best recipe for compost/fertiliser organic?
i have a vast amount of leaf mulch, grass mulch, horse manure and can buy , wood chipping, i have pure top grade top soil and would buy anything else if needed, i want to get a perfect recipe including ratios to make the best most organic fertiliser for my friend who does allot of hanging baskets and planting of shrubs etc… the other thing is i was going to use a concrete mixer to mix it as it is on a quite vast scale… the mixer is always thoroughly cleaned out after every use and we have other cleaning products to clean it but would trace amounts of cement reck the whole mixture? i live in essex and would give a few bags away to the best answer… i plan to sell them cheap as a little hobby business..anyone got some really good advice? Thank you….
I’d get clear on what it is that you want to make, as your question includes a few things that could help other growers, including a potting mix. There’s possible confusion as in the UK compost can mean a couple of things- either compost made of organic material, such as in a compost heap, and secondly it’s also used to mean a potting mix, such as for pot plants.
Firstly, I’d compost all of the organic matter that you can, so that when you do utilise it for plant growing it is decomposed and its nutrients are fully available for the plants to use. If the manure etc is not decomposed many plants will get ‘burned’ by it, and the nutrients will likely be in ammonia form, rather than transformed into Nitrates/Nitrites. This does mean that there will be a lag, whilst your compost is maturing – it’s much faster in summer time, due to the ambient heat, which speeds things up. I realise that having to wait may be a pain, as you’re motivated and I’m guessing that you want to get on and start producing your goods straight away.
If you make compost, you can then make a ‘tea’ from it, achieved by soaking some compost in water for some time, and then diluting it. You thus get a liquid fertiliser to use, which will produce larger plants, fruit and vegetables etc.
Compost is best made from a mix of live green plant material and brown matter, such as dried leaves, newspaper, sawdust etc. Layer this up into a huge pile, allowing lots of air to circulate, and consider adding some worms who will digest the contents and help it mature.
For a potting mix, I would not use any organic matter that has not matured, for the reasons I mentioned above – nutrients are not available and the mixture can damage some plants. But, you could create your own soil mix, such as a John Innes potting mix – there’s a range of them. These do incorporate some soil within them, as well as sand and – historically – peat plus nutrients, some of them organic, such as animal products. Peat sources are now endangered, so alternatives can be used. I’d encourage you to look at the John Innes mixes, as these seem a close fit to the type of growing mix that you want to create for your friend.
There’s an overview here of the different John Innes mixes – http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/soil/john_innes/john_innes.php
Eg.
7 parts Loam – ie. soil
3 parts Peat
2 parts Sand
plus – into each cubic metre of mix, add
0.6kg ground limestone
2.4kg hoof and horn meal
2.4kg superphosphate
1.2kg potassium sulphate
I think you could swap out the peat for compost that you’ve matured, or mix it with a peat alternative. Peat is generally lacking in nutrients, whereas your compost would be nutrient rich, so this could mean that you could reduce the artificical fertilisers to be added.
Take a look here at basic information on the John Innes mixes, which are all soil based. http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/soil/john_innes/john_innes.php
A concrete mixer would be an ideal way to mix all the ingredients together, so I’d use it if freely available, and only a miniscule amount of cement might remain. I’d also check the acidity if possible, as some plants do not tolerate alkaline potting mixes. I’ve just got in from a few hundred miles journey today, so I can’t spend much time on this answer right now, but will review and edit it tomorrow.
Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob
