Aaron Lowe

Hi all,

I hope this question finds the right part of the forums. I have a miniature donkey who suffers from Hypothyroidism, and has diabetes as a result. We soak his hay and have to be careful about which supplements and grains he is fed. I want to provide more nutrition in the form of "whole foods" for him, and I have a fair amount of comfrey I've planted over the last few years. This year I should have enough to be harvesting regularly and definitely by next year. I was thinking it could be a part of his diet as it's high in protein and many important micronutrients. However, I'm not sure about it's sugar levels or if there's a way to process it (dry and grind into meal vs using fresh) that would best suit my needs. Anyone have any insight into this situation or recommendations for a diabetic donkey?

TIA

Alyssum is a fun flower to grow and does great in veggie gardens as it stays low and blooms forever (at least all through from early summer through fall). Very fragrant which helps confuse some pests and attract beneficials as well!

I believe it’s part of the brassica family, so do what you will with that information.

While My winters are not as harsh as yours (I’m in zone 7 in MA, though my microclimate is much closer to zone 6), I’ve recently started doing a “contained” compost setup which was born out of an idea to use some hand-me-down plexi domes for a skylight.

I build a frame to fit them out of 2x10s and supported the back with some Lally columns. Shelter from the cold winter winds helps a lot to help heat up the pile, and I’m convinced that the domes over the top help trap some heat while also letting some light in (additional heat).

I’ve never had success making hot piles at home as the materials accumulate more slowly, I didn’t have shelter, and the chickens would scratch it into a much wider, shorter mound. I used to work with a nonprofit where I ran a composting program, so processing hundreds of tons of food waste annually and making 100 foot 6x6 windrows. Now my piles at home are cooking too!

Here’s the gist of it:

First bin has been filled over the last month and I have to say I’m super impressed with how much it’s helped get the heat up in the piles. I think the shelter from excess rainfall and cold winter winds in combination with getting more height has been a huge boon.

Now that I’ve played around with mixing technique in the new bins I’m ready to install the doors to hold everything in and keep it tidier. The chickens have been loving a heated sheltered place to hang out and scratch around, but they haven’t gotten the hang of putting the material back in after they scratch it out :D

Here’s how it’s going:

If your ratios are good then it will be fine, compost is a beautiful thing as it works with just about anything. Even a big pile of leaves alone can become great compost if you turn it and wet it properly. Those two ingredients you listed are both great fungal foods and could yield a nice fungal-dominant compost, although that’s a bit different than super fast hot compost which is largely bacterial. You may need some grass clippings/weeds/urine to get it kickstarted depending on how ages the leaves are. Good luck!

This is greenhouse goals in my opinion. I'm coming up on 1 year since I built my first one, and so far its proven to be a great lesson on what NOT to do. Oh well, its the kind of lesson only lots of hours of work, satisfaction, and disappointment can teach. Looking forward to following this build, seems well thought out. Great work so far!

I like to rub comfrey leaves between my hands to break it up a bit and put some in a hole with a transplant, brings some worms and beneficial microbes right to the root zone of the seedling.

Keep in mind plants heights and growing patterns when interplanting, it will help you from overcrowding while still maximizing harvest and keeping the soil photosynthesizing.

Ryan ElSmith wrote:

s. lowe wrote:I'm not 100% sure what "fish aminos" means...

To be honest, I'm not sure either.  It was gifted to me and Im unable to ask the person who made it.  It may be a fish emulsion + molasses.  

I know I’m a bit late but maybe useful for the future!

Without knowing specifically if it’s a fish emulsion or true FAA (as in the KNF recipe) I cant say too certainly, but if you have FAA or the ability to make some, I can enthusiastically recommend it as a foliar spray. You don’t need much at all, I use it at a 1:1000 dilution (1mL per L). Pretty much all plants love it, I use it on leaf crops but I generally don’t spray anything in them within 2-3 weeks of harvest. I actually like it more as a foliar than by watering it in, as I feel it’s a more direct use and as long as you’re getting the undersides of the leaves the plant harvests it effectively.  

Just as a side note, I also always use a little LAB with foliar feeds. LAB gets watered in too which is the most effective, but if you don’t get good airflow in your site then the LAB will help prevent mildew which can really take off when you’re spraying with sugar solutions.

Hey Brad,

To store FPJ at room temp, fully sugar saturating the solution is important. Usually, the 1:1 ratio used in the beginning to extract the FPJ before it ferments won’t be enough sugar to preserve it at the end of the process, as otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten fermentation in the first place! So stir in sugar to the solution until crystals remain at the bottom, this way you know it’s supersaturated. Refrigerating will help you skip that step, but that’s not always practical!

As far as the fungal growth you’re seeing and whether it’s detrimental, a picture would help. White blooms on the surface are common towards the end of an FPJ’s shelf life, but in general any growth (or bubbling) indicates the FPJ is degrading or being consumed by microbiology. Mostly this is a problem because the biostimulants you’re trying to capture are pretty fragile.

Hope that’s helpful! The IMO process is a fun one as well, it can be pretty tricky to get the hang of without assistance or guidance from someone whos successfully done it! I’ve also had great luck just stirring IMO2 into a compost extract right before watering it in. Making LIMO or IMO3/4 obviously propagates the microbes more, but a little goes a long way so don’t be scared to simply water it in.

A tarping for a few months would help you with the weed issue. I'd be tempted to start by low-mowing the weeds down to create some green manure, then burying the plot deeply in woodchips Back-To-Eden style. Fungi, in a year or so, will add the life needed and break up that dense clay soil, and you can usually get large amounts of chips for cheap/free. Then your weeds become part of the solution by adding nutrition to the soil and you save yourself some hard labor of breaking up that claypan.