|
| I think it would be fun to compare/share everyone's ideas of what makes the best compost. Assuming that any materials were easily available, what would your "perfect" compost pile consist of?
Lets keep it to 10 ingredients or less if possible and include percentages of each. I think water is a given, and all kitchen scraps can be catagorized as one ingredient(unless some really stand out) Well, lets see what ya got! |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
| Well I am no expert that's for sure. I seems to me the best compost would be made from a wide variety, after all we are looking for major and trace elements some of witch we may not be aware of. For the basic pile ingredient I like chipped tree branches with green leaves. It makes for a pile with a lot of air space and bulk, making it easy to add kitchen scraps or other greens without a lot of turning. That is important to me. As heavy lifting and turning is a limiting factor. I must add weeds and tree leaves. The ultimate recycling from my own soil putting back the elements for reuse. Curt |
|
| If you want something that is incredibly rich in nutrients, a biosolids / greenwaste blend is a great material. However, all those nutrients come at the price of high salinity and you don't want to use too high of a rate because of that. If you put down enough material to correct most nutrient deficiencies in a low fertility soil and no more, the contribution to the organic content of the soil would be relatively low. On the other hand, if soil fertility isn't much of an issue for you and all you want is to bulk up the organic content, then something that is primarily wood residuals (i.e. shavings) stabilized with soluble fertilizer will compost down nicely to give you a very high organic material that you can use at any rate your heart desires but the nutrient content would be relatively low. So the answer is, it depends on what kind of material you want to end up with and what the primary concern(s) is/are. Total nutrients? Immediately available nutrients? Organic contribution? Cost? Low salinity? To be incorporated into the soil? To be used as a topper? A component of a container mix? Availability of materials? Weight for shipping? Etc... |
|
| Like gargwarb says it sort of depends but I am very partial to leaves (shredded being bestest) being the major C ingredient for 'post. For N, I'm gonna go with grass clippings, nice short, juicy, fresh, May/June grass clippings. Nice heat, frequent turnings or tumbled and cured for several months. Everything else is gravy. Lloyd |
|
| In no particular order of favorites and in the correct C:N ratios: chipped leaves |
|
| Hey annpat! I wish I could have an abundance of lobster shells! YUM!!! Sounds like good compost too. |
|
| Oh, yes you do, mojo! I've got a racket going on here. My road (now empty of residents) is usually full with summer people 'from away' who spend their whole summer eating lobster with their summer company. Because lobster shells are unpleasant to keep under the sink until trash day, I've offered to allow them to put them in the compost bin I keep next to the road just for this purpose. One of my neighbors also brings all of her food scraps and scrapings to my pile. She singlehandedly filled an entire bin for me this summer, which I'm now harvesting. (Well, she brought food scraps, and I covered them with layers of chicken manure, leaves and straw.) I do wonder what the lobster shells contribute (hoping not mercury), but I know this about them. Worms LOVE lobster! And if the worms are happy, momma's happy. |
|
| Since there are different uses for compost lets get some concrete goals to discuss. I see three major categories:
I think the recipe gets more demanding as we move down the list. Can we use these three options for the discussion of ideal compost recipe? |
|
- Posted by tsugajunkie 5a SE_WI (My Page) on Fri, Nov 12, 10 at 19:55
| My best recipe is the one that doesn't let a good organic opportunity get past my compost. Sometimes there are pumpkins, sometimes not. Sometimes there are straw bales. Sometimes when it finally dawns on me that the neighbor's lawnmower is broke, I offer to cut and bag his long, leaf laden lawn and keep the spoils. Main thing is to not let it get away. tj |
|
| 1. Pile it up. 2. Forget about it. 3. Harvest black gold. |
|
| By weight: 1 part seaweed or lakeweed mixed finely shredded leaves to match. (10 parts?? maybe) The smelly stuff (fish, manure, veggie and fruit wastes) would go in the core or at least center area, and the grass would go in the outer areas. Materials would be mixed, not layered. Mix might be misted with the hose, but depends on moisture in leaves. I use either mesh bins; either 4' diameter and 24" or 30" high; or 4'by8'by18" high. |
|
| What is perfect for me is what I can gather locally without going out of my way too much. For me this is - Fresh wood chips from the city site. |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Soil Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.