May 14, 2024

VIDEO: Healing Our Soils, Compost & Compost Tea with Troy Hinke


Soils are the basis of all terrestrial life. A teaspoon of healthy soil contains close to a billion bacteria, many yards of fungi, and thousands of protozoa and nematodes. Through decades of poor management techniques such as ongoing tillage, chemical inputs, and compaction, soil has become degraded the world over. This results in a massive decline in fertility and structure, changes in salinity, loss of organic matter, erosion, and contamination. Composts and compost teas can bring life back to the soil through living organisms that help plants thrive.Learn to steward and regenerate the soil-food-web through the use of soil amendments, compost, and compost tea (for plants not humans) with Troy Hinke, former Rodale farmer and apprentice to Dr. Elaine Ingham. In this all-day workshop covering both knowledge and applied techniques, Troy will cover: an overview of soil microorganisms and their relationship to plants, roles of the main beneficial microorganisms in the soil food web, essence of compost and compost tea are microorganisms, cycling of nutrients and the interplay between soil microorganisms and plant nutrient availability, protective barrier on plant foliage and roots to shield against disease and pathogens, review of large and small scale composting and compost tea setup, pros and cons of thermal composting systems such as the Johnson-Su compost bioreactor, tips on successful vermicomposting, explore the difference between compost tea and compost extract, tour of a commercial tea brewer using Living Web Farms’ equipment, tips for brewing superior compost tea, design and structure of tea spraying programs for farms and gardens, tips for brewing teas to favor different microbes, making infusions, and using organic additives with teas and compost extracts, learn how to navigate the confusing world of shelf-stable microbe products. The aim of all of these topics is to get life in the soil and keep it there. Microbe-activated natural fertility is the safest and most natural way to rebuild life in our soils. Explore this fascinating world of soil microbiology and building life.

16 thoughts on “VIDEO: Healing Our Soils, Compost & Compost Tea with Troy Hinke

  1. I met someone who grew up on a farm in the midwest . He said "We were good dirt farmers." My grand father bought a 50 acre farm in Pittsburgh , Pa. Him and my father grew tomatoes for HJ Heinz during WWII . The soil was depleted when he bought it. He got bones from the local slaughter house and manure from the stockyard. Two good books to have "Myclelium Running" by Paul Stamets and of course "Permaculture" by the late Bill Mollison.

  2. I do want to add this… Some day I would like to see someone produce Soybean or corn or wheat or… at the scale of thousands of acres using this composting methods.

  3. Thanks for the insight.. This makes me wonder when everyone is touting all the mycorrhiza bacteria in their woodchip mulch next to their plants, but now I question if that is just saprophytic fungi eating the woodchips…

  4. My neighbor always uses mushroom soil that's already been used to grow mushrooms (so 2nd hand M.S) and lays roofing rubber down on the ground with holes cut in it to grow his plants through.. Best producing garden I've ever seen, never needs extra water and really produces. Prob has good microrizzal fungi in that mix.. I started using that method last year and it has doubled the size of my harvest

  5. I knew Elaine Ingham decades ago when I worked in the soil microbiology lab at Colorado State where she did her post doc. Elaine is the bee's knees and I am SO PROUD of her and her life's work.

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