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"Alison Kutz-Troutman of Sound Horticulture in Bellingham, WA http://www.soundhorticulture.com , related her experiences with controlling powdery mildew in greenhouse-grown plants with compost teas. Alison uses kelp extracts as a compost tea additive and also side-dresses with azomite, a rock dust product widely available from organic product suppliers. She thinks that bi-weekly or even tri-weekly applications of compost teas are sufficient. Alison related a story about the effectiveness of her compost teas in controlling powdery mildew. While she was away on a trip, her greenhouse-grown sage plants were left unsprayed, and were 90% covered with powdery mildew when she returned. She applied undiluted compost tea twice a week and within a couple of weeks mildew was completely gone.
Swearing by kelp
Several veteran organic farmers I talked to swear by kelp products, whether in compost teas or as a stand-alone foliar spray. Nearly all of the kelp extracts used in agriculture come from the common North Atlantic kelp species Ascophyllum nodosum. Kelp contains some 60 naturally occurring major and micro nutrients, carbohydrates, and 18 amino acids, vitamins and naturally occurring growth promoting substances. Mannitol, a chelating agent that potentiates the transport of cations like calcium and iron into plant cells, is one of the primary beneficial compounds in kelp.
A number of companies harvest kelp from the coast of Nova Scotia where the tides fluctuate by 20-30 feet. Kelp under these conditions is alternately dried out, frosted, stretched, and wetted, and therefore contains a number of compounds that apparently enable plant cells to withstand these stresses."
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