Re: General Newbie Questions

Contained in Joseph Derting's latest missive was:

> Regarding composting. I know Oak doesn't work but what about Beech? Can
> I use fallen brown Pine needles? (Pinus Mugho) 

I've been following the compost mailing list and composting myself for
several years.  I have composted large quantities of both pine needles
(mostly cedar and ponderosa pin) and a variety of oak leaves.  Both
compost fine and yield rich compost.  However, they take longer than other
types of leaves.  For me the oak leaves usually take a few months with
active turning, and the pine needles take 18 months to two years.  You can
speed this up considerably if you can shred them first.  Two good ways are
running over them with a lawn mower or putting them into an empty garbage
can little by little and "blendering" them with a weed-eater.  Putting
them into a chipper/shredder usually jams the chipper shredder.

If you get your carbon:nitrognen ratio right (equal volume of "browns" and
"greens" is a good rule of thumb) you will get a compost with a normal
pH.  The wide variety of organisms that participate in making compost will
normalize a lot of abnormal conditions in the "feed stock" including pH
variances and a variety of unpleasant additives, within reason.  (For
example, elemental pollutants like lead and cadmium can't be magically
transmuted into something else).

> p.s. I've been taking time-lapse photos of my plant at 3 day intervals
> for about 5 weeks and plan to continue until harvest. I'll make these
> available as thumbnails for anyone who might be interested once I finish
> out my first roll.

Cool.  It would be very cool to make an animated GIF movie of this that we
could see on a web page.  If you want help on doing this let me know....

Shaun

PS: My AG's are the size of small beach balls here in Spokane, WA, behind
where I want them to be.  Next year I'm going to be a lot more aggressive
about getting plants outside in the ground early.  In addition to my first
year growing AGs, this was my first year at a new place so there was a lot
of bed preparation to do for both the AG site and the vegetable garden.
Every time I get a garden plot in really good shape, it seems I have to
move.  

-- 
"What I do today is important because I am paying a day of my life for it.
What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high." -- Anonymous

polaris@wolfenet.com    ++     PGP email welcome.
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