Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: orsonwb

Compost from my own garden and kitchen scraps have been more than enough. If you don’t yet have your own, try to find at a local organic farm or coop. The compost at garden centers is typically from clippings soaked in pecticides/herbicides.

Rule #1 is never use tap water with ANY chlorine/chloramine for your garden. Charcoal filters are not enough. You want to let the soil life fully thrive and do all the work.

Keep your compost pile moist enough to decompose but dry enough for air to get in. It should feel like a wrung out sponge and have no bad smells. I like to use a huge corkscrew to loosen up the bottom without heavy lifting.

Once it looks black and mostly unrecognizable, filter out the small compost with a 1/4” screen and then let that age for a few months in a bucket with holes on top until it has no smell. If you take a handful and squeeze, it should feel springy like a sponge and never clump together. It should leave no smell of any kind on your hand. Truly magic stuff.

One of the biggest mistakes is using compost that is not fully aged or mixing in “hot” organics like manure/guano that have not been composted. Unfinished fertilizer will actually pull nutrients away from your plants


9 posted on 04/27/2019 6:02:14 AM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: varyouga

Years ago I would add lots of leaves to my garden. I had huge earthworms so figured the soil was good but tomato plants did terible. Later I learned that decomposing takes the nitrogen and didn’t leave much for the plants.


10 posted on 04/27/2019 6:36:12 AM PDT by killermosquito (Buffalo, Detroit (and eventually France) is what you get when liberalism runs its course.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies ]

To: varyouga
I came across this thread doing a search, and if you do not mind I have a question to ask you since you seem to know your stuff. All winter I have had a large uncovered barrel filled with tree leaves (mostly Maple), and which I mixed with left-over greens (3 brown to 1 green), but now with most leaves removed a third of the barrel is just brown water. And which water smells/stinks somewhat like compost can get (though i know it should not).

The question is whether it would be good to use this "leaf tea" for watering, esp for young plants. If not fully decomposed compost takes the nitrogen the plants need, but what about this water?

23 posted on 05/13/2019 5:03:41 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson