Another Question in regards to composting

[meglynnie]

Good evening,

I’ve had my horse manure/hay pile since January. I have added in organic matter over time. I also turn it once in a while when I remember. I went to look at it today and it’s smells earthy and is black but I still feel the texture of the hay.

Should I expect the hay to decompose to dirt or would it always be that texture?

Also if my compost is not ready I would have to buy fertilizer. I did a test on my soil that states pH is neutral, nitrogen is very low, potassium and phosphorus is medium. What would be a good fertilizer for veggie plants both leafy and roots to improve my current soil?

Thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Should I expect the hay to decompose to dirt or would it always be that texture?

The hay (likely straw instead of hay) will decompose into dirt. How long it takes depends on different things.

A lot of things wind up in my compost. Some decompose pretty quickly, others take a while. I made a frame out of 2x4's and put 1/2" hardware cloth on it to form a sieve that fits on my wheelbarrow. I sift the compost through that. Anything that goes through I consider compost, anything that doesn't go through gets tossed back to further decompose.

Also if my compost is not ready I would have to buy fertilizer. I did a test on my soil that states pH is neutral, nitrogen is very low, potassium and phosphorus is medium. What would be a good fertilizer for veggie plants both leafy and roots to improve my current soil?

For roots and leafy veggies nitrogen is probably your most critical nutrient.

Did you get a soils analysis through your extension office? Each state is different but both states I've done that, Louisiana and Arkansas, tell you what to add and how much. That is handy. In Arkansas it was free, in Louisiana it costs $16.00.

If you don't have that to tell you how much of what, I'd suggest ammonium sulfate for nitrogen. The sulfur in it should lower your pH some which is better than neutral and the ammonia is a good source of usable nitrogen. Muriate of potash is a potassium source. For phosphorus maybe triple super phosphate.

An alternative would be elemental sulfur to lower pH and a prepared fertilizer like 13-13-13 for the other nutrients. It will take a while for the sulfur to work, it has to dissolve into the soil and get mixed. That dissolving can take months to get the full effect so the sooner you start the sooner you'll see effects.

Another critical nutrient I'll mention is calcium, especially on a chicken forum. Calcium is very important in fruits like tomatoes, peppers, or such. Calcium prevents Blossom-End-Rot. If you have a clay soil you should have plenty of calcium in your soil. If you use chicken manure to make compost it should be calcium rich, a lot of the calcium laying hens eat is never absorbed by their bodies but keeps going until it comes out the back end. Most BER problems are due to moisture issues, not a lack of calcium in the soil, but if you have a real sandy soil you could have issues.

One of the problems is to know how much of these things to add. The nutrients getting used by the plants is a chemical process. The nutrients not only have to be present, they need to be in a form the plants can use. Sometimes it takes a bit for the fertilizer (whatever you use) to break down into that form. Also, they calculate something that I don't come close to fully understanding called CEC that uses the concentration of nutrients to determine what the best pH is. To make it even worse, some of these nutrients can leach away with water, much worse in sand than clay. Luckily nature was kind to us. We don't have to be spot on, she gave us a nice wide window where we can do pretty well. But yeah, we have to be somewhere in that window.

Good luck!