Compost Usage
 

I have horses and an abundant supply of manure. I hot compost the
manure, turning frequently, until it is no longer heating.

My question is, is this a good source of fertilizer, (nitrogen, et.
al.), for my veggie garden? I'm fairly new to gardening but my plants
look rather weak and yellow. I started the garden with lots of
compost but didn't add any other fertilizer. Is compost enough or
not?

Compost Usage
 

Compost Usage
 

Compost Usage
 

On 16 Jun 2004 14:04:18 -0700, (Jay) wrote:

I have horses and an abundant supply of manure. I hot compost the
manure, turning frequently, until it is no longer heating.

My question is, is this a good source of fertilizer, (nitrogen, et.
al.), for my veggie garden? I'm fairly new to gardening but my plants
look rather weak and yellow. I started the garden with lots of
compost but didn't add any other fertilizer. Is compost enough or
not?

Horse manure is excellent fertilizer for the garden. The only drawback
is weed seeds, which may well be destroyed by your hot composting.
Here's a site with a lot of basic info on various manures.

http://tinyurl.com/2a3o2

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.

Compost Usage
 

Jay said:

I have horses and an abundant supply of manure. I hot compost the
manure, turning frequently, until it is no longer heating.

My question is, is this a good source of fertilizer, (nitrogen, et.
al.), for my veggie garden? I'm fairly new to gardening but my plants
look rather weak and yellow. I started the garden with lots of
compost but didn't add any other fertilizer. Is compost enough or
not?

Compost is very, very important, #1 - #5 on the Most Important Thing I Can Do
for My Veggie Garden list.

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.)

Organic sources of supplemental nitrogen include blood meal, alfalfa meal
or pellets (my favorite), fish meal and certain fresh manures (but these I suggest
are best added to batches of compost). Foliar sprays with fish emulsion, compost
tea, alfalfa tea, or (my favorite) seaweed are extremely valuable

Shortages of some nutrients can be put into your 'soil bank' through the use of
natural mineral materials which will become available slowly over years.

If you need Calcium, you can add ground limestone (make that dolomitic
limestone if you are also short of magnesium) but in high pH soil, add
gypsum instead, which won't raise the pH any higher.

Greensand is a source many micronutrients, and one major (K, potassium)
that are available very, very slowly.

Ground rock phosphate will add P (slowly rather than quickly).


*Lots of plants looking a bit nitrogen starved around here, due to so much rain.
But at least they aren't swamped, what with the sandy soil I have.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Compost Usage
 

Compost Usage
 

I have horses too and have tried using the composted manure. The
problem I had was the bermuda seed. At first I thought regular weeding
would take care of it but once it gets established it takes over the
garden. If you do plan on using horse manure be sure not to compost any
manure for at least a week after worming. I am told that the medication
does not break down when composted and can kill earthworms. -RP

Jay wrote:
I have horses and an abundant supply of manure. I hot compost the
manure, turning frequently, until it is no longer heating.

My question is, is this a good source of fertilizer, (nitrogen, et.
al.), for my veggie garden? I'm fairly new to gardening but my plants
look rather weak and yellow. I started the garden with lots of
compost but didn't add any other fertilizer. Is compost enough or
not?

Compost Usage
 

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 Usage
 

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 Usage
 

Compost Usage
 

Hello, all, I hope this info will be helpful. First, let me mention
that I am a Certified Square Foot Gardening instructor, and have also
written an ebook on composting. That is not to say that I am flawless,
or know all, but I believe I can shed some more light here.

Composting quality does depend on the content put into it. First of
all, to get a good blend for composting, you should use about 2/3
brown material, such as wood byproducts (supplies carbon), and 1/3
green items such as veggies and hedge trimmings for nitrogen. The
nitrogen rich greens will produce heat and nourish the organisms that
will compost the carbon materials. For this reason, it is important to
aerate and mix your compost every couple of weeks. This could take as
little as 3 months if you have a good "hot" composting pile. It needs
to have the right amount of moisture, also.

You want your compost to be a blend of things. First, you should have
about 1/3 plant materials, 1/3 manure such as horse or chicken, and
1/3 greens. That means the 2/3 carbon materials I mentioned above can
be half wood and half manure. Now, about the manure, it is also best
to blend, so you can have cow, horse, and chicken blended. This means
you have an ultimate blend of three types of manure, and three types
of byproducts composting. This will provide *all* the nutrients you
will need for your garden without adding any fertilizers as long as
you do two things:

1. Rotate your planting, rather than planting the same thing in the
same place. Each plant depletes different nutrients

2. Add a good scoop of compost every time you replant.

This has been proven in the Square Foot Gardening method for years,
and people who practice SFG religiously have great success with this.
Of course, you could check out http://www.squarefootslo.com for more
info lol. There was some good information posted in this thread about
nutritional value, and that is why it is important to blend as much as
possible. The nutrients from just one animal in one area will not be
adequate nutrition, nor will simply composting leaves. A good compost
is even hard to find in the stores. You would have to find one with a
blend of items. Leaf mold, or cold composting, is beneficial as well,
but not as complete, and takes much longer.

Miracle grow can burn your plant's roots if not really diluted. It is
a "salt" and can also do damage to the soil with buildup. It is fine
for a quick fix very diluted, and for foliar application, but you are
better off with more natural things like blood meal and bone meal.
They don't last long, but are easily assimilated by the plants faster.
Yellow can be a combination of things, including iron deficiency,
nitrogen, overwatering, sunburn, infestation, depending on what it
looks like and how severe. Straight manure is hot because of the
ammonia in it (urea) and can burn plants if not properly composted.
Composting in a regulated pile will actually kill weed seeds when it
gets up to 140 degrees.

Short answer, yes, *good* compost is enough for your garden if mixed
in sufficient proportion lol.

Randy wrote in message ...
I have horses too and have tried using the composted manure. The
problem I had was the bermuda seed. At first I thought regular weeding
would take care of it but once it gets established it takes over the
garden. If you do plan on using horse manure be sure not to compost any
manure for at least a week after worming. I am told that the medication
does not break down when composted and can kill earthworms. -RP

Jay wrote:
I have horses and an abundant supply of manure. I hot compost the
manure, turning frequently, until it is no longer heating.

My question is, is this a good source of fertilizer, (nitrogen, et.
al.), for my veggie garden? I'm fairly new to gardening but my plants
look rather weak and yellow. I started the garden with lots of
compost but didn't add any other fertilizer. Is compost enough or
not?

Compost Usage
 

Compost Usage
 

On 17 Jun 2004 10:07:37 -0700, (Jay Chan) wrote:

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.

I should have framed that better. Compost without animal manure has
*some* nutritive value; just not a great deal.

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.

Exactly. Compost is terrific. It is not, however, a powerful
fertilizer. In fact, we all talk of 'compost' as if it were a single
substance, and that isn't really correct. Compost from fall leaves,
grass clippings, newspaper, broadleaf plants, and vegetable waste all
have different chemical profiles. There isn't a single 'recipe.'

Compost Usage
 

(Jay) wrote in message
. com...

Regarding the slow release granular fertilizer, what type should I
use. I see miracle grow is 15-30-15.

"Bob S." wrote in message
m...

The first number, 15, is the nitrogen content, and I wouldn't go
higher than 15 for vegetables. In fact, 10 would probably be ok.
The
second number, 30, (potassium if I recall correctly) gives me a
little
doubt.

The three numbers are NPK(Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium). :-)

However, it never ever leaves the soil
and just keeps building up year after year. If it gets too high, it
blocks the roots from absorbing needed nutrients. And there is
absolutely nothing you can do to correct it other than hauling off
the
soil and starting over.

Phosphorus fixation by calcium started at PH 7.5, so if the P are too
high, raise the PH above 7.5 will reduce the availability of P, at PH
8.5 P will become least available.

Potassium availability can reduce by lower the PH to below 6.0.

Regards,
Wong

--
Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m

Compost Usage
 

On 17 Jun 2004 10:07:37 -0700, (Jay Chan) wrote:

I will use my leaf compost regardless the low nutrition level that it
may have.

Nutrition level are vary with the type of leaf make up the compost.
Supplement what is lack of by the leaf to the compost pile will solve
this problem, and are better than adding the supplement directly to
soil.

The reason is that I depend on the compost to improve the
sandy soil in my vegetable garden.

Mix about 10% of clay to your compost heap, the completed compost will
work better for sandy soil than normal compost, and the clay humus
form by this way will last a lot longer than other humus.

Regards,
Wong

--
Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m