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#1
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A compost question
Infrequent poster here.
The city in which I live had a one-day composter sale/fundraiser today, and I decided to go pick one up ($20C, reportedly $80 value). No one with a car being available, I took the train up to the mall parking lot, intending to haul it back with my luggage rack. My route back to my house took me through a quasi-upper income bracket neighborhood, and along one street which had several trailers pulled up. Plainly a movie or tv shoot. It was at this point that my bungee cord decided to come loose, sending all the parts of my composter onto the street. Just as I had everything under control again, this Brit pops out of one of the parked cars with his walkie talkie and asks if I needed any help. I told him everything was OK, whereupon he proceeded to tell me that composting doesn't work. You have to add too much bone meal for it to be cost effective, he said. I don't know why complete strangers feel compelled to lecture me about such things. Now I didn't think much about this at the time, being more concerned about getting my composter down the hill on the luggage rack, and I figured he didn't need any compost anyway, since he probably just had to go talk to his flowers to provide them with a reliable source of bull manure. On reflection I realized that it was probably added to keep the compost from becoming too acidic, even though he talked about the bone meal as if it were a starter. This isn't a problem where I live in Calgary, because the soil tends to be too alkaline. Elsewhere, it might be common practise. Is it? Dora |
#2
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A compost question
[snipped lengthy message that bascially asked: Should I add
bonemeal when composting?] The best thing to add when composting is old compost. It has all the necessary micro-organisms for turning leaves and clippings into greate soil. To speed things up, I add nitrogen. I use urea, a synthetic organic. The micro-organisms proliferate with nitrogen. This is especially good if your raw material is mostly dry leaves. The only things really needed are air and water. I use a spading fork to turn my compost pile, which brings air into the center of the pile. Then I wet it down (something I should do more often). -- David E. Ross Climate: California Mediterranean Sunset Zone: 19 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean influence (USDA 10a) Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/ |
#3
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A compost question
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#4
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A compost question
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#6
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A compost question
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#7
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A compost question
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#8
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A compost question
"Phisherman" wrote in message
... No. I do not add bonemeal to my compost. I add lime to acidic soil to lower the pH. Our soil is acidic so I try to keep plants that prefer acidic or neutral soil... Adding lime to soil raises the pH (makes it less acidic). Wood ash also will raise the pH. -al sung Hopkinton, MA (Zone 6a) |
#9
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A compost question
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#10
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A compost question
lol... I got one of those too! (Gift for fathers day) reading through the book
that came with it - dryer lint and hair is considered "brown"... I have never heard of anyone putting bone meal in their compost, but when I was a kid - everything not including leftovers went into the compost pile - (we had a big yard). take care Liz On 20 Jun 2004 03:58:55 GMT, ospam (Bungadora) wrote: told him everything was OK, whereupon he proceeded to tell me that composting doesn't work. You have to add too much bone meal for it to be cost effective, he said. |
#11
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A compost question
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#12
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A compost question
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#13
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A compost question
On 6/21/04 3:56 PM, in article ,
"Bungadora" wrote: gary davis He said "composting doesn't work"??? Of course it does...g! It works because everything breaks down...except for Toyotas.... but I digress. In time all vegetation will break down. We can help it along by doing certain things. The 'thing' we need to do varies depending on this that and the other thingie! Get his email address or tell him about this newsgroup and get him to communicate here. We can't have people saying composting doesn't work when we know it does and can help by providing corrective information. And more importantly, if people believe composting does not work then they will send all the good stuff to land fills...ouch! Not worth the effort trying to find him again, although he had the personal characteristics necessary for a lively career and wide readership on newsgroups: opinionated, prone to misinterpretation and exaggeration, and easily insulted by contradiction. I believe the composter sale was sponsored by the City as part of a program to reduce landfill, although Calgary has adequate landfill space to meet its needs for some time in the future. Yes, but then what? And then when all the landfills are filled...just where do we put the 'stuff'? Oh, send it here, there and the other place...and then what!? Just what do we do with it? When all the landfills are full? As for me, my soil has so much clay the earthworms are cyanotic, so I almost have to compost if I want to garden. 'Cyanotic'? What does this mean? Gary Fort Langley, BC Canada PS: Clay can be good because it holds much of the nutrients that plants need.... |
#14
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A compost question
"gary davis" wrote in message ... On 6/21/04 3:56 PM, in article , "Bungadora" wrote: gary davis He said "composting doesn't work"??? Of course it does...g! It works because everything breaks down...except for Toyotas.... but I digress. In time all vegetation will break down. We can help it along by doing certain things. The 'thing' we need to do varies depending on this that and the other thingie! Get his email address or tell him about this newsgroup and get him to communicate here. We can't have people saying composting doesn't work when we know it does and can help by providing corrective information. And more importantly, if people believe composting does not work then they will send all the good stuff to land fills...ouch! Not worth the effort trying to find him again, although he had the personal characteristics necessary for a lively career and wide readership on newsgroups: opinionated, prone to misinterpretation and exaggeration, and easily insulted by contradiction. I believe the composter sale was sponsored by the City as part of a program to reduce landfill, although Calgary has adequate landfill space to meet its needs for some time in the future. Yes, but then what? And then when all the landfills are filled...just where do we put the 'stuff'? Oh, send it here, there and the other place...and then what!? Just what do we do with it? When all the landfills are full? As for me, my soil has so much clay the earthworms are cyanotic, so I almost have to compost if I want to garden. 'Cyanotic'? What does this mean? A blue tone or cast about them. |
#15
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A compost question
"gary davis" wrote in message ... On 6/21/04 3:56 PM, in article , "Bungadora" wrote: gary davis He said "composting doesn't work"??? Of course it does...g! It works because everything breaks down...except for Toyotas.... but I digress. In time all vegetation will break down. We can help it along by doing certain things. The 'thing' we need to do varies depending on this that and the other thingie! Get his email address or tell him about this newsgroup and get him to communicate here. We can't have people saying composting doesn't work when we know it does and can help by providing corrective information. And more importantly, if people believe composting does not work then they will send all the good stuff to land fills...ouch! Not worth the effort trying to find him again, although he had the personal characteristics necessary for a lively career and wide readership on newsgroups: opinionated, prone to misinterpretation and exaggeration, and easily insulted by contradiction. I believe the composter sale was sponsored by the City as part of a program to reduce landfill, although Calgary has adequate landfill space to meet its needs for some time in the future. Yes, but then what? And then when all the landfills are filled...just where do we put the 'stuff'? Oh, send it here, there and the other place...and then what!? Just what do we do with it? When all the landfills are full? Turn it into parkland as was done at Centennial Park in Toronto. A massive pile of garbage was collected, covered, sodded, vented and has now been for several decades a ski/toboggan hill which is the centrepiece of a 435 park. Jim |
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