Check some of the local farms, if you see bales of hay in the fields this time of the year that means they got wet before he could gather them up. He should thank you for getting them out of his way. Try to get hay and not straw, too many weeds in straw.


John

I have never "bought" anything for composting. My compost consists of mainly landscape clippings, pulled weeds, shredded junk mail, fall leaves, and kitchen scraps.

Though I have bought stuff that I knew would eventually be composted, straw bales, pumpkins and gourds for a fall display etc.

I do buy alfalfa pellets to use as fertilizer for my lawn and my garden. I have used blood meal too.

++++Very Useful, for natural/organic gardening.

I feed all my landscape plants, palms, trees and turf with feed grains only. (click on my user name for more info/pics) Mainly Soybean meal and Alfalfa pellets. They are great soil ammendments and do provide NPK and micronutrients. Any ground seed or bean is good as an organic fertilizer including used coffee grounds. For turf the recommended rate it 10-20lbs per 1000sqft. For gardening you could apply as much as 50lbs per 1000sqft

Starbucks gives their used grains away for free, just ask. Excellent greens for composting and used as a soil amendment plus Earthworms love them. Apply them to top of soil and work them in. You will have rich soil in no time.

Unsulfured Molasses is excellent, it has traces of nutrients including potassium, iron, magnesium, and other elements. It has over 100 complex sugars and feeds a diversity of microbes including fungi. I use it every time I apply grains.

NPK of Grains found at most feed stores:
Alfalfa meal or pellets: 3-1-2
Cotton Seed meal: 6-.4-1.5
Soybean Meal: 7-2-2
Blood meal: 12-0-0
Bonemeal: 3-15-0
Molasses: NPK 1-0-5

I always think of composting as recycling the organic matter from my lawn mowing, leaf raking, flower garden, kitchen scraps, junk mail, office shredded paper and "liquid gold aka morning water".

Therefore, I would frugally refrain from spending hard earned cash to enrich my compost.

The great thing about composting is that it's almost cost free.

I think you might be being a little too consumeristic here (ie. thinking that you need to spend money to get a "good" product). Manure and straw may be all you need. What makes you think you need something else?

For the compost pile, there's no end of stuff you can get for free.

Use seed meals directly in the garden as fertilizer if required. In Ohio, soybean meal should be cheap, and a bag would last you a long time for a garden your size...

Cheers,

Tim

The feed meals used to be much cheaper. The price of fuel and the price of corn, has impacted the price of these crop based fertilizers. A couple years ago, the price of a 50 lb bag of alfalfa pellets was $4, then last year it went to $8, I wouldn't be surprised when I go to the feed store next week that the price is considerably higher again this year...

I'm confused. Why would you buy brand new fertilizer materials to put into compost? Why not use the fertilizer in the garden or on the lawn and use waste materials like fallen leaves and animal manure in the compost?

Okay, let's see if I can answer everyone in order.

Jbest: Thanks for the hay/straw advice.
Joepyeweed: I just bought my house in late November, so I really haven't had a chance to pull together enough compost materials to work. If appropriate, buying this stuff will still be cheaper than buying garden dirt, though obviously not as inexpensive as simply using waste products.
Scootcat: Great advice, thank you!
Iowa: I'll certainly do that next year, but see my response to Joepyeweed.
Urbanfarmer: I'm growing vegetables in this, and thus, being straight manure would not only burn my plants, but it's not going to create the loaminess, pH, or NPK I need. I am also working on freecycle to get as many free things as I can. I'll look into soybean meal. I didn't see any at the feed store I was at, but maybe a different one will have it.
Joepyeweed: Even at 8 bucks for 50 pounds, it's cheaper than the garden soil compounds I'm seeing.
DcHall: Because I don't have any to use yet. I will start on true composting this year, but as I only bought this house in November, I simply don't have enough yard waste to cover this area yet. Animal manure, I'm getting for free elsewhere.

In your area you should do well finding alfalfa meal to use as fertilizer when needed. Among animal feeds, stay away from swine products, which contain fat and animal parts. Purina has a natural line now, good choices for blended plant meals.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

No bagged, composted manure available where you are? Comes in 40# bags, like topsoil; and last year it ran about $1.29/bag on sale around here. You can mix it with bagged topsoil and your alpaca poo and straw. It's already composted, so it isn't going to burn your plants.

When the city took your leaves last fall, did it happen to tell you where you could pick up mulch that was made from them? I can pick up mulch for my MIL at the street department in the town she lives in.

I'm sorry, but I just can't see throwing feed in the compost without running it through a critter first - especially with grain prices the way they are right now. My grandma would come back and haunt me for sure.

For those of you who didn't take advantage of OP bagged leaves last fall, you have another chance when folks start cleaning up their yards this spring. There will be lots of bagged rakings at the curb, already semi-decomposed.

You can also ask on Freecycle for your area for folks to let you know when they are putting out bags of raked leaves and stuff. I got stuff like that when I did my lasagna garden and it worked great. I also asked some friends who had not raked their leaves up if I could come and get some. I went and raked up several bags from their property.

"Try to get hay and not straw, too many weeds in straw. "

are you sure about that? i always read the opposite....

and skoot cat...hats off to you for your lil npk chart, i've been wondering about that, now to see if i can find soybean meal or cottonseed meal.

West,

Be aware that many pesticides are applied to cotton crops and residues tend to remain in the seeds. Pesticide-free cottonseed meal is available.

I mainly use Soybean Meal and Alfalfa pellets for feedings my plants and lawn. Alfalfa is fairly inexpensive and is loaded with micronutrients. They also contain trianconatol, a natural fatty-acid growth stimulant.

"Try to get hay and not straw, too many weeds in straw. "

Oooops...... I sure got that backwords,hope carduus didn't get his hay yet.


John

I have used stuff from the feed store on my garden before. I don't really see much reason to add such things to the compost pile. (Other than perhaps the straw to balance your manure for composting it.) Other "brown" materials that could be used to balance the manure for your compost include sawdust, shredded paper, and of course old leaves if you can find em this time of year.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if using things like alfalfa pellets or cracked corn in the garden. Alfalfa is a strong green so a little goes a long way. If you were to let half a bucket of alfalfa pellets get wet and sit in the bucket, you are likely to notice an odor akin to horse manure and attract flies to the bucket. If you over do with alfalfa pellets, you can burn plants too and wind up with odor issues. That said, I often sprinkle alfalfa pellets in when making lasagna beds when I can't get my hands on free grass clippings.

As to the cracked corn, if it isn't very well cracked, it will sprout. Not a big deal if it is spread where you can rake and kill off the seedlings and let them decompose. I've ground cracked corn into cornmeal for the garden but you need a home mill for that.

Do check with your county or whoever takes care of the yard waste hauling. You might be able to get finished compost for free from them. I do in my county when it is available. We fill up big rubermaid bins of it.

Another source for nice soil amendment is mushroom farms. (some people are worried about what additives and fungucides might be used but the place near me uses steam pasturization before and after growing the mushrooms.) Anyway, many mushroom farms use horse manure mixed with straw to make their compost mushroom growing medium. We usually get about 4 yards at a time by paying the neighbor to pick it up in his trailer. Usually costs about $5 for the scoop of compost at the farm and $15 to the neighbor for lending his trailer. And then of course us emptying the 4 yards out of the trailer which is a solid morning of work.

Good luck building that soil

Here is a link that might be useful: My Page