Building Better Soils with Compost Tea
An On-Farm Demonstration: Friday September 2, 2022, 10am-12pm at Old Plank Farm.
Gain hands-on experience working with compost tea in vegetable production. Applicable to small-scale home gardeners and large commercial growers alike. Stephanie Bartel of Old Plank Farm will share her knowledge and experience of compost tea that she’s gained through studying and practicing the work of Dr. Elaine Ingam, soil biologist who developed biologically active compost tea.
Learn what compost tea is, what it is NOT, and different ways to make it based on the scale of your operation. At this on-farm demonstration you’ll get an overview of the Soil Food Web, learn about how microbiology affects crop growth, and observe soil through a microscope. Field day will also include an optional field walk to observe vegetable crops that have been grown using compost tea and those grown using other organic methods. (The field is not easily accessible; plan to walk about a mile in possibly muddy conditions!)
In 2020, Stephanie received a SARE Farmer-Rancher research grant in order to begin work with compost tea in vegetable and fruit production. More information about Stephanie’s project can be found at https://projects.sare.org/sare_project/fnc20-1206/
Old Plank Farm is a 450-member CSA farm, founded by Stephanie in 2009. Growing vegetables organically has always been an evolving process for Stephanie since the beginning of her operation. Using compost tea is one of the most exciting, promising, (and difficult!) methods for long-term sustainability that Stephanie has found. She’s grateful for the opportunity to work on this project with the help of the SARE Farmer-Rancher grant, and she is looking forward to sharing her successes and failures from the project with fellow farmers and gardeners.
To attend this free event, please RSVP to csa@oldplankfarm.com by August 31, 2022.
This event is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.