Free Alpaca Manure

Well, not for you. But a guy in my area is giving it away. Short of creating my own supersoil, is there any really beneficial way I can feed my plants with it? He said it's gonna go quick, so I better figure it out here. Thanks guys

Yes! I recently read that worm castings created from alpaca manure are the best there is, period. Do you have a worm farm?

I used free local alpaca manure on my garden last year (medical and veggies)

Great Results! Just make sure it's not full of weed seeds, or compost it for a couples months and let it build heat a couple times.

silusbotwin said:

Yes! I recently read that worm castings created from alpaca manure are the best there is, period. Do you have a worm farm?

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No, I don't have a worm farm. I'm not at all familiar, if worm castings aren't available at one of my grow stores, where might I find them? Sounds like I need a worm farm lol. Thanks. And how did you apply the manure? Any special recipe?

Compost it if fresh..

I have a large supply of alpaca poop. Just make a big pile of it and worms will start working on it from the bottom. As long as there is some moisture, they will turn the whole thing into castings. Takes more or yes a year but of course you can dig good stuff out of bottom fairly soon. It's amazing how fast they work.
I just put an inch or so in the bottom of a bucket. Then add a little molasses. Agitate with water. Best to wait a couple days but sometimes I will fill several times in one day, it just won't be as strong. Only add molasses every few days. I just dip out with a coffee can and fill watering cans. I don't strain, just dip out the top half which fairly clear. Every plant loves it and especially cannabis.
I also add the castings to my potting mix when planting.. It's good stuff.

No need to compost Alpaca manure. Because of the Alpaca's digestive system, the manure is weed-free and pre-processed as long as not contaminated. Alpaca poo can go directly into a grow. I take the little dried beans and run them through a chipper/shredder to reduce them to a finer consistency, but this is not necessary. Works great as a component of tea or a an amendment mixed directly to soil.

killakc916 said:

No, I don't have a worm farm. I'm not at all familiar, if worm castings aren't available at one of my grow stores, where might I find them? Sounds like I need a worm farm lol. Thanks. And how did you apply the manure? Any special recipe?

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You can purchase a worm farm or easily make one from a plastic container like the ones they sell at Walmart, Home Depot, etc.

If space is a problem you can use a container as small as 10 gallons, just make sure it doesn't get too wet or too dry. I tip mine a bit to keep the liguid segrated and easy to drain off.

I realize this is an old thread but it is exactly what I just got a hold of. I was looking for an alternative to bagged cow manure from Home Depot and came across all the Alpaca manure I wanted. I was told that the area I was taking from was probably 3-4 years old. Its beautiful looking and I have never seen so many worms in my life! My plan was to use this with the following mix substituting Alpaca manure for cow manure and mushroom compost:

1/3 Sphagnum Peat
1/3 Perlite
1/3 combo of cow manure, mushroom compost, EWC

1/2 cup Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
1/2 cup Fish Meal 8-6-0
1/2 cup Crab Meal 4-3-0
1/2 cup Neem Seed Meal 6-1-2
1 cup Kelp Meal 1-0.1-2
1/8 cup Langbeinite 0-0-22
2/3 cup Oyster Shell
1 cup Gypsum
1 cup Basalt

I was trying to figure out if I should lower the amounts of any of the above amendments. This is my first mix and I expect to make changes over time but does anything stand out as being an issue? Also will the abundance of worms be a problem, should I leave out the EWC in the mix? They are small earthworms.

Use pine bark fines/mulch instead of mushroom compost in your combo. VOE on that. ~$2.50/2cf bag at HD or Lowes.

Is the oyster shell flour or the chicken grit stuff from the feed store? The chicken grit is useless, way too coarse to breakdown. Should be the consistancy of talcum powder. Bump it up to a full cup/cf.

Other than that the mix looks good.

Wet

Wetdog said:

Use pine bark fines/mulch instead of mushroom compost in your combo. VOE on that. ~$2.50/2cf bag at HD or Lowes.

Is the oyster shell flour or the chicken grit stuff from the feed store? The chicken grit is useless, way too coarse to breakdown. Should be the consistancy of talcum powder. Bump it up to a full cup/cf.

Other than that the mix looks good.

Wet

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The oyster shell is like powder. Down to Earth brand specifically.

Just looking online it looks like home depot only has the pine bark nuggets. Lowes has both the nuggets and pine bark mulch. I saw in another thread you specifically said no to the nuggets. Not sure if these are as fine as you were thinking.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Timberline-2-cu-ft-Brown-Pine-Bark-Mulch/1000132089
https://www.lowes.com/pd/2-cu-ft-Brown-Pine-Bark-Mulch/1112345

You're GTG with the Down to earth.

The mulch/fines should be flakey, about the size of a fingernail if that helps. The second one (Evergreen 1112345), is what I normally use, ~1 1/2 gallons/cf and 1 gallon of EWC (homegrown)/cf and ~1/4 gallon of cow manure/cf to give you a rough proportion.

The mushroom compost was just flat garbage.

About page 3 in the "Soil Test Results" thread above by Growipondfarm I posted my recipe if you want to take a look, but it's nothing really different than what you are doing, a very basic mix.

Wet