20-06-2004, 03:03 AM
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Compost Usage
(Jay Chan) wrote in message . com...
Plant compost is excellent for improving garden soil, but has little
nutritive value. Start to dig in some of your lovely composted manure
by all means.
I am more than a bit alarmed when I read this. I have been using leaf
compost in my backyard vegetable garden. I prepared the compost in my
backyard using tree leaves from last fall. If what you said is true, I
will have to add more fertilizer than what I am adding now. Please
tell me what type of nutritions are available in leaf compost, then I
can supplement whatever that it is lack of. Thanks.
I will use my leaf compost regardless the low nutrition level that it
may have. The reason is that I depend on the compost to improve the
sandy soil in my vegetable garden.
Jay Chan
compost from leaves has roughly 1/5-1/7 the nutrient content of cow
manure (per unit of dry weight), with similar N/P/K profile, according
to "square foot gardening" author Bartholomew (so 0.4-0.2-0.4 or
less). Leaf compost is the best for soil texture and mellowing of
otherwise too salty or too acid compost, but it is not a fertilizer.
It is also the best mulch for veggies. In my own experience, kitchen
scraps make the most fertile compost, and manure comes in second. Wood
chips are excellent for both perennial and fruit plants (and
potatoes), and since I add them by the ton, they are a fertilizer...
PS. Fresh leaves, composted, have a much higher nutrient profile,
similar to grass clippings. But the tree sequesters anything of value
in the roots come winter.
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