This video showcases the sad results of directly planting in composted dairy manure. It does not work. Strawberries seemed to do well, but nothing else liked it.
@Bruiser38 you are very wrong, but you can do what you want with your plants. I'll never think of this interaction again. Just don't want others to get bad info ✌️
This year is my first..and my beds are pure compost made from grass,weeds, ash from the fire..,sticks and woodchips.. well broken down.. and the veg are doing exceptionally well. No weeds abundance of groath.. but no manure or excess animal matter in the compost..
I plant with my one year old red worm compost. I still mix it with the soil in my garden under some of my plants like tomatoes because it needs the microorganisms that the soil has been developing as well as the sand for the worms and clay for minerals.
The microorganisms are the key. Your plants feed them sugars which grows bacteria which bring in predators like nematodes, and others that eat the bacteria and then release plant available nutrients right in the root zone. It’s a little complicated but when you get all the biology there and humming you’ll see healthy plants that are resistant to pest and disease and better harvest with zero inputs other than biology.
The problem with a pure compost is its lack of minerals like the soil contains like some sand, clay and silt. Besides there is a big difference between a young and old compost. Too young there is a risk to burn plants, and too old there is not enough energy left to feed plants. That is why plants can not really growth well in only compost.
This is probably just your compost. Or some other factor. I plant straight in aged horse manure. My garden is quadruple the size it would be without doing it. Had a laundry basket of tomatoes from a single plant the other year at harvest. Yours could be too rich, or maybe it's not retaining water. Could be multiple issues.
OK Russ you know what they say... Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. Looks like you've received plenty of advice in the comments below!
Fully composted stuff when not sifted well can't hold water. In a no till gardening, stablished garden plot, composted dirt can be used as mulch to maintain moisture and at the passage of time (not Kamala's) will eventually create good living environment for microbes hence a healthy soil.
Kamala has not matured well in the passage of time, but soils will. The difference is that Kamala thinks only time will do it but it takes being able to work together with the other organisms and Kamala has lost 93% of her staff because she has not learned how to work with other people.
Use living soil. Your compost is just too young and it should be fine to use as an amendment, so dont throw it away. You require less or you can stretch it out further as an amendment. Compost is usually regarded as food for soil rather than food for plants, though manure does tend to have a lot of nitrogen aswell. The organic matter breaks down by microbes in soil which in turn provide nutrients from soil for plants, along with actually building soil aggregates and improving soil environment for other beneficial microbes, fungus, animals. One thing you should be aware of is that manure products are often contaminated with herbicides that can persist through digestion. If you dont know where the cows food came from and whether its contaminated, that possibility exists. I would leave that manure in a pile to age for many months. Then try to grow a bean plant with it cuz beans are fast and easy and respond to broad leaf herbicides. Grow another in your soil without any manure as a control to compare with your other plant. If the bean growing in manure shows signs of weird leaf formation, while the control does not, then its quite possibly contaminated and you shouldnt spread it out to grow in. Theres documented cases and examples on youtube.
You got low quality product! More of a manure than compost. Next time get mushroom compost since the mushrooms breakdown the compost into usable forms... and plants love it!!!!
I've literally never heard "don't plant into compost" I've heard don't plant into rotting cow carcasses that smell of ammonia. Skill issue. Planting into finished, microbe rich compost is one of the best things you can do. Planting into fowl, anaerobic unfinished compost that is full of unfinished manure and carcasses, that reeks of ammonia is clearly a bad idea.
