benefits of compost an ever expanding document

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)
â??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 moldâ??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 â??plantâ?�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 recipeâ?�

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.

excellent read texasgrass......always enjoy the organic knowledge.

one question. im currently switching soils; i have this fertilome that is peat based (sorry stinky) with added dolimite. i also bought some 'back to earth ACIFIED' compost. is there anything organic i can add to make my soil ph neutral? any other suggestions to help get started on swithching to organic?

in that instance dolimite or powdered oystershell will make soil more alkaline

dolimite lime adds calcium and magnesium

the oystershell will also add calcium and other micronutes.

when composting acidic materials it is best to let them compost naturally without adding and phing material(dolimite or oyster) the reason for this is you will have a different variety of biology breaking up the acidic material compared to the same material with a more alkaline quality.

great thanks.

Anything to say about compost tea? Any experience? If i were to feed my outdoor plants with only compost tea about how long would one feeding last/ do i treat it the same as i did my fox farm ferts in feeding consistency?


p.s. also, is there anything specific i should look for in a good compost?

the difference between foxfarm ferts and compost tea is that the compost tea is full of biology and does not have hardly any nutes. the foxfarms ferts are just nutes with no biology. its next to impossible to overdue compost tea since theres really no nutes. when brewing up compost tea just get a 5 gallon bucket,air stones and pump, about 2-3 cups of compost mix, a tablespoon of each molasses, seaweed product, and assortment of meals(all that will help feed the biology and make more comfortable for them to multiply) aerate for 24-36 hours. you only need to keep the few cups of compost in the bucket aerateing for about 6-12 hrs. when using the tea you can use it straight or diluted, it really depends on how much you have to water. if you can water all your plants with 5 gallons then do it, if you need 20 gallons of water then mix the 5 gallons of tea with 15 of water and it should still work great. i would feed about once a week, if you can do it more it shouldnt hurt it.


make sure the compost smells very rich and earthy, all compost no matter the source should smell earthy. every company and their source is different so cant say exactly. alot of compost you buy, is cooked a fast method over a period of about 6 months. great stuff to look for is a leaf mold compost, its more expensive, but on average its been cooking for 2 yrs and is the richest lightest compost i have ever seen. the best compost is the most diverse compost and a compost that has cooked through all stages.
my compost mix consists of about 2 cubic feet of each, regular 6 month old compost, 2 yr old leaf mold, mushroom compost, earth worm castings, and red lava sand

splendid. great info. ill be getting started on the tea soon, thanks for the help.

"must spread around rep before giving it to TG again.".....next time

i believe my tea is ready, it has a nice froth on top......its been bubbling about 20 hours.

I used jamican bat guano, liquid seaweed, worm castings, compost, and a little molasses. kinda makes me feel like a mad scientist.