Question about 'blender' composting
wendy2shoes
16 years ago
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flora_uk
16 years agotibs
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Question about adding "compost"
Comments (5)Chicken manure is a most nitrogen rich one. I wouldn't put it directly in the garden for few reasons. Nitrogen goes away fast. Added to soil in fall, it will be almost gone by spring. So it is kind of waste of good nitrogen. But what it can actually do, it can help to compost a lot of carbon materials to create organic matter. You soil needs good organics probably more then nitrogen itself. So I second shayneca25 - compost it. If turning it every week seems too much of work - you can leave it as is, it will take about a year to decompose. What also you can do - you can dry some of the staff, better without wood. In summer you can dissolve it in water(Google the proportions!) and use as a great organic fertilizer....See MoreQuestion About Composting Silky Oak, Pine Needles and Juniper.
Comments (11)FYI.... seems to very much depend on the % of HCN... I dont know much about it, but some interesting reading... --------------------- ----------------------- EFFECT ON PLANT LIFE Seeds HCN applied in dosages effective ageinst insects does not affect the viability of seeds that are normally dry, with moisture contents suitable for storage. In a comprehensive study, the results of which were published between 1959 and 1961, Strong and Lindgren studied the effect of HCN in insecticidal concentrations on the germination of a wide range of seeds, including grain seeds, flax and small legumes. The variable factors considered were moisture content (8 to 14 percent), repeat fumigations and postfumigation storage. It wes concluded that germination of wheat, barley, oats, rice and flax seeds wes not impaired by one or two famigations with HCN. With the small legumes with a range of 5.8 to 12.2 percent moisture content (Ranger alfalfa, alsike clover, Ladino clover, Kenland red clever and Viking birdsfoot trefoil), all were tolerant to HCN in one or two fumigations, except aisike clover for which there was positive indication of impairment of germination. Among 80 varieties of grain, vegetable and flower seeds tested by Lindgren et al (1955), six showed evidence of reduced germination. These were pole beans, burnet, California black mustard, smilo, marigold and snapdragon. It may be concluded that HCN is a safe fumigant to use for seed treatment, especially for cereal grains under normal conditions, but with flower and vegetable seeds preliminary trials with local varieties are advisable. Growing Plants and Trees A considerable amount of injury, either temporary or permanent, may be sustained by actively growing plants fumigated with HCN. Because this gas is very soluble in water, special precautions have to be taken to reduce the amount of moisture on leaves and stems and in pots or soil balls of actively growing plants. Therefore, the plants should not be watered for one or more days before treatment. After treatment with HCN, it is necessary to wash the plants with water to remove any residual acid. HCN interferes with photosynthesis and other physiological processes (Moore and Willaman, 1917); for that reason, plants may be more susceptible to injury in daylight. Usually, treatments have to be carried out at night or in the dark. Also, following exposure, plants should be kept away from sunlight for several hours. In the past HCN was widely used for fumigating ornamental and glasshouse plants, but it has been replaced by other fumigants that are less phytotoxic. The use of HCN generated from calcium cyanide to control glasshouse pests is discussed in Chapter 12. HCN was extensively used for may years to control scale insects on citrus trees in a tent fumigation procedure (Quayle, 1938). In this treatment, HCN gas (5 g/m ) from liquid HCN, or evolved from a salt such as calcium cyanide, was liberated into a relatively gas-tight tent installed over the tree and maintained for usually around 45 mintues. A number of factors, including temperature, humidity, physiological conditions of the tree (such as dormancy, disease, cultural conditions, stage of development and others), have considerable influence on the tolerance of the trees to the fumigant (Woglum, 1923). Since different species or varieties of citrus trees show wide variation in response and the insects in different areas may vary in tolerance, the actual conditions of treatment usually have to be developed to suit local circumstances. In scale insect eradication work, where complete kill of all insects is essential, the tent fumigation treatment with HCN has been found to be a valuable technique (Fosen et al, 1953). HCN was used by Del Rivero et al, (1974) to control larvae and eggs of the woolly white fly on orange trees. While the concentrations of HCN required to kill insects may cause severe injury to growing plants, lower concentrations of HCN may stimulate growth and be useful in "forcing" growth in some species (Gassner, 1925). Dormant Nursery Stock HCN is still used in many parts of the world for the fumigation of the dormant nursery stock of deciduous trees, especially in quarantine treatments against the spread of scale insects (Ceder and Mathys, 1949; van de Pol and Rauws, 1957; Agarwala, 1956; Jen and Lai, 1959). As in growing plants, a marked stimulation has been noticed in some nursery stock fumigated with HCN (Cassner, 1925). Immediately following fumigation it is sometimes necessary to wash plants with water to avoid the burning of buds and new foliage. ---------- Cyanide production by rhizobacteria and potential for suppression of weed seedling growth. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11400067 Here is a link that might be useful: Cyanide production by rhizobacteria and potential for suppression of weed seedling growth....See MoreQuestion about length of time to compost
Comments (16)I have 3 compost piles going. I reinforced one with 25ft of 1/2" hardware cloth to keep any rodents out. 25ft was enuff to go 3x3 and line the bottom and make a cover. I use it for the kitchen scraps and have not had a problem since. In another pile I compost just weeds and lawn trimmings. No kitchen scraps. And contrary to what some here believe composting just greens will heat up nicely when you add just the right amount of water. In the past I would add kitchen scraps to the center of a hot pile w/o any rodent problems. The reason to get the pile hot is not only to make compost faster but to kill the weed seeds. I am sure you will be harvesting weeds on 35 acres. This time of year they come with seeds as will anything from a tree service. They grind up ivy, sumac, bind weed, bitter sweet, and anything else that is in the way. IF you have a way to heat it up that is a good thing. IF/When you have compost with weed seeds you can either add it to a hot pile or steam it using an old gas grill. But to me that is not only more labor intensive but adds to the COG (Cost Of Gardening)....See MoreQuestions about Anaerobic Composting
Comments (14)I'm going to chime in here about the irrational fear that everything is contaminated with pathogens for your garden so you should make sure your compost gets somehow decontaminated by aerobic decay--this is all simply not true. If you put disease-stricken plants in your compost and don't let it break down long enough, you'll have that same disease spread. Here's some good tips to go with that: --everything you're dumping in your compost isn't constantly contaminated with things pathogenic to your garden--for instance, the coffee grounds in my compost don't have septoria. The leaves from my trees don't have fusarium. Why? These plants don't carry those diseases and those diseases don't spontaneously generate. --aerobic decay isn't some cure-all. It is a chemical reaction. Sometimes, if conditions are right, it will get hot enough to sterilize pathogens. It does not achieve that temperature simply because it is aerobic decay--the mulch under my trees is aerobically decaying but not reaching 170 f. --time is the main killer of pathogens. See, if they have no host, they cannot reproduce. When they're not reproducing, they're degrading. The longer anything contaminated is left to sit, the less contaminated it usually becomes. Example: this is why crop rotation is done--if the soil is contaminated with a fungus, grow things not susceptible to it and in a few years, it will have degraded. So, pro-tip for compost: don't throw obviously contaminated materials in it, let it sit & rot for 6 months to a year (or different based on your conditions, mine is 3-4 months) and then use appropriately. I live in a zone where when a plant dies, good chance it was a pathogen so I don't put old plants in the compost. Pathogens in the compost problem solved....See MoreLloyd
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