Boris Kerzner

Awesome, thanks everyone for your responses and for teaching me that the source material(s) for the compost affect its phosphorus load. The compost I'd be using would be made up primarily of leaves and branches, maybe some food waste, no manure. Perhaps the advice I received assumed a fair bit of manure in the compost. And I really like the idea of testing out two nearby plots, one with added compost & one without. I agree I'm probably fine for this year; just thinking about the future. And appreciate the reminder about homemade teas as a way to jumpstart the soil life.

Hi, I had a soil analysis done with https://kinseyag.com/services/soil-analysis/, and it came back with a high level of phosphates - the desired value was 750, but they found a value of 847.

I amended the soil with protein meal, sulfur, potassium sulfate, and micro-nutrients per their recommendations.

I called them up and asked about adding compost as well, and they actually counseled me against doing so. They said the soil already had high phosphate levels and adding compost could increase the phosphate levels so that they would be too high & detrimental to plant growth.

How do I square this advice with everything I've heard re: compost is gold and add it to your garden every year? If I don't add compost, how will I maintain fertility?

I asked a friend and he said that in his experience, agronomists are often not a fan of compost.

Any thoughts on this matter will be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Boris

Hi, looking for some guidance. I'm trying to come up with a good argument for why the Pennsylvania township I live in should adopt township-wide composting, instead of continuing to send organic wastes to a Covanta waste-to-energy facility (https://www.covanta.com/where-we-are/our-facilities/delaware-valley).

Per https://drawdown.org/solutions/composting, composting organic wastes produces >50% fewer methane emissions compared to landfilling these wastes. "The practice has other benefits as well, including potential carbon biosequestration benefits from the use of compost as a soil amendment and potential savings from reducing demand for nitrogen fertilizers." This makes composting a much better approach than landfilling.

However, waste-to-energy facilities presumably produce far fewer methane emissions compared to landfills, since (I'm assuming) their operations are enclosed. In addition, composting is not free of GHG emissions, and, as far as I know, it's possible that waste-to-energy facilities may produce fewer GHG emissions. I understand that in the United States some of these energy-to-waste facilities are placed in environmental justice communities, but I've been told that the one our township uses is not in such a community.

I like composting and burning waste feels wrong to me. Burning organic wastes for energy feels like waste of resources that could otherwise be transmuted into soil fertility. That said, I would like to make the argument to myself and the township that there's a substantial win here in terms of climate change mitigation, but I don't see such an argument right now. If anyone can help me get there, maybe point me at relevant research they're aware of, etc. I would be greatly appreciative.

Oh, I see, so for the greatest efficiency of the thermal mass you would want to utilize the full 12', so the chimney would not be right above the stove, as in typical stoves, and the stove I currently have at the house. Hmm. Okay, so per what Fox James was saying, I look forward to receiving the book in the mail and reading more. Thanks to both of you for steering me away from gravel / small pebbles fill due to its lower efficiency.

Thanks Thomas!

Okay, it sounds like he may have been comparing to a conventional wood stove he grew up with. So it sounds like while it's burning it'll be hot, but when it's not burning and the thermal mass is the primary source of heat, it'll be fine.

The Liberator's user manual says that the "horizontal length running through the thermal mass can not exceed 12' feet regardless of the height of the chimney", so I was thinking a box 6' long with the heat-exchanging pipe folded once. I just bought "The Rocket Mass Heater Builders Guide" to read, so still learning, but currently thinking about a box full of gravel with pipe for thermal mass. The room is a classic suburban carpeted room with wood paneling on the walls, so this is more of a retrofit, and I want the aesthetics to make sense, and I want to be able to disassemble the mass if need be. If it's cob, it's permanent, and I'm worried that the value of the home could be lowered, if a potential buyer is uninterested. Open to suggestions, because just starting to think about this. I should add that the room already has a wood stove from prior owners. It's kinda old and was seldom used, but it already sits on a layer of brick. So the new rocket mass heater would be replacing that stove.

Hi, I am considering purchasing the Liberator rocket mass heater - https://rocketheater.com/products/the-liberator-gen-2-without-hopper - and I would like to integrate it with thermal mass. The house is 2 stories with a basement. There is an additional room in the back of the house which is a later attachment on slab, no basement below. This additional room is 28' long, 16' wide, and has a 10' opening to the rest of the house. Although this room is not the most centrally located (which would be ideal), it has no basement, so there's no need to add structural support, something we might need to do were we to install it elsewhere. I had a wood stove installer come to my house, and he mentioned that the Liberator, since it gets very hot, might make the room it's installed in uninhabitable with very high, sweat-inducing temperatures.

Does anyone here with experience of rocket mass heaters or the Liberator in general have any guidance on this? I am a newbie when it comes to all things firewood.

We spend a lot of time in this additional room and the adjacent kitchen, so the plan was to spend a lot of time in this room and the kitchen during the winter while the stove is running, but if it's too hot to really be in, then the plan doesn't compute. Ideally the heat would spread through the house & even upstairs a bit, but it's hard to tell if that'll really happen.

Happy to provide a floor plan if that would shed more light.

Thank you Brent for adding this on to the thread! I'm mentally bookmarking your response for future reference. I hope the flies don't colonize the whole patch!

Thanks Greg, that's a good idea, that I think I might try. Still on the fence re: vertical growing vs. just building a trellis. TBD.

Hi, does anyone here have experience growing a hardy kiwi vertically? I planted it self-fertile "Prolific" hardy kiwi near a ~20' black locust stump last fall hoping it would climb up the stump and engulf it, but it hasn't been doing so. (I don't mind climbing a ladder to get the fruits.) The tips of the vines just wrap around themselves and wave in the wind. Photos coming soon.

Hi - I made a bit too much of holistic spray based on Michael Philips' recipe in The Holistic Orchard. It contains neem oil, karanja oil, activated EM-1, liquid kelp, and fish hydrosylate. I have 2 gallons leftover and am not sure how to use it up, as I already sprayed all the trees on my property. Thoughts? Does it store well in the fridge? (If yes, I could save it for the fall or next spring.) My impression is that, of the ingredients, neem oil and karanja oil have antimicrobial and antifungal properties, so I'm hesitant to just spray / dump the rest of it in my vegetable garden.

Thank you in advance,
Boris