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Sun, Mar 13, 11 at 18:39
| Hi, all.
Some of you might remember me, I started 4 huge compost (6x5x5) piles made of leaves, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, horse manure/shavings and eelgrass back in October. Well, I spread out 3 of 4 piles a week ago and they looked about 70-80% finished, I could still find leaves and shavings, but everything else was pretty much gone, and there were a lot of worms. I spread out the 4th pile this week and it looked about 50% composted at best, with few worms. There's a lot of leaves and shavings, but the rest has decomposed too. I mixed it in with the soil (all sand) with a shovel. Then it dawned on me, I had just mixed a lot of unfinished compost into my soil. I don't plan on planting anything until May (all vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, corn, green beans and squash) Am I screwed? Thanks. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Eight weeks or so to go to planting? I'm going to guess that you will be fine. Go grab a small amount of your mixed up soil in about 4 weeks and do a germination test to see what you get. Lloyd |
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| Would it work to put in a cover crop of legumes like lupins and favas mixed with mustard, cut them down a couple of weeks prior to planting and leave the roots in the ground and the tops as mulch? They could handle unfinished compost and fix nitrogen to avoid a potential carbon/nitrogen imbalance. |
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| Thanks guys. It's not too late to add a cover crop? In case I don't add a cover crop, should I turn the soil? I've turned it now twice in a week and added about 20lbs of crushed lime (everythings acidic out here) and was planning on turning it every few days. |
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- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ%3A Sunset 13 (My Page) on Mon, Mar 14, 11 at 17:23
| Don't worry about it! The plants will do fine. |
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| I agree, do not worry. If you think it is a problem, sprinkle some cotton seed mill over the bed. The N rich mill will help break the matter down even more. |
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| I should've qualified my cover-crop recommendation: those things'll grow year-round here. There's plenty of legumes like cowpeas that enjoy warmer weather. If I had a couple of months, I'd grow a cover crop. Keeps the weeds down too. That's assuming the compost isn't heating up of course! |
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| Thanks everyone! I'm laid off right now and money is beyond tight, so would used coffee grounds work as a free substitute for cottonseed meal? |
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- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ%3A Sunset 13 (My Page) on Tue, Mar 15, 11 at 22:31
| forget the cottonseed meal ... you don't need it. If you have access to coffee grounds, add them to your next compost pile. |
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