Curious about compost

[amon]

I was just wondering, if I start making my own compost in the back yard, can I throw in the used wood shavings and mice waste? Or would the amonia be too much to do harm?

What about the poo from my tortoises and lizards? Anyone got any experience in this?

Thanks.

[littleindiangirl]

No so sure on the wood shavings, but we did that with the saw dust from the pellets. Didn't get to far with it, but I can check on it this summer to let you know what's up with the pile.

[Gloryhound]

A lot of it depends on what you are planning on using the compost for. Some plants like tomatoes like an acidic soil while potatoes like a base as a soil. The highly acidic ammonia can be reduced by adding lime, if my memory serves me right, to make it more basic.

[Brimstone111888]

A lot of it depends on what you are planning on using the compost for. Some plants like tomatoes like an acidic soil while potatoes like a base as a soil. The highly acidic ammonia can be reduced by adding lime, if my memory serves me right, to make it more basic.

I think you have it back wards. Ammonia is basic and Lime is acidic.

[littleindiangirl]

Huh, I though ammonia was acidic... wheres google...

Yup... weak base. Good catch

[Gloryhound]

I think you have it back wards. Ammonia is basic and Lime is acidic.

No I'm pretty sure lime is used to reduce acidity.

Lime is a calcium oxide and you add calcium to soil to reduce acidity.

Actually Ammonia is a gas and is not what is making the soil Acidic. The thing that is raising the acidity of the soil is the actual excretions from the rats, snakes, and other reptiles. Ammonia is a product of these excretions that is being released as a gas.

[Brimstone111888]

Good catch for some reason I thought of limes being acidic, being so closely related to lemons.

You lost me on the Ammonia part though. Ammonia is basic in aqueous form with a ph of around 11(14 being max basisity(sp? lol)) Maybe explain it in other words.

[Gloryhound]

One more thing I thought of is the diet of the animal makes a difference. Vegetarian diet manure makes good fertilizer while manure from omnivore and carnivore type diets do not make good fertilizer. With that said it would depend on what kind of diet you had your rats on as to how good the droppings would be for fertilizer since they are omnivores and can survive off an entirely vegetarian diet!

The ammonia issue I'm not sure of. On a lot of the job sites I work on they have large ammonia holding tanks that get used in some process at the site. This is always in a gas form on the site. Is it the manure that is creating the ammonia or the Ur-ate? If it is the Ur-ate it will generally evaporate in a day or two leaving no liquid behind and what temperature is required to turn Ammonia into a solid?

Manure in its self is a solid! Also manure is susceptible to spontaneous combustion if in a large enough quantity and kept in an area without proper ventilation. Using manure as part of a compost pile is good, but you should keep it outside and try not to let it build up to the point that it starts building a lot of heat!