Alfafa Pellets

Last summer on this forum we discussed alfalfa meal as a good soil ammendment. I bought a small sack of it for a small fortune at a nursery and decided to try to find something cheaper. I went to the farm store and asked for alfalfa meal and they offered me Yum Yum Mix for an even larger fortune. They told me they had alfalfa pellets for rabbits for $10.50 for 50 pounds. I remember it was said last year on this forum that the pellets weren't as good as the meal, but given the price differential, what do the rest of you think? I can't see how the pellets would hurt my soil if I dug them in. Has anyone tried this or heard of it? I can't be the first to notice the huge price difference between alfalfa meal and pellets.

pajaritomt, I have used the alfalfa pellets in my compost and see no adverse effects but have never used the meal so have no comparison. More often I use the pellets to make alfalfa tea. Pour some pellets in 5-gal bucket - maybe a couple inches into the bottom. Fill with water. Cover. Wait two weeks. Stinky for a bit till it dissipates but my plants love it.

HTH

Thanks. I just needed to know that it works. I will try the tea! I may try just digging the pellets into the soil as well. Probably alfalfa pellets get compost to heat up. If they do, I 'll mix some with my fall leaves and see if they help them decay.

Yes, that's why I used them, to get the compost cooking.

i've been using alfalfa pellets from the feed store for over a year now. i just broadcast them over the garden and water in. they break down fast. as long as you don't pile them up and as long as you don't put them down in the heat of summer, you should be fine. they have NPK and trace minerals and they work miracles in bad soil. make sure you get pellets with no salt. i pay about 8.50 for 50 lbs. and that lasts me a whole year in my smallish garden.

Umm, no salt. Hadn't thought about that one. Thanks for the info.

my feed store doesn't even offer a pellet with salt, but i've heard of some that have. my bag says 100% alfalfa.

Thanks. I'll see what is being sold locally.

I make tea from the pellets and then use the sludge that's left to spread over the garden. Seems to work well.

I do check and make sure that I get pellets that area 100% alfalfa.

I actually prefer the pellets to the meal, because the pellet spread better with my broadcast spreader. The meal tends to clog the spreader. I spread alfalfa pellets on my lawn.

Usually I will spread Corn Gluten Meal in the spring and then alfalfa pellets later in the fall.

What a great idea! That's cheaper and better than chemical fertilizer. The farm store owner told me they were really good for holding water in the soil and that he uses them himself. I was afraid he was just trying to make a sale.

Where do you get corn gluten meal?

Good question. Don't think I have ever heard of corn meal gluten before.

Corn Meal gluten. It is a carbohydrate source for bacteria in the soil. Feed supply stores. I used to work in a milling company and we used corn gluten in chicken feed. I guess they have come up with a better use. sorry.

This message was edited Feb 23, 2007 8:30 PM

Thanks, Steve.

I believe corn gluten is actually a protein, so it adds nitrogen to the soil. Corn gluten is also used as a pre-emergent herbicide as it inhibits seed sprouting, so it's good for spreading around transplants.

With the increasing production of ethanol and biodiesel from corn, the gluten supply should increase, and perhaps the price will drop a little.

Thanks for the info! I hope I can find some.

Ok, I'm trying to keep up with this conversation.....if the corn gluten can be used as a pre-emergent, then if I spread it around before I distribute the llama pellets, will it control the weed and grass that comes from the llama pellets????

Here's a link that discusses it in more detail:

http://www.eartheasy.com/article_corn_gluten.htm

It may not provide 100% control, but it should help...

I read that llama pellets didn't contain weed seeds. Have you discovered otherwise?

I haven't used it, but llamas have three stomachs, so stuff is digested better I guess.

I didn't get a ton of llama pellets last summer, but I got a couple of big plastic storage boxes full. I got no weeds at all from them. I am hoping to get more this year. They seemed to be a first class fertilizer. I only wish we had more llamas here in Los Alamos. And they are also cute!

A friend and I are sharing a 'bucket brigade' routine wherein I drop buckets at a local llama farm, and then pick them up full in a day or so. She is retired and I work 40 hours so she has already spread her pellets around her garden and yard. I just tossed mine on the compost pile and have turned it a few times.

I too thought there were no seeds left because llama's acutally have 4 stomachs so their food is well composted already. My friend has reported to me that she noticed some 'prairie grass' type weeds sprouting where she distributed pellets. I have spent so much time trying to get rid of the weeds under my Lady Banks roses and long, long rows of thevetia's that I hesitate now to just broadcast the pellets. I guess I should just try it in a small spot and see. Maybe she will pop in to this thread and let us know how that is going. Otherwise, I'll experiment and report back if anyone is interested.

Edited to say: that's very interesting info re: the corn gluten meal. I'm going to try that too.

Thanks for the info.


This message was edited Feb 24, 2007 7:20 AM

Strictly speaking, llamas have one stomach with three compartments. Llamas and other camelids are separated by evolution and taxonomy from ruminants, which have a 4-compartmented stomach.

Regardless of how they do it, it sounds like llamas are a near perfect composting device! I got to take a drive and find someone with llamas close by. :o) Dan

Re the corn gluten: I looked into that a while back and am very intrigued, but I haven't used it. I'd like to use it on my lawn, but I also reseed often and I don't want to limit the germination of the grass seed. I have read that if you use it repeatedly, it has a longer term effect -- great for weeds, but it seems to me that suggests it might interfere with lawn seed germination.

By the way, rodents love the stuff. (I discovered this the hard way, from a large bag I had in the garage that I didn't use.)

And it is expensive, which is hard to understand given that it is just corn.

I thought it might be expensive. Gluten is the stuff from which yeast bacteria build protein. Protein is pretty much always expensive. That was my thinking anyhow. Anybody know how much corn gluten costs?

I got 50# at agway for ten bucks last fall.

Well, that's a good price. We don't have agway, but maybe I can find it around here.

Other half of the bucket brigade checking in... I did notice sprouts after spreading the llama pellets and was somewhat concerned. However, I have since spread the pellets in three other areas and have not seen the sprouts. So.....it would seem that the sprouts were from something other than the llama pellets. Thanks for the education regarding llama pellets and thank you Mary for sharing them.

I have used corn gluten meal in my rose beds as a fungicide also. It works, but I think you need to be careful not to use too much, because there is a fungus that is beneficial to plants. I use a lot less now than I use to.

Don't tell anyone how great a fertilizer llama pellets are. They don't burn anything and carry few if any weed seeds. If the whole world catches on there won't be a llama pellet anywhere!

Well, I don't think they are available down here. We do have people raising lamas though. I'll ask them about pellets.

Being a veterinarian all Llamas eat weed seeds, as do cattle, sheep, and horses. All are able to transfer the seed in their stools intact. Any where you go where seed eaters go you will find viable seeds. Composting is the only way to minimise the results.

So there would be seeds in compost made with turkey manure also? DH told me that the seeds should get ground up in their crop.

Grow some winter Rye And add it to your compost

Well this is all very interesting. Does anyone know if llama's are typically wormed? I have worked so hard to have a good worm population, I certainly do not want to harm them.

rtl - Our source worms his llamas in the summer before he takes them north to Flagstaff. And he said the medication is out of their system within a couple of days. We should be fine. Good question though, thanks for asking as I had not even thought about that.

The dilution factor by the time the anthilmetic arrives in the colon is enough to prevent concern let alone the dessication, dilution, solar destruction, and chemical neutralization that occurs with every worm er in the animal world.

Thanks Mary and Soferdig