Ammonium nitrate for horse manure compost

Need to kick up my horse manure compost bin activity. Has anyone had experience with the addition of ammonium nitrate for this purpose?

8 or 10 to 1 brown to green ratio with Black Strap Molasses added will get any compost pile fired up in short order in relation to the time of the year. It's late in the year. Cold weather is upon us or will be soon. All this shortens the amount of sun hitting the pile and causes the mycro herd to get lazy. It is time for the pile to rest. I do not think ammonium nitrate should be added to any compost pile at any time in the process.

Hey doc, good to hear from you. Had pretty much given up on the idea of adding ammonium nitrate at any point in the composting process. I have seen your postings in the past on Black Strap Molasses and will look into this some more in the spring as an additive. Normally I just toss in one of my indoor vermicomposting bins for about a month before applying the composted horse manure to the various garden mixes. Is there such a thing as a 'tech grade' of Molasses or can this be purchased through a farm supply store in a bulk form? My primary horse manure compost bin is 4'w x 8'l x 4'd. I'm pretty sure COSTCO has a large container which would be adequate.

Raw Black Strap Molasses can be purchased at any active grain mill that makes up cattle feed. It is commonly called Cattle Grade Black Strap Molasses. You will likely have to explain "for garden use" and take your own container. This years pricing in my area was nine dollars a gallon. Larger amounts were significantly less expensive. I have a two and a half gallon jug with a spigot. When growing giant pumpkins I used a lot. My left overs may spoil befor I get it all into my compost piles. Don't think that would matter but it looks bad and may be undesirable with mold spore that could be bad for my health issues. I have some really bad lung problems. This mold would be of no concern to a normally healthy person.

Plan "B" would be to check the big box sporting goods stores for gallon jugs of Deer Lick molasses. This would be not quite as good but still better than processed human food grade product. Not quite as good because shelf life is supported with preservatives. That kills some of the good stuff! It will not take away from the carbs the compost critters live on.

MOLASSES COMPOSITION
UNITED STATES SUGAR CORPORATION
Molasses & Liquid Feeds Division
P.O. Drawer 1207
Clewiston, Florida 33440
09/29/03
Typical Composition of
U. S. Sugar's Heavy Mill Run Cane Molasses

Brix, spindle 86.0 degrees
Weight/gallon 11.8-12.0 lbs
Nitrogen 1.01 % C: N approx. ~ 27
Crude Protein 6.30 %
Total Sugars 48.3 % 2001 NRC Dairy Cattle
Density (as fed) 11.8 lbs/gal TDN @ 1x maint. = 62.4%
Dry Matter 76.5 % NEm @ 3x maint. = 66.8mcal/lb
Moisture 23.5 % NEg @ 3x maint. = 44.8mcal/lb
Ash 16.0 % NEl @ 3x maint. = 58.1mcal/lb
Organic Matter 62.5 %
Reducing Substances, as Dextrose 11.5 %
Sucrose 35.9 %
Fructose 5.6 %
Glucose 2.6 %
pH 4.9 - 5.4
Calcium 0.8 %
Phosphorus negligible
(not for use)
Potassium 4.2 %
Chloride 2.1%
Magnesium 0.27 %
Sulfur 0.78 %
Sodium 0.09 %
Copper 14 ppm
Iron 130 ppm
Manganese 5 ppm
Zinc 8 ppm
Cobalt negligible
Iodine negligible
Selenium negligible
Biotin 3 ppm
Folic Acid 0.04 ppm
Inositol 6000 ppm
Calcium Pantothenate 60 ppm
Pyridoxine 4 ppm
Riboflavin 2.5 ppm
Thiamine 1.8 ppm
Niacin 500 ppm
Choline 700 ppm
Back to Blackstrap Molasses

Interesting composition doc on this mill run cane Blackstrap Molasses. At 86 degrees and 76.5% total solids this stuff is fairly dense. I should go back and review your earlier threads on method of application, but I would presume the best method would be to heat it in it's container as well as possible, then pour and dilute with warm water before adding to compost pile. It appears that the high sugar content or carbs is what really makes molasses a good kick starter for the composting microbes...kind of like feeding candy to a baby. As you mentioned, waiting until spring would be the best time to add this to the outdoor compost bins or piles, however this has me thinking about an experiment with my indoor vermiculture/compost bins. Thanks again for the help doc.

morgan

Black Strap Molasses will pour slow. Only in the cool early spring or late fall did I ever warm it up...........and that was after I poured it out of the molasses container. I used a two and a half gallon jug with a cheap valve. It passed the valve always. I took it into the basement in winter.

I'm not up on vermaculture. You read the care and feeding stuff about your worm activities.

Well doc the vermiculture forum which was started about a year ago seems fairly dormant now. I have a culture of red wigglers more than forty years old. I which I now use for my germination and potting mixes. I start with peat moss and the end product, or spent media, works pretty well for the fore mentoned purposes. Each spring I take one of my four plastic worm bins and dump the entire contents into the outdoor horse manure compost bin. I feed the worms with emulsified peelings, egg shells, and coffee grounds. The experiment I started about a month ago was to take the peelings and emulsify them in a blender with gravel syphoned aquarium water, then place the mix in a 5-gallon plastic bucket with lid. The anaerobic mix is then reblended before feeding to the worms. I had some molasses I used to make bread which I added to the mix. As I understand it these worms are actually mold feeders, so this should hasten their digestion process. I can't quantify the results, but the worms are looking good for this time of year. Typically they tend to slow down on the breeding process in the winter, but I am seeding a larger number of younger worms than usual.

I thought I would do something similar with the mollases in the spring. That is to dilute the mollases with warm gravel syphoned water before adding to the out door compost bin.

Sounds good to me. Some of the most educated and highly respected biologists will tell the average person that your ideas and process is a good combination. Keep an eye on the worm size, speed of growth, total size and number. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to watch the worms.

You have red worms of some variety that traditionally work in rotting processes. If they run out of rotting food they will leave or die off. The garden gray worms are just the opposite. This includes the huge night walkers or night crawlers. You will seldom see them associated with a compost pile unless the pile has been a finished pile for several years.

What just rocks my boat from me laughing are a group of do gooders who would kill off all the nasty worms that are defouling the great forests of the world.

doc, there is no evidence that there were ever any indeginous earth worms in our yard or garden, but I am seeing some of the red wigglers in areas of the garden and a couple of the raised beds now in the spring which have survived the winter. I knew a walyeye fishman in Kansas who tossed his left over Canadian night crawlers in his yard and after 20 years he was able to provide his own bait just by sprinkiling water on the yard at night. I though he was pulling my leg so I tried it. Within a couple of years my Kansas yard developed what I assumed where night cralwers only they were about 4-inches long and some what flattened. I now have a Gooseberry patch on the east side of my house which was formerly strawberries in which I placed discarded Canadian night crawlers for two years. When I transferred the strawberries to the garden I found a number of night crawlers in the bed. I would really like to cultivate night crawlers or any other form of worm in my garden which I think might now be ready. I have checked around but I can't find anyone in the valley that has indigenous worms in their yards or gardens, so it looks like my only resource is night crawlers at $5/3 dz.

It's interesing to note that the red wigglers which I originally collect from a neighbor's leaf pile in Kansas back in the 60's were only a couple of inches long and dark red. My cultivated worms from that original start are three times larger at adult size, however they revert back to the original size and color in the raised beds and areas in the garden where I have used the composted horse manure heavily.

Suggest you get into soil building using a cover crop as your basic must do item. Work truckloads of organic matter into your fall gardening and till the dickens out of it. Continue using up to four inches of fall placed raw manures. Till the cover crop in the spring and replant another cover crop on any land you do not plan on planting. Keep this up for three or four years while using organic fertilizers and you will have worms....lots of worms. You will also be able to reduce the amount of fertilizers used as the soil builds. The only other basic item needed is a light yearly application of trace minerals. I used Ironite because it was close at hand and sold in twenty pound bags at Lowe's.

If you have material and room for compost development that of course is a very good way to help the above soil building. The same can be said for vermiculture. The problem is that in the begining one needs to be tending to the even more basic issues. The fine tuning can come as a part of the total later. Build the organic content and all the rest will also show you better yet results.


This is a little like training a jackass. The old farmer when ask if beating the jackass between the eyes with a ball bat didn't interfere with the training he was trying to get done. He answered that no good training would take place until he first had the jackass's attention.

The answer to your initial question is "it depends"! If the horse owner has used straw for bedding, the carbon:nitrogen ratio is probably just right; and you don't need any addition. Do turn the heap often and make sure it's well aerated and not compacted. If however sawdust is the bedding material, you might well need to add extra nitrogen. This could be ammonium nitrate or sulphate, or could be organic nitrogenous material like grass cuttings or leaves.

Pat George

doc, tried rye grass as a green cover crop several winters ago without much success. Grass came up pretty sparsely and tilling it in the spring didn't seem to make much difference, so I typically remove all vines and stalks from the garden in the fall and till in fresh horse manure. Takes a couple of fall tillings to break down the biscuits, but by spring till everything looks pretty good. The color of the garden is getting darker each year which leads me to think that it may be possible to introduce worms after the spring till.

pat, the horse manure I use comes with some hay bedding as well, which doesn't breakdown completely by the time I am ready to use the composted manure, but I don't have a problem with that. doc has given me some ideas on jump starting the horse manure compost bin in the spring which I am currently working on. With your 4B zone you probably experience similar problems trying to beat Mother Nature in the spring. I typically want to start my garden as early as April when the ground thaws out sufficiently to till. The native gardeners here will not plant their seed before June which severly limits the type an viariety of crops which can be grown in our very short season.

I suspect that if rye grass failed you got it into the plantings to late in the fall. It should be germinated and up three or four inches before you freeze up or get serious snow cover. You might consult your local farm agent on your area's common cover crops and the rough schedule of planting times.

There is usually a day or two in late Februrary and always a couple of days in March when we can till or disk. It depends on the year as to when we can do this. Early April is still OK here. May 15th is a gamble date without temporary portable greenhouses. Very early crops start going into our gardens about April 15th.

You're right mraider! I'm having to get used to compost heaps which are frozen solid for four to five months of the year. A real change from balmy Devon.

Pat

Pat...........the attachment is a temporary greenhouse I used in the fall to keep the best part of my compost cooking. I have been known to use shop lights to help heat it for a week or two. When I was wanting to start pumpkins very early I used the same boxes in the early spring. I know we do not have the cold you deal with but maybe something like this could help your pile out at either end of your growing season. My calculations indicate that they gave me an average month's more cool weather growing time. Some years they did much better than provide just a bonus month. I built them out of saw mill rough green lumber and covered with six mil common contractors plastic. Three years use was common.

docgipe

Thanks for the tip. I've got some panels from a shower cubicle we replaced, and I'll give it a go. Sorry for delay in replying. I've been absent for a while.

Pat