Seabird guano

Discussion in 'Organic Gardening' started by Brainiac, Mar 3, 2009.

  1. Brainiac

    Brainiac Member

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    Greensboro,NC USA
    I'm plan on using seabird guano 10-10-2 mix with 0-0-7, seaweed and home made compost.This should make it a 10-10-10 right ?

    I dont wont to over feed my vegs (mostly all from the nightshade Famliy). So I'm going to water it down 1/2gal of tea to 4 gals of water to each plant...
     
  2. greengarden bev

    greengarden bev Active Member

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    Well the math isn't quite that easy, unfortunately. The percentages go by weight, not volume. Think in terms of 100 pounds (or kilos, if you're a young whippersnapper!). For every 100 pounds of a 10-10-1 product you'll be providing 10 pounds of N, 10 pounds of P and 1 pound of K. 100 pounds of your seaweed will provide 7 pounds of K. These huge numbers are just for conceptual purposes.

    Keep in mind that as you mix two ingredients you are diluting them. So it won't be possible to make a 10-10-10 by mixing a 10-10-2 with a 0-0-7 with what you've got. But you will be able to arrive at a fairly balanced mix, meaning roughly equal percentages of N, P & K.

    Open up Excel or OpenOffice and make yourself a spreadsheet that will calculate the amount of N, P & K for each pound of "ingredient". So 1 pound of the guano will give you .10 pounds of N., .10 pounds of P and .02 lbs of K. 1 pound of seaweed gives you .07 lbs of K. Add the columns on the bottom and tinker with the input amounts until your three numbers are roughly equal.

    I did the calculations and to get a perfectly balanced mix (4.3 - 4.3 -4.3) you'll need to mix 5 lbs of your guano with 6.5 lbs of your seaweed.

    The spreadsheet is attached-- you can add rows and use with any variety of ingredients, so long as you know the NPK. You'll get a predictable pre-mix that you work into the top few inches of soil. You need to consider the timing, though. Soil food takes time to break down, so you'll need to apply it several weeks before planting out. But it also requires soil to be biologically active-- thus warm and fairly healthy to begin with.

    I just re-read your post and it looks like you want to make tea with your stuff. That changes everything, makes it difficult to determine the strength of what you end up with. When I make compost tea I don't worry too much about strength. I bubble it up, dilute it to what looks like a weak "real" tea would look like, and pour it on the soil, not the plant.

    If you use the above calculations to pre-mix your guano and seaweed, which I assume are in a dry form, then you can be sure that you're putting a balanced mix into the water. No matter how strong you make it, the tea should be roughly balanced, or at least not terribly out of whack.

    Hope this helps.
     

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