S
Seal-Clubber
some people seem VERY confused as to the death smell in organic teas. Let me try to explain. Copied from another post of mine:
I`ve seen the sweetest smelling plants come from organic fertz which smelled like death. My soil smells like a thick Earthly smell, NOT putrefaction. Earth worms go crazy over my soil even if the fertilizer smells like death. The plants produce their own ketones. Anaerobic bacteria means it does not need oxygen for growth.
Facultative anaerobic organism - will convert to bacteria which uses oxygen.
Obligate anaerobes - will die with the presents of oxygen. All good compost will drain well and create oxygen pockets in the root medium.
Most people don`t know what the hell they are talking about. The truth is that you want heavily oxygenated tea and soil. The smell does not matter, in fact, the only kind of organic fertilizer which hurts the plants is stagnate teas which were "brewed" with low oxygen and stagnate in low oxygen environments, this promotes Obligate anaerobes. Edit: have you ever smelled a manure compost with added nutrients like blood-meal? The ammonia release is normal and one of the steps to promote healthy fertilizers. Facultative anaerobic organisms will destroy Obligate anaerobes with oxygen. Make sure your soil is well-oxygenated.
Example, don`t brew organic tea and then let it sit in a non-oxygenated container. This will promote Obligate anaerobe bacteria, this CAN harm the roots because the "bad bacteria" does not have the time to oxidize/die, creating food for "good bacteria". Smell has nothing to do with it and it is a completely natural process. "Bad bacteria" will break down the cellular walls of organic compounds quickly and with induction of oxygen, the "Bad Bacteria" will die off and be replaced by "Good Bacteria" releasing the valued N-P-K. "Bad bacteria" is like a battering ram which knocks down the cell walls of organic material.
Putrescine and cadaverine are amines which cause the dead-shit smell.
putrescine + O2 + H2O = 4-aminobutanal + NH3 + H2O2
both are completely natural by-products of lowly oxygenated environments. With the adaptation of leonardite and oxygen, both give a reduced Obligate anaerobe environment. This promotes "good bacteria" by metabolizing "bad bacteria" into food, releasing ammonia, ketones, and hydrogen peroxide (dead smell). enzymes known as catalase peroxidase will harmlessly decompose H2O2 into oxygen and water.
Ammonia convert via Ammonification: The transformation of organic nitrogenous compounds (amino acids, amides, ammonium compounds, nitrates etc.) into ammonia is called ammonification. This process occurs as a result of hydrolytic and oxidative enzymatic reaction under aerobic conditions by heterotrophic microbes.
Ketones from "Bad bacteria" :
Hope this helps?
Also as far as teas go, they shouldn't smell bad at all. Any time you have a foul odor, you've gone anaerobic. Those are the bacteria and fungi that will kill your soil, not help it. Healthy, aerobic bacteria will break down nutrients into usable forms for plants. Anaerobic will make alcohols, ketones and other toxins. Be careful!
I`ve seen the sweetest smelling plants come from organic fertz which smelled like death. My soil smells like a thick Earthly smell, NOT putrefaction. Earth worms go crazy over my soil even if the fertilizer smells like death. The plants produce their own ketones. Anaerobic bacteria means it does not need oxygen for growth.
Facultative anaerobic organism - will convert to bacteria which uses oxygen.
Obligate anaerobes - will die with the presents of oxygen. All good compost will drain well and create oxygen pockets in the root medium.
Most people don`t know what the hell they are talking about. The truth is that you want heavily oxygenated tea and soil. The smell does not matter, in fact, the only kind of organic fertilizer which hurts the plants is stagnate teas which were "brewed" with low oxygen and stagnate in low oxygen environments, this promotes Obligate anaerobes. Edit: have you ever smelled a manure compost with added nutrients like blood-meal? The ammonia release is normal and one of the steps to promote healthy fertilizers. Facultative anaerobic organisms will destroy Obligate anaerobes with oxygen. Make sure your soil is well-oxygenated.
Example, don`t brew organic tea and then let it sit in a non-oxygenated container. This will promote Obligate anaerobe bacteria, this CAN harm the roots because the "bad bacteria" does not have the time to oxidize/die, creating food for "good bacteria". Smell has nothing to do with it and it is a completely natural process. "Bad bacteria" will break down the cellular walls of organic compounds quickly and with induction of oxygen, the "Bad Bacteria" will die off and be replaced by "Good Bacteria" releasing the valued N-P-K. "Bad bacteria" is like a battering ram which knocks down the cell walls of organic material.
Putrescine and cadaverine are amines which cause the dead-shit smell.
putrescine + O2 + H2O = 4-aminobutanal + NH3 + H2O2
both are completely natural by-products of lowly oxygenated environments. With the adaptation of leonardite and oxygen, both give a reduced Obligate anaerobe environment. This promotes "good bacteria" by metabolizing "bad bacteria" into food, releasing ammonia, ketones, and hydrogen peroxide (dead smell). enzymes known as catalase peroxidase will harmlessly decompose H2O2 into oxygen and water.
Ammonia convert via Ammonification: The transformation of organic nitrogenous compounds (amino acids, amides, ammonium compounds, nitrates etc.) into ammonia is called ammonification. This process occurs as a result of hydrolytic and oxidative enzymatic reaction under aerobic conditions by heterotrophic microbes.
The diamine cadaverine is derived from the amino acid lysine by decarboxylation. Its synthesis is catalyzed by lysine decarboxylase [EC 4.1.1.18]. Cadaverine may play an important role in root development (Gamarnik and Frydman, 1991).
If released to soil, cadaverine is expected to have high mobility based upon an estimated Koc of 90. However, the pKa values of cadaverine are 9.13 and 10.25, indicating that this compound will exist almost entirely in the cation form in the environment and cations generally adsorb more strongly to soils containing organic carbon and clay than their neutral counterparts. Volatilization from moist soil is not expected because the compound exists as a cation and cations do not volatilize. Volatilization from moist soil surfaces is not expected to be an important fate process based upon an estimated Henry's Law constant of 2.4X10-9 atm-cu m/mole.
Ketones from "Bad bacteria" :
http://www.agriinfo.in/?page=topic&superid=4&topicid=288Polyamine Homeostasis
Since PAs are implicated in such a divergent array of processes, their intracellular titers must be strictly regulated. Thus, apart from the rate of biosynthesis, the intracellular concentrations of free PAs are regulated by conjugation either to small molecules, especially hydroxycinnamic acids (soluble conjugated PAs),13–15 or with high molecular mass substances, like hemicelluloses and lignin and, to a lesser extent, proteins (so-called insoluble conjugated PAs).16 In addition to conjugation, the levels of free PAs can be downregulated by oxidative deamination. Cytoplasmic levels of PAs can be regulated also by subcellular compartmentalization to vacuoles, mitochondria and chloroplasts as well as by extrusion.14,17 In mammalian cells cultured under normal growth conditions, up to 90% of Put and 25% of Spd synthesized by the cells was secreted into the culture medium,18 while a similar trend has been observed in plant cells.19
Polyamine biosynthetic pathway is rather short, and the first PA to be synthesized is Put, via the Arg decarboxylase (ADC, EC 4.1.1.9), or Orn decarboxylase (ODC, EC 4.1.1.17) pathway, using Arg and Orn as substrates, respectively. Put is subsequently converted to Spd via Spd synthase (SPDS, EC 2.5.1.16) and Spd to Spm via Spm synthase (SPMS, EC 2.5.1.22), by sequential addition of an aminopropyl group. The aminopropyl group donor is decarboxylated S-adenosyl-L-methionine (dcSAM) produced by S-adenosyl-L-methionine decarboxylase (SAMDC, EC 4.1.4.50). SAM is a key intermediate for ethylene. Thus, antagonism between synthesis of higher PAs and ethylene may exist, since they share the same intermediate. These enzymes are under feedback control by their end products.20
Interestingly, the sequenced genome of Arabidopsis thaliana does not contain a gene encoding for ODC.21 So far, absence of this enzyme has only been reported in the protozoan eukaryote Trypanosoma cruzi. PAs synthesis in animals also starts from Orn, and can be formed directly from Pro by Orn aminotransferase.22 The ADC pathway via agmatine, as described for bacteria and plants, has not been demonstrated in animal cells. The existence of two pathways in plants for Put synthesis adds up significant complexity in PA homeostasis. Recently, a reconstruction of the evolutionary pathways of genes involved in PA biosynthesis23 provided plausible interpretations for the structural features that distinguish the different enzyme activities.
On the other hand, the main PA catabolic process is exerted through diamine oxidases (DAO, EC 1.4.3.6) and polyamine oxidases (PAO, EC 1.5.3.3), the former showing strong preference for diamines (Put and Cad), while the latter oxidize only higher PAs, such as Spd and Spm.24 DAOs are copper-containing proteins, with the tendency to form homodimers. They catalyze the oxidation of Put to 4-aminobutanal with concomitant production of NH3 and H2O2, and the resulting aldehyde is further converted to γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) via Δ1-pyrroline. In addition, each subunit contains a 2,4,5-thrihydroxyphenylalanine quinine (TPQ) cofactor. In plants, DAOs occur at high levels in dicots, particularly pea, chickpea, lentil and soybean seedlings, loosely associated to cell wall.
Hope this helps?