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Fresno, Ca

So I am doing a lot of work to my patch this year adding gobs of compost, mulch, and manure to try to get my OM % up. It is currently at 4% I have added at least 5-6 yards of material to my 500sqft patch. So I am hoping to have it above 10%. Once I get the OM level up how much will it drop each season? How much material will I have to add to maintain?

3/16/2009 1:50:04 PM

Denver, CO

I add about 3 yards for a 600/sq foot patch every year to keep my OM% between 7 and 10. Soil types, drainage, tillage etc all play a big part in this. Once you get it to where you want, it seems to be easier to maitain.

3/16/2009 4:44:23 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

The more you till the faster it will disappear.

3/16/2009 7:54:22 PM

North of FRANCE

Well,
every year seems to be a bit different, because of the weather conditions, watering as Ghopson and Linus as say, and to know if you had lime of no, because normaly you can't add organic matter and lime in the same time; lime is eating your organic matter, it is a question of Ph now.
Some farmer in France here, said to me that they put one year lime and the other OM, i hope your Ph is good now, Stéphane.

3/17/2009 4:19:53 AM

Colorado Springs, CO

seedguy,.....You speak of adding "gobs" of compost, mulch and manure. The first of those three should be the one you add ! Whatever manure you get should be "composted" before you toss it into the patch. And, just what sort of "mulch" are you talking about ? ! I hope it's not chipped (green) wood ! If so, you are defeating your best intentions. Anybody can "get the OM % numbers up there". It's the better OM that you want.

Mulch is surface cover material and the older and more-composted it is...the better.

Invest in a truly good compost and immediately begin to develop a multi-stage composting operation of your own. Oldest, younger, youngest. Alternate your brown and green materials. It's all about the Carbon and the Nitrogen, and the hosts of micro-biological helpers that are invited to participate. Turn those piles, add dry molasses, alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, and water those piles down. Damp, good. Soggy and saturated, bad.

You want earthworms. Do you notice any ? Buy some, and toss them into your compost piles near the bottom. Let them help you. Every now and then go in and retrieve a few and toss them into the larger garden. They will eat organic matter there, have sex and re-populate, and you get to have a better garden that the one you have today.

3/23/2009 11:50:01 PM

Fresno, Ca

Thanks for the tips tomato man! Compost I made my self, about a yard worth of my lawn clippings and fall yard cleanup materials mixed with my leaves and the leaves from my folks house. The mulch is actually commercially made compost that I bought, it is greenwaste compost from the cities recycling program. I also got two yards of mushroom compost. Manure was about a year old horse poo. Bought a few tubs of earthworms last year from wally world. I am thinking about droping 39.95 for 1000 worms from a website and scattering them once I get my ground ready and prepped. I am hoping to finish my tilling and adding of compost over the next week so it can sit for a month fully incorporated. I am going to water with molasses fish/kelp and symbex once or twice a week to keep the microbes going.

3/24/2009 12:14:40 AM