how to transform inorganic fertilizer into organic fertilizer

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Sandman, Mar 13, 2013.

  1. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    The other day, with my first post on this PRI forum over in the intro section, I asked a question regarding what I could do with 50 lbs of chemical fertilizer. I got a couple of suggestions - a) donate it to a garden club and b) trade it for some plants. Those are good ideas, although the toxic nature of the fertilizer still ends up doing harm somewhere. I'm now posting my question in a different way here in this section.

    What I'd really like to do is transform the fertilizer into useful nutrients for our food forest. That is, change it into material that is not toxic to soil life. I considered diluting it in compost tea, but I decided against that because I think it would degrade the quality of the tea and merely dilute the chemicals rather than transform the salts into safer chemical forms. Yes, it would reduce the toxicity of the salts, but I'd prefer to do something better. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

    For now, I have decided to start hot composting again (something that I stopped doing when I grew from an organic gardener into a permaculture practitioner). I am adding the chemical fertilizer, small amounts at a time, to the compost when first building the pile. I intend to turn the pile several times in the coming weeks to quickly produce finished compost. I do not plan to add any more chemical fertilizer to the piles each time it is turned. I am relying on microbes in the pile to "bio-remediate", if you will, the chemicals in the fertilizer. If all goes well, the salts in the fertilizer will be dissolved into solution and then incorporated into the microbes, thereby getting transformed eventually into humus. The harsh chemical salts will still be toxic, but I am counting on the toxicity being absorbed and neutralized in the compost. Basically, I am trying to overwhelm the harshness of the salts with virtually an infinite army of microbes. By the time the finished compost is produced, the material should be safe for the soil life in the food forest. It certainly should be safe-er, anyway.

    Has anyone done this? Does anyone know of other ways to capture the nutrients of chemical fertilizer in a safe way?
     
  2. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    What about processing it through a worm farm? Dilute it and soak horse manure in it and then add the lot to the worm farm. Brian is our resident worm expert - he'll turn up and tell me if that is a daft idea soon enough.
     
  3. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    What is in the fertiliser exactly?
     
  4. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    According to the labels, diammonium phosphate, sulfur coated urea, muriate of potash, ammonium sulfate, sodium borate, copper oxide, iron oxide, manganese oxide, sodium molybdate, zinc oxide, and the one ingredient that causes me some concern - activated sewage sludge. I am sure there must be some heavy metals, like lead, in the sewage sludge but I am fairly confident the concentration is very tiny, especially after further dilution of the material in compost. As for all of the other ingredients, they should change chemical form readily in the environment of a well managed hot compost pile.
     
  5. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    Update - I turned the pile for the first time yesterday, and man, it is really cooking. Like any good compost pile, it is steaming when I pull a fork full of material out. White mycelia of fungi agressively growing. The temperature probe reached almost 130 F on a cool morning with an ambient temperature of 60 F. So, it appears that the chemical fertilizer is definitely not preventing the pile from composting properly. I am not seeing any evidence of the chemical salts, so it sure looks like this is working out as planned. Should have finished black compost in another 2 or 3 weeks. So far, it appears to me that this is a good way to "remediate" chemical fertilizer, actually transforming the nutrients into organic fertilizer.
     
  6. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Wow, that is cool. Thanks for posting. You could write this up for the main site.
     
  7. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    How does composting change the chemical form of the ingredients (in ways that differ from direct application to the soil) and how is this beneficial?
     
  8. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    There's no difference in the way the chemical form is changed - but this is beneficial because the toxicity of the harsh salts is absorbed by the material, water, and life in the compost rather than the soil life in the garden. The harshness of the salts is undoubtedly toxic to microbes in their immediate proximity in the compost pile, but in that process, the salts are diluted to some extend which reduces the saltiness and therefore the toxicity. Dilution also occurs as the salts are dissolved in the water that is applied to the pile. Microbes that are a safe distance from the highly concentrated salts should be able to incorporate some of the nutrients from the boundary area where the salts are at a low enough concentration to not be so toxic. Mycelial fungi can transport water and nutrients long distances, even several feet from what I understand. I did not chemically analyze the compost, nor did I microscopically analyze it to evaluate the microbes, but this seems the likely scenario just based on basic principles of chemistry and microbiology. I think the final proof that compost produced in this manner is not toxic will be if and when it is finished black, cool compost and I find spring tails and earthworms in it.
     
  9. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Thanks Sandman! :)
     
  10. camwilson79

    camwilson79 Junior Member

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    Hi Sandman. I think you're right on the mark with that last statement. People get fairly dogmatic about chemical fertiliser, but the fact is that in small amounts, if you've got plenty of organic matter cycling around, and plenty of biology, you're unlikely to cause any issues at all. It will soon be cycling around the system like any other P, Zn, Fe etc. There are plenty of fantastic organic gardeners who have used sulphate of potash very successfully to enhance fruiting in their orchards for example.

    By the way, your compost sounds a bit too hot. If it's really steaming and there's white stuff, most likely it's actually facultative anaerobes, living on the edge of the aerobic, anaerobic zone. Backing it off a little will mean you'll keep more of your material through the process. After years of composting, if I have the room I always go for a slower 4-6 month pile these days, as it ends up much more colloidal.

    Cheers, Cam
     
  11. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    Hi Cam. Yes, I normally prefer to make cold compost if any at all. I'm temporarily making an exception because we need a lot of compost fast. Last year we planted over 100 trees, shrubs and vines in very poor sandy soil and we're trying to get them off to a good start. I'm making a lot of aerobic compost tea also. Long term, I'd like to have a self-sustaining food forest, with very little outside input. We finally have everything mulched adequately, but some of what we planted are heavy feeders and they need nutrients now or they will not grow well this year while waiting for the mulch to break down adequately. When the compost is ready, I'll be clearing the mulch away from the trees, depositing the compost, and covering it with the mulch. After that, a few applications of tea should be adequate for the rest of this year. Eventually, I hope the only necessary outside input is water from our well during critical periods. But it will be several years before our trees are big enough to create adequate leaf fall. I think this year we'll not have to mulch as much as last year, and each coming year it should be required less and less. We'll always be composting our kitchen scraps, but we can do that with a fairly small cold pile. In addition to the reasons you mentioned, hot composting is a lot of work! But it makes finished compost in only a few weeks!
     
  12. Raymondo

    Raymondo Junior Member

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    I think your approach to using the chemical fertiliser is a good one. Microbes should indeed be able to incorporate the nutrients as long as they aren't overwhelmed. By the way, I don't think the whitish stuff in a hot compost pile is fungal in origin. I think Cam is probably right about it being some sort of bacteria or perhaps actinomyces. Fungi proliferate after the high heat stages.
     
  13. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    Cam and Raymondo, I'm sure you're correct about the white stuff not being fungal mycelia. Come to think of it, it had a wet, lustrous appearance rather than fuzzy. I'm gonna just stick with calling it "little white fuzzy critters".:nod:
     
  14. Sandman

    Sandman Junior Member

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    Latest update - after a couple of turns, the pile had cooled down to about 95 degrees F, and I decided to spread it out as mulch for some feijoas. Definitely seeing fungal mycelia in it now. This seems to be a good way to put some chemical fertilizer to good use.
     

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