Extreme Composting

Freya · #**2501** 06/02/13, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie

I'm thinking of putting up a very nice outhouse by the road and a sign that says "we take crap from anyone".

Freya · #**2502** 06/02/13, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calfisher

Here are some of the results of our urban compost.....

The squash is happy!

Looking good!!!

Ernie · #**2503** 06/02/13, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calfisher

Ok, Ok so everything else is happy too! Salad, Collards and tomatoes in the back. Last year the tomatoes went out the top of 7 ft cages.

I've never seen vegetables so big. Aren't you afraid to go out there?

CesumPec · #**2504** 06/02/13, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calfisher

Here are some of the results of our urban compost.....

The squash is happy!

Ever seen Little Shop of Horrors? Are you sure that so called squash plant isn't about to eat the dude in the blue t-shirt?

ChristieAcres · #**2505** 06/02/13, 11:43 PM

My Victoria Rhubarb is the biggest of her kind I have ever seen. She gets plenty of compost and is three times the size of her mother who is in just native soil and gets neglected (she is big to begin with, but her DD is enormous). Since I let the latter go to seed, a pic comparison wouldn't be accurate (the Rhubarb stops putting out hardly any leaves when going to seed). I'll try to take a pic & post it. Compost is the reason our fruit trees, berry vines, berry canes, all other forms of fruits and vegetables are doing so well.

COMPOST

Forerunner · #**2506** 06/03/13, 06:32 AM

Lori, what is your pet means of composting your fruit trees ?

Just out of curiosity, you know.....

ChristieAcres · #**2507** 06/03/13, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

Lori, what is your pet means of composting your fruit trees ?

Just out of curiosity, you know.....

Aged composted manures primarily (chicken, cow, llama, sheep, pig, and rabbit) and I mulch them with Comfrey two or three times/year. On occasion, they have received "mixed" compost, too (from our own compost pile).

Also, almost two years ago, we had three little piglets in there (fenced little orchard). They were in there longer than we planned, so we had to encircle the fruit trees with welded wire fencing to protect them. I could not have foreseen the benefit that turned out to be!

Almost three years ago, I read an article about a guy here in WA, who composted heavily around his fruit trees. WSU sent someone out and they disputed his results (uh, you could see them

). This guy was up for a challenge, so he bought a piece of land that was gravel/barren. There he planted fruit trees, heavily composting around them. The results were astounding and couldn't be refuted. I'll see if i can find a link today and post it later. About to head out the door to help DH fit his railing job before he takes the rails to the powder coating shop.

elkhound · #**2508** 06/03/13, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie

Heh. Hugely so.

I'm more content now than I've ever been in my entire life. I feel like I escaped from a plantation, found the Underground Railroad, and made my way to Canada.

We recently banned the word "work" in my household. Anyone who uses it has to cook dinner for everyone else. There is no "work" anymore, there is only living. That living may include some things that people might mistake for work, but we don't see it that way.

Hard to explain, but I suppose that you, of all people, know what I'm talking about.

preach it brother.....by the way...glad to see you around again.

ChristieAcres · #**2509** 06/03/13, 03:31 PM

Forerunner, here are a few pics for you:

1- A few of our fruit trees mulched with Comfrey (trying out light pruning in July, another method). The fenced orchard is past "gone wild," as DH has been far to busy to get in there and mow. The terrain is a bit too sloped, so DH prefers he do it instead of me.

2- Composted Victoria Rhubarb, yes one plant.

3- The mother Victoria Rhubarb, doesn't get compost or as regularly watered and usually never more that a third the size of her pampered daughter.

Thanks to your thread, I started using more compost! The benefits are delicious.

Forerunner · #**2510** 06/03/13, 03:36 PM

So you basically top-dress compost your fruit trees ?
No digging anything in ?

That is an enviable spot of rhubarb...........

MOgal · #**2511** 06/03/13, 03:48 PM

This may have been addressed earlier so I apologize and ask that someone direct me to the appropriate pages.....

The topic of humanure has come up and we've talked about "communing" with the pile for urine. However, I don't remember having read anything about the effects of medications in urine on compost. Does the heat of composting destroy the meds or change them? I've read that all the birth control drugs being flushed into Chesapeake Bay has had a feminizing effect on male fish. Just wondered.

Would appreciate input as I may have to go on cholesterol meds to make requirements for DH's group insurance plan or pay a huge premium.

Lorichristie, gorgeous rhubarb! I have comfrey growing beside each of our fruit trees and just cut it each time it starts to flower and let it rot where it falls. So far, so good.

CesumPec · #**2512** 06/03/13, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MOgal

This may have been addressed earlier so I apologize and ask that someone direct me to the appropriate pages.....

The topic of humanure has come up and we've talked about "communing" with the pile for urine. However, I don't remember having read anything about the effects of medications in urine on compost. Does the heat of composting destroy the meds or change them? I've read that all the birth control drugs being flushed into Chesapeake Bay has had a feminizing effect on male fish. Just wondered.

Would appreciate input as I may have to go on cholesterol meds to make requirements for DH's group insurance plan or pay a huge premium.

Lorichristie, gorgeous rhubarb! I have comfrey growing beside each of our fruit trees and just cut it each time it starts to flower and let it rot where it falls. So far, so good.

I've done quite a bit of reading on humanure and I don't think you can find a definitive study that addresses every particular med that might be in the poo pile. What is different between municipal sewage treatment and proper humanure is that the compost pile provides a heat cycle and a wide array of aerobic microbes who eagerly munch on just about everything that enters the pile.

If you use big piles that get hot and then let the stuff sit there for a year before you use it, anything that doesn't get broken down will become so dilute as to be meaningless.

ChristieAcres · #**2513** 06/03/13, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

So you basically top-dress compost your fruit trees ?
No digging anything in ?

That is an enviable spot of rhubarb...........

When we planted our fruit trees, DH dug holes at least twice the size of the root balls (or roots as many were dug up and moved from our last property). He then mixed the soil 50/50 with composted manure. A few months later, they were mulched with composted manure. After that, the 2 or 3 applications of Comfrey mulch per year. No, no digging in. The fruit trees in the picture have been in the ground for 6 years while all in our little fenced orchard have been in 7 years. Newer ones are in our chicken yard.

The Rhubarb is happy, but it is her variety that allows her to grow to that size, with a lot of help from rich compost... I couldn't begin to tell you what a difference it has made that I have "lost my fear" of using too much compost. That kind message you sent me a while back cured me

Forerunner · #**2514** 06/03/13, 05:47 PM

They can scratch in the following on my tombstone, someday.....

"Yuh cain't hev too much compost, and yuh cain't hev too many fruit trees".

I reckon that about sums up the net of what I've learned in this lifetime.

I agree wholeheartedly with CesumPec as per the medication quandary.

For those even mildly concerned about the procedure or use in re humanure, I STRONGLY encourage you to get yourself a copy of Joseph Jenkin's," Humanure Handbook."

The information contained therein addresses everything, and then some......in my estimation.

Ernie · #**2515** 06/03/13, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MOgal

This may have been addressed earlier so I apologize and ask that someone direct me to the appropriate pages.....

The topic of humanure has come up and we've talked about "communing" with the pile for urine. However, I don't remember having read anything about the effects of medications in urine on compost. Does the heat of composting destroy the meds or change them? I've read that all the birth control drugs being flushed into Chesapeake Bay has had a feminizing effect on male fish. Just wondered.

Would appreciate input as I may have to go on cholesterol meds to make requirements for DH's group insurance plan or pay a huge premium.

Lorichristie, gorgeous rhubarb! I have comfrey growing beside each of our fruit trees and just cut it each time it starts to flower and let it rot where it falls. So far, so good.

Most drugs have to be handled with care or they're going to lose all of their efficacy anyway. Your cholesterol meds might even have it printed on them that they have to be refrigerated. If they've got to be refrigerated at 50 degrees, what do you think a thermophyllic compost pile at 130 degrees is going to do to them?

I've not seen a definitive study, but I don't think it's a concern. The medication has to survive the trip through your body, and then exposure to the compost pile, and then exposure to the heat of the pile, followed by months of aging and mold, mildew, and insect larva. Then if it's survived all that, it's going to be spread out as soil and it will have to be taken up by the roots of your garden plants and then survive in the fruit of whatever plant you've got growing there.

Most of what they're complaining about in medications is due to the water. The average glass of water you drink from the tap has been through SEVEN other people before it's purified by nature. All they do at the treatment plants is filter out the chunks of poo and then dump chlorine in it. The systems were never designed to handle the wide usage of pharmaceuticals.

So if you live in a metropolis and you drink tap water, then you probably have to worry about the Viagra/birth control/anti-depression/anti-psychotic/liver destroying cholesterol drugs/etc. that are in your water supply.

But your cholesterol meds in poo making it back into you through your tomato plants? I don't expect it's an issue.

ChristieAcres · #**2516** 06/04/13, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MOgal

This may have been addressed earlier so I apologize and ask that someone direct me to the appropriate pages.....

The topic of humanure has come up and we've talked about "communing" with the pile for urine. However, I don't remember having read anything about the effects of medications in urine on compost. Does the heat of composting destroy the meds or change them? I've read that all the birth control drugs being flushed into Chesapeake Bay has had a feminizing effect on male fish. Just wondered.

Would appreciate input as I may have to go on cholesterol meds to make requirements for DH's group insurance plan or pay a huge premium.

Lorichristie, gorgeous rhubarb! I have comfrey growing beside each of our fruit trees and just cut it each time it starts to flower and let it rot where it falls. So far, so good.

Thanks, "Ruby" gets the credit, as she is the compost gobbler

Glad she isn't like Seymour...

How are your fruit trees doing with the mulch? Have you noticed any difference? Our trees began really flourishing upon getting the Comfrey mulch.

Forerunner, you are so right about fruit trees, NEVER have enough!

michelleIL · #**2517** 06/04/13, 07:26 AM

On the cow...it isn't mine, so no worries from me on it. Just green grass, as was stated.

ETA the tomato plant is durn yellow and limp now, but we shall see If it improves before counting it totally out.

MOgal · #**2518** 06/04/13, 08:22 AM

Thanks for all the replies. It makes me feel much better about continuing using urine in the compost.

Also, Ernie, we are on a private deep well, over 400'. When we have to go to town where water is as you say, passed through 7 people before Nature has a chance to purify it again, I take water from home to drink. Also, for some years, Columbia's water has been plagued with trihalomethane--Uh, nope, thanks.

ChristieAcres · #**2519** 06/04/13, 12:50 PM

Found a WSU article, while searching, refers to effects of using compost with fruit trees (prevents Brown Rot...

http://csanr.wsu.edu/compostConn/Cc2.PDF

This cabbage was a volunteer (growing cabbage in the Fall as part of my successive plan). She was side-dressed with compost and will be fed Comfrey Fertilizer (ready in just a few more days). Now that is some super smelly wonderful stuff, recommended highly for Tomato Plants!

MOgal · #**2520** 06/04/13, 01:31 PM

Sometimes I'm a little slow on the jokes. Nope, glad it's not like Seymour at all. I've always mulched these fruit trees from the time we planted them about 15 years ago. I planted the comfrey about 10 years ago and figured that both the cut tops and any roots that died would add minerals and other goodies to the upper layers of soil. I used to be more energetic and each would get a little rotten manure in the fall and grass clipping mulch as well as the comfrey year round. Then I had to stop that for about 3 years when I went back to work and didn't have a mower with a grass catcher attachment. Fruit quantity and quality declined but now that I'm able to mulch and add compost more consistently, I think they will all perk up again.