Adding compost to existing soil

[schoolsout]

My neighbor (87 years young) puts in a 1-acre veg garden each year. He uses his offset disc to plow the ground. Then he hitches up his twin-axle dump trailer, heads for the worm farm and gets a load or two of worm casings. He spreads the casings using the FEL on his tractor (JD 2640) and then works this compost in using a rototiller (his is attached to an Allis Chalmers 712H garden tractor, hydrostatic tranny).

Good luck.

Along the lines of what I was thinking.

Worm farm sounds interesting...this compost is just the yard waste that is brought to the landfill in Charleston County. Cheapest stuff I can find, but I've never looked for anything other than similar stuff. Might have to see if there is any place that sells worm castings around here.

 

[forgeblast]

look for mushroom compost, works great too.

 

[jonyyuma]

My pto Tiller just ate 20 bags of white sand. It did pretty good at spreading it thru soil. I have walked the rows and poured it onto the ground, then tilled. I would be concerned about wood chips added and termites. Anything wood that lays on the ground here draws them into it?

 

[MNBobcat]

I dump the compost in the middle of the garden using my dump trailer. Then I use the root grapple on my skid steer to back-drag and spread the compost over the entire garden. Then till it in.

 

[schoolsout]

haha...

Not nearly enough (which I knew, but we didn't get the full 3 tons, either). Won't do that next time. Will tell them to fill her up a bit more...

Here are a few pics.

 

[NorTracNY]

That picture helped. Yes, you have a lifelong project. Cover crops and compost for a few years will help a huge amount. Have you tested the soil yet? No use spending money putting something on the ground when you are lacking something else.

 

[schoolsout]

No real soil sample taken yet...this was more or less a "create something to do" type job

had access to a dump trailer (can borrow it pretty much whenever) and wanted to go ahead and till turnips/rape in. That patch was turnips/rape (deer annihilated them) and I figured while tilling it in, I'd add compost, too.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Dads old garden spot had been a hill before the previous owners 40 yearsw ago leveled the old road bed out with it. THe garden was a big red clay core. He put sand and a few loads of manure in it. He got out of gardening for a while and I bought the place. I started driving through town on saturday evening and picking up bags of grass and leaf clippings for the the compost pile. I had about 400 bags of leaves and grass windrowed in the garden for the fall and winter. I used the skid steer to turn it over a few times. It partially composted as I couldnt turn it in the winter with the loader.


The first day it was dry enough I turned the garden with my 2 bottom breaker and the pread the partiall composted leaves and then tilled them in till they were gone. THat spring I turned it over again and I had alot of night crawlers. I also found that tilling in the raw materials in fall it would break down and lossen the soil better than the compost.

Really fiberous matereal like wood chips composted will really help loosen the soil to We mix it with manure and turn it every 4 days for 5 months.

 

[ArtMech]

My soil preparation technology is as follows:
1/ I have two gardens - 1st for current use, 2nd for next year planting preparation, so called a "compost field";
2/ The 2nd garden is being tilled and covered by hay taken from the fields after mowing and mulch from the yard after grass cutting; the quantity of hay should be as much as possible, for comparison - after 2 years I don't see any traces of hay in the soil;
3/ In autum, when the seeds are likley killed, I'm tilling the garden with hay/mulch in the required number of passings crashing and inserting the hay into the soil; before my last 1-3 passings I'm adding slaked lime to reduce soil acidity (Ph); to do all this the tiller teeth design should be the rotary 'knife' type but not the 'shovel' type;
4/ Next year I'm tilling and planting my 2nd garden and the 1st garden is becoming a "compost field";
The advantages: I avoid compost move from one place to another; no need to use chemicals; hay is replacing animal manure in case if it's hard or impossible to obtain it; the greens and vegetables are growing better than you could expect.
Disadvantages: the pile of hay looks not so aesthetic within the summer, needs to select a particular place for the gardens; 2 gardens need more place (depending on the quantity to be planted), especially if one of them is not in a current use.

 

[schoolsout]

Dads old garden spot had been a hill before the previous owners 40 yearsw ago leveled the old road bed out with it. THe garden was a big red clay core. He put sand and a few loads of manure in it. He got out of gardening for a while and I bought the place. I started driving through town on saturday evening and picking up bags of grass and leaf clippings for the the compost pile. I had about 400 bags of leaves and grass windrowed in the garden for the fall and winter. I used the skid steer to turn it over a few times. It partially composted as I couldnt turn it in the winter with the loader.


The first day it was dry enough I turned the garden with my 2 bottom breaker and the pread the partiall composted leaves and then tilled them in till they were gone. THat spring I turned it over again and I had alot of night crawlers. I also found that tilling in the raw materials in fall it would break down and lossen the soil better than the compost.

Really fiberous matereal like wood chips composted will really help loosen the soil to We mix it with manure and turn it every 4 days for 5 months.

My buddy has been doing this lately. As he drives the neighborhood, he'll make a note of who has leaves out by the street and the next day (if not that day), he'll load up about 50-100 bags at a time between his pickup bed and his trailer and mix in his soil. Said he's on his 3rd year of doing this and his foodplots have exploded because of it.

I just figure as cheap as the compost is, I'd go that route. I told my father I want him to save the hickory/oak leaves from his yard for me. He hemmed and hawed until the county finally made everyone go to paper bags for lawn debris. He doesn't want to spring for that added cost (This guy lives on the ICW and wakes up to the sun over the Atlantic every morning, but he can't spend $5 more for bags? No wonder his nickname is "tightwad")

saracenas, one of these days, I'd love to have the discipline you do. As of now, I'm not even sure if I'll continue (in 5 years) to grow in this spot. Lots of changes about to be made to property regarding clearing some land.

 

[SLHawkins]

SchoolOut,
Like you, I brought in a load of horse manure and then used the FEL to spread it. I could have done a better job spreading it, however, had I used my rake instead. But, I had left the rake down on the farm. The yard is all fill dirt full of stones and what not. It was too hard for a moldboard plow, so I used my chisel plow to open it up. Then, I spread the horse manure. My cousin came in behind me and tilled it in with his 3-pt hitch tiller. Given the initial soil condition, I wasn't expecting much. But, the garden came in quite full that year. My neighbor had tomatoes, greens, and corn to spare :thumbsup:

Here's the video:

Spreading Horse Manure on Neighbor's Garden - YouTube

Hawk

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Here's the video:

Spreading Horse Manure on Neighbor's Garden - YouTube

Hawk

That's a HUGE tractor in such a small yard. :laughing:

 

[SLHawkins]

That's a HUGE tractor in such a small yard. :laughing:

Kyle,
It was big enough for me to get in there with a 10 tooth chisel plow!! I only used 7 for this job though. It was my neighbor's yard anyway. All I did was prep him a spot for his garden:thumbsup:

Hawk

 

[tallyho8]

This is how I spread horse manure on my neighbor's garden. Automatically. :laughing:

 

[randy41]

i wouldn't mix it in. compost is a good growing medium. just keep piling more on every year.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Kyle,
It was big enough for me to get in there with a 10 tooth chisel plow!! I only used 7 for this job though. It was my neighbor's yard anyway. All I did was prep him a spot for his garden:thumbsup:

Hawk

:thumbsup:

 

[Taylortractornut]

Schoolsout This works pretty good as I dont have time to pile all the compost piles this year. Im building an Ostra style turner for my skid steer to do windrows. I had a deal with the town to take their leaves as they were dumping in a granddfathered in pit. I m a mile out of the city limits and fixed a section to dum in contained windrows with me debagging and composting. THe county got rid of their Dodge trucks with six cylinder engines and bought a herd of V10 Fords. Now they cant afford to run them out of the limits. Im tying to get a cotton wagon to set them up a good place to get rid of their leaves and grass.

Im trying to trade with the town to bring me their leaves and Ill compost it with me supplying them with a screened finished compost forsome of their flower beds.

The local landfill doesnt have a composting permit or the folks that have the mental ability to run one. I composted 50 yards of leaves and 20 of grass into about 20 yards of compost. I just turned the pile every 4 days with the loader.

My garden that was red clay is black I have 3 garden spots and 2 that I commercially farm for local cafes and grocery stores. Compost actually makes the food taste better to me. Its also amaing that when its mixed with soil it will retain the right amount of water if its dry and drain if theres not enough.

Also I like to burn brush piles on my garden to that helps alot. I make a little bio char for the garden to and it seems to help as well.

 

[Bkwoods]

I would soil test first. Then spread compost as evenly as possible to about three inches. You can use a box blade, fel or scrape blade it depends on what you have available. If not, the shovel and wheel barrow is your option. Then incorporate into soil and add lime if necessary. If this a new garden site you will have to add a bunch of lime. I live about 50 miles from you and I just limed a new garden spot and had to spread over a 1000 lbs or 131lbs per 1000 sq ft. Soil test is very importatant..

 

[schoolsout]

I would soil test first. Then spread compost as evenly as possible to about three inches. You can use a box blade, fel or scrape blade it depends on what you have available. If not, the shovel and wheel barrow is your option. Then incorporate into soil and add lime if necessary. If this a new garden site you will have to add a bunch of lime. I live about 50 miles from you and I just limed a new garden spot and had to spread over a 1000 lbs or 131lbs per 1000 sq ft. Soil test is very importatant..

Our property is in W'boro, so it isn't far from you. Soil is sandy and nothing but pine trees grow there for the most part. I limed this area last year...just trying to get the soil a bit better regarding it's composition.

 

[ArtMech]

schoolsout,
You have an excellent rig!
I'm searching for a similar trailer on sale like you have. Could you please describe, what are the dimensions (length, width, lifting capacity) of your trailer, if it'll not make you too much busy?
Thanks a lot.