Making one's own soil amendements? (bonemeal, fishmeal, MgSO4, FeSO4 etc)

[JustPotteringAbout]

I have plenty leaf mould, coffee grounds, pine needles, seaweed, moss, manures,straw, grass cuttings, vermicompost, biomass combustion products, a Bocking 14 comfrey patch in cultivation, marine molluscs and land gastropod calcium carbonate but I hate to spend good money on ameliorants for more specific remediation that may havea terrible eco-footprint and having been mined, fired, heavily processed and shipped - maybe even flown - halfway around the world.

Has anyone had any success making their own soil amendments to address specific macro or micronutritional deficiencies, excesses or poor macro/mircronutrient ratios?
eg bonemeal, fishmeal, blood fish and bone, Magnesium Sulfate, Iron II Sulfate.

I've made some Iron (II) Sulfate from waste and leftovers and it hasn't scorched the lawn I'm going to reseed anyway, so I think it's soil-ready. Health and Safety Warning: I would recommend against making this yourself. It's quite low yield reaction anyway.

Any other nutrient specific amendements I've forgotten?

As well as having an airtight collection bin, does one just use cabonaceous material (woodchips, paper) in one's fish waste to absorb the moisture and provide a good energy/protein C/N mix for the microorganisms and keep the [nitrogenous] stink down as one does in a compost heap?

Veg plot is in my back garden I can't use fish emulsion out of respect for the neighbours and not wishing to attract Felix sylvestris verminis or rodents.

What does one use to grind the bones and shells to an appropriate particle size?

[Feral007]

I'm sure there'll be lots of techie people round to talk about this stuff soon. I'm one of those, throw it all in together and add a dash of optimism people myself.

[Olorin2001]

If a compost heap smells then it's lacking oxygen, turn it over, aerate it in some way.
If it's organic in origin it will make compost, shells and bones I put through a normal garden shredder or use a hammer.

[rustylady]

Way above my head I'm afraid.

[veggiechicken]

Mine too. "Biomass combustion products" - is that wood ash?

[chris]

Don't you have to be careful dealing with bones, due to the possibility of anthrax if not sterilized?

[Capsid]

Unless you think your soil is deficient in those ameliorants then I think you won't need to add anything as they should be there in trace amounts anyway. For most veg growing all you need is to add organic matter (your compost bin contents) and maybe sprinkle on some chicken manure pellets for the nitrogen needed for good leaf growth.

[JustPotteringAbout]

If a compost heap smells then it's lacking oxygen, turn it over, aerate it in some way.
If it's organic in origin it will make compost, shells and bones I put through a normal garden shredder or use a hammer.

I was talking about a bin of fish waste, not a compost heap. Haha, I know how to work a compost heap and my ones don't smell.
I am also currently using a hammer for the shells and bone but looking for an energy efficient process to take the particles down to a medium to fine sand that's worth bothering about for the quantities involved.
I might hire a garden shredder for a day, just looked them up to buy and they aren't that expensive.

[JustPotteringAbout]

Unless you think your soil is deficient in those ameliorants then I think you won't need to add anything as they should be there in trace amounts anyway. For most veg growing all you need is to add organic matter (your compost bin contents) and

Thanks, I wouldn't have been afraid to ask about about nutrient deficiencies or excesses and associated ameliorants if I didn't know.

maybe sprinkle on some chicken manure pellets for the nitrogen needed for good leaf growth.

Chicken manure pellets go through a number of energy intensive processes and one never knows how far they have travelled and in what mode of transport during distribution.

Mine too. "Biomass combustion products" - is that wood ash?

Yes, mainly but not exclusively willow combustion products, grown locally, burned locally. Also low VOC soot. If I could safely, efficiently and cost-effectively use the CO₂, I would.

[Two_Sheds]

I've made my own filling for raised beds, if that's what you're on about?

Lasagna Gardening ~ Raised Bed Lasagna Gardening ~ Lasagna Composting

[dim]

interesting thread ....

I practise High Brix gardening methods, and use nutrients/fertilizers such as Actively Aerated compost teas, worm humus (vermicompost), volcanic rock dust, bat guanos, fish hydrolosate, seaweed/algae extracts etc, but I buy all my nutrients from a hydroponic store (I brew the actively aerated compost tea myself though, using a koi air pump and aquarium heater)

I never use stuff such as bonemeal (as it hinders/interferes with Mycorrhizal Fungi), and I never ever use products such as miracle gro

I do however use chemical lawn fertilizers (I 'drug' the lawns to keep them bright green as that is what clients want)

I'd be very weary of trying to make my own seaweed extract (has to be done in a lab, or else you will have too much salt) .... same for fish hydrolosate (if you dont do it proper, you may harm your plants and the soil eco system)

[Two_Sheds]

I'd be very weary of trying to make my own seaweed extract (has to be done in a lab, or else you will have too much salt

Lots of us make seaweed 'tea', and also use whole seaweed directly on the soil as a mulch. It really isn't that salty at all

[dim]

Lots of us make seaweed 'tea', and use it directly on the soil as a mulch. It really isn't that salty at all

if it's tea, it's not used as a mulch, it's used as a soil drench .... perhaps the remaining 'dregs' are used as a mulch

I have read bad reports on forums where guys have tried making their own seaweed extracts / products on forums that discuss 'medical *******'

the concensus is/was to rather buy the lab made stuff

[Paulieb]

Has anyone had any success making their own soil amendments to address specific macro or micronutritional deficiencies, excesses or poor macro/mircronutrient ratios?
eg bonemeal, fishmeal, blood fish and bone, Magnesium Sulfate, Iron II Sulfate.

Have you noticed the effects of any deficiencies in the crops you are growing? If not, then why bother?

Anyway, there are some calculations that you can do to calculate the amount of fertiliser/nutrients depending on:
-the requirements of the crop
-soil analysis
-allowances for previous crops.

ADAS have published figures for how much of anything needs to be added to an area for a particular crop.

The sums aren't too complicated, however there are other complications, such as:
-the ADAS figures are kg/ha (not g/sqm)
-they refer to pure forms of fertiliser (eg. phosphorus pentoxide not superphosphate)

Its mainly geared up for mainstream agriculture, and if it was me I'd just buy a box of some nutrients and follow the label on the box, which I guess is probably what you're trying to avoid.

[Feral007]

I think it's great that you are making sure you reduce the carbon footprint of your fertilisering methods. But I must admit its still a little too formal for me.

We primarily use what's available on the farm - chicken/horse manures, with a small amount of sheep manure brought in from the local butcher.
Then we use local hay. And any food scraps, composted usually thruthe chooks as they have access to the compost.
I make comfrey and manure teas. But I don't do a full on aerated variety. I don't have the means to do it that way, and I've observed my fathers method of doing it and it seemed to work, and we seemed not to have any of the problems.
We also are starting to use green manures. And we chop and drop like TS.

We do have ashes at times from the fire, but mostly the wood we burn produces very little ash anyway.

In our paddocks, we could if we had the money get quite techie about it all. But we don't.
So this year we will be looking into a local commercial seeweed making place, and comparing with a larger company for prices.
We'll be looking at putting rock dust on some of the farm, and seaweed on another part, and then comparing what works best. We'll also be doing some hay and manure at the top of hills, to see how that works as well (if we ever get any rain to wash it down the hills.)

Looking at what people write on forums is very interesting, but some forums seem to only get people who agree on the same things - anyone else wanders off as it's a bit of a monoculture of people and ideas.
That's one of the reasons I like this forum. There's so many different ideas, and we all love the ones we use, and altho we at other ideas, we still admit they have merit, just not for us. So we learn a lot more.

I'd be inclined to try out a few things as you go along, and then try a few more, rather than try to get the whole thing perfect in the first place. Mind you, my son spends a lot of time trying to work out the right way to do things.........in between me dragging him out to do some of the hard yards in my 'let's try this' efforts.