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Any reason not to use Chicken Manure for your only fert in a grow?

ReprobateMind

Active member
Too much arsenic?

Could you get away with doing a grow with only compost/earth worm castings and composted chicken manure pellets with NPK of 2-4-3 as your only fertilizers?

I was thinking of starting with the basic recipe for LC's mix which is
5 gallons sphagnum peat moss
3 gallons perlite
2 gallons compost/EWC
2 tbsp powdered dolomite lime per gallon of soil

Do you think simply making EWC and chicken poo tea would be sufficient to get through a grow? My garden plants are really enjoying it but they are planted in the ground and not pots.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I'm just trying to save money.
 

Old Piney

Well-known member
Could you get away with doing a grow with only compost/earth worm castings and composted chicken manure pellets with NPK of 2-4-3 as your only fertilizers?
Funny you should ask. That's exactly what I do with the exception of I use chicken manner from my chickens and worm castings from my wood pile. My manure is aged more than a year but dry not composted, Early in the season I till in a little chicken manure ,plenty of worm casting and a little lime. During the season in veg ,maybe 1 or 2 shots of week chicken manure tea and that's it. So yes I believe you can and do quit well.
 

led05

Chasing The Present

Stuff is amazing; a pallet (one ton, 50 - 40# bags) delivered is Money extremely well spent for us tiny farmers & will last many, many years; I can’t recommend it enough
 
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PadawanWarrior

Well-known member
I use the Nutri Grow Brand from Colorado. I have a 25# bucket of it. Works well.

 

led05

Chasing The Present
I use the Nutri Grow Brand from Colorado. I have a 25# bucket of it. Works well.

That’s like 2X the cost of the east coast stuff; but yes very similar/same and I’m sure a great product too; I bought a pallet of it 4 years ago & still have like 12 bags left, probably only have used a handful of bags on cannabis the past 4-5 years, it goes a long ways while at the same time it’s very hard to burn plants with it :)
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-known member
That’s like 2X the cost of the east coast stuff; but yes very similar/same and I’m sure a great product too; I bought a pallet of it 4 years ago & still have like 12 bags left, probably only have used a handful of bags on cannabis the past 4-5 years, it goes a long ways while at the same time it’s very hard to burn plants with it :)
I got a 25# bag from Build a Soil for $31 delivered after my $5 off coupon. They don't sell it anymore. But I agree. I never burned anything with it.
 

Tynehead Tom

Well-known member
Composted Chicken manure is good..... best aged 2 years but can be used after 1 if you have some experience.

I spent a lot of years trying to craft a stand alone, water only soil for my outdoor plants that I grow in 15 or 18 gallon totes. I'm at nearing 52N in western canada, 3000ft elevation. I have a very short season and no time to waste..... nor do I have $$$ for a long list of ammendments. A few years back I stumbled onto the original Overgrow archives that featured stuff from @Tom Hill . In there was a basic recipe that I adopted for use here in my greenhouse/coldframe. It has served me exceptionally well and does use composted chicken manure although I substitute that for composted Sheep manure. Everything else in the recipe stays the same. I also recycle the soil every year and add back the same ingredients and every year it just seems to get better.
This makes 110 gallons of soil
6 large bags of Black Gold compost soil
1 Bale of Sunshine Mix 4 or Promix HP (I use the sunshine 4)
1 1/3 bag of Sheep or Chicken Manure (tom hill called for Stutzman farms brand ... not sure if i spelled that right). I think the bags are 16 liter bags here in canada of the sheep.... I'd have to check..... might be 20?
16 1/2 Pounds of Steamed Bone Meal
1/3 of a large bag of Perlite
5 Pounds of Gypsum - I use agriultural grade gypsum from Canadian Gypsum products ... it's what is availlable to me
1 1/2 pounds of Dolomite - I use Dolopril

I mix and then wet that out on a tarp and cover in greenhouse plastic for 3 weeks before I use it. Mixing once a week.
I feed the plants Water only , from my well, for all of veg and only feed them if they show a need/deficiency.
I'm at week 2 of flower I figure and these plants have been given only water since being transplanted back in june to the soil mix in 15 gallon totes.
Over the past few years the soil pile has grown to over 450 gallons of recycled, reammended "tom hill" soil.
This year I only added ammendments instead of full recipe add ons.
I added , for each 100 gallon pile ( I mixed approx 350 gallons finished soil)
1 bag of Black Gold composted soil
1 1/3 bag of Sheep manure
16 pounds Steamed Bone Meal
5 Pounds Gypsum
1 1/2 Pounds Dolopril

2024-08-28 Garden Left Side - Copy.JPG
 
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ReprobateMind

Active member
Wow, the thread kinda blew up. Thanks, everyone. I'm glad to see that some of you are having success!

Here is the stuff I will be using https://chicknpoo.com/ NPK = 2-4-3. Here are the instructions for making a tea, "

COMPOST TEA FOR DEEP-ROOT FEEDING OF ALL PLANTS​

Mix 1 pound (3 cups) of Chick N Poo™ with 3 gallons of water. Allow mixture to marry for 24 hours. Strain the liquid (Compost Tea) from the solids and apply 1-2 cups per plant. Apply remaining solids around the root zone of plants.
"
I'll try nothing but worm castings and chicken poo tea in a soilless mix.
 

Dime

Well-known member
Outdoor I mix well aged chicken,cow,pig,and horse manure,if it's aged long enough it is like compost (my buddy grows his in straight horse manure at the side of the pile) ,it's all clay so I also add sand to loosen it . I strip the leaves while they are in the ground and then till it once in the fall after harvest and again in the spring before planting and raise it a bit for drainage. I don't worry about ph or anything except adequate water ,which comes from a well,if we have a dry summer.
 

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PadawanWarrior

Well-known member
So has the bagged stuff you see online been aged properly? And how do you apply it to the soil? Mix with water? Im trying to stop the bottle nutes
Yes. At least the stuff I bought. It's dried and doesn't smell bad at all. What I would do if I was you is get a general dry fertilizer like Dr. Earth or whatever. That's a good start. You just top dress every couple weeks or so and water with plain water as long as your water is fine.

The best part is reusability. I originally bought FFOF. After the first round I just top dressed it for a few more rounds. Then I decided to make it an official no-till soil. So I mixed in pumice, lava rock, rice hulls, and a few other things and have been using it since. The soil just gets better and better. It's now like actual nutrient rich soil. The texture of purchased soil isn't what I'd call soil. It needs to age to be actual soil.

Anyways it's been 6 years now since I bought the original FFOF. When a plant is done I chop close to the soil and the soil breaks down the roots and stalk. Then just replant next to it.

Mulch or cover crops make a big difference too. That will keep the top layer moist and help the microbes kick ass and break down the dry amendments. The first couple years I didn't mulch or use cover crops and still grew fine plants. But the cover crops, mulch, or both really help with the microbiology.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.
 

RobFromTX

Well-known member
Yes. At least the stuff I bought. It's dried and doesn't smell bad at all. What I would do if I was you is get a general dry fertilizer like Dr. Earth or whatever. That's a good start. You just top dress every couple weeks or so and water with plain water as long as your water is fine.

The best part is reusability. I originally bought FFOF. After the first round I just top dressed it for a few more rounds. Then I decided to make it an official no-till soil. So I mixed in pumice, lava rock, rice hulls, and a few other things and have been using it since. The soil just gets better and better. It's now like actual nutrient rich soil. The texture of purchased soil isn't what I'd call soil. It needs to age to be actual soil.

Anyways it's been 6 years now since I bought the original FFOF. When a plant is done I chop close to the soil and the soil breaks down the roots and stalk. Then just replant next to it.

Mulch or cover crops make a big difference too. That will keep the top layer moist and help the microbes kick ass and break down the dry amendments. The first couple years I didn't mulch or use cover crops and still grew fine plants. But the cover crops, mulch, or both really help with the microbiology.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.
Thanks for the helpful info buddy. By top dress you mean simply sprinkle the pellets on top of the soil every now and then? I use FFOF too and im about to throw my girls into flower in a week or so. Sativas get really big even with two weeks veg
 

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