texas grass
05-05-2008, 05:31 PM
Compost is an all around great thing for any type of gardening, recycling and reusing the earth, and encouraging diverse amounts of beneficial biology. Whether you buy compost or make it, its better to have than not have. The cons of buying compost is it might not have a wide range of ingredients, when you buy it in bags at garden stores most the time it cooks in the sun and over `150 degrees it starts to kill off most the biology, the biology will come back but it has been knocked back drastically. The pros of making your own compost is you know whats in it, you can control what properties you want in it more, you should have a higher amount and variety of biology in your mix. The more diverse ingredients you have will make an all around better more diverse compost.
When making your own compost you can cook it up slow, medium, or fast. The best compost is a compost that has gone through all the stages of cooking and has been curing for a while to repopulate the biology. When making compost you generally look at a CARBON/NITROGEN RATIOS. A slow cooking pile generally has a ratio of c/n of about 200/1. a medium cooking pile has a c/n ratio of about 100/1. and a fast cooking pile has a c/n ratio of about 25/1-50/1. examples of afew materials for average c/n ratios
Kitchen waste 15/1
Manures
-alpaca, llama, horse, donkey 15/1-25/1
-chicken, turkey, rabbit 4/1-10/1 depending on bedding
-cow, goat, pig, sheep 10/1-15/1
Leaves 55/1
Sawdust 440/1
Cardboard 500/1
Grass clippings 15/1 also generally rich in npk on an average of 4-1-2
Leaf mold is some of the best compost you can get. It generally takes anywhere from 1-2+ years to make. Leaf mold does not have much nutrient value but is very high in carbon and is rich in fungis. Leaf mold is some of natures oldest form of fertilizer. When making leaf mold its easiest and fastest if you start with a shredded leaf, but can be done with whole leaf(generally takes an extra year)
ā??miracle leafe mold-from complete compost gardening guide
all organic matter increases the soils ability to absorb water, but leaf mold does it best. Like a dry kitchen sponge, dry leaf mold can absorbe 5 times its weight in water, making it an ideal soil amendment for dry shade. Worked into the soil and used as mulch, leaf moldā??s water-holding talents help compensate for moisture taken up by tree roots, transforming dry shade into moist shade suitable for growing woodland beauties, such as foamflowers, heucheras, and trilliums.
Leaf mold can be substituted for peat moss in most potting soil recipes, or you can use it to make a special mix for plants grown in pots or planters stationed in the shade. Or, use it to implement this easy solution for the problem of chronic dryness in spots dominated by tree roots. Fill plastic nursery liners with this simple potting mix, add some inpatiens(summer annual), Lenten roses(winter-blooming perennials), or hardy ferns, and ā??plantā?the pots up to their rims. The buried pots will turn away thirsty tree roots, and you can hide the rims from view with leaf-mold mulch.
In a roomy bucket or bin, mix together:
1 part lightly moistened leaf mold
1 part sand
2 parts loamy soil
store any leftover mixture in a moisture-proof container, or mix it into another recipeā?
Another good reason to substitute leaf mold for peat moss is because peat bogs are basically a non-renewable source. Peat bogs generally take thousand of years to grow afew feet at most and once destroyed, it would take millions of years to rebuild naturally
When using compost one of the added benefits is that its packed full of beneficial bacteria and funguses. A good way to look at that and disease is. If you were in an apartment complex and it has no vacancy, how can the rifraft get in. same thing goes for plants if their soil and bodies/leaf of the plants are covered in beneficials, how can the bad bacterias/ diseases gain a foot hold and harm your plants. They really cant.
When making your own compost you can cook it up slow, medium, or fast. The best compost is a compost that has gone through all the stages of cooking and has been curing for a while to repopulate the biology. When making compost you generally look at a CARBON/NITROGEN RATIOS. A slow cooking pile generally has a ratio of c/n of about 200/1. a medium cooking pile has a c/n ratio of about 100/1. and a fast cooking pile has a c/n ratio of about 25/1-50/1. examples of afew materials for average c/n ratios
Kitchen waste 15/1
Manures
-alpaca, llama, horse, donkey 15/1-25/1
-chicken, turkey, rabbit 4/1-10/1 depending on bedding
-cow, goat, pig, sheep 10/1-15/1
Leaves 55/1
Sawdust 440/1
Cardboard 500/1
Grass clippings 15/1 also generally rich in npk on an average of 4-1-2
Leaf mold is some of the best compost you can get. It generally takes anywhere from 1-2+ years to make. Leaf mold does not have much nutrient value but is very high in carbon and is rich in fungis. Leaf mold is some of natures oldest form of fertilizer. When making leaf mold its easiest and fastest if you start with a shredded leaf, but can be done with whole leaf(generally takes an extra year)
ā??miracle leafe mold-from complete compost gardening guide
all organic matter increases the soils ability to absorb water, but leaf mold does it best. Like a dry kitchen sponge, dry leaf mold can absorbe 5 times its weight in water, making it an ideal soil amendment for dry shade. Worked into the soil and used as mulch, leaf moldā??s water-holding talents help compensate for moisture taken up by tree roots, transforming dry shade into moist shade suitable for growing woodland beauties, such as foamflowers, heucheras, and trilliums.
Leaf mold can be substituted for peat moss in most potting soil recipes, or you can use it to make a special mix for plants grown in pots or planters stationed in the shade. Or, use it to implement this easy solution for the problem of chronic dryness in spots dominated by tree roots. Fill plastic nursery liners with this simple potting mix, add some inpatiens(summer annual), Lenten roses(winter-blooming perennials), or hardy ferns, and ā??plantā?the pots up to their rims. The buried pots will turn away thirsty tree roots, and you can hide the rims from view with leaf-mold mulch.
In a roomy bucket or bin, mix together:
1 part lightly moistened leaf mold
1 part sand
2 parts loamy soil
store any leftover mixture in a moisture-proof container, or mix it into another recipeā?
Another good reason to substitute leaf mold for peat moss is because peat bogs are basically a non-renewable source. Peat bogs generally take thousand of years to grow afew feet at most and once destroyed, it would take millions of years to rebuild naturally
When using compost one of the added benefits is that its packed full of beneficial bacteria and funguses. A good way to look at that and disease is. If you were in an apartment complex and it has no vacancy, how can the rifraft get in. same thing goes for plants if their soil and bodies/leaf of the plants are covered in beneficials, how can the bad bacterias/ diseases gain a foot hold and harm your plants. They really cant.