Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Advise for faster composting new lasagna bed

b54red · February 4, 2013

I never compost pine needles. They just take too long to break down. When everything else has composted the pine needles are still there. I guess that is why they make such a good mulch for things like azaleas. They are acidic and they don't have to be replaced very often.

You might try getting a bag of cottonseed meal and a bag of Alfalfa pellets and work them in with a tiller. If you put enough in they should heat up the bed as they breakdown which they do rather quickly. They both have a high nitrogen content which is released as they break down really helping with the feeding of the plants and they will attract earthworms better than anything I have found.

If you have an old fashioned feed store or a store that sells horse feed you should be able to get the 50 lb bags for around 15 dollars each. I regularly put nearly 50 lbs in a 4 by 45 foot bed every spring and about half that amount in the fall. I usually put out about 2 parts cottonseed meal to each 1 part Alfalfa. I also add a bit to my compost pile when it isn't composting fast enough and it does speed it up. It needs to be mixed in because a thick layer of it will sour when wet instead of breaking down fast. Cottonseed meal is rather acidic so you may want to add a little lime.

February 4, 2013	#5
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I never compost pine needles. They just take too long to break down. When everything else has composted the pine needles are still there. I guess that is why they make such a good mulch for things like azaleas. They are acidic and they don't have to be replaced very often. You might try getting a bag of cottonseed meal and a bag of Alfalfa pellets and work them in with a tiller. If you put enough in they should heat up the bed as they breakdown which they do rather quickly. They both have a high nitrogen content which is released as they break down really helping with the feeding of the plants and they will attract earthworms better than anything I have found. If you have an old fashioned feed store or a store that sells horse feed you should be able to get the 50 lb bags for around 15 dollars each. I regularly put nearly 50 lbs in a 4 by 45 foot bed every spring and about half that amount in the fall. I usually put out about 2 parts cottonseed meal to each 1 part Alfalfa. I also add a bit to my compost pile when it isn't composting fast enough and it does speed it up. It needs to be mixed in because a thick layer of it will sour when wet instead of breaking down fast. Cottonseed meal is rather acidic so you may want to add a little lime.