Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Yes. You lose most of the nitrogen by composting. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/7/2010 at 1:07 PM Dieter Brand wrote:

>Barbara,
>
>If you use fresh manure, don't plough it under.  You can plough under
>composted manure, leaves or any other OM.  But uncomposted material need
>to go on top.  I would use a layer of fresh manure topped by a layer of
>leaves or other OM to keep the manure from drying out.  Tests have shown
>that using fresh manure is about 2 to 4 times more effective than using
>composted manure because you loose a lot during heap composting.
>
>Dieter 
>
>--- On Tue, 12/7/10, Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> From: Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] learning curve
>> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>> Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 7:06 PM
>> We save wood ash from our main
>> heating source, and some of it ends up in the garden.
>> Theoretically, in place of lime for raising pH. It does have
>> small pieces of charcoal in it, and it contains potassium.
>> why is excess K bad? Someone mentioned that it ties up
>> calcium, ...OK, got that. But why is it in the common
>> fertilizer "formula"? What does it do for the plant?
>> 
>> Regarding added organic matter: we have tons of leaves,
>> llama manure, and may get some aged horse manure and fresh
>> hen manure. How should I put theses on the garden this fall?
>> Last year we got a load of oak leaves and ran them through a
>> shredder or mowed over them in place, which was a lot of
>> work. I mixed horse and llama manure with the shredded
>> leaves in the beds. This year it is a mix of oak, ash,
>> hickory, and maple, not yet shredded. I still have some
>> uncovered piles of shredded oak leaves //that have not
>> broken down all last winter and this summer.// I'm wondering
>> if it's worth the bother to shred the leaves, and just use
>> them as a weed-suppressing mulch once the veggie seedlings
>> are up. Maybe layering the manures on top of the leaves
>> (shredded or not) over winter so nutrients leach through
>> them to help them break down? The shredds I put in the
>> garden beds did break down, mostly (I hand-cultivated them
>> in 2-3 inches, not deep--the tiller went deeper); maybe
>> contact with soil is what they need?
>> 
>> Don't yell at me for tilling, I don't want to anymore! But
>> Hubby, who studied horticulture in the 70s, still thinks
>> soil must be mixed up.
>> 
>> Barbara M
>> Foster, RI
>> 
>> -- "Animals Are A Gift"
>> 
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>
>
>      
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