Teeming With Life
Talent gardener's new job is brewmaster; he lives by the motto: 'All life is rooted in the soil'
Doug Fidler applies a Compost Tea to his vineyard concocted on his property near Talent Saturday.
By Paul Hadella
for the Mail Tribune
May 16, 2008
Doug Fidler looks at a drop of compost tea under his microscope and smiles. "I see little dark things darting around," he says. His tea is teeming with life.
Fidler, who lives in Talent, is confident that
when this nutrient-rich brew is sprayed on a field, it will replenish the microbiology in the soil, leading to thicker and more vibrant grass. He made his first batch of compost tea about five years ago, spread it around his yard and noticed a dramatic change in the quality of his lawn.
The success of the business he has just started, Coleman Creek Compost Brewing, depends on his ability to convince others that the stuff works.
"I know Monsanto would dispute my claims," he concedes, referring to the top global provider of agricultural products.
So far he has sprayed pastures and soccer fields, as well as some fairways and greens at Bear Creek Golf Course. "I've noticed a big difference, no question," says course manager Bruce McLean.
Fidler did not invent compost tea — he learned about it from reading gardening books and magazines. But he is, as far as he knows, the only person in the area spraying it commercially across large tracts of land. He became interested in trying compost tea for himself because "I've been a gardener for as long as I can remember," he says.
To make the tea, Fidler suspends a bag of compost in an 85-gallon tank of water, which he keeps in his garage. An air pump helps stimulate the brewing process, which takes about 24 to 36 hours. One gallon of the tea will cover 3,000 square feet, he says.
"But you can't spray too much," he adds. "It won't burn."
Fidler makes all the compost himself, aging it at least six months. The handful that he scoops from a bin in his yard is alive with worms and other crawlies. It looks dark and rich — definitely a gourmet brand of compost.
The shiny red tractor parked under Fidler's carport is a symbol of his faith in the tea. He bought the machine just for his commercial spray jobs, he says. A tank on the back of the tractor holds the tea. The sprayer attached to the tank is capable of shooting the liquid up to 30 feet.
Fidler pulls a book from a shelf in his workshop and begins searching for his favorite quote. "It's something like,
'All life is rooted in the soil,' " he says. Fidler, who has read extensively on the subject of soil science, claims that
an acre of land contains about 900 pounds of earthworms, 2,000 pounds of bacteria, 2,400 pounds of fungi and 133 pounds of protozoa.
"Compost tea builds all that up," he says. His favorite statistic: a single beneficial microbe will multiply five billion times during the brewing process.
Fidler acknowledges that there are skeptics who question whether the tea is actually anything more than dirty water. After all, he is no scientist. He was an English major in college, though he did make his own wine for about 20 years.
He leads doubters to the pasture across the road from his house. After squeezing through a locked gate, he is suddenly wading up to his hips in dense grass. The pasture belongs to his neighbor, who asked him to spray it with compost tea, Fidler says. Soon, he comes to an area where the grass barely reaches above his knees and is not nearly as thick. "This is the part I didn't spray," he says.
With people craving environmentally friendly products, Fidler believes his business will boom in the near future. A friend of his has been spraying cranberry bogs on the coast, and the reaction has been very positive.
"Those farms have been doing things the same way for two and three generations," says Fidler. "Suddenly they are going organic because it's healthy and it really does work."
Reading the print on a bag of chemical turf builder is scary, Fidler says. "It tells you that humans and pets should stay off an area where it has been applied," he says. Compost tea, on the other hand, is safe, says Fidler, adding that it stays in the soil rather than leaching out and running off. "I'd love for all the ranchers along the Rogue River to use it," he says. "Imagine no chemicals washing into the water."
Fidler charges about $60 an acre and can spray five acres in an hour. Contact him at 535-3306.
Paul Hadella is a freelance writer living in Talent. Reach him at
talenthouse@charter.net.
