Fertilizing organically

[rambler]

You sure like to make things difficult, no commercial fertilizer and no manure, but you want to bring up a rather low soil to garden levels in a month or so.

Don't ask for much, do you?????

--->Paul

 

[foreman Etexas]

mushroom and you thought chicken poop smelled

uh.oh, the voice of experience is chiming in. Now how could those pretty little white mushrooms smell?...because what they are growing in came from animals too. I think I'm learning that if it's good, it will smell...
I'm most experienced with local turkey farms, no longer here, probably squeezed out by big homes, and boy was that an awful smell.

I had to chuckle here. There is a big preserved dairy farm right near Rte 95 where it passes our area. When the farmer puts down a heavy load of manure, I swear the traffic slows down on 95 as everyone reacts to the smell, and thinks "oh, what's that..." My property owner has told me not to worry about an occasional "natural" smell wafting down his way. I'm going to test for ph today before I throw down any lime, but until I get a FEL and can get out to this remote garden and dump stuff in it myself, I am restricted by what I can haul in 50 pound bags. Time to get a UTV it seems. My wife would love it. So for this year, I guess I'll have to buy manure in bags, which should mean it's easier to use, safe, and really expensive. I should have this more organized, and earlier too, for next year. I started a huge mulch pile on this farm, and it should be ready for next year too. My goal is to keep Ortho and Monsanto out of this garden. I may be changing my tune when the bugs descend, but part of the fun here is to see what works.

Yeah you can get the mushroom stuff just down the road from my in-laws,but like you said the good stuff gonna smell.

 

[daugen]

Paul, yeah, I'm putting in a garden for my wife, and trying to please my sister...so how easy is it to please two women at one time? Don't answer that!

I got the plowing done this morning, then rototilling tomorrow til the end of time, then all these goodies get mixed in. And yes, I have to either make compost or manure or buy it, no way to kickstart this garden without it. So, bags of manure I guess. Over time I think I can enrich this garden pretty naturally, but to start out, I've got a wet, clayey rocky clumpy mess to deal with. But I sure did have fun plowing; that's for another post. Drew

 

[DJ54]

I've been reading some on grass clippings adding a decent amount of nitrogen to the soil. I use composted horse manure myself, from my barn, but may experiment with the grass clippings some.

I've read where some mulch with it, and others slightly till it in to the top couple of inches, and adds a low amount of nitrogen all along the growing season.

I don't spray the lawn, so no worry of chemicals. Plus, there is a good bit of white clover in spots, so even better in my book..!!

 

[daugen]

well, you aren't going to find a lucky four leaf clover unless you grow a little clover.

And I have some old large piles of grass clippings that I've been thinking of moving into the garden. This is where I dream of a grapple. Been my experience that once you dump clippings and let them set a while, they don't like to move too easily.

 

[DJ54]

If they are that tight, they may be a little smelly too..!!

As long as the grass hasn't headed out into seed, there shouldn't be any new growth from it, in my case. A little incentive to keep the yard barbered up..!! LOL...

It should work well in th garden, it sure does wonders in the yard. Never did de-thatch, and grass is thick and lush.

 

[daugen]

Day started out cool and very foggy, burned off and got downright pleasant and sunny. Then I dumped two garden tractor cart loads of slightly composted last year's leaves, and then ground them up repeatedly. We also tried some old pasture grass clippings, but stopped that as soon as we thought about all the seed in there. Need about four more loads of leaves, and they are on the to do list.

Soy meal, rock potash, organic manure, a little limestone, bone meal and leaves in the mix so far. Will add a lot more leaves so I've got at least an inch or two over the whole thing. I did one side of the garden first because there were so many stones I was sure the tiller would be a goner before I got through, but so far, lots of shear pins later, it's going strong. The entire left tine fell off while my wife was driving...She looked back and figured she had done something awful, and really broke it. Out comes another handy dandy pin, plus some struggling to get the tine back on the shaft and off she went, quite relieved.

We have an aged mulch pile at home, so I'm going to fill up four or five trash cans of that and throw that on too, at least in the area we are going to grow pumpkins, squash and cucumbers. The corn will have to fend for itself this first year.

It's beginning to look like a real garden. Likely two tons of rocks hand picked out of there so far. And another ton to go. In 5000 square feet. No wonder real farmers have spring mounted plows and don't bother doing what I'm doing. Every time I rototill more rocks come up. I figure they lived there longer than I have, but out they go. These rocks are awfully hard on the equipment; I'm just waiting for that expensive cracking noise and gnashing of drive teeth, shear pins or no.

Perhaps rocks have some mineral content to add. Certainly some is being added when the tiller tines constantly scrabble and bang on the rocks, sending little bits here and there. I'll tell my sister all the rocks looked organic...

 

[bilrus61]

Wow that is a lot of rocks for a little garden patch, even by Kentucky standards. Since you want a nice crop this year you can get some blood meal and that keeps the deer away too. Good nitrogen for corn in a little plot like yours. Lots of bone meal. Cottonseed meal too. If you have a push mower/bagger use it to get green mulch in your garden. Any horse people around? Check them out and see if they have any alfalfa hay they want to sell. Just mulch it thick and the earthworms will pile in and eat it up. Your starting on a nice size plot but it will get bigger hehehe. Mulch mulch mulch with hay and grass clippings. Your garden will do fine. Keep on picking up the rocks too!

 

[rambler]

Multch is great over time, but do any of you run into problems with it tying up too much N the first year if you pile it up too deep?

To break down, the microbes need a balance, and too much raw leaves or grass puts things out of balance for a time. Eventually, all the N gets put back as the multch rots, but in the beginning, the N gets tied up badly.....

That's how it is out on the farm with corn stalks, for example.

Now, if you would be adding manure, or the decomposed leaves, will help to balance things out. And maybe not an issue in your typ of soil. Just thinking out loud....

--->Paul

 

[daugen]

Your starting on a nice size plot but it will get bigger hehehe.

Yup, I'm already thinking of expanding out closer to the tree line, but I have all day sun here which I don't want to block . But until I figure out a mechanized way of picking rocks, or find a local Boy Scout troop, I'm a little leary of doing the billion rock thing again.

Wow that is a lot of rocks for a little garden patch, even by Kentucky standards.
By the time I'm done, I will likely double the size of this pile...unreal.

too much raw leaves or grass puts things out of balance for a time.
understood, makes sense. I dumped fifteen weenie bags of organic manure on part of the garden, covered almost nothing, and the instructions say to put it on 2-4 inches thick. Huh, that would mean laying bags of manure side by side over every square inch of the garden. Even at only $2.50 a bag, I'm not doing it. Time will work fine on this garden. And the organic manure didn't smell, so I'm wondering what it will accomplish other than lightening the soil, which I must admit is getting better each time I till. Almost plantable. I'm happy to leave the one inch rocks, but my wife will pick every one she sees. My back is too tired now...

Ordered a hiller attachment from DR today to go on the back of the rototiller. Auger type arrangement, looks interesting, hope it likes rocks...