Extreme Composting

Studhauler · #**2941** 12/28/13, 07:45 PM

I'll post an add on Craig's list for a dead cow.

Forerunner · #**2942** 12/28/13, 08:00 PM

*whispers*

In certain circles, they may be willing to recompense you some, to take it off their hands......

myheaven · #**2943** 12/28/13, 11:43 PM

I posted pictures! I'm sure there was a scapula in there but the pile was stomach contents and the dog found the skull. We didn't look too hard for the bones. We were just turning the pile. There was nothing but stomach contents. Boy did it smell. The dog thought it was the best cologne and kept rolling in it. Nasty brat!

Paquebot · #**2944** 12/31/13, 03:57 AM

A lot of this composting stuff is the same no matter what scale is used. Three dump boxes are no more or less valuable then what can fill a pickup box or a car's trunk. Today was visit to local Jung's Garden Center. Initial thought was to see how many unsold Christmas trees were available. Someone mentioned that there were again a lot of bundles of pine boughs and one pallet was already full and more than enough for another. Anything with twine fasteners went directly to my pickup. Still another pallet with wire ties and I'll be getting that, too. Already I figure to have the equal to about 15 Christmas trees. Double that in a few days and then start bringing home intact trees. For my needs, it's going to be like candy to children!

Martin

DEKE01 · #**2945** 12/31/13, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paquebot

A lot of this composting stuff is the same no matter what scale is used. Three dump boxes are no more or less valuable then what can fill a pickup box or a car's trunk. Today was visit to local Jung's Garden Center. Initial thought was to see how many unsold Christmas trees were available. Someone mentioned that there were again a lot of bundles of pine boughs and one pallet was already full and more than enough for another. Anything with twine fasteners went directly to my pickup. Still another pallet with wire ties and I'll be getting that, too. Already I figure to have the equal to about 15 Christmas trees. Double that in a few days and then start bringing home intact trees. For my needs, it's going to be like candy to children!

Martin

great catch, Martin. I used to work at a hardware store and took dozens of left over Xmas trees home and laid them along the fence rows to provide wild creature habitat. That was long before I had a chipper that would make them into mulch.

Poverty Knob · #**2946** 01/02/14, 02:18 AM

I found this forum over a year ago when doing a search on composting. I read it and followed the instructions, which resulted in ALOT of really great compost. So what to do with it? I built a hoophouse and grew alot of vegetables.
Thanks Forerunner, you have cleared the fog, driven away the wives tales and given me some entertaining reading. And since I know that you like pitchures, here is some of my garden this year.

Forerunner · #**2947** 01/02/14, 06:29 AM

Lord bless me........ another long lost Brother !

Welcome to the wive's tales busters club !

Great pitchers, btw.......

My understanding is that your biggest obstacles in Kansas are lack of moisture, occasionally excessive heat, poor native soils and a deplorable lack of compost enthusiasts.
What other measures have you taken in your horticultural efforts, aside from composting and an awesome hoophouse ?

curdy · #**2948** 01/02/14, 07:25 AM

Great looking hoop house!

Poverty Knob · #**2949** 01/02/14, 09:04 AM

Thanks FR. Your list of Kansas growing conditions is correct but incomplete. We also deal Extreme Wind and Hail. The wind has taught me alot about interior bracing of a plastic building. (Notice the bracing in the pics.) We lost our first Hoophouse on Nov. 10, 2011 due to sustained 70 mph winds and no interior bracing.
With the help of some terrific friends and an understanding wife we re-configured, rebuilt and replanted! I will attach some pics of the first learning experience.
My latest en-devour is vermicomposting. Our worms around here didn't read the book that says "Build compost and the worms will come". If I can grow 16 ft. tall tomato plants with compost imagine what I can do with vermicompost!
J.L.

Forerunner · #**2950** 01/02/14, 09:16 AM

Oh, yeah...... I had forgotten all about Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

:

No wonder the default crop is grassfed cattle.

Lots of compost....and still no native worms ? Now there's an oddity.

Must be an Illinois soil vs Kansas soil thing.

Martin, wherever you are, you old Codger......

Why ain't Poverty gettin' no volunteer worms to show up in his compost ?

Paquebot · #**2951** 01/02/14, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

Lots of compost....and still no native worms ? Now there's an oddity.

Must be an Illinois soil vs Kansas soil thing.

Martin, wherever you are, you old Codger......

Why ain't Poverty gettin' no volunteer worms to show up in his compost ?

He's not getting any native worms since there are none there. Almost all worms in most of the US and Canada are European. There used to be a large species in the Pacific Northwest but is believed to be extinct. There also is/was some in the Southeast but tilling and competition from the European species have all but eliminated them. In the northwoods of MI, MN, and WI, soil duff accumulated at the rate of 1" per thousand years since the last ice age of 10,000 years ago. When nightcrawlers are introduced, they consume that in one year. I have only nightcrawlers here as they will not allow any others to exist in the same ground despite efforts to introduce them. When introduced to my garden in August 1963, there was not another nightcrawler in the city. Still only have them in limited areas where the silt over clay layers are deep enough for them. Where there is sand under the silt, there are no crawlers.

www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html

Martin

am1too · #**2952** 01/02/14, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poverty Knob

I found this forum over a year ago when doing a search on composting. I read it and followed the instructions, which resulted in ALOT of really great compost. So what to do with it? I built a hoophouse and grew alot of vegetables.
Thanks Forerunner, you have cleared the fog, driven away the wives tales and given me some entertaining reading. And since I know that you like pitchures, here is some of my garden this year.

awesome!

am1too · #**2953** 01/02/14, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paquebot

He's not getting any native worms since there are none there. Almost all worms in most of the US and Canada are European. There used to be a large species in the Pacific Northwest but is believed to be extinct. There also is/was some in the Southeast but tilling and competition from the European species have all but eliminated them. In the northwoods of MI, MN, and WI, soil duff accumulated at the rate of 1" per thousand years since the last ice age of 10,000 years ago. When nightcrawlers are introduced, they consume that in one year. I have only nightcrawlers here as they will not allow any others to exist in the same ground despite efforts to introduce them. When introduced to my garden in August 1963, there was not another nightcrawler in the city. Still only have them in limited areas where the silt over clay layers are deep enough for them. Where there is sand under the silt, there are no crawlers.

www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html

Martin

Hmmm! I have seen them in my woods, but haven't seen them in my compost yet. I did put down some cardboard and worms of the red wiggler variety ate it right up. They were very different from the big brown ones in my woods.

Paquebot · #**2954** 01/02/14, 02:15 PM

Unless there's been some recent discoveries, I don't think that there are any native worms in Oklahoma. Worms in woods can be one of 3 types of which only one would live in a compost pile. Night crawlers feed on the surface but live in deep vertical burrows. A second type feeds mainly in the top 6" of soil and will remain as a viable population only as long as there is sufficient organic matter for them to consume. Third type both eats and lives at or near the surface, do not make burrows, and can not survive freezing. Those are the red wigglers which will live in compost and die but leave behind many cocoons for the following season. The key words to search for are anecic, endogeic, and epigeic. Those are the 3 classes mentioned above.

Martin

Poverty Knob · #**2955** 01/02/14, 02:56 PM

Lots of info. Thanks.
When we bought this place (13 yrs ago) we found very few earthworms while planting trees and the garden. Clue #1 that our soil was out of balance. This place had been continually farmed to wheat for a long time, and the prevailing thought on fertilizer here is "Anhydrous Ammonia" it will make wheat grow. Never mind that it solidifies your soil! Nor was our soil very good to begin with (Red Clay).
I have spent several years stumbling around in the darkness trying one thing then another to increase the life of our soil and then it hit me.
Better living through chemistry isn't the answer.
Feed the soil what it needs to rebuild itself. Microbes! N-P-K are only 3 of the elements in healthy soil. Thus my diving headlong into compost and my newest fascination with the Red Wiggler, trying to build a better compost.
I realize that this post kind of rambled, but it gives you a little more info.
J.L.

Forerunner · #**2956** 01/02/14, 03:08 PM

Well, some mischievous European came traipsing by here some years ago, and dumped his whole wagon load of red wrigglers.

Bless his heart.

Paquebot · #**2957** 01/02/14, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poverty Knob

Lots of info. Thanks.
When we bought this place (13 yrs ago) we found very few earthworms while planting trees and the garden. Clue #1 that our soil was out of balance. This place had been continually farmed to wheat for a long time, and the prevailing thought on fertilizer here is "Anhydrous Ammonia" it will make wheat grow. Never mind that it solidifies your soil! Nor was our soil very good to begin with (Red Clay).

Anhydrous ammonia is for corn, not wheat. Can't imagine how it can be applied to wheat since it would have to be knifed in just outside the root systems or it would immediately kill the plants. Most common nitrogen application for wheat would be ammonium nitrate. That's more than likely what was used.

Martin

Poverty Knob · #**2958** 01/02/14, 03:37 PM

Martin
Anhydrous is applied when wheat is drilled not as a side dress.
J.L.

Paquebot · #**2959** 01/02/14, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poverty Knob

Martin
Anhydrous is applied when wheat is drilled not as a side dress.
J.L.

I've never seen a grain drill with an anhydrous ammonia tank mounted on it. It would be interesting to see such a thing which is obviously very local since there is no Internet data on it. It would need a plumbing nightmare of tubing as well as individual sets of injectors to place the anhydrous well below the seed depth. It's a liquid when under pressure but becomes a gas as soon as it is exposed to the atmosphere. If applied at seed depth, it would vanish into the air. But if it's being applied as a dry product, it's not anhydrous ammonia. Closest dry form would be urea, 46-0-0.

(Worked 11 years manufacturing fertilizer. Lungs are paying for it now.)

Martin

Poverty Knob · #**2960** 01/02/14, 06:38 PM

Martin here are 3 quick links about Anhydrous Ammonia application on wheat. Not looking for a fight here.
http://ksre.k-state.edu/news/story/a...ous082212.aspx
http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/handle/2097/13602
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vi...=extensionhist