Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v. Compost Teas On The Farm - Permaculture Magazine

6/11/2021 Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v.
Compost Teas on the Farm | Permaculture magazine
Gift Donate Subscribe log in register
Search
Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v. Compost Teas

on the Farm
Rebecca Hosking
Friday, 18th May 2012
Conventional fossil fuel derived fertilisers destroy soil

life and wildlife yet they have become like a drug habit
to farmers. Rebecca describes her head-to-head (or
field to field!) trials with NPK versus homemade
compost teas on the farm.
Around the home and garden you may know it as Miracle-gro®,

Phostrogen®, Baby bio®, Growmore® or by one of its other fertile
names. On the farm its many forms may be referred to as 'super
triple phosphate', Nitram®, '20:10:10', just 'nitrogen' or – rather
euphemistically – fertilizer. On our farm it's simply known as NPK,
the acronym of this compound's most common chemical
ingredients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/fossil-fuel-fertilizers-v-compost-teas-farm 1/12
6/11/2021 Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v. Compost Teas on the Farm | Permaculture magazine
Synthetic fertilizer was essentially developed to stave off the limits

to population growth and it's been estimated that almost half the
world's human population are currently fed as a direct result of its
use. But, this once heralded silver bullet for 'feeding the world' has
certainly come at a cost; from vast oceanic dead zones to
accumulation of heavy metals in our top soils to the release of
greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere.
I'm not going to get into debating the global merits or otherwise of
synthetic fertilizer but, when it comes to our farm I will slam my
wellied foot down with some defendable authority because there is
another obvious drawback of NPK and that is its lack of
sustainability in the true sense of the word. The P (Phosphorus)
and the K (Potassium) are both mined from depleting mineral
sources and the N (Nitrogen) is pulled from the air using large
amounts of natural gas or coal.
Our goal on this farm is to create an economically, ecologically and

socially resilient business so the notion of relying on a depleting,
fossil fuel hungry overseas resource as the basis of fertility on the
farm is completely nuts. However, stopping using NPK is not as
straightforward as some might think. Even my father who has been
merrily spreading it on the fields for decades describes it as a drug
and farmers like junkies for using it.
The drug analogy isn't a new one but I don't think many people
know quite how fitting it is on so many levels. Like a narcotic, the
first hit is the best and from then on you're hooked.
One of the reasons the first rush is sooo gooood is that you actually
still have functioning living soils at that point so you are genuinely
adding 'extra plant nutrients' to an existing fertile system. I often
wonder what wonderful growth rates my father and uncle must
have witnessed when they first applied NPK to our then organic
fields, what a hit they must have seen.
Naturally, essential plant nutrients and minerals in the soil are taken
up by the soil biology. As the saying goes, "Once the mineral
becomes life, it's available to all life," meaning once a mineral has
been taken up by a soil microbe it's then a plant available nutrient
or available to support the life of another microbe.
The sheer volume and variety of microscopic life in healthy soil is

mind-boggling. Just one teaspoon of healthy organic soil carries
around a billion soil microbes. If you're familiar with the work of
such scientists as Dr Elaine Ingham
(http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/) or Dr Patricia Richardson you'll
have probably seen incredible electron-microscope footage of this
wonderful underworld.
It's a world full of fungal forests and peculiar plants, of bizarre little
grazing herbivores that are prey to fang-toothed hunters that in turn
are devoured by positively petrifying looking apex predators whose
dead bodies are scattered by innumerable little scavengers. They
are all their under our feet, unseen.
What's not so commonly known is when you first sprinkle on the

NPK these microbes die off in their trillions with each tiny body
releasing a small package of nutrients to the plant roots around
them. To the naked eye we just see an impressive surge in plant
growth but on the microscopic scale it is the apocalypse!.
If, like us, you're one of those farmers

or gardeners without your own
electron microscope, there is one soil
dweller we can observe that can tell
us all we need to know about the life
in the soil and the effects of chemical
fertilizers – the earthworm. We all
know that a soil rich in earthworms is healthy and fertile so you can
imagine how distressing it was to find dead and dying worms
scattered across one of our fields during the first rains after the
NPK had gone down.
Like an addictive narcotic, once you start using synthetic fertilizers,

it is a one way ride. Each application onto to fields burns off more
and more soil biology which in turn severely reduces the amount of
available minerals and nutrients from the soil to the plants. Each
year you have to add a little more just to stand still and eventually
it's a case of add the NPK or go out of business.
Holistic Rancher Greg Judy

(http://www.greenpasturesfarm.net/) sums it up by saying, "When
you put chemical fertilizer down on your farm you're killing your
farms future, and the fertilizer companies are laughing all the way
to the bank because you've now got sterile soil, and they know
you've got to comeback to them to buy more of their fertilizer."
That's the trap my father and uncle are seemingly in, the only way
they view they are going to get any growth out of our fields is by
mainlining a direct hit of chemicals straight into the plants roots
because they no longer can rely on the now impaired soil biology to
help grow healthy plants.
It is possible to wean your farm off chemical fertilizer but it's not
easy – it's called 'organic conversion'. As any farmer who has made
the move to organic can tell you, going cold turkey from synthetic
NPK can be a painful business. Curiously it is not just the land that
becomes addicted, the whole way of working the land changes
and, in effect, the farmer is just as hooked as his soil.
Intriguingly over the last couple of years since we've started

applying pressure for my father and uncle to stop using the stuff,
that junkie farmer mentality has unwittingly risen to the surface.
The tale starts four years ago, Tim (my other half) and I sat down
with my father and discussed the damaging nature of synthetic
NPK. He completely agreed with us and promised not to spread it
on the fields on the west side of the farm as a small trial.
The following week I

heard the unmistakable
rumba-shaker noise of
the fertilizer spinner... it
was in the next-door
field to me. Dad had
purposely driven the
long way round the
farm to avoid driving
past Tim and myself so
he could 'fertilize' the
fields he promised not to touch.
That was just the start or this behaviour; since then they've taken to
hiding their NPK 'stash' behind the backs of barns in the hope we
won't find it. Each year they may have got away with it if the
deliveries hadn't been the same size as a grey whale.
They promise not to buy as much only to either buy the same
amount if not more each year. Even the language they use sounds
like an addict, "Oh I've only used a little bit", "I used to use a lot
more then I do now – I've cut right back", "You're right we should
give it up... but we've bought it all for this year now so we can't
waste it".
The point being my father fully admits NPK is bad for wildlife and
knows it damages the soils and is dangerous in waterways and
doesn't like using the stuff yet, like a person with a habit, he'll go
into complete denial when actually out scattering it on the fields.
As a result we realised
pretty early on that if
we were going to make
any headway we
needed to find an
equivalent to soil
methadone to try and
wean the Old Boys off
their magic white
granules.
Our answer came in the form of cold brewed aerobic compost tea.
Compost tea (or more correctly, we think, compost beer) has grown
and grown in popularity over the past few years, particularly with
gardeners but is now making headway into the world of farming.
You can make it at home for next to no cost and, if brewed
correctly, it's packed full of beneficial micro-organisms who then
provide the 'fertilizer effect' by making biologically available those
nutrients already present in the soil.
We started using it three years ago and risked a head to head

challenge to prove to my father and uncle this bizarre alternative
had some merit.
My father doused half a field in NPK and we

sprayed the other half in compost tea. When
it came to hay harvest time we all walked the
two sides of the field to compare the results.
Stupidly I never took any photos that day but
although the sward wasn't as heavy with the
compost tea it still held its own to the
fertilized side. Particularly seeing we made
the tea for pennies compared to the
hundreds of pounds spent on fertilizing the
other half. As a result of that trial, the
following year we were given the go ahead to
spray an additional field and this year a couple more.
In our case, the biggest benefit from using compost tea was to stop
the NPK going down which is essential if our soil life is to start
building again. Rule one for regenerative agriculture should be the
same as in medicine – do no harm! The added bonus of compost
tea is that by adding trillions of beneficial microbes it should also be

helping to jump-start the biological cycle within the soil.
There are some farmers we know of who swear by compost tea

and apply it in quantity several times a year but, for us, we see it as
a temporary measure. By changing our land management and
grazing practices, we hope to rebuild a truly healthy, self-sustaining
cycle of life in our soils powered solely by the sun. Compost tea
application will definitely have a role to play in getting things started
but hopefully we won't have to apply it for too many more years. To
use a thoroughly inappropriate analogy, compost tea is our starter
motor and we will only be using it until the main engine kicks in.
Useful links
PDF from Elaine Ingham on compost tea

(http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Dec03_Compost%20
Teas.pdf)
Video clips of Paul Taylor on making compost

(https://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/how-make-bio-vital-
compost-%E2%80%93-food-free)
Teaming With Microbes - the organic gardener's guide to soil

food webs (https://www.permaculture.co.uk/book-
reviews/teaming-microbes-organic-gardeners-guide-soil-food-
web) reviewed by Patrick Whitefield.
Help spread the permaculture word...
Share 0 Tweet
A Fascinating Read
Nick Bailey | Fri, 18/05/2012 - 16:48
Thank you for this, recommended to me by Alys Fowler.

I was struck by
the similarity with using pesticide encapsulated seeds as investigated on
Country File the week before last. There the farmer uses these 'seeds'
which look nothing like - black pellets with some seed buried deep
inside. The effect is that the seedling grows up absorbing this pesticide
which then stops the aphids eating the crop.
Now frankly there are
hundreds of reasons why this struck fear into my heart (it's killing bees,
it's killing aphids, it's killing who knows what else, and surly, if the
pesticide is in the plant, in the flower, in the nectar then it's damn well
going to be in the seed - which then ends up in us). But the similarity
with this article is the addictive nature by which farmers are hooked on
these industrial alternatives.
I'd always assumed that farmers, like me,
save 10% of their crop each year to sow again next year. But if the seeds
are inert (F1?) then this is impossible. Or even if they are viable - you'd
risk loosing the crop to the evil aphids - so best to pay vast sums for evil
black seeds which promise an abundant crop.
I'm really staggeringly
worried about farming. For a long time I've been quite against farmers
because I foresaw them as simply attempting to rape the land. But
perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps it's the same industrialisation that is
threatening the modern food chain by peddling processed foods into our
children and weaning us of real whole foods. These industrial giants have
not only got the supermarkets by the short and curlys, but also all the
farmers supplying them - as you say, farmers are hooked and can't help
but use more fertilisers and more pesticides.
I think this is something
that could do with the attention of Country File. Perhaps it's worth
contacting Tom Heap. I really feel encouraged by this article, I truly
hope we can wean ourselves off this mad cycle of over industrialisation
of our land. I hope that the threat of a global population 9 billion will
not stimulate further investment in agrochemicals, but instead simulate
more like you to explore the natural alternative, so that we no longer
need an 'organic' certification, but instead demand a 'non-organic' (or
perhaps 'pesticide rich') label. (I also long for a 'non-fair trade' label).
Thank you for your encouragement.
Replacement Agriculture
Peter Wadham | Sat, 19/05/2012 - 00:53

A very good article. I agree with what you are talking about.
When I
started in Agriculture I did this too.I have talked to many people starting
gardens and having started on the journey to convert to one of the
organic systems. The number of times I have come across people who
say to me we don't use sprays on our garden/farm. Then in the next
breath they say that garlic and pyrethrum is very good at killing aphids.
After some careful questioning I find that they have replaced all the
"Bad" chemicals with "good" organic chemicals. When I challenge them,
many just don't get it. I try to talk to them about system thinking. About
how a tree drops its leaves on the ground which are broken down by
larger insects and the left overs are broken down by smaller and the
waste of one animal is eaten by another creature. Eventually this then
gets into the soil and the bacteria, fungi and microscopic creatures
break it down further. This process releases the nutrients the plants
need. It also holds the nutrients until it is needed. I call this system
thinking. It is thinking about the whole of the system rather than just
part of it. Everything is linked. When we do something here it has an
effect over there.
To my mind the aim as a gardener/farmer is to get the
system to the point where it requires minimal intervention from me.
ladies tights
Jim Thomas | Sun, 20/05/2012 - 21:27

When we moved onto our land it was about as used and abused as could
be, in fact it was degenerating into real desert, and our first compost
was a cubic metre construction of greens and browns without any added
manure which we positioned in the shade of a scraggy nondescript
almond tree. That compost was very successful and kick started not just
our garden but my interest in composting and so the next season we
moved the location to a place that was more suited to larger batches.
Anyway the point is that the almond tree leapt into life and grew
vigorously over the following years, far outgrowing its neighbours,
producing lots of new wood and good crops of almonds and aptly
validating your point about kickstarting the fertility cycle. One good tip
if you are using the basic barrel and aquarium aerator setup to make
compost tea is to use a tea bag made from ladies tights thus eliminating
the problem of clogging the sprayer. Then depending on how you like
your tee you can have one leg or two. We also make a nice seaweed tea
which is said to have hormonal properties.
This problem of chemical
damage to the topsoils prompted a great deal of research in the middle
of the last century and works by such as Sir Albert Howard, G.T Wrench
and Maye e Bruce amongst others can be read on the Journey to Forever
online small farms library.
many thanks
Maddy Harland | Tue, 22/05/2012 - 06:42

Thank you Jim for the tip about ladies tights - very useful!
Organic Fertiliser?
greenfinger | Thu, 07/06/2012 - 19:57

Thanks for a fantastic heart felt article Rebecca. I just know so many
farmers just like you describe! I have been using both nettle and
Comfrey teas for a few years now and can certainly attest to their
efficacy.
There are a few points in your article I would appreciate if you
could expand on which are rather intertwined so I will try and phrase it
as clearly as possible.
The first concerns organic fertilisers generally. Do
not organic fertilisers, e.g. blood and bone, seaweed, animal dung etc in
fact contain exactly the same N,P and K chemical constituents as
chemical fertiliser and thus have the same negative effects on soil
microorganisms as the use of chemical fertilisers you describe?
Your
description of the action of teas seems to imply they operate in a
different manner to other "fertilisers". Perhaps I am confused here but I
had got the impression that teas contain the same Ns, Ps and Ks as all
the other fertilisers and this was the way they worked to promote plant
growth.
In particular I believe nettle tea is nitrogen rich and thus
promotes leaf growth whilst Comfrey tea is Potassium rich and promotes
root development and is particularly good for
tomatoes and potatoes.
This is maybe a bit simplistic but I would appreciate any light you could
throw on the subject.
we bought a junkie farm.....
Liz Beavis | Tue, 12/06/2012 - 06:36

We bought a farm that has cultivated areas that are addicted to
fertiliser. We planted oats and used "organic" fertiliser, but of course this
has been very ineffective, as there is no life in the soil (haven't seen any
earthworms at all), the oats look terrible, but we don't want to keep
feeding the addiction. It looks like we need compost tea, we just bought
a spray boom for our tractor. I'm just wondering now about application
rates, do you have any advice? If we make a 1000L container of tea, how
much should we dilute it and how much should we spray onto 20 A? I
realise that we will need to work this out by trial and error, I was just
hoping for some rough figures to get us started. Thanks so much, I finally
understand the difference between liquid manure and compost tea, can't
wait to try it!
Re: Organic Fertiliser
Patrick Whitefield | Mon, 02/07/2012 - 19:49

To answer Greenfinger's questions. 1) Organic fertilisers may contain the
same NPK as artificials but it's in an insoluble form, whether rock or an
organic compound. It can only be made available to plants by the action
of soil microbes. Artificials are highly soluble. They're immediately
available to plants and are also harmful to soil life in various ways.
2)
Aerated compost tea is not a liquid manure. It's a culture of microbes,
made by bubbling air through water which contains a small amount of
comost. This causes the beneficial microbes to multiply many times over.
When applied to the soil or to the plants these microbes help in many
ways, including by making insoluble nutrient more available to plants.
Alternative method
Сергей Трущенков | Fri, 06/07/2012 - 10:37

Compost tea is probably a useful thing. But the matter is that it takes a
lot of time to be prepared and nobody knows what kind of bacteria and
funguses he grows. Together with useful bacteria there can live harmful
fungi and other plant diseases in your compost. Instead of it you can
take already done and guaranteed microorganisms which will work in the
soil and on plants as fungicides and insecticides. Any harm, any lost
time, any equipment. The whole you need is the biological preparation
and water. To be sure visit the page www.altcompostea.x90x.net Believe
me you’ve never seen something better.
Glad to read about larger farm
tedjevanasseldonk | Wed, 09/01/2013 - 07:23

Rebecca and Tim, thanks very much for sharing your experiences. Saw
the film and it was very very inspiring to us, as we had just bought a
farm (7 ha, half of it woods) in Italy. It has been a conventional dairy
farm so we see many similarities in your story. We are now in the process
of making hugelbets and planting food trees and shrubs everywhere. We
want to have only a few animals and concentrate on medicinal herbs &
fruits & wild / forgotten vegs. Allthough permaculture is very popular on
the internet now, most people are engaged with small scale (town)
gardens, so we are glad that you try to get it going on a larger scale, just
as we try to do. In fact we have nice(r?) neighbours being all hobby- or
organic farmers and some are already working synergetic and
permaculture-like. Pretty soon we will maybe have a kind of
permiesgroup here. We'll keep you informed. Please keep on writing and
ofcourse wishing you all the best with the farm!
related articles
(/articles/food-waste-you-gotta-be-
joking)
FOOD WASTE - YOU GOTTA BE JOKING!

(/ARTICLES/FOOD-WASTE-YOU-GOTTA-BE-
JOKING)
Maddy Harland
(/articles/permaculture-and-
politics)
PERMACULTURE AND POLITICS

(/ARTICLES/PERMACULTURE-AND-POLITICS)
Mark Boyle
(/articles/fridge-free) FRIDGE FREE

(/ARTICLES/F
RIDGE-FREE)
Suzie Webb
(/design-your-livelihood-with-
permaculture)
HOW TO DESIGN YOUR LIVELIHOOD WITH

(/DESIGN-YOUR-LIVELIHOOD-
PERMACULTURE
WITH-PERMACULTURE)
Aranya
related videos
Tools for Designing Change – Permaculture

Design for People & Society
(videos/tools-designing-change-–-
permaculture-design-people-society)
LEARN HOW TO PLAN AND PLANT YOUR OWN

(/VIDEOS/LEARN-HOW-
FORAGER'S GARDEN
PLAN-AND-PLANT-YOUR-OWN-FORAGERS-
GARDEN)
PERMACULTURE TOOLS TO TRANSFORM SOIL: MULCH,

GREEN MANURE, COMPOST & MULTI-CROPPING
(/VIDEOS/PERMACULTURE-TOOLS-
TRANSFORM-SOIL-MULCH-GREEN-MANURE-
COMPOST-MULTI-CROPPING)
HOW TO BUILD A RAIN GARDEN (/VIDEOS/HOW-

BUILD-RAIN-GARDEN)
related reviews
(/reviews/its-kind-magic-
japanese-saw-does-seemingly-
impossible)
IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC - JAPANESE SAW DOES THE

(/REVIEWS/ITS-KIND-
SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE
MAGIC-JAPANESE-SAW-DOES-SEEMINGLY-
IMPOSSIBLE)
Cutting my way out of a tricky DIY furniture moving
problem with a fine toothed Japanese Ryoba saw.
(/book-reviews/trees-
gardens-orchards-and-
permaculture)
TREES FOR GARDENS, ORCHARDS AND PERMACULTURE

(/BOOK-REVIEWS/TREES-GARDENS-
ORCHARDS-AND-PERMACULTURE)
A beautiful and extensive guide to over 100
productive fruit, nut and medicinal trees from
agroforestry expert, Martin Crawford.
(/book-reviews/how-build-
natural-swimming-pool)
(/BOOK-
HOW TO BUILD A NATURAL SWIMMING POOL
REVIEWS/HOW-BUILD-NATURAL-SWIMMING-
POOL)
A very practical guide, with the full science of how
to keep water clean naturally, beautiful
photography and a range of budgets for your own

build.
Permaculture Magazine
300,960 likes
Like Page Sign Up
Permaculture Magazine
19 hours ago
DIVERT RAINWATER, REDUCE

FLOODING & WATER YOUR
GARDEN
In this useful video, thanks to
Transition Town Worthing you can
learn how to create your own rain
garden, ideal for urban gardens, to
reduce flooding and turn rainwater into
a useful, free resource.
On a small roof, of around 10 x 4m,
1000 litres of water is created for
every inch of rainfall. Rain gardens
harvest and store water in the soil, not
in containers, but in especially made
beds where the flow is directed. Rainw
... See More

Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v. Compost Teas On The Farm - Permaculture Magazine

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v. Compost Teas On The Farm - Permaculture Magazine

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

6/11/2021 Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v.

Compost Teas on the Farm | Permaculture magazine

Gift Donate Subscribe log in register

Fossil Fuel Fertilizers v. Compost Teas

Friday, 18th May 2012

Conventional fossil fuel derived fertilisers destroy soil

Around the home and garden you may know it as Miracle-gro®,

Synthetic fertilizer was essentially developed to stave off the limits

Our goal on this farm is to create an economically, ecologically and

The sheer volume and variety of microscopic life in healthy soil is

What's not so commonly known is when you first sprinkle on the

If, like us, you're one of those farmers

Like an addictive narcotic, once you start using synthetic fertilizers,

Holistic Rancher Greg Judy

Intriguingly over the last couple of years since we've started

The following week I

We started using it three years ago and risked a head to head

My father doused half a field in NPK and we

tea is that by adding trillions of beneficial microbes it should also be

There are some farmers we know of who swear by compost tea

PDF from Elaine Ingham on compost tea

Video clips of Paul Taylor on making compost

Teaming With Microbes - the organic gardener's guide to soil

Help spread the permaculture word...

Nick Bailey | Fri, 18/05/2012 - 16:48

Thank you for this, recommended to me by Alys Fowler.

Peter Wadham | Sat, 19/05/2012 - 00:53

Jim Thomas | Sun, 20/05/2012 - 21:27

Maddy Harland | Tue, 22/05/2012 - 06:42

greenfinger | Thu, 07/06/2012 - 19:57

we bought a junkie farm.....

Liz Beavis | Tue, 12/06/2012 - 06:36

Re: Organic Fertiliser

Patrick Whitefield | Mon, 02/07/2012 - 19:49

Сергей Трущенков | Fri, 06/07/2012 - 10:37

Glad to read about larger farm

tedjevanasseldonk | Wed, 09/01/2013 - 07:23

FOOD WASTE - YOU GOTTA BE JOKING!

PERMACULTURE AND POLITICS

(/articles/fridge-free) FRIDGE FREE

HOW TO DESIGN YOUR LIVELIHOOD WITH

Tools for Designing Change – Permaculture

LEARN HOW TO PLAN AND PLANT YOUR OWN

PERMACULTURE TOOLS TO TRANSFORM SOIL: MULCH,

HOW TO BUILD A RAIN GARDEN (/VIDEOS/HOW-

IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC - JAPANESE SAW DOES THE

TREES FOR GARDENS, ORCHARDS AND PERMACULTURE

photography and a range of budgets for your own

Like Page Sign Up

DIVERT RAINWATER, REDUCE

You might also like