Bone Meal in Compost

at2wooden 4/10/2014, 2:23 pm

I want to add phosphorus to my compost and was looking at bone meal.
I found a decent deal at HD on a 24 lb bag, but the description says no for use with vegetables. Huh?
Any good reason why not?

**llama momma** 4/10/2014, 2:32 pm

You can Google a lot of topics of Bone Meal and BSE, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or better known as mad cow disease. I can't give you the gist of the studies, maybe you'd like to read up and share with us.

For Phosphorous you can do what Mel advises in the Answer Book. For a quick fix you could toss chopped up banana peels into your bucket when you water the plants. It'll increase potassium too.

**camprn** 4/10/2014, 3:02 pm

Why do you want to add phosphorus to the compost? Is the phosphorus level low?

**camprn** 4/10/2014, 3:05 pm

llama momma wrote:You can Google a lot of topics of Bone Meal and BSE, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or better known as mad cow disease.

Don't eat the bone meal.

at2wooden 4/10/2014, 3:11 pm

That seems like a good reason alright. Thanks!
I don't expect to have a significant amount of banana peels until my banana trees mature late this year, or next year however, and I am putting together my fall garden compost. This is my first year so I wanted a super compost.
I seem to recall reading about some inexpensive mineral supplements high in phosphorus.
Time to practice my goggle-fu!!

at2wooden 4/10/2014, 3:15 pm

I used black cow in my startup MM, and it just seemed a little, anemic.

**camprn** 4/10/2014, 3:16 pm

at2wooden wrote:I used black cow in my startup MM, and it just seemed a little, anemic.

Did you test it?

at2wooden 4/10/2014, 3:22 pm

No I didn't. Just comparing it to my old time row garden experience with manures.
It never crossed my mind since I was using it as 33% of my MM.
I suppose I should test my mix.
Might be a good idea to test the compost itself too since I use so much coffee grounds in it.

**walshevak** 4/10/2014, 8:46 pm

fertilome blooming and soluble plant food. 9-59-8.

I used this to force broccoli and wound up with my big stuff broccoli heads. My broccoli was growing very big plants, but was not forming heads. Knowing the heat of summer was coming, I used 1/2 recommended strength as I didn't want to mess up my MM levels. Not only did I get big heads but I got a lot of side shoots as big as my entire heads the previous year

Kay

at2wooden 4/10/2014, 9:00 pm

Very interesting. I might consider adding it to my fish emulsion.
I just started fertilizing with it monthly during growing season.

at2wooden 4/10/2014, 9:02 pm

Of course, almost all of my Brocolli has already bolted

**walshevak** 4/10/2014, 9:22 pm

My big stuff broccoli was spring of 2012. The bed was new that year and had a higher quantity of manures in the compost than it should have had. I think that is why I was getting such big green plants and no heads were forming. The next year was a different bed (rotation) and the compost was settled down to what it should be. I didn't get such excess green growth and the heads came along on their own. But as I said, I was racing the spring heat and trying to get heads before everything bolted.

Kay

**camprn** 4/11/2014, 8:50 am

I would encourage you to not add any amendments until you have determined that your growing medium is actually deficient in particular substances.

If you want to test your Mel's MIx choose the soilless growing media test.

https://soiltest.umass.edu/ordering-information

http://soiltest.umass.edu/

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/increase-phosphorus-potassium-soil-70915.html

**walshevak** 4/11/2014, 2:56 pm

at2wooden wrote:I used black cow in my startup MM, and it just seemed a little, anemic.

Black Kow is a good compost as a part of the blend. Not every compost has the same nutrients, that's why the recommendations is for 5 different sources.

Kay

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