17-06-2004, 08:05 PM
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Compost Usage
(Pat Kiewicz) wrote in message ...
Jay said:
But it won't neccessarily add everything you need. You may, especially in
a very rainy season*, need to add some other source of nitrogen. Your soil
might have other shortages that compost alone won't correct. That's what
a soil test will help you find out. Ideally, this will test for P, K, Ca, and a few
of the other 'major minor' nutrients. (In the US, these can usually be had for
a reasonablel fee through your county Cooperative Extension Service.)
Here is my .02 about nutrient content of compost. First the
macronutrients. It depends, of course, on what you did compost. If it
was leaves, the nutrient content will be very low. If it was
woodchips, the N content will be low but the P and K will be at medium
levels. If it was chicken manure, which are fed grains, it will be
very high N/ high P/ low K. Horse manure is basically processed hay
and is at roughly 2/1/2 dry weight (same as cow), which is pretty good
for most everything (assuming a two inch application, one has of order
one gram per square foot of N, P or K).
It is unlikely that local hay, even if the soil is K-poor, will
deviate by much from those fractions (else it won't grow), which is
why I think root burning is more likely than a macro-deficiency.
Likewise, anything coming from hay will be fairly rich in Ca and Mg,
because green stuff has lots of it. So if it is a deficiency it has to
be a real micro-nutrient.
Micronutrients will depend mostly on the soil on which the organic
matter was grown. If your horse eats only local hay, and the local
soil is Boron poor, so will be your compost. If he eats also oats
grown in the Great Plains, some micronutrients will come through. And
if your compost is primarily made of kitchen scraps, all those melon
rinds from Texas and California will also be adding micronutrients
from far away to the brew.
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