Most 'economical' method of building up soil?
 

Gardening folks use many organic materials to create nutrient rich soil - manure, compost, leaves, grass clippings, food waste, wood chips, newspaper/cardboard, straw, hay, coffee grinds, etc.

In our area, manure and compost are about $700-1000 per 20 cu.yd. truck load. We do not have chickens yet. Once we get them, I will be happy to have the free chicken manure!

Wood chips are free. Leaves are free, but we do not have them here, as we are in conifer forest.

Coffee grounds are free, and this is a great nitrogen source.

1st cut hay (18"x14"x36" bale) is $5-6/bale. 2nd and 3rd cuts are up to $12/bale. These are grass. Can have herbicide residue, unless certified organic (which is very expensive). Alfalfa hay is much more expensive and not easily available here.
Straw bale (same size) is $9-11/bale
Plus delivery $. ($12-25 in fuel cost for ~20 bales if we pick up ourselves, depending on how far we need to go)

I keep asking myself what is the most economical way of adding lots of organic matter into the soil.

Wood chips are great, but take a very long time (2-5 years) to break down, creating very rich soil.

Manure and compost turn into fine dust after short summer months. Need to be reapplied every year.

Coffee grinds are great, but so labour-intensive to spread around (well manure is also labour-intensive, especially when wet). Coffee grinds disappear in 1-2 months, very quickly.

My question for everybody is - what is YOUR most economical way of building up organic soil?

Please share.

Cheers,
Tatiana

Your local coffee shop is usually completely willing to save grounds for free - I give them 5 pound buckets with lids, and pick them up daily, swapping out a clean one for the full one. If you ask them for grounds, don't annoy them by not picking up regularly. No shop likes buckets of old grounds sitting around. I usually collect more than 1500 pounds over a few weeks that way.

We get our coffee grinds directly from the Starbucks garbage bins. This way they do not need to collect them for us (they usually forget), and we pick them up any time Stan drives by, so no commitment is needed on our part. If he does not pick them up then the garbage guys will take them away.

Tatiana

Oops, forgot to mention that we can usually get the 'old' or spoiled hay bales for $2-3 / bale + $12-20 for delivery (gas).

Find somebody with a horse. Offer to clean their stall and pen periodacally. Seriously, horses make a ton of good poo, usually have wood shavings mixed in and they also waste a ton of hay because they trample it into their poo.
You will need a pickup and/or trailer for most good sources of organics for a garden your size.
Try growing mushrooms. They are supposed to break things down quickly and there is a variety of oyster mushroom that will live on conifer.

DH gets horse manure and bedding from a neighbor, rakes/shreds leaves from our property, we use our grass clippings, fruit & veggie waste, our neighbor farms and gives us spoiled hay bales, another neighbor has chickens and we get that manure, too. We mix it up and compost it and use it the following year.

[QUOTE=Tania;428471]My question for everybody is - what is YOUR most economical way of building up organic soil?[/QUOTE]

For me it's weeds and crop residues that get tilled back into the soil.

I agree with Tracydr. Find horse manure. I have chickens, but their manure does not add an enormous amount of organic material. It is really heavy if you aren't able to spread it across the garden. It creates big wet spots if you just dump it in a pile on the garden and it is nearly impossible to till in in the first year. I just dumped it in piles one Winter instead of spreading it. It was terribly wet in that spot that Summer. We weren't able to till it in until the Fall. I don't even "see" it in the garden this year. Now, where we spread the horse manure across the corn field we raise sweet corn in, the soil is much better this year than it was last year. We can pull the weeds very easily. We were able to get the manure for free and my son bartered with the neighbor for his manure spreader and tractor to move it. So, we didn't have much in the cost to do it, but there wasn't any other option for us, either as the other options are cost prohibitive to us, too. (This is a 1/2 acre field)

You could plant some "green manure" in your garden and til it under in the Spring. I buy a mixed bag of seeds for a cover crop for the winter specifically for this.

We dump grass clippings and shredded leaves in the Fall.

any bakeries in your area that you can get egg shell from? I have picked them up by the garbage bag full from there and dumped them right in the garden.

get a bunch of fish cleanings and bury them, you can also mix with sawdust or wood chips to make good compost

My family chides me for burying the chicken and turkey bones in the garden (Not attractive to the dogs, rats, and coons if buried). And they don't understand why I put peelings in the garden instead on throwing them away. My response is always the same, "I don't throw away my wealth."

Horse manure from the local stable is the best I can do.

I was actually looking at dump trucks today on craigslist. I can spend $2,000 and buy one that looks like it's from the old tv show [I]Sanford & Son[/I]. I think a $2,000 dump truck would run for about an hour before breaking down. But one less than 20 years old costs about $35,000.

A hand-operated roller bed for a standard pickup seems like a good idea. It's a conveyor belt that you crank to slowly dump the load. I saw a used one for $100.

[QUOTE=kath;428510]DH gets horse manure and bedding from a neighbor, rakes/shreds leaves from our property, we use our grass clippings, fruit & veggie waste, our neighbor farms and gives us spoiled hay bales, another neighbor has chickens and we get that manure, too. We mix it up and compost it and use it the following year.[/QUOTE]

Kath,

You've got such great neighbours! :)
I bet your soil is very lovely.

Tatiana

[QUOTE=joseph;428512]For me it's weeds and crop residues that get tilled back into the soil.[/QUOTE]

It must be good to have weeds! :)

We barely get any weeds. But my neighbour was nice enough to bring me 2 large garbage bags of their weeds.

Our garden is no till.

Carolyn,

Great idea about egg shells. I will look around.

[QUOTE=rags57078;428515]get a bunch of fish cleanings and bury them, you can also mix with sawdust or wood chips to make good compost[/QUOTE]

Where do you get fish cleanings from?

[QUOTE=joseph;428526]My family chides me for burying the chicken and turkey bones in the garden (Not attractive to the dogs, rats, and coons if buried). And they don't understand why I put peelings in the garden instead on throwing them away. My response is always the same, "I don't throw away my wealth."[/QUOTE]

:yes:

My worst weeds are oak trees. I must pull 10,000 oak trees every season. Georgia grows trees.

[QUOTE=Tania;428475]Oops, forgot to mention that we can usually get the 'old' or spoiled hay bales for $2-3 / bale + $12-20 for delivery (gas).[/QUOTE]

I'll also add cover crops. Even if it's just mustard seeds or fenugreek from the spice store, throw down something, let it grow and then turn it under, I think on a bigger farm, there's probably not a better way to add organic matter, at least anything that doesn't involve huge amounts of big equipment and a free supply of manure.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;428527]Horse manure from the local stable is the best I can do.

I was actually looking at dump trucks today on craigslist. I can spend $2,000 and buy one that looks like it's from the old tv show [I]Sanford & Son[/I]. I think a $2,000 dump truck would run for about an hour before breaking down. But one less than 20 years old costs about $35,000.

A hand-operated roller bed for a standard pickup seems like a good idea. It's a conveyor belt that you crank to slowly dump the load. I saw a used one for $100.[/QUOTE]

Even handier would be an old manure spreader that is chain driven. I had one from about 1940 when I used to raise a lot of show horses. I would muck out stalls straight into the spreader and than drive it over the fields that we grew hay on to spread. I got what amounts to a small pickup load every other day.
My parents had a turkey farm nearby when I was a kid. They spread turkey manure by the truck full in the garden in early spring and never used anything else for fertilizer.

[QUOTE=Tania;428532]Where do you get fish cleanings from?[/QUOTE]

Do you know any fishermen or resorts ? I catch junk fish and put them in mine

[QUOTE=Tania;428529]Kath,

You've got such great neighbours! :)
I bet your soil is very lovely.

Tatiana[/QUOTE]

Yes, Tatiana, we are indeed blessed to live where we do and to have such wonderful neighbors. The soil has come a long way since we first broke ground here.

kath

[QUOTE=Tania;428530]It must be good to have weeds! :)[/QUOTE]

I'll send you seeds... :twisted:

Grass clippings, weeds, leaves and kitchen compost are the most economical because they are generated on my own property or my next door neighbor's. Coffee grinds I pick up when on my way to work or out to dinner, so they are a close second. Horse manure is a 22 mile round trip. Not as economical but not bad 3 or 4 times a year. Wood chips I can pick up for free at our town transfer station which is a 12 mile round trip or have 15 yds delivered for a total of $75. I'm trying to get some dropped for free but no luck so far.

Glenn

From what I have been reading it seems organic matter does not represent more that 4% of the soil and when applying compost, I mean well made compost it could be spread as thinly as 1/2" on the beds and still reap great benefits. So this idea of lots of organic matter that need to be put it every year does not seems to answer reality unless you garden in complete sand.
Then cover crops and weeds can be placed right back into soil even with slight digging.
I am bag lady when leaf season starts, I drag every leaf pile my neighbors put on the curb right back... I collect garden cleanings i.e. annual pulled out at the end of the season.
For my own compost my main sources leaf mulch and horse manure from friend's stall two main things I have.
On my community garden plot I collect stuff that people cleaned out, like weeds from walking path, stalks from overgrown lettuce etc. Law of return.
Am experimenting this year with aerated compost tea brewing, while initial investment is high, it nearly reversed problems my peppers had this year and keeps tomatoes going.

Tania... Rabbits! invest in a few rabbit hutches and rabbit will give you copious amounts of manure. granted it isn't free, but it is much easier to add to the garden than horse manure or a cover crop since you are no tilling the garden. (The cover crop can be cut and laid right down on the garden though to shade out the roots from regrowing into a new plant). Nor do you have to wait because it is too hot to put on the garden. You can plant right into freshly added rabbit poo and not worry about burning your plants. I have 14 rabbits, but they don't add near what I need, but it is better than nothing. I add it directly to my greenhouse pots for my dwarf tomato project. During the winter I put their cages into the high tunnels or greenhouse ( the one I plant right in the ground in) and let them poop right down the row as I move the cages every week.

[QUOTE=ScottinAtlanta;428535]My worst weeds are oak trees. I must pull 10,000 oak trees every season. Georgia grows trees.[/QUOTE]

Lovely! I wish we had them here - that would have made lots of high quality ramial wood chips! ;)

[QUOTE=clkeiper;428577]Tania... Rabbits! invest in a few rabbit hutches and rabbit will give you copious amounts of manure. granted it isn't free, but it is much easier to add to the garden than horse manure or a cover crop since you are no tilling the garden. (The cover crop can be cut and laid right down on the garden though to shade out the roots from regrowing into a new plant). Nor do you have to wait because it is too hot to put on the garden. You can plant right into freshly added rabbit poo and not worry about burning your plants. I have 14 rabbits, but they don't add near what I need, but it is better than nothing. I add it directly to my greenhouse pots for my dwarf tomato project. During the winter I put their cages into the high tunnels or greenhouse ( the one I plant right in the ground in) and let them poop right down the row as I move the cages every week.[/QUOTE]

Great idea, I believe this will work. The only problem I really hate rabbitts. Too much of the rabbit care when I was a kid I guess LOL.

Chickens or guinea fowl I can take any time :)

When you use wood chips as chicken bedding, it is much easier to manage chicken poop. It comes partially decomposted, with wood chips, and can be spread directly to the garden beds. The best manure I can think of. Much easier to spread than heavy horse manure. Much more nutritious.

By the way, we grow cover crops in come beds (garlic beds). Still no tilling, just 'chop and drop'. Used to do that in potato beds also, but now we grow radishes and kale in these beds after potatoes are harvested.

The main problem with cover crops is our garden beds are full - from end of March to end of October. No time to grow much cover crops except winter rye, but by that time everyone is so sick of gardening that they find all excuses not to do any over plantings in the late fall.

[QUOTE=Lindalana;428570]From what I have been reading it seems organic matter does not represent more that 4% of the soil and when applying compost, I mean well made compost it could be spread as thinly as 1/2" on the beds and still reap great benefits. So this idea of lots of organic matter that need to be put it every year does not seems to answer reality unless you garden in complete sand.
Then cover crops and weeds can be placed right back into soil even with slight digging.
I am bag lady when leaf season starts, I drag every leaf pile my neighbors put on the curb right back... I collect garden cleanings i.e. annual pulled out at the end of the season.
For my own compost my main sources leaf mulch and horse manure from friend's stall two main things I have.
On my community garden plot I collect stuff that people cleaned out, like weeds from walking path, stalks from overgrown lettuce etc. Law of return.
Am experimenting this year with aerated compost tea brewing, while initial investment is high, it nearly reversed problems my peppers had this year and keeps tomatoes going.[/QUOTE]
Getting 4-6% organic matter in a perpetually used garden is not as easy as it sounds. A 1/2 inch of compost may maintain organic matter but it might not build it at all. Organic matter is constantly being used up and needs to be replenished at a pretty substantial rate to stay in that 4-6% range. Especially if you are cultivating and tilling. Also, I think a whole lot depends on where you are located. Warmer climates will use organic matter at a much quicker rate than colder climates.

Glenn

I agree with Glenn. Building up organic matter in the soil is not easy.

Manure does not do it. It is used up in a couple of months, leaving fine dust. Same for kitchen compost. Same for coffee grinds. These are great fertilizers, but not soil builders.

Tilling increases the loss of organic matter.

Tatiana