Re: Kombucha as an acidic fertilizer?

March 9, 2005

Rhonda: I can't help you with the kombucha idea but if you contact you

local County Extension Service, they should be able to direct you as to how

to get your soil tested. You may even be able to buy a kit to do it

yourself. also try Google for soil testing! Good luck!!!

vona

Kombucha as an acidic fertilizer?

>

> Hi all - I'm mostly a lurker, but now have a question. I live in the

> Pacific Northwest. I have a rather small back yard. I got carried

> away with a sale on two year old blueberry plants. Bought 12 and

> already had 3 semi-mature ones in containers. Well, having 12

> wonderful blueberry plants means buying enough acidic planting mix to

> plant these (read $$$) and I'm just wondering if I were to buy about

> half of the acidic planting medium and then adjusted the existing

> soil with something organic - namely KOMBUCHA if that would work?

> Does anyone have experience with this? I also have a few azaleas and

> hydrangeas. We also will be planting strawberries this spring and

> the usual tomatoes. I don't have a soil tester so have no idea how

> the ph is at this point. Any info would be appreciated.

>

> Rhonda

>

March 9, 2005

I don't know about the Kombucha but your local agricultural extension will

probably test your soil for a couple of dollars or so. At least you'll be able

to see how many points you need to raise or lower your PH.

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Kombucha as an acidic fertilizer?

Hi all - I'm mostly a lurker, but now have a question. I live in the

Pacific Northwest. I have a rather small back yard. I got carried

away with a sale on two year old blueberry plants. Bought 12 and

already had 3 semi-mature ones in containers. Well, having 12

wonderful blueberry plants means buying enough acidic planting mix to

plant these (read $$$) and I'm just wondering if I were to buy about

half of the acidic planting medium and then adjusted the existing

soil with something organic - namely KOMBUCHA if that would work?

Does anyone have experience with this? I also have a few azaleas and

hydrangeas. We also will be planting strawberries this spring and

the usual tomatoes. I don't have a soil tester so have no idea how

the ph is at this point. Any info would be appreciated.

Rhonda

March 9, 2005

>soil with something organic - namely KOMBUCHA if that would work?

>Does anyone have experience with this? I also have a few azaleas and

>hydrangeas. We also will be planting strawberries this spring and

>the usual tomatoes. I don't have a soil tester so have no idea how

>the ph is at this point. Any info would be appreciated.

>

>Rhonda

Hi! I live in the Northwest too. We've struggled with sickly blueberry

plants for a long time ... finally my dh actually READ our plant encyclopedia

and followed their advice to the letter. WOW. They took off. They got happy.

I don't have the mix at my fingertips, but it was basically not much and not

expensive. He bought some chemical sulfate and added it at a fairly low dosage,

and a couple of other chemicals. Usually we use fertilizer (I love Alaska fish

fertilizer) but that didn't seem to help the blueberries. This strange mix of

his

did though.

As for kombucha ... I don't know. Fermented stuff in general seems to be good

for plants (esp. Alaska fish fertilizer!) but it's easy to overdo it and kill

the plant.

Heidi Jean

March 9, 2005

>

> >soil with something organic - namely KOMBUCHA if that would work?

> >Does anyone have experience with this? I also have a few azaleas

and

> >hydrangeas. We also will be planting strawberries this spring and

> >the usual tomatoes. I don't have a soil tester so have no idea

how

> >the ph is at this point. Any info would be appreciated.

> >

> >Rhonda

>

> Hi! I live in the Northwest too. We've struggled with sickly

blueberry

> plants for a long time ... finally my dh actually READ our plant

encyclopedia

> and followed their advice to the letter. WOW. They took off. They

got happy.

>

> I don't have the mix at my fingertips, but it was basically not

much and not

> expensive. He bought some chemical sulfate and added it at a fairly

low dosage,

> and a couple of other chemicals. Usually we use fertilizer (I love

Alaska fish

> fertilizer) but that didn't seem to help the blueberries. This

strange mix of his

> did though.

>

> As for kombucha ... I don't know. Fermented stuff in general seems

to be good

> for plants (esp. Alaska fish fertilizer!) but it's easy to overdo

it and kill the plant.

>

> Heidi Jean

Heidi,

My 3 blueberries in the containers are doing great. I give them a

healthy dose of Whitney Farms Organic Acidic Food once a year. My

problem is that my budget won't allow me to buy a dozen containers

AND the amount of acidic planting mix needed to plant a dozen. (what

was I thinking when I bought them last June? - with my employee

discount at and Perkins I only paid $2.09 each) So we were

going to just plant them in the ground along a wooden fence. I know

that just plunking them in the ground they'll grow since it seems

that everything thrives here in southern Oregon. But I'm wanting

plants that really produce the berries. Optimal nutrition should

produce healthier plants with lots of berries. I probably should

take several folks' advice and get the soil tested. But that's not

how we've gardened up to this point. A little of this, a little of

that -kinda' like my cooking. But unlike my cooking which can go

into the garbage if it doesn't work out, I'd lose my blueberry plants.

I've posted the question on the Kefir group, knowing that there are

some kombucha experts on that list as well. And I'm not in a hurry

to plant anyway. They are fine in the gallon containers for another

month anyway.

Thanks for the imput

Rhonda

who never paid that much attention to the Alaska fish fertilizer

before - fermented? interesting

March 9, 2005

> But I'm wanting

>plants that really produce the berries. Optimal nutrition should

>produce healthier plants with lots of berries. I probably should

>take several folks' advice and get the soil tested.

We got a little soil test kit to test the soil, but the directions

for berries were generic. I'll look them up and get back to you.

Anyway, the stuff was REALLY cheap (and way more than we needed,

so if you want, come up here and I'll give you enough for your berries).

The rest of the plants ... the chickens fertilized them plenty well.

They grew great. Our soil is ALWAYS acidic, so I don't know why

the berries wanted more " stuff " but, they did.

However, I've grown blueberries with no nutrition at all and

they do ok. So if you do nothing they won't die, just produce

less.

Heidi Jean

March 9, 2005

Hi Rhonda, have you tried the kombucha tea list? I remember reading

there that people put cut up scobys in the garden. Don't remember what

they were growing. I've done the same with my scobys, just to give them

back to the earth. I am not really a gardener. Would not mind having

some blueberries growing in the back yard.

Regards, Virginia D.

March 10, 2005

> We got a little soil test kit to test the soil, but the directions

> for berries were generic. I'll look them up and get back to you.

> Anyway, the stuff was REALLY cheap (and way more than we needed,

> so if you want, come up here and I'll give you enough for your

berries).

Oh Heidi, I wish that I could come up to Washington for a visit. I'd

love to be fed one of your wonderful gluten free meals. We've just

this week started incorporating wheat back into the diet. We went 6

weeks totally gluten free. DH says his RA seems to be somewhat

better. But both of us are missing the wheaty bread. I've been

sprouting, dehydrating and grinding the wheat, then soaking in kefir

(back on microbial topic LOL) for about 10 hours before making the

bread. So far the bread has bombed out. I used to make a light

sandwich bread, full of awful things like non instant nonfat dried

milk powder and even soy - can you believe it? But now that I'm

trying to make a nourishing bread it flops. Anyway, DH hasn't seen

any reaction to the wheat this week. I'll mostly use the wheat for

bread. I find that the gluten free grains work fine for other

baking. We'll see how the wheat affect him in the next couple of

weeks. If his RA symptoms worsen again, we'll go back to gluten free.

I suspect that you are correct about the blueberries doing ok without

adjusting the soil ph much. I know the 3 semi-mature ones in the

containers put out the fruit-just not adundantly. I have sure gotten

in a blueberry kefir smoothie habit lately. I'm sure that I won't be

able to grow enough blueberries for my insatiable habit

Rhonda

March 11, 2005

Rhonda:

>Oh Heidi, I wish that I could come up to Washington for a visit. I'd

>love to be fed one of your wonderful gluten free meals. We've just

>this week started incorporating wheat back into the diet. ...

> I'll mostly use the wheat for

>bread. I find that the gluten free grains work fine for other

>baking. We'll see how the wheat affect him in the next couple of

>weeks. If his RA symptoms worsen again, we'll go back to gluten free.

Or you might want to get some testing done. The gluten symptoms

aren't obvious to most folks, nor do they go away quickly for

a lot of folks. The only way to really tell if there is an IgA problem

is with testing ... and for many folks, it's just too big a sacrifice

to give up bread. Actually one of my relatives (who has some

fairly classic celiac symptoms) told me " I'd rather die than give

up my bread! " .

My own family got it kind of " snuck " onto them, because I just

started cooking different for my own selfish reasons (I didn't

want to handle wheat flour). But they get fairly obvious symptoms

when they eat wheat now, and don't desire it. It's a more difficult

issue for " long term " symptoms that other folks get (like anemia,

depression, RA, skin problems). The book Dangerous Grains lays

out the risks/benefits nicely though.

>I suspect that you are correct about the blueberries doing ok without

>adjusting the soil ph much. I know the 3 semi-mature ones in the

>containers put out the fruit-just not adundantly. I have sure gotten

>in a blueberry kefir smoothie habit lately. I'm sure that I won't be

>able to grow enough blueberries for my insatiable habit

I don't know that we DIDN'T adjust it much. It's just that we went

the chemical route, with ammonium sulfate, I think it was. Cheap!

But the blueberries love it. I think they might like having all that

sulfur too.

I'm a blueberry nut too. When we were in Germany, a relative

pointed out blueberries at a store, and said, " Heidlebeern! " . I

thought she was making fun of me, calling them " Heidi Berries "

but in fact that is their name ( " Heid " comes from " " ,

which I guess looks like blueberry bushes?).

>