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Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Much Ado About Feces

Since starting my gardening and worm composting adventures over a year ago, there are persistent terms that keep coming up from seasoned gardeners.  So I decided to finally check them all out.
  • Worm Castings - Worm Poop!  Excellent fertilizer and infinitely gentler than other fertilizers.  Will not cause root burn
  • Cow / Horse Manure - Cow & Horse poop!  Well this one's a no-brainer and I'm sure even non-gardeners will understand it
  • Humanure - Human Poop!  Apparently, you call it humanure if you're into composting.  You call it $hit if you're not
  • Bat Guano - Bat & Cave Dwellers Poop! - This one, I just discovered today after a quick Google search.  Apparently, all the good stuff are poop.  Why the terminologies are different, I do not know.
  • Dog / Cat Feces - Still poop!  Somehow, most gardeners look will avoid these for composting purposes because they supposedly carry dangerous pathogens. 
  • Bone, Blood, Worm, Corm Meal - Apparently, when it's called Meal, it's a powdered version.  Bone ground into powder is bone meal, blood dried and powdered is blood meal, worms dried and powdered are worm meal, and corn dried and powdered is corn meal.   Each one supposedly has its own special nutrient (I didn't keep track of that). 
Interesting huh?  I think I will have to be familiar with the terms before a I get into a discussion with a serious gardener.  


5 comments:

  1. I am so excited to begin using my own worm castings. And you are right about them never causing root burn. Houseplants thrive on them.

    Thanks for linking to my blog, Cianoy!

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  2. It's pretty cool. Just a few minutes earlier, I planted a newly rooted sweet basil cutting in pure vermicast. It's wasteful I know, but it's a renewable resource anyway.

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  3. Chris -- Thanks for stopping by Suburban Hobby Farmer last week to ask about my next worm composting update. I thought you might like to know that I posted my update (Worm Composting Not So Easy, Part III) today at http://bit.ly/gmQvWV.

    Since you mentioned it here, I thought I'd also bring up the subject of Bone Meal. Some people believe there's a chance to contract mad cow disease from bone meal. See my post at http://bit.ly/i77JKN

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  4. Hey, good to know the bin conditions have improved. Worms can be high maintenance sometimes, huh?

    Seriously, mad cow from bone meal? Oh well. It's a good thing I'm not THAT curious to use that.

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