Predigesting Organic Fertilizers

Dirtmechanic

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While on the kitchen recipe trail of fermenting creme with different cultures I read an excerpt that came back to me later.

" fermented foods are easier to digest"

Later it struck me that Fish, Blood and Bones are all fermentable. One of the problems with organic fertilizers is that they require time to be digested in the field. Were that process to be removed from the field it could be helpful in some ways. One way would be described as the condition we occasionally find where a plant is lacking nutrients as it approaches maturity, flowering or fruiting stages. Or if indeterminate, perhaps it runs out of steam in the late season. Speed of uptake, also called availability, becomes important. Unfortunately it is a major sore spot for organics.

So often the quick answers are chemical fertilizer responses. Calcium Nitrate for example. But what if...

So I formulated at least one question based on my proximity to the cultures I have aquired for homemade buttermilk and creme fraiche.

What cultures would I use if I chose to ferment FBB over this winter? Lactose? When I buy packages of starter cultures I often read a list of yeasts, not just one. But these are seemingly aimed at milk related products. The rotting of compost comes to mind, but then sterility and safety has a part to play as well. I feel like it is a question that is reinventing the wheel, but really its one of a more narrow focus. For example, if I pasteurized the materials and then added them and a starter to a closed container, even one with an outgas trap like a winemaker?
 

seedcorn

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When you release Nutrients, other things can grab them & tie then up again. There really is no ideal answer except make sure the nutrients are there when the targeted plant needs them.
 

baymule

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Compost, nectar to the plants. The best compost I made was bags and bags of leaves in the chicken coop and run. In a few months, chickens reduced everything to a fine black crumble. Garden gold. I just put it straight on the garden.

Fermented compost is intriguing, keep going.
 

Dirtmechanic

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@baymule , I was thinking of post planting fertilizer amendments like blood meal, bone meal where the nutrient imbalance is intentionally high.

Compost really is the predigested Original Gangster. Its just that it is balanced over composting timeframes. In fact it may even become leached out in the rain if left too long. Specifically more mobile components like K or liming agents like magnesium and calcium may reduce in rain. While early productive growth with compost will show well for me, I see the very large quantity needed for tilling in or soil replenishment or replacement strategies becomes part of my question down the road later in the season over time.

To rephrase the question, or lol - the questionable idea, let me give the context of my garden this summer.

I started it in the fall of the previous year with yards and yards of mulched leaves which composted for 5-6 months. Our fall takes a month or so and some leaves had a head start. I burned twig drops and tree debris and wood over the previous summer and fall for char and added it all. Maybe 8 wheelbarrows of char. I tilled it all in.

I added no broadcasted amendments or fertilizer this summer except a half cup or so in some tomato holes. Compost heaven, leaf mould and char right? The backstory was this was the last year I expected any residual effect from tainted black kow manure compost I had used 2 seasons prior. I wanted to know what the soil would do completely naturally. The results were boring and of course nowhere near as productive as a fertilized garden. But it did produce more than we could eat. The compost does work well while it lasts. Also I was interested in the cost aspects of fertilizer because determining how little one might actually need versus what we tend to overfeed cost wise intrigues me and it was a good summer to observe that aspect as well with the natural nutrient theme of this summers' garden.

With 58 some odd inches of rain and asian jumping worms and whatever else enjoys our compost, the tail end of the season showed a remarkable waning vigor. The slow growth to harvest was a hallmark theme and notable. Leaching and hot sun and all the weathering normally occuring in my garden played their part in removing nutrients. I will definitely have to fertilize, but I learned more about how little is actually needed. And further, fertilizing just the plants, or rows, with compost and amendment will obviously make my weeds unhappy. They were thrilled with me this summer.

So back to my questions considering those bags of organic fertilizer such as blood meal or bone meal or fish meal. If I were able to use lactose (buttermilk?) culture in a bucket of wet bone meal for example, would the fermented bone nutrients be able to react faster when applied to the plants? If I had some that lacked flowers compared to the others I would not care to wait a month or more for the bone meal to begin breaking down. The fermenting process is akin to making compost in 24-48 hours. This intrigues me. It amuses me too, the idea of using some buttermilk to make things so fast.
 
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Phaedra

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I think there are two categories of (compost-based) fertilizer. One offers short-term quick and direct supplements for the plants, and the other offers food for the soil microorganisms, which targets to build healthier soil health in the long run.

For FBB, I might directly bury them in winter to keep friends in the soil busy and happy.
 

digitS'

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Blood meal worries me. The one time that I bought some, the stuff was so dusty that I was concerned about breathing it, getting it in my eyes, on my skin. Too much like my own tissue ... and what microbes might be living in a bag of blood meal?

We learned about a Climax Forest in school. Right? I suspect that this idea might lead us to a notion of an "ideal" source of nutrient for plants. The mix of species that continues generation after generation after generation. Forest litter contributes to their source of nutrients. Yes, animal species are present but soil microbes must be busy mostly with decomposing plant tissue.

Steve
 

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