Pile O Shit

Hey guys wanted to know if my pile of shit will be any good for next years grow. I added a bag of moo poo .5-.5-.5, a bag of mushroom compost, 3 tbsp garden lime, handful of alfalfa, couple loads of grassclippings, 8 banana peels ground up, 3 egg shells, coffee beans, and soil from my garden. Whenever I find earthworms I throw them onto the pile so they dig through it and hopefully start eating. I will continue to add more banana peels, egg shells, and coffee beans. Oh ive also added tea bags. I keep this pile moist by water with rain water, and whatever is left over of my compost tea that I feed my girl with now. Hopefully next year this will make some good soil. Ill mix this whole pile where my girl is now, and grow a beast.

sounds like an invitation for fungus and ground dwelling bugs to me

There are plenty of resources for Composting... here is one http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/needs_carbon_nitrogen.htm The Gold Standard Reference is the "Rodale Book of Composting" available at most every bookstore.

It sounds like your Carbon to Nitrogen ratio is off. Some leaves, newspapers, phone books, paper plates, shredded paper etc. make a good addition to balance things out. OTHERWISE your pile of shit, as you describe it... will very much smell like a pile of shit. You might also encourage bad bacteria {anaerobic} to take residence, rather than the good ones {aerobic}. Most folks guesstimate a good mix, and your nose is a better than avererage indicator... if it smells bad, then likely it is.

A WindRow would be a good thing to do in the fall. Collect all your leaves, and some of the nieghbors.. mix in your P.O.S. and if you can get a few hundred pounds of coffee grounds from a Starbucks.. throw that in too. A windrow is a pile 2-3 ft wide, a couple feet high and however long you want. Every week or so, "turn" the compost... shovel it into a new pile so that the whole windrow shifts to the side. By the time you go from one side of the garden to the other it will be well along. WORMS should migrate to your pile, and winter over. The Goodies from your windrow will leach into the soil. Avoid digging, rototilling, turning soil etc. All those worms that migrated to your pile did more than you ever will to aerate the soil, and also you dont want to disturb the worm eggs or baby worms.


Coffee Grounds help insure that Worms migrate to your Windrow. Its like throwing a Key of Cocaine in the pit at the New York Stock Exchange, or on a Rock Stars tour bus...except that the worms wont OD on the stuff.

Invitation for bugs and fungas? Than why do people drop banana peels into there garden all the time along with coffee beans and eggshells. Im basically doing the same thing, just in a pile. It smells good, the bag of pure moopoo smelt worse than this pile does.

So good idea to add more carbon?

I dried all the coffee beans before adding, dried the tea bags, cut the banana peels into a million pieces and let bake in the sun till crisp black, crushed the egg shells to white powder. Ive added alfalfa to soil before as top dressing and before planting, and it does not invite bugs. Am I crazy? Is this still not a good idea. Its just a pile of dirt im aging with some shit added along with lime powder, since the lime takes up to 6 months to kick in, it should be ready by next year with organic nutrients.

Im still turning this pile everyday and adding more coffee beans. Have more banana peels and going to make banana loaf, will dry out the peels and add to pile also. I dunno this pile still smells good and I dont see bugs, but I found worms crawling through it.

Your pile of shit sounds good to me. I make all of my own soil every and then add the soil from this years grow back into the mix. I know there are as many reciepes for compost as there are people using the stuff. My main ingrediant is grass clippings, banana trees along with their leaves and unused fruit, rotten fruit from around the farm. I basically use about anything that will decompose then add, horse or cow manure whichever I have at the time, mix in all my kitchen scraps except for meat and grease. Egg shells and coffee grounds bring in the worms without doubt. Instead of lime I use wood ash but there again just a matter of choice, I have been doing it this way for over 40 years without harmful effects and my soil is just literally full of earthworms. This soil last throughout my grows and the only nutes I add during the grow are from manure tea I brew up. I refuse to buy anything to add to this mix and I am very happy with my personal results. As far as adding any paper products that contain print on it, unless you know that the ink used was soy based you are adding heavy metals to your compost which is not a good thing. Keep up the good work on the organics the only way to grow and safely use your plants.

Finally! Thanks alot canefan!! My dad had a compost pile in the back that hasnt been turned in awhile, and had a decent amount of garbage(plastic shit) in it. I took off the top layer of gross grassclippings that piled up after awhile and compressed. Found black gold underneith. I picked out all the plastic, dug it around as much as I could breaking all the big pieces up. I added my pile of shit to this pile of shit. And im pretty sure this will be some bomb shit for next year.

This all sounds like some fantastic shit.

I just love shit. Added more peels from fruits/veggies today. Along with more coffee beans. I wanna get some more egg shells though, gonna have to start baking(both ways haha)

This is exactly what i will be doing when i start my grow in the next 3 weeks. my dad has a automatic composter in the garage that he uses for his plants but i iwll be making my own with his, and i know that will provide plenty of nutrients throughout the entire grow probably. And i also will add probably a Molasses and coffeegrind "tea" type brew

I guess I might add to my first post here one other thing I have found helpful working with composted soil. Being basically an old hippie and organic farmer I have always been very hands on with my plants, no meaning that I always am doing something to them but spend lots of time with them and checking on their health and the soil's health. I do this by (here is where I disagree with many on RUI) I like stepping up my plants usually 3 times during there grow. The reasoning is very simple I want to know what the roots are doing, how the earthworms are doing and how the soil looks in the pots. I start off with the plants in a small pot which serves them for about 2 weeks, sometimes 3 weeks, looking for the first sign of a root at the bottom of the pot. They then go into a one gallon container, this gives them fresh compost to grow into and the worms fresh food. They stay in the one gallon as long as they are in veg which for me is about another 3 to 4 weeks (I'm an old man and don't need to be messing with the bigger plants...lol). When I am ready to start the flowering I step them up into 3 gallon usually, 5 gallon pots are just too heavy for me to be moving around these days. The 3 gallon lasts through the flowering cycle with ample fresh dirt for the plant and the worms. About half way through flowering I add a top dressing of compost about an inch worth. During the stepping up process I am able to look at the roots to see if they have good growth, any health issues and the health of the worms. Many disagree with this saying that they become root bound and don't recover, induces shock and the list goes on, but after learning the correct moisture level to allow the plant and soil to slide out of the container it is very easy on the plant. Hope this helps or at least gives everyone an idea to think about during their grows. Good Luck to all and happy organic growing.

Thankyou very much for that info! I was planning on doing that next year, it just makes sense. This would alow me to trasnfer into flowering soil rich with potassium and phosphorus also. I also have no shock from trasnplanting. Im very careful when in trasnplant, and make sure I have everything ready. I like to have the soil moist, but not so moist its like I just watered.

Wait you put earthworms INTO your pots that your weed is growing? i thought about doing this but i wasn't really too sure about it. This pile o shit is basically exactly what ill be doing

LOL I don't just throw the little critters into the pots, they live continually in the compost pile and it is next to impossible to get a shovel of dirt without scooping up worms. IMH organics is not just about not using chemicals to grow your plants it is about obtaining a cycle for the soil in which your soil(which includes all the little critters)and plants work together all obatining benefits from each other. Your worms aerate your soil, leaving behind worm castings, dissolving minerals making them easier for the plant to use. So, many people think well I used this nute, its organic, and my plants are growing nicely, where if they concerned themselves with the health of the soil they would would be more concerned with how to enrich the soil more and therefor feeding the plant in this manner. Sorry, not trying to preach , sometimes I get a bit excited about this subject, just an old hippie wanting to make a difference in your plants. When I pull my plants and go through the soil, breaking it apart, looking at it, if I don't see worms I try and figure out what went wrong with the grow. Did I?, use too much tea, get the ph too high or low (have never used a ph meter and don't plan on it), did I use to fresh of manure or too much, not enough?
LOL so I guess in a long winded rant the worms are a result of building good soil, add them if you need to when starting but after awhile you will have them lined up in your compost and in your containers throughout your grow. Treat the soil not the plant when growing. Happy Growing especially organically natures way.

Im looking forward to pulling out my plant, and seeing if there are worms in the soil its growing in. I know there was before I planted when I dug all the soil, pretty sure there still going to be there, ive only fed with compost tea.