Kitchen Scrap Slurry As Fertilizer?

[GoDawgs]

I have an experiment going where in early January I prepped planting holes that will be used at the end of April with chopped up kitchen veggie scraps (peelings, etc) to see if they will compost in place. So far nothing has dug any of it up. Now I'm wondering about whizzing up the scraps into a slurry in the food processor for side dressing or maybe more hole prep. My thoughts are that being broken down, the veg scraps will incorporate faster in this form.

So what do you think? Will this be of any benefit to plants or am I going down another rabbit hole? I just can't stop tinkering with stuff.

[brownrexx]

I have buried scraps in my garden for years and I like doing that. Of course a slurry would break down faster but I don't go to that much work.

Last year hubby dig a big hole in my garden with his garden tractor and I dumped in buckets and buckets of fallen pears from our trees as well as all of the tomatoes and other veggies that were not used. I also added a bunch of grass clippings and buried the whole thing in the fall. I will be growing my tomatoes above this area this year.

I just wanted to improve the soil deeper down.

[bower]

The only issue with composting in place is how long it will take to break down. That depends on your soil temperature, N levels, and worm population/soil microbes. I guess the coarser material depends more on worms, and something completely liquid goes to microbes? It does make sense that a slurry will break down faster.
If the soil is rich enough and warm enough, a bit of undecomposed material should just boost the worm activity and then you're getting fresh worm castings as it's broken down. Not sure about the slurry.
How about staging an experiment, where some plants get the slurry and some don't? Then you'll see whether there's any nitrogen being tied up to decompose the stuff, or whether it's gobbled up immediately.

[karstopography]

Closest I gotten to that is take various unused or unusable brassica and mustard leaves, whack them in place a few times with my 30” machete and then fork them into the soil. The worms do seem to love these leaves. The leaves seem to vanish fairly quickly, days to a couple of weeks or so.

[PlainJane]

I’ve occasionally done some dig and drop composting of raw kitchen waste, but typically it goes into my 2-chamber composter/worm bin to break down first, then into extra grow bags layered with old grow medium.
Very infrequently I’ve had a critter get into one of the grow bag worm farms, maybe once a year at most. I’ve started putting another empty grow bag on top as a kind of lid.
Eggshells and skins from avocados take the longest to break down of all the kitchen waste.
I’m thinking of trying out a system where I can add kitchen waste directly to the raised beds - something like a 5 gallon bucket where the bottom has been cut out. I can weight the lid with a flat stone to make sure nobody gets in there.

[zeuspaul]

I saw an ad on TV for one day kitchen compost using the Lomi. I lost interest in their product when I saw the price!

I blend my kitchen scraps and add some purée to plant water to remove the chloramine.

I have a pan with a bed of wood chips on the porch near the kitchen. I place the purée on the chips. I have no final results but it is not *instant*. I am sure it could be used in conjunction with other stuff when used in limited quantities.

I use crushed egg shells in my potting mixes. They break down slowly so I am not concerned about their use. Over time they add calcium and help with drainage like perlite.

I also add spent tea leaves to my mixes but in small quantities. Break down processes can compete for nitrogen so the *blend* of ingredients makes a difference.

Blend Your Old Food Scraps For Instant Compost

Composting your leftovers is a great way to generate rich nutrients for your garden, but a real compost bin isn't a viable option for everyone. If you don't have the space or can't stomach the smell, creating cold compost in your blender is a great alternative.

Dave Manno at Dig It suggests throwing your food scraps in a blender as soon as you're done eating to make some instant compost. Just fill up the blender with plant scraps, coffee grounds, old newspaper, and anything else compostable, then add water to just above the top of the scraps. Blend until you have a smooth purée, then spread it out in your garden, working the mixture into the soil with a trowel if necessary. A word of warning though; a $20 margarita mixer probably won't cut it here. You'll want a powerful blender if you're attempting this with heavy scraps like banana peels.

The mixture isn't technically compost yet, so it might not see immediate benefits. However, breaking down the raw materials in a blender will let mother nature decompose them faster, and your garden will reap the rewards without any additional work since the entire process is happening within the soil. Do this for a few weeks, and you should start noticing more earthworms and healthier plants, no smelly compost bin necessary.

<snip>

https://lifehacker.com/blend-your-old-f ... st-5994471

[GoDawgs]

How about staging an experiment, where some plants get the slurry and some don't? Then you'll see whether there's any nitrogen being tied up to decompose the stuff, or whether it's gobbled up immediately.

I've got most (all?) of the planting holes for squash, cukes, peppers and okra already amended with buried scraps. That leaves beans. Maybe I could pre-mix in some slurry in half a row of beans and not in the other half (same variety) and see if there's any difference. Otherwise I'll wait until fall so that scraps and slurry are pre-mixed in at the same time and not weeks apart.

@zeuspaul , thanks for that article! I was thinking more of using a food processor than a blender. Banana peels won't be a problem as they're not around the house much. And besides, I think the possums like them.