The Grass Doctor

how to make good organic fertilizer from left overs of wheat crop dried plants?

Public Comments

1. The leftover straw is a valuable resource for soil building, but not much of a "fertilizer". The wheat puts most of the nutrients into the seeds at the end of its life cycle, the straw doesn't have much left. But, when composted, it is a great source of organic matter. Organic matter in the soil holds water like a sponge while letting excess drain away, and it loosely binds to plant nutrients, holding them in place until a root absorbs them. The easiest way to use the straw is just to pile it up as mulch on top of the soil. It will take a few years to become part of the soil, but it holds water in the meantime. I use wheat straw in my chicken pen- the chicken manure contains so much nitrogen it is slightly corrosive; the straw has so little it composts very slowly. The chickens add manure slowly and constantly scratch at the material, breaking it down. I keep five hens in a 200 square foot space, and they turn four bales of straw into rich compost every three months.
2. Grind it up, (or mow over it) and use in your compost. It fast, easy and works. Now go drink a beer and put the kids to work.
3. You'd have to compost the wheat stubble with a nitrogen rich material. Herbivore manure.......cow, sheep, chicken for example. The nitrogen rich manure will drive the decomposition that in turn releases the nutrients available in the compost. From there you could add water to the compost, compress it and collect the runoff for a liquid manure, but you'd be loosing the valuable organic fibrous material so needed by the soil for water holding and as addition cation capacity sites (nutrient holding sites). Compost can be bagged and sold.