Re: [tomato] Dianes questions on manure.
Orchid (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Wed, 10 Mar 1999 08:24:03 -0500
I deleted some of the manure posts. My sister has one rabbit, certainly
not able to fertilize my entire garden. I asked her to save the rabbit
pellets, and then I wondered if it would be good for my garden...something
about urine, urea in the manure? I don't have, nor do I have the room for a
compost pile, can the rabbit manure be used directly in garden, or as a
manure "tea"? Any precautions I should know about? Should I even bother?
Pete, Zone 10, South Florida
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Reynolds <preynold@swbell.net>
To: Tomato List <tomato@GlobalGarden.com>
Date: Monday, March 08, 1999 9:28 PM
Subject: [tomato] Dianes questions on manure.
>Diane,
>
>You can either directly apply the manure or compost it. I don't know
>how much you produce, but, if the urea in the urine is a concern in the
>rabbit manure, composting will help with that problem. Composting is a
>way of getting ammonia and urea to a more organic form instead of losing
>them to the environment as a gas.
>
>Basically, what happens is composting helps the inorganic forms of
>nitrogen (N), such as ammonia, urea, nitrates and nitrites change to a
>organic N. This is called denitrification. Nitrification is the
>reverse. However, nitrification generally goes to just the nitrate
>form. Nitrites are an intermediary and aren't of much concern because
>they are so short lived, but, just the same, they are highly toxic to
>most living forms.
>
>If you have tight soils, the addition of just the manures as they are
>will help with the tilth of those soils. Basically making them easier
>to work if there is enough manure put down in a small enough area.
>
>Of course, any urine is raunchy, as you call it. :-))
>
>Enjoy
>
>Paul Reynolds
>Austin Texas
>
>