Quote:
Originally Posted by sjamesNorway
I wonder if somebody could explain to me why "compost isn't a fertilizer"? I'd like to know where all the nutrients from all that vegetable-matter are going. When a whole years waste becomes maybe 4 square feet of finished compost, there must be an accumulation of nutrients.
Steve
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I hope you read the link Pure Harvest put up it explains some of it but not all or at least the part I read.
Plus I am not a big fan of hot composting.
In another video I think PureHarvest put up it talks about this too.
I have been doing what that guy said to do for years at least for me as common sense.
When I buy plants for my place I first look the plant up and see what its natural habitat is.
If I can duplicate it I will buy it if not I more than likely wont.
Oddly enough caladiums grow very well here as my soil is very much like the soils it grows in, in south America naturally I just have to add water.
I can assure you they dont need well drained soil like the adds say.
This is just a catch word that people dont understand what they have for soil.
Then there is the difference between holding water and retaining water.
Sand will hold water and keep it from evaporating.
Clay soils can retain more water but do a poor job of holding it to keep it from evaporating.
The other day I had a good talk with a woman about compost.
She is always asking how i get my plants to do so well,
I tell her I fertilize them.
She says well I do too.
With what as I already knew.
I put compost on top of the containers.
I tell her compost isn't fertilizer.
That isn't what the Master Gardener I know is telling me.
Well I dont know what to say but she ios wrong or you are not getting all of the information she is giving you.
What do you mean?
Is she saying composted chicken manure or composted leaves table scraps and leaves.
Just compost.
Well then do some research on line at university websites or other good places.
Because if you want to know how I am doing this just fertilize that is all you need.
She like so many other people go out and buy potting soil more than likely the cheapest they can get add compost and more or less sit back and wait for nothing to happen depending on the plant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PureHarvest
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I looked at the link and I have but one thing to say.
The part about the planting hole.
So many places say to do exactly what the folks in the link say not to do.
The so called 20 dollar hole for the 10 dollar plant.
I dont agree with this.
I am not going to go out and dig a darn hole 3 times the size of the plant, put the plant in and fill it with expensive soil unless the soil is really really bad.
If that is the case then I am not going to put a plant that cant live in that soil.
In my opinion and that of other accredited folks all you are doing is digging a big container.
If the tree cant live in the soil you have then dont plant the tree.
I have what you would call semi well drained soil.
It doesn't hold water over night and all the next day like some places do.
I can dig a hole and the water will drain away in and hour or so at the very most even after the ground is soaked.
Since I am on the tree planting thing I also dont follow the instructions and put up guy wires to hold the tree up.
All this does is make a skinny trunk.
But is done on larger trees when transplanting until they can establish a root system.
When we did this we would come back about a year later and take the supports down.
Worth