Extreme Composting

Martin, if I may.....

What state did you work in, manufacturing fertilizers ?

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Anhydrous ammonia is applied preplant to wheat. It's a practice that has fallen out of favor though as more acres are no tilled and more fertilizer is custom spread.

That is correct and backed up with the links. It used to be common around here when anhydrous and application were cheap. Always done in the fall but often as much as 50% may be lost during the winter. There's a lot of grain grown in this area and nobody uses it anymore.

I worked for F. S. Royster Company, 7 of those years as manufacturing foreman. On my shift, I was the only one qualified for working on anhydrous cars and handling it. It was a 2-day training session in Chicago to qualify. Our plant was located in Madison, WI and was one of 27 nationwide at the time. Our dealer range was all of WI and roughly 75 miles into IL. Below that would have been supplied by the much larger Indianapolis plant. MI would have been supplied by that one and the Toledo plant. I was scheduled to be transferred to Indianapolis with eventual goal to become a plant manager. Didn't want to leave Wisconsin so I switched occupations and went into dairy equipment manufacturing. For those who remember fertilizer bags in those days, we had two sizes when I started, 80# and 100#. When we had to switch to 50#, some of the older workers would wait and take 2 at a time off the belt!

Anhydrous was ugly even under the best conditions. It will not allow you to take a second breath and I had a number of times when that happened. Tank cars and lines are never empty since they are filled with vapor as the liquid is pumped out. That requires a bleeding system for the hoses from the tank to the station. That's done in water for safety purposes. One night I shut off the valves and opened the bleeder and went off to do something else. Came back and no more bubbling in the water barrel. Connection atop the car was a quick-coupler with two dogs. Flipped the first one and then the second. Hose blew off like a rocket and hung up with the vapor shooting right at my face. I was about 12' in the air and I jumped straight off that car. Didn't care where I was going to land but I was going to be alive when I hit the ground. My right hand got some liquid and blistered when the coupler popped. By the time it was in my face, it 100% vapor and just burned like the devil for a few days like frostbite. It was almost expected and thus we had a special salve on hand just for that. It was in the winter and thus only my hands and face were exposed. Those were pre-OSHA days and nothing in the fertilizer industry was safe at the time.

Martin

Paquebot

Glad you survived your experience, anhydrous is nasty stuff to handle. We haven't used any in a number of years and don't miss it. Most dealers here aren't even selling it any more.

Liquid fertilizer is commonly put on when drilling, that could be the tanks on the drills that was discussed.

Let's get back to our regular scheduled program now.

I pulled back some hay/straw in the cow lean to floor a few days back, and there were WORMS still there, just lethargically hanging out!!! Shocking, as we've had -25F nights several times now. So I guess you could say they were "just chillin'" .

Got worms?

No earthworm can survive freezing. If there are still live worms, it's because they haven't frozen yet. Survival of the species relies on the number of cocoons which were produced and which will hatch when conditions are favorable in the spring.

Martin

.......or if there's some clown running around mounding up preposterously gargantuan piles of somewhat balanced organic matter, thus giving the worms a layer of "just right" between the frozen outer crust and the hot, steamy deliciousness within.




I once dug into such a pile during a spell of particularly sub-zero weather, and this one worm perked up and looked straight at me..... opened his little mouth much wider than I would have expected, and yelled;









PARRRTAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY !!!


























.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Since red wigglers don't live long enough to reach age 21, make sure your compost pile remains aerobic so that no alcohol is produced for their parties.

That particular pile may have been privy to some corn fines from the previous fall........

Next opportunity I have, I'll inquire about their regulatory protocol, as it may pertain to drinking age.

I'd be willing to bet, however, that they all refer to themselves as FreeWrigglers.













































.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

I don't know whether to or or

I'll go with the latter.

The worms, or lack of, is an interesting question. My VA house has tons of them, happily chomping away on kitchen scraps and maple leaves. I've never seen them on the Florida farm. I had always assumed that the avg .5% OM was the limiting factor and that more compost would bring them out of hiding; perhaps something akin to Bruce Worm becoming Batworm just when you need them. Now you guys have me wondering if I may need to import some.

I know of a nearby gent who tried to go into the worm farming biz but failed for reasons unknown to me. I'll inquire as to where he got his slimy livestock.

As mentioned before, there were no nightcrawlers in this city when I moved to this residence in July 1963. We had tons of them in the lawn and field around the fertilizer plant. In August of that year, heavy rain had the parking lot covered with crawlers. Working 4-12, picked almost 2" in a 5-gallon pail. When I got home, dumped them right in the middle of where I had stripped off sod a month before. They took! In the 50 years, they've gone 4 blocks via back lawns. They've only gone about 25-30 feet south from my garden and have yet to reach the 100' from where they started to the street curb. They need 5 or 6 feet of favorable soil to make their burrows. Much of this area is alluvial silt over clay and that over sand. The worms can live with the first two but not the sand. "Build it and they will come." requires a back hoe, not a tiller.

Martin

HAPPY 100th FORERUNNER!!!

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OK, I've got sand with .5% OM except where I have done extensive amending. Two to five feet down is a layer of clayey sand as described by the soil test where I'm building. Maybe worms aren't here and won't come here unless I give them a good pile to work with and buy them a one way ticket on Eisenia Air.

I have a backhoe, so I can mix significant amounts of material. But I still need lots more compost and other OM to keep a large worm population happy.

I have a few worms here in a few scant inches of top soil on clay under a dense canopy of oak under storied with some sand plumb. Do they ever like those plumbs. Other places I have as much as 18 inches of sand over the clay. And of course I have slay right as the surface. Plenty sandstone to go round too. Eight to twelve yards at a time.

I've been offline a couple days to show my power system some compassion during the sub-zero.

Ah, the peace…… reading "Deerskins into Buckskins" next to the wood stove.

*sigh*


Thanks for the Hallmark™, Stud_H.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

You even "TM"ed it.

__________________
Patriot Guard Riders http://www.patriotguard.org/

”Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.”
~Noah Webster

Oh, yes.......

HT® is very strict about adhering to copyright protocol........

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

For what it's worth, on Windows, ™ trademark symbol is Alt+0153.

Martin

Hey, now....... that was one of my favorite cyber-secrets ! :

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

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Martin