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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? |
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Compost Usage
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Compost Usage
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#4
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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. |
#5
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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) |
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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? |
#8
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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 |
#9
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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 |
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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? |
#12
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Compost Usage
(Jay) wrote in message . com...
(Bob S.) wrote in message . com... (Jay) wrote in message . com... 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? No. Plant matter passing through an animal's intestine only partially breaks down. About 20% breakdown for a rabbit, 40% or so for a horse, and about 60% for a cow. (A cow's is higher because they chew it twice). So 60% of horse manure is plant material very little different from when it was eaten. All plant material requires nitrogen to decompose into compost. If manure is put into the garden before it is fully composted, it will pull nitrogen intended for your vegetable plants. A sign this is happening is your veggie leaves turning yellow. Make sense?? Add some water soluable fertilizer, like miracle grow, to your plants followed by a slow release granular fertilizer. This will get you over this year's hump. Start composting your horse manure now for next year's garden. Because composting material is not hot does *not* mean it is ready to use. No matter what I do to mine, it produces very little heat. That is why it takes a year or more to compost all the way. Bob S. Bob, Thanks for the advice, I suspected what you said was very likely my problem and I am planning a miracle grow treatment for today. Regarding the slow release granular fertilizer, what type should I use. I see miracle grow is 15-30-15. Should I look for this or would a turf fertilizer, which is typically much higher in nitrogen, be more appropriate? Thanks again to everybody. 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. If the soil hasn't been fertilized much over the years, 30 is probably ok. If the soil has received a lot of fertilizer over the years, it should be much lower. In poorer soil, it promotes a strong root system for the plants. 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. That's why a soil test is so important. My property used to be a cotton field and got fertilized heavily every year. A soil test showed a very high level of potassium. All I can use on my lawn & garden is 15-0-15. If I had not gotten the soil test, eventually nothing would grow and I wouldn't know why. Good luck. Bob S. |
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