Soil amendments - Page 2

 



Sounds OK. What is the base soil that you will be placing the raised
beds on? If not clay, you probably don't need to turn the ground. The
decomposers ( ameba, fungi, bacteria) have already enter the compost, so
blending the compost into the soil is no problem. Compost shouldn't be
more than 10%- 15% by volume of you soil. Since you will need to
fertilize the bed anyway, add chicken manure at the rate of 18 lbs/100
sq. ft., which will also address the nitrogen demands of the brown
organic material that you add, and add the microbes that the soil may be
deficient in. You could always use the bottom portion of you compost
pile to make a compost tea to increase the population of soil microbes.
The other possibility would be to spray a dilute mixture of molasses or
sugar on the bed, once it is preped, which will set off a population
explosion among the mirobes.

There is little true topsoil for sale. There is always the worry that
the soil may be contaminated with herbicides or heavy metals. If you
have soil that you can use, top or not, just blend it with organic
material. If your soil is mostly clay, you may want to blend in some
sand as well. Ideal soil composition should be 30%-40% sand, 30%-40%
silt, and 20%-30% clay. As I wrote, 10%- 15%, by volume, of you soil
(the above) should be organic material.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

 

Billy said


My soil is good old Indiana clay.  I think I'll add a bit of the leaf
matter to help break up the soil and get a mess of chicken manure as
you suggest.


Thanks for your guidance.  I'll try to achieve this ratio

mmmm, I can almost taste the tomatoes already....

 

On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000 (UTC), DirtBag


Use the parts that have composted.  I have three wire compost bins,
each at varying decomposition stages.   Leaves alone will take much
longer to compost, turning into leaf mold (a valuable organic material
but maybe not typical "compost").   Maybe your leaf pile is cold--try
mixing in some green material until you see some steam coming off of
it.  When that happens the pile will decrease in volume, turn dark,
and break into finer pieces.    A live compost pile works like magic.

 

Phisherman said


I did have a fair amount of greens in the pile, I also added some bone
meal, the pile did get hot last fall, but I think it cooled over the
winter.  I turned it again, hopefully it'll fire back up.  I'm going to
put in some more bloodmeal too.  I clearly need a dedicated compost pile.

 

One year my mother actually spaced wire compost bins out in the beds and planted
the
tomatoes around them.  stuff continued to be added to the bins and they were well
watered the idea being that the "green tea" would leach out to the plants.  Well
it
sure did.  most tomatoes end up with the lower leaves drying up a bit after
midsummer
just when the tomatoes start to color up, but not in those plants planted next
to the
compost bins!!!  which continued with robust green leaves straight thru till
frost.  

I have composted in plastic bags. made a hole in the top middle to add water and
left
them out in the sun and the stuff fell apart.  a lot of flat area and work (and
leftover non degradable black plastic bags).  

as Phisherman says compost NEEDS water for the microbes and worms to do their
magic.
BTW, are you the same Phisherman used to be on the goldfish list?  

Ingrid


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan
on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago