Compost questions

[Roosterinthecity]

I’m a bit lost…
So compost is different from fertilizer?
Fertilizer is what I create out of the chicken poop and straw and add some grass and such. That’s supposed to be nutrients for plants right?
And compost is? Nourishment for the soil?
Or is it the same? Just asking because I’m reading what some people add to the pile.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I’m a bit lost…
So compost is different from fertilizer?
Fertilizer is what I create out of the chicken poop and straw and add some grass and such. That’s supposed to be nutrients for plants right?
And compost is? Nourishment for the soil?
Or is it the same? Just asking because I’m reading what some people add to the pile.

I figured it was a regional thing like pop vs soda

 

[TooCheep]

I’m a bit lost…
So compost is different from fertilizer?
Fertilizer is what I create out of the chicken poop and straw and add some grass and such. That’s supposed to be nutrients for plants right?
And compost is? Nourishment for the soil?
Or is it the same? Just asking because I’m reading what some people add to the pile.

It is a definition problem. Fertilizer technically is any material that provides nutrients for your plants. It can be broken down into three subsets:

• Compost is broken down organic matter which includes nutrients. Compost is a subset of fertilizers and what you are describing is compost.
• Most people and commercial products call products "fertilizer" if it is (a) artificial chemical or (b) concentrated/extracted organic nutrients (ex: bone or fish meal).
• Non-organic mineral supplements such as powdered volcanic rock (ex: Azomite).

 

[RoyalChick]

It is a definition problem. Fertilizer technically is any material that provides nutrients for your plants. It can be broken down into three subsets:

• Compost is broken down organic matter which includes nutrients. Compost is a subset of fertilizers and what you are describing is compost.
• Most people and commercial products call products "fertilizer" if it is (a) artificial chemical or (b) concentrated/extracted organic nutrients (ex: bone or fish meal).
• Non-organic mineral supplements such as powdered volcanic rock (ex: Azomite).

Good explanation.
I think of compost as something that provides both nutrients (fertilizes) and soil structure (organic material is good for soil structure regardless of what your starting soil is).

 

[Predoggg]

I put all on my compost. From kitchen compost over rabbit manure, chicken manure, weeds and branch cuts. I just dump it in a pile and let nature do it's work. The compost gets full and suddenly is back down. I never really get it that full that nothing would fit in.
I do not have grass on it since I dry it and use it as rabbit feed.

 

[nao57]

I’m a bit lost…
So compost is different from fertilizer?
Fertilizer is what I create out of the chicken poop and straw and add some grass and such. That’s supposed to be nutrients for plants right?
And compost is? Nourishment for the soil?
Or is it the same? Just asking because I’m reading what some people add to the pile.

Let me explain this more clearly. Because they aren't always the same.

So... as you use the nutrients in the soil, what happens? The carbon percentage goes down. This is why all those midwest farms have had so many hiccups. They used too much of that carbon. It used to be like 12.5% now its closer to 2%. And what was happening because of that is that things don't grow without help when you rob the nutrients.

In chemistry also, organic living things are built of carbon chains. Meaning everything somehow or another uses carbon to hold its basic building blocks together. The oxygen, hydrogen, potassium, nitrogen, phophates, potassium all of it are built onto these big carbon chains. So carbon is the linkup for these living things. This is why with no carbon things don't grow as good. Now you also want potassium, and nitrogen too. But don't sweat the details there's lots of stuff in there.

All of this... its like trying to make your car run its engine with no gas in the tank.

So what happens is these farms, when they have been depleting these nutrients, they want to 'DO IT THE EASY WAY'. Well that's the problem. You can't rob Peter to pay Paul. In physics it doesn't work to cheat or do a half measure. And they are under pressure to make money quickly also.

Over time this mentality, and these problems led to the idea well, we don't have to do only 'real fertilizer'. We can cheat the system and do it quicker with these chemical fertilizers. Now they think they are beating the system and that these chemical fertilizers that are artificial will work just as good as real compost. But its NOT THE SAME THING> Its not the same.

And where it comes out to being not the same is that the soil gets desertification or barrenness or loses its real ability to produce. Because the nutrients aren't in these stable chain systems that work together like in nature when you do artificial chemical fertilizers. Also the product isn't as healthy either. Also when you use these chemical fertilizers that's not building a long term soil, a long term STABLE farm and pasture.

Everything about farming is based on the idea you need stable, healthy soil.

Chemical substitutes have a much shorter half life. They aren't stable. They aren't linking up with the microbes, bugs, and food web in nature also. The food web is important because its how the nutrients get transferred around in the soil and in the land. The organisms; the birds, the bugs, all of it are constantly transferring the matter all around it. This is why the soil in old animal pens is healthier after the manure has aged out completely and turned to soil.

So... where I'm getting at with this is to try to help you see that... Fertilizer is NOT ALWAYS compost. Its not always compost because people don't always understand how to build the soil. They don't always understand that chemical fertilizers aren't a long term solution also. Not everyone understands you want organic mature aged out real compost.

...

Additional notes;

People also don't understand this because society wants you in CAPTIVITY to always be renting out and paying to them your money with you a slave where you aren't in control of what you produce and put on the table for your family. In predatory systems they don't allow you to know or implement a full process on your own. Like if you go to work on an assembly line you are only allowed to know maybe 1 or 2 spots on the line; they don't want you to be able to know enough to start your own factory. And this is in the educational system where they teach you but they aren't teaching you APPLIED LIFE SKILLS. They teach you theory, and wrong headed theory often. And they don't want you to be independent. And real faith teaches that you want to be self sufficient and indepdent. This is why the commies and socialistas (and anything predatory) always fear faith and freedom of religion and real freedom. Because they are predatory systems. So these groups teach the youth to reject and blame faith and religion for society's problems while making people dumber.

And this is why you don't hear about real life skills in schools anymore. The socialistas have gotten hold of it. You even have Chinese immersion in many states public schools now.

...

And thinking about it also another way; does it really make sense that something is going to work, or be MORE STABLE, than the way the Earth was organized by its Creator? Do they know more than the Creator? (Doesn't add up does it.)

...

Also; chemical fertilizers neglect carbon and only think of the potassium, nitrogen etc. (Short term; not saying they don't work but they are very short term and not 'connected' in food webs.)

Happy Gardening.

...


Site note; when God ejects Adam & Eve from the Garden of Eden he tells them they will work by the sweat of their brow, endure hardship, and feel the thorns, briars, thistles, weeds of the earth. But what we miss is he also gives them dominion over the animals and all the things in it like the plants. Adam & Eve and us today are supposed to use these other animals and plants to shield us from the thorns and briars and hardships; they are our shield and we can harness their work power as we edify our minds and hearts.