Household compost vs Cow Manure compost

[Meadowlark]

Previous professional soil tests of my cow manure compost yielded an overall result of "No N-P-K required" with all key elements at or above optimal levels. Since that test was made, I've always wondered just how my household compost would fare in comparison.

One way to find out...run another soil test. The results came back today and to me were stunning. The recommendation again was " No N-P-K required". The household compost results in all elements were comparable to the Cow manure compost results. For example, total Nitrogen was about 35 ppm in the Household compost vs 39 ppm in the Cow manure compost. This was a huge surprise as I was expecting my household compost to be low in total Nitrogen.

Interestingly to me, the ph in the household compost was about 8% higher than the cow manure...good to know for certain veggies.

All household compost can be expected to test out at different levels... just as cow manure compost will test out differently. It depends on the ingredients and how its all processed.

There is no way to know how good, bad or indifferent your compost is without testing it. You may be surprised.

The data for my household compost (ppm):

pH	6.94
Total Nitrogen (N)	34.97
Nitrate (NO3-N)	32.89
Ammonium (NH4-N)	2.08
Phosphorus (P)	62.33
Potassium (K)	122.29
Sulfur (S)	11.51
Calcium (Ca)	428.59
Magnesium (Mg)	37.81
Sodium (Na)	23.93
Iron (Fe)	1.15
Manganese (Mn)	6.44
Zinc (Zn)	1.02
Copper (Cu)	0.1
Boron (B)	0.05

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[YumYum]

Wow. Nice job. Now we have some cold hard facts to compare something to. The only downside is everyones compost will be somewhat different depending on what is thrown in there. What materials have you been composting? Any meat, blood, or carcases.

The nitrate nitrogen surprised me on how high it is. Nitrates flow with water so one good leaching and the nitrates could be gone.

 

[Meadowlark]

... What materials have you been composting? Any meat, blood, or carcases.

The nitrate nitrogen surprised me on how high it is. Nitrates flow with water so one good leaching and the nitrates could be gone.

Mostly it is garden green manures many of which are high in nitrogen and vegetable wastes from kitchen. No meat, blood, etc.

We do not have a garbage disposal, so the compost pile gets it all. Some garden dirt is naturally added with some of the garden green manures.

Very surprising result to me on the Nitrogen. Stunning! The household compost pile is out in the open, not covered. It is hardly ever turned. Just throw stuff on top and throw some of the lower composted stuff on top of that... repeat over and over.

 

[YumYum]

Any kind of fats? That is really what I wonder about. That is a big component of most folks cooking and takes time to break down.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have an ordinary garden compost heap for weeds and garden waste, then I have a black bin with wire under it to stop rats. I have never tested, but what comes out of the black bin is far superior. On the other hand anything within eight feet of the black bin will suffer slug damage, the garden waste much less so. I move my composts around a fair bit, the ground underneath them gets improved hugely.

 

[Meadowlark]

Any kind of fats?

No. The dogs get the bacon fat and other here.