for an ad-free Fetcheveryone experience!

Morning Light: The Fetchland Gardening Wire

1 lurker | 78 watchers

ChrisHB Mar 2018 10:33am, 30 Mar 2018 16,378 posts	0 ChrisHB Is there a basic introduction anywhere to how soil and compost work, where plants actually get their nutrition from? For instance, can plants only take liquid (dissolved) nutrition or are there any insoluble nutrients? What does compost ultimately become before it can be used? Why does manure have to be well-rotted before you put it on the garden?
D2 Mar 2018 11:12am, 30 Mar 2018 10,519 posts	0 D2 Chris, hydroponics is a well used method of growing plants without soil the nutrients are dissolved in the water. Matter that is composted eventually breaks down to become soil you can tell its ready to be used when it feel friable, if you put it on the garden before its rotted enough you will have lumps of rotten unpleasant "stuff" that your plants will probably not grow in!
ChrisHB Mar 2018 11:29am, 30 Mar 2018 16,379 posts	0 ChrisHB But compost isn't soil: soil is sand and clay etc with added ingredients. And how much rain does it take to wash everything soluble out of the soil / why does that not happen?
Fragile Do Not Bend Mar 2018 11:32am, 30 Mar 2018 2,923 posts	0 Fragile Do Not Bend Soil is sand and clay with an awful lot of decomposed vegetable matter.
ChrisHB Mar 2018 12:06pm, 30 Mar 2018 16,380 posts	0 ChrisHB I think I'll look around the Wisley bookshop next time I'm there.
Fizz :-) Mar 2018 12:20pm, 30 Mar 2018 2,678 posts	0 Fizz :-) Manure has to be well rotted because otherwise it removes nutrients (nitrogen?) from the soil instead of adding it. (I think)
ChrisHB Mar 2018 1:03pm, 30 Mar 2018 16,381 posts	0 ChrisHB All the sort of thing I want to know, but where did you learn it?
alpenrose Mar 2018 1:08pm, 30 Mar 2018 32,505 posts	0 alpenrose Also, manure (as in horse poo), if not well rotted, will grow lots of grass out of it.
Flatlander Mar 2018 2:36pm, 30 Mar 2018 1,088 posts	0 Flatlander Adding pure, fresh horse manure will make your soil more acid. Well-rotted pure horse manure is less acid, but depending on whether it was covered up/outdoors, some of the nutrients, especially Nitrogen, may have leached out and/or evaporated. Fresh manure with straw will lock up some of the Nitrogen until the straw breaks down, when you get a more stable form of N, which is released slower for plants. Well-rotted manure with straw which should have broken down at least partially. Potatoes like an acidic pH of about 5.5 which is why I plant my potatoes on a layer of horse manure at the bottom of the trench. The manure also provides some extra moisture - potatoes need to be well watered. Acidity is important - a suggested plant rotation is: 1. potatoes with added manure for a low pH, 2. legumes, such as beans and peas will need liming (alkaline) to raise the pH to about 6 to 6.5. Legumes will fix Nitrogen in their roots, 3. brassicas benefit from the Nitrogen fixed by the legumes, 4. root vegetables such as carrots - add nothing I have always gardened organically, most of which I originally learned when I first moved into my house 3 decades ago when at the same time Channel 4 very fortuitously broadcast an organic gardening series "All Muck and Magic" which was fantastically informative, at a time when organic gardening was almost unheard of. These days, there will be plenty of good sources of information, including Bob Flowerdew.
Columba Mar 2018 6:10pm, 31 Mar 2018 15,232 posts	0 Columba Do you belong to the Organic Gardening Association, Flatlander? Today I turned out everything in a trough outside the church because I was tired of looking at the dead remains of last year's dahlias; and put in some primulae to cheer things up a bit in time for Easter.