Compost for Garden

[MChalkley]

Bird - Thanks again for all the info. I'm going to see about getting some. I think they would do well here, even though I don't have a real garden spot yet.

Mark

 

[Bird]

I'll bet the Blue Lakes would do very well in your part of the country; they sure do well here. I picked that one row this afternoon, and was barely able to get all of them piled in and on a 5 gallon bucket, even after shaking them down as much as possible (my wife's canning them tonight). I just think they have the best flavor and texture of any green bean I've ever eaten.

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

Bird, in that case, I'd like to try them. If they're that good, they just might be the first green bean I've ever liked. They're not my favorite green. Still, I'm game to try them... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Mark

 

[RoyD]

I put 4 yards of wood chips on about 1/2 of my garden 3 years ago. The area covered with wood chips is about 1600 sq feet. I tilled the chips into the soil. It made beautiful soil, but nothing did well there the first two years. The other 1/2 of the garden without wood chips did fine. This year I have corn there and its doing ok - not wonderful but ok. Wood seems to strip the soil of nutrients.

 

[W5FL]

Did you chunk a bunch of Nitrogen (ammonium sulphate) to it?

 

[jyoutz]

Bird, That is the stock ag soils answer that I gave about using wood chips and needing to add nitrogen. The reason is that the special decomposing soil microorganisms that normally provide nitrogen for plant use, get preoccupied with decomposing wood chips (or anything else high in celluose). All nitrogen is used to decompose the chips, and nothing is left over in the soil for the plants to use. How long this takes depends on the environment (warm and wet = faster). Once the wood is decomposed, extra nitrogen is then present for plants to use. The standard answer is to add nitrogen to get things growing while the decomposition is underway. This is the reason why organic soil amendments are always recommended to be fully composted before using. Of course sometimes you can get by without paying this stuff any mind. This is anyway the book answer. Also, to a chemist, man-made nitrogen is no different than naturally decomposed nitrogen. They are EXACTLY the same thing. This is not to downgrade the use of organic material, because this stuff really does improve soil structure and workability.

 

[jyoutz]

Mark, the only way to make clay soil useable for a garden is to change the clay into a loam soil. That means till in lots of sand and lots of organic material (but refer to my previous posting about using items high in cellulose before they are composed). For large scale gardens nothing beats sand, manure, and tilling in a green cover crop (clover, alfalfa, ect-but don't let the cover crop go to seed!). After a few years, you will see a very big change in soil structure.

 

[jyoutz]

Leaves are about the very best thing you can till into your garden. 90% + of all of the plant's nutrients are stored in the leaves, so you get a lot of good fertilizer with leaves. Also, they're low in cellulose so they break down quickly.

 

[jyoutz]

Grasshoppers are nearly impossible to deal with. But one old rancher who I once talked to used to fence his garden and put turkeys in the garden. He told me that grasshoppers are irresistable to turkeys. I always thought it would be worth a try, but I haven't really had any bad hoppers in my present location.

 

[Bird]

jyoutz, I'd heard that from other sources, too, so I'll assume it's correct; I sure don't claim to have any technical knowledge in that area. That's the reason I sent soil samples for analysis before I planted my first garden in that plot. And of course, I have added a lot of old cow and rabbit manure to my garden plot. And I really have nothing against commercial fertilizers; if I thought they would help, I would use them. I just wanted to experiment without them, and it's worked so well that you would almost have to see it to believe it. This past winter, though, I plowed up another small plot, tilled it, and let the grandkids plant pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupe there. And I have used some commercial fertilizer on that little plot because the appearance of the plants indicated they needed it. My dad and grandad also used quite a bit of Sevin dust on their vegetable gardens, and I don't know of any harm that ever did either, but I just don't use any insecticides; just produce enough for myself and the bugs. I do use inseciticides around the house, my shop building, and on the yard. I guess I don't mind feeding the bugs, but don't want'em living with me./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird