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Posted: 1/21/2013 12:22:07 PM EDT
My wife and I grew or first garden for the winter, learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Were gonna do another one next month. Last time, we bought some spray shit that smelled like dead fish and worked great but it was like $35 / gallon with a 10/1 dilution.
Wife is reading up on composting but its a little late for a garden we're gonna start in two weeks. Cheap ideas on ground preparation and possibly a spray or something for intermittent fertilizing during growth? We'll probably go heavy on peppers, tomatoes and onions, plus another bed of vegetables to be determined. Anyone wanna help a newb? |
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All I ever use is regular old mushroom manure. I pay $7 to fill up a trash can or about $25/yard. It works great
ETA: just till it in with your soil. If it just sits on top too thick it can burn out plants. I've also used Miracle Grow in the past and it's fine and dirt cheap. Speed |
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All I ever use is regular old mushroom manure. I pay $7 to fill up a trash can or about $25/yard. It works great Speed Spread on, till in? |
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Quoted: Quoted: All I ever use is regular old mushroom manure. I pay $7 to fill up a trash can or about $25/yard. It works great Speed Spread on, till in? I edited my post. You need to till it in. It's all anybody uses around here. I did use some crumbled drywall underneath my tomatoes last year and it seemed to eliminate any of the "black bottomed" tomatoes I used to get sometimes, but i figure there is enough gypsum in the soil now so I'm not going to bother this year. Speed |
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Coffee grounds are really good for some things. I've seen people coming into the local Dunkin Donuts where they save all the groundsin a 5 gallon bucket for people who ask. Also, I think some Starbucks will give people who ask, the grounds as well. Just research what you use them for, as coffee grounds are good for some plants, bad for others.
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You can start vermicomposting now and be ready for next year. The best organic fert you can use period. I have 3 worm bins and none of my garden stuff is touched with chemical ferts or pesticides. You should still have a few months to prep your ground I'm in central California and I won't be planting till april or so.
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Horse shit, pile it high, turn once or twice a week until it looks and smells like soil, till it in. You can side dress with it but it tends to float away. |
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Horse shit, pile it high, turn once or twice a week until it looks and smells like soil, till it in. You can side dress with it but it tends to float away. How did this turn into a political thread? |
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Install drip irrigation with an inline chemigation reservoir. Great for using rain water, and avoiding evaporation losses.
40lb bag of Miller water sol. 20-10-20 runs 65 bucks. Give 'em a shot every week once you get N where you want it in the soil. The Organic hippies have some shit tea and fish gut soup that works the same way if you're of that persuasion. Get your soil tested so you know where you are going first. Make your amendments without causing problems for yourself later. You can't add anything, without altering the existing balance, and shooting blind leads to as many problems as doing nothing. Horse shit is HOT and high ph. Great way to kill 'maters, or crank out great sweet corn. Coffee grounds lower ph. Ya don't know what the hell you're doing one way or the other, without a soil test, and wasting time, cash and effort untill ya do know. Good luck to ya!! Gardens can be fascinating as well as healthy. |
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I throw straight horse manure onto the garden and till it in.
Stuff turns into black gold by the end of the season, every year you do it the soil just gets better and better. Also, I get it for free, as much as I want to shovel I can have. |
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Neighbor used to fish for scrap-fish (Carp, that sort) and dry them. Then grind them up and put in his garden.
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Get a horse... You will save a ton of money on fertilizer.
I am married to a crazy horse lady, manure a plenty at my place. I am composting enough for our use and giving the rest away to anybody with a shovel. |
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I make my own compost material. I've got some trees in my yard that constantly grow and shed. Their leaves along with my vegetable kitchen scraps give me some nice "black gold" in just a few months. It took awhile for the various rotting microbes to take hold but now that they are living in my composter, the plant matter rots much faster now.
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My town makes available for free to residents, a pelleted fertilizer produced by the wastewater treatment plant. They sell to contractors too. I think I'm going to try this stuff this year.
My neighbor has used some sort of wastewater-based fertilizer on his stuff and his entire backyard ends up looking like a jungle every summer with all the stuff he's growing. |
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Fish guts ought to break down fairly quick in the soil. Might need to grind it up a bit first though.
What do you think was in that $35/gallon stuff? |
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Cow manure mixed with leaves. I have peppers coming out of my ears.
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Quoted:
My wife and I grew or first garden for the winter, learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Were gonna do another one next month. Last time, we bought some spray shit that smelled like dead fish and worked great but it was like $35 / gallon with a 10/1 dilution. Wife is reading up on composting but its a little late for a garden we're gonna start in two weeks. Cheap ideas on ground preparation and possibly a spray or something for intermittent fertilizing during growth? We'll probably go heavy on peppers, tomatoes and onions, plus another bed of vegetables to be determined. Anyone wanna help a newb? It's called poo. There is plenty of it around. Let the kids run around the garden nekkid. |
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County agri-service?
The fertilizer that works in Texas ain't gonna work best in Washington or Florida soils. My office just happens to be attached to the college I teach at part time. They will do free analysis of soil samples you bring in and tell you what they know is best for what type of crops/plants/trees you're growing. Half my yard is high acid plants and the rest is more neutral so I feed the pines differently than the roses. |
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County agri-service? The fertilizer that works in Texas ain't gonna work best in Washington or Florida soils. My office just happens to be attached to the college I teach at part time. They will do free analysis of soil samples you bring in and tell you what they know is best for what type of crops/plants/trees you're growing. Half my yard is high acid plants and the rest is more neutral so I feed the pines differently than the roses. Shit. This is gonna be complicated huh. |
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free starbucks grinds fireplace ash= free K. Just spread it around good yard compost |
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Quoted: My wife and I grew or first garden for the winter, learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Were gonna do another one next month. Last time, we bought some spray shit that smelled like dead fish and worked great but it was like $35 / gallon with a 10/1 dilution. Wife is reading up on composting but its a little late for a garden we're gonna start in two weeks. Cheap ideas on ground preparation and possibly a spray or something for intermittent fertilizing during growth? We'll probably go heavy on peppers, tomatoes and onions, plus another bed of vegetables to be determined. Anyone wanna help a newb? chicken shit, if there's no chicken farms around get some horse shit. most poultry farms around here spread the house scrapings on local hay/cattle/horse farms and/or sell it by the truckload. |
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If you use HORSE manure... make sure it is WELL COMPOSTED.
Horses love thistle and will eat the heads of weed and thistle plants preferentially. They don't break down the seeds very well and horse manure can be one of the very worst of all garden amendments because of this. It is fine if it is old or is the cleanings of a corral... but don't grab a bucket and follow a horse... because you will spend the next few years pulling more weeds from your garden than you ever thought possible. Composting will kill the weed seeds. Cow, sheep, and chicken manure is pretty good because they break the seeds down via digestion. You have to really till in chicken manure however, because it is very high in phosphate and will burn your plants just as they sprout. |
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My mother has rabbits. I use their poo on my garden. I get old horse shit from a buddy as well. Till it in in the fall and it's good to go come spring. Rabbit shit you can add anytime.
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I spilled a pound of IMR-4350 on my basement floor one time. That's expensive high Nitrogen fetrilizer!!!!
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Wood ashes are good. Don't use charcoal briquette ashes, but lump charcoal ashes are fine.
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Quoted: Wood ashes are good. Don't use charcoal briquette ashes, but lump charcoal ashes are fine. They work best if you mix them with night soil. |
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if you need to acidify your soil for your tomatoes, find someone who makes cheese and talk them out of some whey. or, make cheese yourself, even better
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Quoted: Chicken litter is marginal fertilizer at best. People like it around here because it's cheap.Quoted: My wife and I grew or first garden for the winter, learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Were gonna do another one next month. Last time, we bought some spray shit that smelled like dead fish and worked great but it was like $35 / gallon with a 10/1 dilution. Wife is reading up on composting but its a little late for a garden we're gonna start in two weeks. Cheap ideas on ground preparation and possibly a spray or something for intermittent fertilizing during growth? We'll probably go heavy on peppers, tomatoes and onions, plus another bed of vegetables to be determined. Anyone wanna help a newb? chicken shit, if there's no chicken farms around get some horse shit. most poultry farms around here spread the house scrapings on local hay/cattle/horse farms and/or sell it by the truckload. |
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Go catch some carp or other junk fish, chop em up and bury them under your plantings. You'll get Phorid larvae, and maggots are the ultimate biomass converters. From there, start vermiposting. We go through sick amounts of cardboard, which as it turns out is perfect worm food. Pizza boxes, toilet paper tubes, etc, through a 15+ sheet crosscut shredder makes perfect worm food, subsequently making valuable worms for fishin and frass for fertilizing.
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Chicken poop = Very Hot, high in urea, will burn plants up if not composted properly
Cow poop = best all around, good nitrogen, high organic, composts well Horse poop = not as hot as the above, composts well but can be weedy if not thoroughly composted Pig, rabbit, goat, sheep poop = good, but not the best all around. |
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Soil test before doing anything.
Then look up your plants needs and go from there. Side dress onions with a 10-0-0 during the season after they have established their roots. Miracle-gro is a decent fertilizer but its crap for tomatoes. The high nitrogen causes lots of leaf growth but not so great fruit. Miracle-gro sells a tomato specific fertilizer these days that you could check out. |
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Try switching to the Miracle Gro Bloom Booster after your plants have reasonable height and are starting to blossom. I did this last season and tripled my pepper production with no loss of size. My tomatoes were already past their prime when I switched from regular Miracle Gro but I'll be doing it this year.
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All I ever use is regular old mushroom manure. I pay $7 to fill up a trash can or about $25/yard. It works great Speed Spread on, till in? I edited my post. You need to till it in. It's all anybody uses around here. I did use some crumbled drywall underneath my tomatoes last year and it seemed to eliminate any of the "black bottomed" tomatoes I used to get sometimes, but i figure there is enough gypsum in the soil now so I'm not going to bother this year. Speed Yep, if you're not doing soil conservation service testing, every 3 years should be good on the Calcium bump. |
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Compost free horse manure. Turn every 2 weeks. It WILL compost in time for spring planting.
Find someone nearby with horses. You can even shovel it into heavy duty lawn refuse bags and transport in your car's trunk. BTDT. |
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My town makes available for free to residents, a pelleted fertilizer produced by the wastewater treatment plant. They sell to contractors too. I think I'm going to try this stuff this year. My neighbor has used some sort of wastewater-based fertilizer on his stuff and his entire backyard ends up looking like a jungle every summer with all the stuff he's growing. Up here that's a no go to put human wwtp waste on human food crops. Heavy metals is the culprit. You can put it on flower and animal food crops legally. It's a state reg. |
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