I have a large amount of old rotten hay bails. I have added some soil from my garden, mixed it up and watered it down, and am letting it cook for two weeks. Do any of you have any recommendations on what else to add to make good soil? Do I need to add some manure for nitrogen? I am planning on adding some fish fertilizer after it is done cooking. The hay is half way composted already.
You can get a simple soil tester first ..I bought one for like 15 bucks at the local nursery.. It tells me soil fertility and ph. Can you give a description of your soil.. Is it clay loam sand mix?
the soil is mostly loam, some clay and sand. It is from my garden, which I have been adding manure and compost to for a few years. The garden soil was dormant last summer due to a last minute trip to Afghanistan.
i thought hay was good for nitrogen in compost? but you can throw grass clippings in there, that'll help add nitrogen to heat things up and help it go faster. but while your at it why don't you make a quality compost? throiw any kitchen scraps you can in there that don't have seeds also no meats or eggs(eggshells are ok though, just not whats inside) or anything like that, it makes it stink bad and may slow it down that'll make a good quality compost that when mixed in your garden will solve ANY nutritional issues
Bubble some worm castings or high quality compost with unsulphured molasses, dilute with non chlorinated H2O and pour/spray on the pile. Turn over the pile and pour/spray some more. Adds microbial life, speeds up composting process. Turn over the pile as often as possible for aeration, delivers O2 to the microbes. Do not roto-till... Nitrogen is essential in the composting process, although I'm not sure of the amount of N in plain hay. Add grass clippings if you can. They clump easily and become anaerobic easily, though. Spread clippings around and turn pile frequently. I go to the local fruit/veggie stands and ask for their old products. I can usually walk away with a few 5 gal buckets for the worm bin and compost pile. Go to your local Starbucks with a 5 gal bucket with your name and phone number on it. They will fill it up and call you when it's full. I posted a pic of my compost turner....
Coffee grounds! If you have a Starbucks near you, ask them if they have a "Grounds for Gardeners" program and you can receive free used coffee grounds. It's high in Nitrogen and is great for compost I get 50lbs a month from my local Starbucks Also, I've read that gypsum is good to add to compost - better than using lime