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 Post subject: compost materials
PostPosted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:52 am 
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Can you use dog or cat manure in compost?


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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:46 pm 
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Yes, you can put both in. I even found a brand of cat litter, put out by Nature's Miracle, that was made of ground up dry corn cobs, treated with clumping and odor stuff, that could go in the compost also. Corn and wheat attract weevils in the house, so I don't like those, and I didn't want the clay litter in my compost.

If you search those keywords here in the forum you'll find quite a bit of discussion. Be sure it is well mixed into the pile and that the pile is completely broken down to finished compost and you'll be fine. There are some old wives' tales about cat and dog poop, but you don't need to worry about it.

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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 9:56 pm 
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Thanks. I thought it would be ok. I just recently heard the "old wives tales".


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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 3:41 pm 
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I have been using my my dog's wastes as a staple in my compost pile for years. It breaks down very quick and becomes "odor free" even quicker. Some will say that it is not good practice to use this compost on edible garden plants, but I personally feel that good mature compost is benefical to ALL organic gardening (edible and non edible plants).


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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:02 am 
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Garon wrote:
I have been using my my dog's wastes as a staple in my compost pile for years. It breaks down very quick and becomes "odor free" even quicker.


Strangely enough, human manure was being widely used in English vegetable gardens until at least the 1st World War. So perhaps the old wives' tales need looking at. I think the taboo upon using manure from carnivorous animals derives from the genuine risk of toxicaria associated with fresh faeces. Allegedly, children have become blind when wiping animal faeces in their eyes. (Although they seem to be immune to their own :? )

Given the profusion of herbivorous manures around country gardens, it seems foolish to risk it.


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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:02 am 
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Yeoman, I don't get what your point is.

Uncomposted manure of any sort is not what we're talking about. Uncomposted manure is dangerous. We all understand that. And from what I can find, "toxicaria" is a word found in binomial nomenclature as a latin name that is attached to a few plants. The "children going blind with animal feces in their eyes" is a strange contribution to this conversation in the context of a word that names no sense. Not sure a) how that would happen or b) how it would be attributed. I have to dismiss this as hyperbole.

I also don't have information about "human manure in British gardens prior to WWI." Do you have any sources? When I was a kid I remember my mother saying something about buying oranges or tangerines from Japan was prohibited for a long time because they used human derived manure in the orchards. This was decades ago and I don't know what the nature of the process was. Without any citations this is just a recollection, as I think your remark about the English gardens must be. Unsubstantiated.

At any rate, "Given the profusion of herbivorous manures around country gardens, it seems foolish to risk it" seems to be an argument against using horse or cow or bird other herbivore manure in compost?

I think you need to lurk for a while and get a good grasp of how compost works. Welcome to DirtDoctor.com, by the way, I see you're a newcomer. Please read widely while you're here, and put some of these organic ideas into practice in your own garden.

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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:27 am 
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Thanks for the friendly welcome, northwesterner. Do you normally greet visitors to this site with such unsolicited rudeness?

What do other members think. Is this standard practice?

Strangely enough, as the author of five gardening books (citations available), I do have references for all my assertions. I thought I might make a modest contribution to this site, drawing on my humble erudition as a PhD. Clearly, I am insufficiently tutored for this august company. Fret not. I shan't trouble to return to it.


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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:17 pm 
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Although, upon reflection, given the friendly response to my other posts here, I just might return :)

BTW: my reference to the use of human manure in English gardens prior to the 1st World War comes from Root and Stem Vegetables, Alexander Dean, 1910.

'If the manure seems dry, let it be well moistened with house slops, then be mixed and put into a heap.' p9

'All urine may well be saved and utilised, for when mixed with ordinary house slops and exposed for about twenty-four hours in an open tub, it may be used for growing crops as liquid manure. The most useful way to utilise both solid and liquid sewage in a raw state is to have them well mixed in a cesspool, then to pump some out daily into an open receptacle to be warmed and aerated, before being applied to the ground.' p11

Alexander Dean was Chairman of the National Vegetable Society and for 20 years associated with the National Horticultural Society. So it might be supposed that his views reflected practices in England at the time.

What do you say, northwesterner, shall it be pace between us? With a hearty lifting of flagons of manure tea?


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 Post subject: Re: compost materials
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:43 pm 
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Quote:
BTW: my reference to the use of human manure in English gardens prior to the 1st World War comes from Root and Stem Vegetables, Alexander Dean, 1910.

'If the manure seems dry, let it be well moistened with house slops, then be mixed and put into a heap.' p9

'All urine may well be saved and utilised, for when mixed with ordinary house slops and exposed for about twenty-four hours in an open tub, it may be used for growing crops as liquid manure. The most useful way to utilise both solid and liquid sewage in a raw state is to have them well mixed in a cesspool, then to pump some out daily into an open receptacle to be warmed and aerated, before being applied to the ground.' p11


There has been a lot of science in the last 102 years. I suggest you find something a little more recent if you want to be taken seriously.

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