Re: [CH] mulching?
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Thu, 11 Jun 1998 17:56:35 -0700
I garden quite a lot. In the years when I add significant amounts of
composted steer manure to the garden soil, I get excellent plant vigor and
great harvests. And, in these years, I also usually feel a need to add a
little fertilizer as side dressing at most once or twice during the summer.
What I add is ordinary commercial composted steer manure I buy in 30 or so
lb. bags at the local hardware store (Orchard Supply Hardware -- OSH).
I'm a believer in composted steer manure!
In years I fail to add steer manure, I get significantly less robust plants
and lesser harvest (chiles, tomatoes, whatever), and even so I have to use
more fertilizer during the summer.
My soil contains a high proportion of clay, though fortunately not the
Child's Modelling Clay some people have.
For the past several years, the amount of steer manure I mix in is (almost
always, but I forgot to this year :-( ) approximately 1/8-1/4 bag per
planting hole for chiles -- this means something on the order of 1/4-1/3 of
the soil in the 12" diameter region surrounding each plant is steer manure.
Due to "shortage of time", I usually plant each plant within 5 minutes of
mixing the steer manure into the soil, though I prefer to have several
weeks go by between these two events since that allows soil critters to mix
everything a bit making the soil structure much easier to work for
planting.
--- Brent