The disappearing compost pile

That is certainly not an issue this year. In August it rained once, it started on the 1st and went all the way through the 31st. September has been quite wet as well.

But isn’t firefang just the street name for thermophilic fungi that you need on your pile anyways? I mean these are the ones that actually work at high enough temperatures to sorta pasteurize your pile and kill them unwanted seeds.

Last fall I bought 10 bales of hay to use to protect my CH Fig over winter… it worked great.

In the spring after i no longer needed them for that… i relocated 8 of those bales and used them to build a 3 sided hay bale bin for my compost this year.

Each time i add a gallon or so of kitchen scraps… i could just grab some of that hay and cover the new scraps… lasagna affect of greens and browns added a couple times each week.

Later this fall and during a warm spell in Dec this winter… i will slowly mix the rest of those old rotten hay bales in with my compost and continue to turn it more frequently as spring approaches.

Looks to be a bumper crop of compost for this next spring… using the old spent hay worked nicely. I plan to repeat this this fall… 10 more bales of hay to protect my fig… which next spring those bales will be used to construct my new compost pile for the next season.

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I’m not organic. I get chopped up tree trimmings from the city dump and put Urea on it and try to keep it wet.

I reckon I get about a yard and a half of trimmings or two yards.

I had the mature stuff tested once and I apply 2-3 real-chemical-name micros based on that to get it up to a quality topsoil analysis.

I try to resist the temptation to either turn the stuff into a vitamin pill for plants or get into the compost-as-fine-wine mind set.

I find that a pile that size continues to be a steady Nitrogen sink long after the initial 2-3 months. I add an ounce or so of Urea mixed in a bucket of water—-about the same as animal urine in that amount—every week until use . I still gradually fall behind on N.

But as I said, I’m not trying to make it into a vitamin pill. I just want to keep the decomposition going and stay close.

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The whole “organic fertilizer” is a huge pile of nonsense or at best a marketing gimmick to get you pay more to fix a non issue. Yes, they make it easier to over fertilize and the environmental havock that this can create but guess what; stupid application of “organic” fertilizer can also get you there. I try to minimize the use of pesticides, who can be the real problem, but I know that besides retention and absorption profile there is little difference between organic and synectic fertilizers.

Heck my favorite thing in the world is to find dirt cheap fertilizer at yard sales (here in Alaska yard sales are a huge thing). I fertilize with my compost but I don’t mind fertilizing my compost with urea and judicious amounts of fertilizer.

My older apple trees are about to go on a diet. My main use for them is for cider and hard cider develops off flavors if there is too much nitrogen in the equation. My kerr apples developed water core; taste is fine but an early indication of either too much nitrogen or not enough calcium for the nitrogen present.

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