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Montoursville, PA

Just found a chicken processing plant in my area. The feathers are baled and shipped to another plant where feather meal is processed.

Seeing my need and pumpkin pleased the plant maintenance guy. I came home with 100 lbs of prime feathers to feed my soil. I did not look but I will guess feathers are 12% N

I shall till them under with the leaves this fall.

8/31/2003 5:18:25 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Cool. Feather Meal makes an excellent soil amendment & N source. But Dwaine. Be careful. I saw elsewhere here today where you were considering Corn Gluten for weed control. It works fairly well on Crabgrass at 20 lbs/1000. But it's 10% Nitrogen. So that's 2 lbs of N. That's all pumpkins need in a year. So the Corn Gluten plus Feather Meal are getting up around 3 lbs of N. So I wouldn't apply any more N in the program unless deficiencies become eveident.
Wow. That's a lot of organic Nitrogen!

Steve

8/31/2003 7:38:39 PM

Long Island,New York

Dwaine....feathers might make your pumpkins light.....lol

8/31/2003 9:27:14 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Its when those damn pumpkins started crowing at dawn, that drove me crazy.

8/31/2003 11:08:17 PM

Oz

are there any possible nasties in the feathers? mites,,,?

you might need red wiggler worms(vance saffels-englewood tennessee),to chomp on those feathers.
ohio river basin nite crawlers are what im looking for,,,although they may not like it in the patch,,,

8/31/2003 11:43:47 PM

so i suppose turkey feathers work the same way eh?

9/1/2003 12:44:23 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Poultry Mites don't live in nor feed on soil. They don't feed on plants either.
The crowing I could deal with. It's when they start learning to fly I'd be nervous.

9/1/2003 8:11:33 AM

Oz

what about molds ,,funji,,bact.,,,

9/1/2003 9:11:46 AM

Montoursville, PA

And I will have you know these feathers were Kosher too! On the subject of molds, fungi and bacteria...I hope so! If they were clean they would have no value in my patch.

I would think in terms of maybe a mix of blood and feathers with the heavy side of the applicaton using a touch of corn meal for the worms in fall. I would only lightly use anything in the spring since the organics would still be there from the fall with now work to perform except work on the leaves and unfinished compost. This complimenting five cupic yards of manures and some more mushroom waste will yield compost not a percentage to be added up as if stored there for spring. The percentage value of compost is the result. We are not growing in feathers or blood. Can not be figured like synthetic ammendments or fertlizers. If overdone the additions will tie up the nitrogen not produce to much. If not converted to humus the elements just lay there untill the total soil ballence needs them and then consumes them. They do not leach out at all like synthetics if at all. In this respect the application rates are somewhat forgiving.

9/1/2003 10:46:09 AM

Oz

well,, make sure you wash behind your ears!!hehe
kosher chicken???oye!
mushroom waste??? from a pizza?lol
where do you get this mushroom waste?
i get old mushroom soil from a mushroom company.

9/1/2003 10:54:39 AM

Montoursville, PA

Mushroom waste or mushroom soil....perhaps both terms are wrong. It is neither soil or waste. It becomes waste only to mushroom growers. It does not become soil. It processes from mushroom waste to humis to become a part of soil in your farm, garden or patch.

Don't know as I ever saw a percentage factor. I do know by the time it is a part of your soil the percentage by vollume will be very small. Giving your soil proper time to digest, compost or meld compost or humis into itself there are no reasonable amounts that would upset any soil.

How much can you use safely? Generally if you can till it in and maintain a decent texture including leaves...bunches of leaves you need not worry about anything. You might work in a ten pounds of blood and some molasses this fall to help the process. I use ten pounds of corn too and half a bag of ballanced organic garden fertilizer. Then the cover crop and I walk away until spring. This per 1000 sq. ft. patch.

Doing all of that Penn State University was still calling for nitrogen in the spring soil report. They tell everyone they need 27 pounds or more of nitrogen. Truth is they can not test for the nitrogen I build into the soil and have inprocess 100% of the time. They can only test the absence of synthetic fertilizers in the area of nitrogen. I pay $9.00 to get the PH. That is all they really can help me with. They give the usual synthetic presences or absense in the soil. That information is not so important to a healthy patch alive with living factors supporting growth which they do not or can not test.

9/1/2003 12:00:59 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Dawine,

PSU *could* test for Nitrogen. But they don't. The results would be meaningless. N is too volatile to get good readings in a distant lab. I would love to see an affordable yet accurate field test kit so that samples could go from field to test tube in seconds for a good read. But none of the kits I've seen offered are very good. Someone is bound to mention Sudbury ket's. But I find them inferior to good pro lab equipment.

I suspect Urea may have been the factor causing your worms to run. Unless you were using Sevin. Nothing fries earthworms as well as Sevin. (Old superintendants trick to keep Earthworm castings from lousing up the surface of the greens!) Merit has not slowed down the worms here. With the cool wet weather, they stayed active & near the top much longer into summer than most years.

Steve

9/1/2003 2:06:16 PM

Long Island,New York

Ok..talking about worms...Ive had just about enough of thier beneficial aspects ! I had a five yard stockpile of straight horse poops three months ago now I barely have a molehill...sure thier "end product" is great, but how can I stop them from pigging out on my fall ammendment stockpiles? They're leaving mud castles in my lawn all over the place too...G

9/1/2003 2:18:34 PM

Oz

put rubber bands on those worms..
i hear it slows down digestion..hehe

9/1/2003 2:40:17 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Actually Glenn the nutrient value of their poop isn't very good cpmpared to the value of what they eat. And if that's all we needed them for then we'd be better off without them. But they really do a nice job aerating soil which is probably the biggest benefit.

I have so many worms here I have to "power rake" my lawn twice a year or the mower bounces so badly I can see the deck hop in the finished cut. But then I'm pretty anal about these things I suppose. LOL

Steve

9/1/2003 4:57:20 PM

Oz

ahem,,,
in defence of red wigglers,,,
they eat garbage,leaves,and other rot that would take years to break down. and bass love them!
red whigglers-vance saffels-englewood tennessee

dead night crawler worms make great fert!
last sealed compost i had i added worms.
they did thier thang,,,,and then froze.
i had three doz in a garbage can composter.

9/1/2003 5:18:04 PM

Montoursville, PA

LI...........Anything they process is going to be a better amendment than the material they ate. A single worm processes it's own weight in castings per day. Up to 500,000 will make their home in an acre of healthy soil. Their castings, comercially available are one of the most expensive ammendments we can purchase. Earthworms bring to soil wormcasts rich in nutrients otherwise unavailable to plants. I know of no other creature that eats and leaves better food than he ate. 3000 species now exist. Want to start a new hobbie? Read up. It is amazing what the guys give you including an occasional fish. :)

9/1/2003 10:05:29 PM