Bad smell ? Composted manure/Alfalfa/Cornmeal
missymoo23_(z9a_Tx)
9 years ago
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9 years agoRelated Discussions
Alfalfa Meal vs Dairy Manure.... why choose one over the other?
Comments (10)Eddie, Enough, already! In SC. the pure sand soil type varies from place to place, yard to yard. Yet, through the years it has sustained the population, fed the Yankee Army as it pillaged and burned and contributed much in the way of research to the horticultural world. Random thoughts on the subject. 1. You seem frantic about pH. As you gain more experience and study other yards and farms noted will be the fact that plants can adapt to a wide range of situations, especially if you select some of the quality types which have been developed by Clemson, UGA, et al, specifically for the south. The best vegetable garden I have seen in the south was on Spring Island, SC. which is a very private plantation. The owner of the garden, while out riding his horse in the depths of the Island discovered the old saw mill and huge mounds of pine sawdust/bark composted over the centuries. He built raised beds and filled them with nothing but this very acid pine compost soil. The results are unbelievable. Brassicas that look like those pictures of crops grown in Alaska. 2. Suggest you not use or compost fresh animal manures in the south. It is loaded with Bahia Grass seed. Once introduced into a garden it will forever be a weeding nightmare. Ditto hairy vetch. Your best cover crop in the veggie garden is the constant use of straw and the Ruth Stout method. Look it up. 3. Nutrients added to sandy soil quickly leach into the underworld. Your job is to figure out how to slow this process down. Forget about tilling. 4. I'm going to cut to the chase here. Place all you reports, studies, questions in the back of a dark drawer for this year. Plant your winter veggie garden using several handfuls of bagged mushroom compost in each planting hole or spread in the bottom of rows plus a handful of dried molasses which will discourage various root insects. Water in as you plant. Now, spread pine needles as a mulch over all. Yes, I know they are acid. Don't worry about it. Press on. On top of the pine straw spread the dark, rich pine bark mulch mixed with any compost on hand. Over this a light scattering of straw. This should be all you need do to grow veggies, repeated annually, building the soil. Amend sandy soils at the surface. Spend your efforts on developing compost, of which 25% pine bark compost should be incorporated. Great stuff! Use it....See MoreMy first stinkin' experience with alfalfa/compost tea
Comments (22)I decided to have a look at this forum because I have one little rose I haven't been able to help. Name is Gismo. It leafed out white this spring, I have tried several things, including the tea. Got BS and lost all white leaves, now is leafed out again and blooming with more white leaves. Anyway, here is my alfalfa tea story.I mixed up 4 cups of pellets and some epsom salts in a 5 gal container. Unknown to me the container had a small slit in it. All 5 gal of it leaked out onto 2 daylilies. They grew like mad, and are blooming for the 3rd time. Poor Gismo is still white, yes I made more of the magic brew and Gismo got some. I love that little rose, but hate white leaves. He has always had green ones before....See MoreAlfalfa, and Plant-Tone and Compost, oh my!
Comments (14)Wow, that's great news about Espoma products. I checked out their website and it looks like all the Tones now contain the bacillus formula and are all organic. It is important to note that only the Bio-tone also contains the mycorrhizae. The Bio-Tone Plus has an analysis of 4-3-3. It contains a lot of the same organics as the other Tones. I think there is controversy over the benefits of adding mycorrhizae to the soil as there are lots of types and most are species specific. I suppose if you have really "dead" soil it couldn't hurt to add some at planting time, I know it has to come into contact with the roots to be effective. I tend to over-insure my plants' survival and so I'm trying it for the first time. The first time I heard about mycorrhizae's benefits was when I was planting over 100 Balsam Fir seedlings and I was told by the nurseryman to add lots of peat to the soil to ensure the presence of mycorrhizae. I don't know if that's sound science but I didn't take a chance and added the peat. Now I seem to hear a lot about it. I'm trying to establish a prairie planting and there are some prairie plant nurseries that only grow their seedlings with a certain type of mycorrhizae. And I think Monrovia touts that it only uses container mix with mycorrhizae. I think I'll be using it whenever I make a new bed or plant a new rose. I don't think it'd be useful in an established garden....See MoreNeed Help: Alfalfa used as 'green' in school compost bins
Comments (17)Come on now Jon, you're being unreasonable. Every question or thought posted on this forum can be solved with any of the following answers: A) You don't need that B) It costs money, you don't need that. C) It harms the environment, you don't need that. D) I don't use that, you don't need that. E) Studies have shown you don't need that. F) I've communicated with people all over the world, you don't need that. G) A good reliable soil test indicates you don't need that. H) I don't know anything about the subject or your circumstances but you don't need that. ;-) Lloyd P.S. Keep your stick on the ice! The accumulated wisdom of the ages. Beautiful! If you are allergic to alfalfa, then you might be in trouble. I would not layer greens and browns. You'll get layers of pure stink doing that. Alfalfa is a great green. If there is any problem using it in compost is that you are spending money on a perfectly good fertilizer and turning it into a poor fertilizer. Alfalfa and coffee grounds are green because they contain at least 6% protein. Lettuce leaves are a brown because they have no appreciable amount of protein. The protein count is what makes an organic material green or brown. Color has nothing to do with it. Whoever came up with that distinction should be shot. Here are some greens: corn wheat soy flax coffee grounds alfalfa cottonseed meat blood hair skin animal dung most grasses Here are some browns most leaves branches of trees and shrubs paper fruit and veggies skins of fruit and veggies...See Moremissymoo23_(z9a_Tx)
9 years agomissymoo23_(z9a_Tx)
9 years agoMichael
9 years agoKimmsr
9 years agoMichael
9 years agomissymoo23_(z9a_Tx)
9 years agoKimmsr
9 years agoMichael
9 years agomissymoo23_(z9a_Tx)
9 years ago
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