There will always be zealots in the anti-biosolids area that are long on "it might be a risk" or Europe's standards are lower,yet they still fail to produce real hard data. For example, what they leave out is the load limit of some of these metals, such as copper and lead in class A and even class B biosoilds. You would need to apply Milorganite EVERY year or some other biosolid like it for 345 years for lead and 278 years for copper for it to reach its EPA load limit. That doesn't even account for organic binding, mineralization and leaching/migration of the metals harmlessly in the soil. I don't know about you, but even with long life in my family, I doubt I will be around that long to worry about it. I use Milorganite on everything and I have even seen the independent report and have spoken with an independent scientist who tested it for a bioremediation project for the DoD. She indicated it was lower in metals and other contaminants than the tap water and virgin soil they were going to use in the project. Compare class A biosoilds to Scott's or Ironite sometime and decide which will be better to put down as fertilizer for your kids or pets to play around. BTW, the National Science Foundation did an independent study and risk assessment in 1995 of EPA biosolids regulations and found they were far below any levels that would possibly pose any threat to humans, wildlife, soil or water and agriculture. The zealots seem to overlook this fact as well in their quest to malign well managed practices of biosolid use. There has NEVER been a documented case of the regulated use of biosolids causing harm to people, animals or plants in over 35 years of use in our environment-yet the myth and junk science persists. I will continue to use and benefit from Milorganite on my lawn, veggies, ornamentals like temperate tropicals and palm trees.

Ah.....the mark of an intellegent person. May I suggest dropping the teaching language down to third or fourth grade level to achieve a much larger following. Therefore a much better understanding of your words. Those who understand and follow any principal are attracted to those principles. I read several issues of Acres and Organic Gardening a year. If I want tech talk and fine details they are usually available but not desired by most readers. Fifty years ago I enjoyed free lance opportunities with the Organic Gardening folks from Emaus, Pa. My first submission was rejected for being to technical and written to high for their publication at that time. My all time great garden book is: "The No Work Garden Book" Ruth was very well educated and knew how to write better.

LOL. Here's a couple things that help. First, cut a clove of garlic into slices and let him stand on them barefoot for a few minutes until he tastes garlic. Yeah - you absorb stuff through your feets ;-) The A in MSMA is arsenic. ...great stuff to absorb. I'm 'quiet' about my natural gardening. Nobody likes a lecture and nobody likes self-righteous a-holes. Rather than 'FINE! Use chemicals! Kill our beloved Earth Mother you warming denier SOB!' you may find that the best 'argument' is to kick the ever loving humanure out of your neighbor's property by having a better looking lawn. When I moved into my current property a year ago I noted that there was a 'competiton' for best lawn going on between the guy across the street from me and the guy next to me. They giggled when I scalped my lawn and started spreading compost because I went from 'a nice chem lawn' to utter crap in days but a month later they were asking what the hell I did and this spring one of them tore out half his front yard and put down new sod because my impossibly thick, dark green, 3/8" tall bermuda 'carpet' was just killing him. ...I don't preach or gloat, I show and tell and explain pragmatically and sensibly and avoid any sort of judgment. ...and OK, OK, I sneak out with my pump sprayer each night and apply that day's gallon of liquid gold to the grass with an ounce of molasses and a gallon of water and I never reveal that part of it because too many fools have no understanding that liquid gold is not the least bit unsanitary and would freak out but the proof is right out front ;-) Had a funny one last week. Some service came by to pitch their spray program as three of us neighbors were doing what men do - chatting about the finer points of lawn care and beer and football. I actually felt bad for the pitcher because we were in front of my house and the guy had really picked the wrong place to pitch. "We fertilize regularly" - hmmmm... is my yard in need of fertilizer? (lawn is pine green, thick and lush). "We treat for broadleaf weeds and crabgrass!" Oh really" How? "We spray the entire yard" Hmmmm.... ok, but there aren't any weeds or crabgrass, doesn't that stuff knock the grass back a bit? What's in it - can I walk barefoot after you spray it? "we also spray for insects so you won't have any ants and spiders". Oh... other than the occasional black widows which don't live in the lawn, why is it good to kill spiders? Does the spray kill only the spiders and ants? What about ladybugs and flutterbys? My kid likes ladybugs and running through the yard barefoot. Would it be OK to run around barefoot after you spray? Poor kid. I looked at him and said "OK, so you want to spray several gallons of poison to kill weeds that are not present and insects that are harmless for $500 and the benefit to me is that I can't run around in the yard barefoot with my toddler? No offense man but how does that sound like a good idea?" I was nice about it but the lack of sales training was probably more annoying to me than the lack of cognition. If I had to sell a used Pinto I would probably not try to sell it at a Mercedes dealership and that's what this kid was trying to do. Worse - the neighbors were asking me how to get the same benefits without the negatives and cost. That's how we win the debate and the key is not to over-reach. If someone asks me how to kill Nutsedge without chemicals I don't BS them. I pull the stuff until it eventually stops coming back. The best advertising we can do is to show results and avoid recommending anything that is iffy. I've read about how Nutsedge hates a good organic yard and that is just plain ...compost nitrogen of bovine origin. If someone WANTS to go all natural then they will. The other 90% want something that works so pick our battles wisely. Rather than spray 1/4 acre with a quart of MSMA maybe you can help a neighbor see the wisdom of using one ounce in his sprayer to spot treat. Rather than spraying the whole yard for insects (God that is freaking moronic) how about a spoonful of fire ant bait right on the mound? If we push hard to get people to go 100% natural we will fight like hell to win over 10-20% of those we argue with. If we are pragmatic rather than dogmatic we can probably get 80% of people to use only 20% of the bad crap they use currently and that has a MUCH greater impact. 32 ounces of MSMA targeted where indicated across 32 lawns is better than half of those lawns getting a full 32 ounces, right? Progress, not perfection. Show, then tell. Who do you listen to? The guy who is kicking your ass at something to the point where you break down and ask him how he does it or the guy who tells you what you are doing wrong without first having shown you a reason to believe he knows his ass from his elbow?

What do you do with animal manures in an organic garden? Frequently many people ask questions about the use of animal manures in their gardening schemes. Thousands of years ago, the ancient organic farmers used animal manures as a mandatory and essential agent for soil conditioning and plant fertilization. Today many people are fearful of the use of any animal manures in gardening, due to more and more scary reports of potential diseases. Also there are less farmers today that apply animal manures in their farming techniques, than several hundred years ago. So the world is finding it harder and harder to dispose of animal manures in our society today, than several centuries ago. So what do you do? First of all you must understand that any type of fresh animal manure behaves a lot differently in the soil than mature compost or well aged manures. NOTE: Well aged manures act a lot like mature compost in the soil.: 1. Fresh manures are too strong and raw for most growing plants. It contains a lot of available soluble nitrogen in the form of ammonium or proteins. Most raw animal manures contain the wrong form of nitrogen and the wrong form of bacteria for gardening use, from the original animal's digestive tract. This can burn or kill plants if abused. Compost will never burn or kill plants. 2. Also animal manures by themselves are classified as "greens" or high nitrogen sources. The soil needs composted organic materials that is a blend of "browns" (high carbon materials) and "greens", in order to maximize the correct balance of soil microbial activity and the availablity of nutrients in the soil for plants. Animals manures are best incorporated in a soil building program when mixed with high carbon materials like straw, leaves, or untreated sawdust. Using more browns than greens in any animal manure based compost will also help neutralize NaCl salts via aerobic microbes faster. Using molasses products in a tea form is a even faster and better way to speed up microbial activity, growth, and internal heating in the pile, to stabilize and balance out the nutrients in the organic matter in the compost pile. 3. Fresh manures also contain too many complex undigested materials like pathogens, or NaCl salts from animal feeds, that may harm plants or soil organisms if not careful. Compost has all these things broken down and digested by aerobic microbes. 4. Many animal manures have urine mixed in it. All raw bird manure is always premixed with urine and manure. Urine contains mostly urea in it. Urea is one of the oldest, safest, and free sources of nitrogen known to man. Urea breaks down fast in the soil, the compost pile, or in a compost tea brew. Human urea alone, has a NPK ratio near 45-0-0. Vegetarian animals like cows or horses, produce poop that is more easily digestable by aerobic microbes than say carnivorous animals like chicken or pig manure. Chicken manure is a great manure, but it is more stinky, more alkaline, and has far more available ammonium nitrogen in it, than say cow or horse manure. Some composting experts are successfully composting human manure under controlled conditions. Both fresh human manure and chicken manures contain some heavy metals and pathogens in it. However, the metals in not an issue in composting, due to the widespread acceptability of chicken manure composting. Many people are cautious of composting fresh pet manures like dog and cat poops. There has been some reports of fresh cat manure having ill effects on unborn children with pregnant woman. NOTE: The main reason why most organic books and websites are strict about only composting vegetarian animal manures or plant wastes, is because the average home gardener is a passive composter. These conservative authors play it safe, so that the average composter doesn't hurt himself, or create stinky conditions that may attract pests, or disturb the neighborhood. Only an active hot composting process can totally guarantee a safe, healthy, mature compost from potentially risky materials like human manures, meat products, or other questionably high nitrogen organic materials. Keep in mind that products like bone meal, blood meal, and fish emulsion are all great acceptable natural fertilizers made from cooked meat products, under controlled composting conditions. Remember to only compost any animal manures or meat products that you feel totally comfortable with as an "experienced" composter. Horses only digest about 1/4 of all the grass and grains they consume. Therefore horse manure is a very weedy manure. On the other hand, cows have 4 stomachs. So their manure is more digested, and has less weed seeds in it. ********************************************************** Well aged animal manures are the best for all gardening tasks. If you only only have fresh manures, hot composting is definitely the answer to all these issues. However, if you hot compost any fresh animal manures to internal temperatures at or above 140 degrees F, for several days, mixed with enough high carbon materials, you can guarantee a safe, healthy, mature composted product, that has removed almost all of the potential pathogens, diseases, and weed seeds in the original animal manures. ********************************************************** Another option, is to bury or till in any fresh manures into the soil in the winter time before spring. This gives the manure enough time to break down, and the aerobic microbes to grow and release the humus created from the manure into the soil. However, you still got the risk of new weed seeds sprouting in the spring from the fresh manures. In a no-till garden, you can apply any type of animal manure on top of the soil during the fall/winter season, then grow a thick legume/grain cover crop combination before spring. This will also supply nutrients to the cover crop as it grows, as well as give the soil microbes enough time to digest the manure into humus into the soil. In this method any new weed seeds are choked out or green mannured whenever the cover crop is mowed or chopped down. Never use fresh animal manures in any aerobic tea brewing method either! Whatever pathogens, NaCl salts, or diseases in the original material will grow tremendously in the tea. It's best to use well aged compost or composted manures in any tea brew. Aerobic bacteria and fungi are the best microbes in composting and soil building that digest and destroy most disease causing bacteria. Some anaerobic bacteria is harmful to plants and soil organisms. In conclusion, if you decide to use animal manures in your composting scheme, there are many benefits: 1. You may be able to find a free soure from a local farm, horse clinic, police department that uses horses, zoo, etc. This gives you a great free source of "greens" for your compost. 2. All animal manures are great sources of beneficial microbes to stimulate your compost piles. This increases the compost decomposition rate. 3. Animal manures really increase internal heating in hot compost piles. 4. All composts have lots of beneficial aerobic bacteria and fungi growing in it for soil building and plant fertilization. Animal manures are naturally high in actinomycetes as well as bacteria also. 5. All animal manures are rich in NPK and calcium. Therefore they usually alkaline when fresh. However, all mature composts have a near neutral pH after the organic matter has been broken down by the composting process. 6. If sawdust is mixed in the poop, you have extra potassium in the mix. Straw and hay is rich in phoshorus also. 7. All animal manures break down fast. 8. Many animal manures have urine (urea) mixed in also. This is extra nitrogen for the compost. Under a well managed aerobic hot composting system, animal manures can still play an important part in modern natural farming as it did centuries ago. Happy Gardening!