Compost Questions and Advice . Please .

[hecno]

Well the wet season is here , and the daughter has her horse home for the school holidays , which means heaps of dung , Now I have been wanting to do this for a while now , just had to wait for the start of the wet , before hand I did a fair bit of study on the subject .

Now I understand C/N Ratio .
Estimated Carbon-to-Nitrogen Ratios
Browns = High Carbon C:N
Ashes, wood 25:1
Cardboard, shredded 350:1
Corn stalks 75:1
Fruit waste 35:1
Leaves 60:1
Newspaper, shredded 175:1
Peanut shells 35:1
Pine needles 80:1
Sawdust 325:1
Straw 75:1
Wood chips 400:1
Greens = High Nitrogen C:N
Alfalfa 12:1
Clover 23:1
Coffee grounds 20:1
Food waste 20:1
Garden waste 30:1
Grass clippings 20:1
Hay 25:1
Manures 15:1
Seaweed 19:1
Vegetable scraps 25:1
Weeds 30:1
Note: Many ingredients used for composting do not have the ideal ratio of 25-30:1. As a result, most must be mixed to create “the perfect compost recipe.” High C:N ratios may be lowered by adding grass clippings or manures. Low C:N ratios may be raised by adding paper, dry leaves or wood chips.
Heat , I have that happening , no worry's there . So all going well I hope to have some nice compost , what I would like to know , what is the best way to use it for growing Cannabis

 

[Dazed]

Hey Hence bro,well a first thought would be to consider your aeration. Perlite, vermiculite etc. Also you need to look at adding some coir or peat moss. Coir is better imho (more sustainable). Some epsom salt for magnesium and something for calcium-gypsum, oyster shell, egg shell etc. After that I would be buying a meter and checking the pH, if it's low, which it may be using a lot of manure, you might need some dolomite lime to raise it a little. Thats really basic starting point, I'm sure some expert will like to help @Eyes on Fire etc.

I think you are onto a winner with all that horse poop!

 

[Eyes on Fire]

well it depends on a few things really. first is if your going to use teas at all you should start a second smaller pile more of a 60 to 70% made up of green based composting materials. second is if made well you should be able to use it 40-50% as a base,or if slightly inferior or throwing lore into the margins, you can cut that down to 20-30% and the rest inoculated soil and/or coco or whathaveya..lol and third if you dont wanna make a second batch more green than 50-50 or browns..you can add that to teas and top coating too.since once the compost is done you could stick into a bin(s) of appropriate size(s)..and add simple things such as eggshells,crabshells and some grow and bloom granules and blend to WHAT your growing and thats most of it in a nut shell. that work for ya man?

 

[Joe383]

One thing also is if using in your soil as an amendment the older manure is better than fresher stuff. Old 1+ year old patties are better than 1 month old stuff. I love horse manure though. I would use it over any other manure. If I had a choice over horse, cow or chicken I would choose the horse manure, good stuff. I am using about 1/2 gallon of steer manure per bag of roots soil mixed with lime but its a little hot that way. If your using it as an amendment I would mix about 1/3 gallon of old manure per bag of soil if your buying soil and I am still experimenting with how much lime so I will say 1/8 cup or 2 table spoons if using the roots organic like me. Dazed and Eyes on fire have a lot more experience in the organics then me but this is what I use as my base soil as of now and I like it. Are your mixing this as an amendment, tea or mixing your own soil?

 

[hecno]

Thanks for the reply's guys . I think I will take my time on this before I use it on cannabis plants , I will test things out on some veggie plants first to get a better understanding of how it all works .

 

[Joe383]

Gove me more nutrients hahaha. SRY just thought this was funny. I have found in my garden that tube plants like radish and onion don't like the same nutrients as tomato's and peppers. I split my garden in to high nitrogen plants and high phosphorus plants. A friend used high nitrogen nutes in his garden last year for tomato's and his radish plants got huge above ground but were about as thick as pencil's below. The tops got about 3 foot above ground though. My thought on this is that if it has an abundant amount of nutes it did not need to develop a good root system to search out food. I will still put manure in the whole garden but the types and amounts will vary by location and what I am planting. I would recommend fertilizing the same types of plants different so you can do some experiments to get a good idea of what dose what. Also not a cheep item but in the garden I like to use mushroom compost. A bag is like $8 were I am at so its expensive but its a great additive along with your manure.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

any queries brutha your welcome to PM me or hit me up on my organics thread. once simple compost/recipe with mild and mellow additives will work on most anything indoors and outdoors too.no lime in the compost pile either.after its composted totally THEN you may add essentially whatever to whatever recipe you desire and use it how ever you see fit. unless its tainted with something nasty,it'll be 100% great!!

 

[Joe383]

So I am curious Eyes on fire. Do you not add lime when composting and wait tell every thing is finally ready to use before you worry about PH?

 

[Eyes on Fire]

yup yup!! adding lime can be done and ppl do it a lot too imo. but once its fully composted to work it fromj there re cooks it again and blends and implements more of the benefits in more varying ways to be superior in its growing and feeding characteristics.