_Compost%20Teas.pdf

• CompostWerks – http://www.compostwerks.com

• EarthFort – http://www.earthfort.com/home.html (vendors of Elaine Ingham’s audio recordings and other resources)

• Earth Tea Brewer – http://www.composttea.com/22gallon.htm

• Orner Farms – Vermicompost – http://ornerfarms.com/composttea.htm (Carl recommended Ross Orner as a good supplier of very high quality compost for compost tea)

• Soil Food Web New York – http://soilfoodwebnewyork.com/indexoriginal.html

• Vortex Brewer (developed by Steven Storch – who presented at Soil & Nutrition in February) – http://www.vortexbrewer.com/

• Yahoo Groups – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gardening_with_compost_tea/messages