Bob, what makes you think DE is an emulsifier? I'm certainly no chemist, but I'm not seeing any indicators it is an emulsifier. Myself and many others have used pro-tekt and Agsil to emulsify neem and karanja, which is what I would recommend.
I love the big ROLS beds. How long have you been running them? I also love all the variation of aeration materials. Can I ask what you are using in your mix?
Looking good! Keep the pictures coming! (maybe just sclae them down a little? lol)
Peace!
P-
Are the pix huge or something? Sorry bout that. I've been posting from my mobile, so I don't know what it looks like on the PC.
From what I can gather, (barely passed chemistry 15 years ago.. No chemist here either) silica itself emulsifies. DE is, depending on the source, 60-90% silica. That's my logic. It's the only thing in a powdered form that I can ad to my ghetto vortex brewer and within moments it's completely dissolved.
Also part of my logic... It's been in my arsenal since I've began to see results surpass my expectations. It's not broke. I'm not fixing it. Plus the only thing I buy in a bottle anymore is molasses, and I'm working on cutting that bottle out as well.
The ROLS bed was designed last year. It's 4'×8'×18", and has an air manifold on the bottom, underneath a layer of lava rock & leftover hydroton, covered in landscape fabric, then 300+ gallons of ROLS. The air manifold is hooked up to a pond air pump (high output, high efficiency), that proceeds to pump oxygen into the soil 24/7.
In the ROLS we have...
Super old cow, chicken, rabbit, & horse shit. The horse is in the highest quantity, and it was like 4-5 years old, and just slathered in mycelium.
Lil peat, lil coco, lil leaf mold
A few years worth of composted kitchen scraps. (We produce about two gallons of compostable kitchen scraps in 24 hours)
Alfalfa hay, kelp meal, fish bone meal, & crab meal
Oyster shell, glacial rock dust, basalt, calcium bentonite, French green clay, red Moroccan clay, & dolomitic lime
A little bit of an array of different Guanos, and a little DE
Expanded shale, diatomite rock, lava rock, a little perlite, & a little granite
Shit loads of worms (from my compost)
The only thing that's been added since it was mixed up the first time is minerals.
There's a lot going on there I know, but there's nothing very hot (NPK) in there in anything close to a high dose.
Throw out your PH and PPM meters, stop buying shit, and let these plants grow themselves!