Garden Forum: Flour as an Organic Soil Amendment

Gardenbuddies.com-Where friends meet to share their gardens

Flour as an Organic Soil Amendment

Garden Forum » Composting and Soil Amendments in the Garden Forum » Flour as an Organic Soil Amendment

« Previous Next »

Author

Message

Kvilledude

My Weather

Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2003 - 04:13 am EST :

I am a frequenter of the Garden Web forums as well as this one and one of my favorite forums is the Soil, Mulch, and Compost Forum. I found out something there that I thought was rather interesting. I posted a question about the compostability of flour since I am a food chemist for Krispy Kreme and have access to flour samples that are brought in by the trucks sent by various mills. In several responses to my posting, it was suggested that flour is much better used as a topical addition to my garden and soil where it would feed the microorganisms in the soil leading to increased soil tilth. Well, yesterday I went out and spread some and if you have ever spread ground lime, you know what I ended up looking like--a snowman in April. The flour is so lightweight that it came out of the spreader as a mist and coated me and the spreader. On top of that is was sort of drizzling so it got wet which was good for that which ended up on the soil, but not good for the flour which got on me!!! Guess I really need to use a drop spreader the next time I attempt this!!!

Kvilledude North Carolina Zone 7
http://community.webshots.com/user/nckvilledudes

Plantynut

My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Time

Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2003 - 01:24 pm EST :

Really? Flour? Interesting.

Arlene Zone 7 Long Island, NY

Swamprose

My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Time

Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 09:13 am EST :

Seems like it would turn to glue when it got wet in the soil, stick to your shoes, and make a mess. Let us know how it turns out...it's an interesting experiment.

Krispy Kreme...what a great place to work! Yum!

SwampRose western Washington zone 8

Kvilledude

My Weather

Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 10:36 am EST :

Swamprose, it finally stopped raining here today and the ground where I put out the flour is fine except for those places where, when I got frustrated with the flour coming out so slowly, I ended up throwing it about with wild abandon and I got piles of it in one place. I am sure that eventually it will break down and be consumed by the microbes. I think using a drop spreader would be a better way to disperse it than a rotary spreader.

Kvilledude North Carolina Zone 7
http://community.webshots.com/user/nckvilledudes