Which is the better fertilizer, compost or manure?
It would be more accurate to call compost and manure soil conditioners than fertilizers. Although both contain modest amounts of nutrients, their primary benefit lies in their ability to improve soil structure which can be just as important to the health of your plants.
The choice between compost or manure is largely a matter of personal preference. Both will act as soil conditioners and both will slowly release nutrients throughout the growing season. I’m partial to compost because it creates a closed system in which garden and kitchen wastes are recycled into a useful growing medium that is used to raise the plants that will one day become compost themselves - and the cycle repeats.
Besides being free, the best thing about compost is that anyone can make it. If you have a yard, you can tuck a composter behind the tool shed and add to it every time you pull a weed, scape a carrot or rake leaves. If you live in an apartment, worm bins (vermicomposters) are a handy way of converting fruit and vegetable waste into compost. They can provide sufficient quantities for filling any planter boxes or pots you may have decorating your balcony or windowsills.
The speed at which fresh ingredients are converted into compost depends a great deal on the amount of oxygen and water available to the soil microorganisms that are doing the work. If you turn your pile several times a week and make sure it remains moist, you can have fresh compost in as little as a month. If you turn your pile rarely (or not at all) and let nature supply the water, you'll eventually get compost, just not for several months or even years. Mixing materials with high carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratios, such as dry leaves, bark and sawdust with those that have low C:N ratios (grass, garden clippings, weeds, green leaves) also improves the rate at which composting material breaks down.
No matter how hard gardeners try, they never seem to have enough finished compost at hand.
For those of us who live in rural areas, manure can easily make up the shortfall. Just keep in mind that the fresher the manure is, the more likely it is to burn your plants or immobilize soil nutrients, so always get the well-aged stuff when you can. For those of you who don’t see a trek out to farmland in your immediate future, you can always buy it bagged or order it in bulk from your local garden centre.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
Originally published in the Creston Valley Advance.
