Can Sweet Cherries be any better? Compost Tea says "Yes!!!"

Sustainable Fertilization of Organic Sweet Cherry to Improve Physiology, Quality, Yield, and Soil Properties
Agronomy Journal
January 2025
Link Here

We all know cherries are a gift from the Gods and their delectability can hardly be improved upon.  What can be improved upon however are the cultivation methods used to produce the  sweet crimson orbs.   Fortunately, a group of researchers from Italy are working tirelessly to see if a better yielding  cherry tree is a possibility (say that five time fast, with a mouth full of pits). 

The researcher wanted to see if adding compost tea sprays in addition to compost improved yield, fruit quality, water relations, and photosynthetic activity.   To do this they used 4 different treatments:  compost into the soil, compost into the soil plus compost tea sprays, manure fertilization, and a control group that had no additional inputs.  The compost +compost tea treatment was sprayed only 3 times through the growing season.  The tea was sprayed on the tree's foliage, as well as on the ground under the trees.  Beyond that, the 108 trees in the study were just given water through drip irrigation to keep them sufficiently hydrated.  

The study went on for two complete growing seasons.  Data was collected at the end of each season, and guess what..... yep, compost tea, once again, improved cultivation as compared to the treatments that did not receive any.  According to the paper, compost tea "significantly improved tree water status, particularly under water stress conditions".    Not only did it help with water stress, but tea also "enhanced photosynthetic performance, yield, and fruit quality, achieving the highest ratio of soluble solids content/total acidity".  That last part basically means: it made the cherries sweeter, pretty much the most important part of this research, am I right?

The researchers state that they believe the reason for the improvements was due to bio-stimulant qualities of compost tea, and that further research is needed to optimize the system.  Here at TeaLAB, we are all for optimizing that system.  Sending a big THANKS to the Italian researchers for helping improve upon our ability to grow more of these tasty, healthful, natural candies.  Grazie mille!!!
 

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