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An almost forgotten fertilizer, bone meal is now being used again in vegetable gardens as a natural organic product. It is a source of phosphorus and magnesium, but does not contain nitrogen. For this reason, fertilizer can be safely added to the soil without fear of an excess of nitrogen in the soil. The flour contains 15% phosphorus in the calcium phosphate compound. Until recently, bone powder was used to compensate for the lack of calcium in animals.
Today, the product of bone processing has been used as an organic phosphate fertilizer. If industrial nitrogen and potassium supplements are replaced by humus and ash, respectively, then superphosphate replaces bone powder.
What is beneficial
Organic fertilizers from bone meal do not harm nature, polluting it with waste from the chemical industry. You can do it yourself. This is especially true for owners of private farmsteads who keep livestock for themselves. The tubular bones of large animals cannot be gnawed even by dogs and there is nowhere to put such waste. But from the bones you can make fertilizer for the beds in the garden.
Organic fertilizer from bones is also beneficial in that it lacks nitrogen, which leads to fattening of plants. If in the previous year there was too much nitrogen fertilizer and it is not needed in this year, bone meal can be used as “pure” phosphorus.
Phosphorus released from the bones contributes to the growth of the root system of seedlings, strengthening the immunity of plants and the ripening of delicious sweet fruits.
What’s this
Composition of live bone in percent:
- water 50;
- fat 15,75;
- collagen fibers 12,4;
- inorganic substances 21,85.
When bones are calcined, all organic substances are burned, only inorganic compounds remain. Elasticity to fresh bones is given by collagen fibers that burn out. After calcination, the bone becomes very brittle and crumbles with the fingers.
Of the inorganic substances remaining after calcination, the future fertilizer contains the most:
- calcium phosphate – 60%;
- calcium carbonate – 5,9%;
- magnesium sulfate – 1,4%.
The formula of calcium phosphate is Ca₃(PO4)₂. Plants get their own 15% phosphorus from this substance.
Application
Животноводы хорошо знакомы с костной мукой, которую добавляют в корма, чтобы восполнить дефицит кальция у молочного скота и несушек. Но этим применение продукта не ограничивается, так как используют костную муку и огородники в качестве удобрения.
В качестве удобрения порошок вносят в грунт раз в год, весной, при глубокой перекопке. Кости тлеют и отдают полезные вещества медленно, поэтому этот вид удобрения относят к «долгоиграющим». Норма удобрения на квадратный метр – 200 г.
You can add flour to the seedling hole. To do this, a little powder is poured into the bottom of the hole and mixed with the ground. Seedlings are placed on top and sprinkled with soil.
Также этот продукт используют для раскисления почвы, так как после тепловой обработки костей кальций – основной компонент окончательного продукта. Вместо золы или извести, в почву можно добавить аналогичное количество костной муки.
How to make yourself
Костная мука – одно из немногих видов удобрений, которые легко сделать самому. Способ как сделать костную муку в домашних условиях достаточно прост: кости прокаливают в огне. При изготовлении костного удобрения основная задача – выжечь из кости все органические вещества. Промышленная технология подразумевает определенный температурный режим и герметично закрытые емкости. В результате костная мука промышленного производства имеет почти белый цвет.
Homemade powder will always be inferior in quality, and the color will depend on the method of manufacture and the accuracy of the manufacturer. There are two ways to make bone meal at home: put it in a metal container and put it in the oven to bake; just throw the bones into the oven along with the firewood.
In the first method, the container must be covered with a lid to avoid heat loss and placed in the hottest place. In the second, remove the bones from the oven after some time. The calcination time depends on the size of the bones and the temperature at which they are calcined. It is necessary to select the heating time experimentally. Quite often, calcination takes 12 hours of continuous heating. During this time, all the organic components that give elasticity to fresh bones will burn out in the bones. At the output, the raw material for fertilizer from the container will turn out to be “white” in color, if you are lucky, and the one harvested directly on the wood will differ little in color from the ash.
After calcining the bones, the flour blanks should crumble
At home, it is most convenient to make flour from bird bones. They are smaller, thinner, and the organic matter burns out of them faster. After calcining the bones, it is enough to crush, and the fertilizer is ready.
Bone and meat and bone – the same thing?
On sites you can often see that the adjectives “bone” and “meat and bone” are used as synonyms. In fact, they are fundamentally different products.
The raw material from which bone meal is made is bare bones. Even if there were traces of muscle tissue on them before being placed in the oven, all this burns out during the calcination process. At the exit, as in the video above, fragile brittle bones remain, without the slightest sign of meat.
Сырье для мясокостной муки – туши павших животных и отходы с бойни. Присутствуют в сырье и кости, но основную массу там составляют кожа и мышечные ткани.
In high-quality bone, there is practically no smell. If there is an odor, then the packaging was damaged, the contents got wet, and the bone powder began to decompose.
Meat and bone meal as a fertilizer is not used if there is no desire to breed carrion-eating insects on the beds. The main obstacles to the use of meat and bone meal in the garden are its chemical composition and a completely different manufacturing technology. The composition of meat and bone meal includes up to 60% protein, and the technology of its preparation provides for degreasing and drying in a centrifuge, rather than calcining until the organic matter is completely removed. Because of this, after adding a meat and bone product to the garden, the usual decomposition processes will begin there with all the delights in the form of a putrid smell and the reproduction of pathogenic bacteria, including tetanus bacillus.
When it enters the bloodstream through a wound, these bacteria cause “blood poisoning” (sepsis).
Even the color of meat and bone meal differs from bone meal. The meat and bone is red-brown, while the bone is gray or gray-white. In bone meal, the color often depends on the degree of calcination and manufacturing technology.
The instructions for the use of meat and bone meal provide for the norms for giving top dressing per farm animal, but not the norms for adding the product to the beds. Meat and bone meal is added to the feed:
- fattening bulls and producers;
- pigs
- stallions-producers;
- chickens to eliminate protein starvation.
But plants do not feed like this. If the instructions for meat and bone meal indicate that it can be used as a fertilizer for plants, this is either a marketing ploy, or the meal is not meat and bone.
The video briefly shows the technology for the production of meat and bone meal.
Reviews of bone meal, as a fertilizer, from experienced gardeners are positive. Fortunately, flower shops do not sell meat and bone meal, otherwise things would be different. It is possible to use meat and bone and fish meal as fertilizers, but it is more profitable to use them as feed for livestock. And even using protein products as fertilizers, it is better to do it on large areas that are processed by machines.
Reviews
Conclusion
Bone meal, which is being used again, can replace the superphosphate produced by the chemical industry. Its plus is that in small quantities this substance is easy to make on your own at home. When breeding indoor flowers, this fertilizer can be made by hand using a conventional gas oven.