Composting...

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I've been doing some research on using a compost tea to improve the soil of my horse pasture (approx 4 acres). I'm about to spray some 2-4D tomorrow and then next week we will seed approximately 100 lbs of alfalfa, hay, and pasture mix. Since the cost of fertilizer is going up, up, and up....I've been looking into alternatives. I have lots of compost. I have a sprayer. So compost tea sounds like a good alternative.

Came across this article which is SUPER informative...

https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/bui.../composting-tips-strategies-balanced-compost/

I think it’s a great idea. The more you can improve the soil naturally, the fewer chemical inputs it should need.

If you do the compost tea (and/or spread compost directly) let us know how it goes!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Apparently people are slowly catching on to the fact that buying chemical fertilizers when organic waste does the same thing, only better is a bit crazy.

Manure is having a bit of a “moment” right now!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Apparently people are slowly catching on to the fact that buying chemical fertilizers when organic waste does the same thing, only better is a bit crazy.

Manure is having a bit of a “moment” right now!

I have always tried to go organic. The pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer, and other chemicals are undeniably harming the natural ecosystems of this plant. There are very few things I get on a soapbox about, but this is one of them. I will use chemicals but only as a last resort and sparingly. I really do try everything I possibly can before going that route.

 

[gtaus]

Came across this article which is SUPER informative...

https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/bui.../composting-tips-strategies-balanced-compost/

Nice article, but not so much said about chickens. I noticed one part that talks about crushing up eggshells and putting them in the compost. Sounds like a good idea - if you don't have chickens. If you have chickens, then I think you would be better off crushing up the eggshells and feeding them to your chickens as supplemental calcium. That's what I do anyway. My thinking is that the crushed eggshells can provide extra calcium, as needed, to my chickens and they in turn will lay more eggs. Any extra calcium that their body does not use will end up as chicken poo, which gets deposited into my chicken run compost system.

Almost everything that I used to compost directly into the bins is now processed through my composting chickens. Wood chips, paper shreds, grass clippings, leaves, garden weeds, lawn weeds, etc... get thrown into the chicken run composting system and the chickens will eat and/or scratch and break down all that material. Almost all my kitchen scraps and leftovers get fed to the chickens. They eat and poo most of that stuff, so it's even faster than a hot compost bin breaking it down.

I am looking into making compost tea this year. I am planning on making a sub irrigated container garden system where the containers and buckets are all connected together with hose. I will have one water control bucket with a float value to set the water level of all containters. But the rain barrel supply to the control bucket could be full of compost tea as someone recently suggested to me. I have the concept figured out in my head, but I'm having issues finding the hardware I need for running and connecting the hose. Looked at a number of options today at Menards, but nothing jumped out at me. My goal is to make the system modular and easy to expand if I want.

 

[Prop toe]

A person got fowl got plenty.In the fall go around gather all the oak leaves you can.They make great litter and they actually adjust PH and have germicidal properties.Till pens up and remove top layer maybe a inch or 2 down till in ya garden.Till again adding sand and le the lime will help control bacteria and smell add litter oak leaves next fall repeat your garden will florish and say goodbye to bumblefoot.Good day

 

[Prop toe]

Sorry I forgotten to say also you don't need a chipper mulcher either.disc or till garden level and smooth.Spead oak leaves all across garden 6 inches deep set mower deck high as it go run over them till ya got them mulched up good til or disc in make soil more loamy and does wonders your visitors will notice the difference in your plants trust me good day

 

[gtaus]

Sorry I forgotten to say also you don't need a chipper mulcher either.

Good points. Although I have both a big gas chipper/mulcher and a smaller electric wood chipper, I really don't use them for leaves. I run over my leaves out in the yard with my riding mower and vac them up into the collection bins. The leaves get an initial breaking up in that process, but not as fine as you might imagine. I dump all my bins full of leaves into the chicken run and let the chickens continue to rip up the leaves.

If you want to mulch up the leaves really fine, then just run over them with a lawn mower with mulching blades and plug a number of times. Won't take long before you have just small bits and pieces. At that time, take out the plug and bag up all that broken up leaves into the mower's grass collection bag and dump in the garden.

 

[Prop toe]

I done this for years no problem the leaves are in the ground for approx 5 months before spring however I do till a few times doing the winter maybe 3 times and the results are great

 

[TJAnonymous]

Nice article, but not so much said about chickens. I noticed one part that talks about crushing up eggshells and putting them in the compost. Sounds like a good idea - if you don't have chickens. If you have chickens, then I think you would be better off crushing up the eggshells and feeding them to your chickens as supplemental calcium. That's what I do anyway. My thinking is that the crushed eggshells can provide extra calcium, as needed, to my chickens and they in turn will lay more eggs. Any extra calcium that their body does not use will end up as chicken poo, which gets deposited into my chicken run compost system.

Almost everything that I used to compost directly into the bins is now processed through my composting chickens. Wood chips, paper shreds, grass clippings, leaves, garden weeds, lawn weeds, etc... get thrown into the chicken run composting system and the chickens will eat and/or scratch and break down all that material. Almost all my kitchen scraps and leftovers get fed to the chickens. They eat and poo most of that stuff, so it's even faster than a hot compost bin breaking it down.

I am looking into making compost tea this year. I am planning on making a sub irrigated container garden system where the containers and buckets are all connected together with hose. I will have one water control bucket with a float value to set the water level of all containters. But the rain barrel supply to the control bucket could be full of compost tea as someone recently suggested to me. I have the concept figured out in my head, but I'm having issues finding the hardware I need for running and connecting the hose. Looked at a number of options today at Menards, but nothing jumped out at me. My goal is to make the system modular and easy to expand if I want.

I put crushed eggshells in my compost pile. The chickens just dig them out and eat them....

 

[TJAnonymous]

A person got fowl got plenty.In the fall go around gather all the oak leaves you can.They make great litter and they actually adjust PH and have germicidal properties.Till pens up and remove top layer maybe a inch or 2 down till in ya garden.Till again adding sand and le the lime will help control bacteria and smell add litter oak leaves next fall repeat your garden will florish and say goodbye to bumblefoot.Good day

I have literally a dozen oak trees around my chicken pens and compost pile. In the fall, we dump a ridiculous amount of oak leaves in our Silkie pen. The leaves come up to my knees! But, of course, the Silkies work their magick and distill them down to a thick layer of shredded leaves on top of the mud in their run. I like to use it as an insulation layer to keep them off the wet mud in the winter time. Of course, in the spring it is halfway composted and offers a good source for worms and bugs when the girls start digging!