I would think it would definitely add to the compost pile, but isn't it kind of expensive? I've read a lot online lately about using alfalfa (pellets, meal, etc) as an inexpensive green if you're short on them. In fact yesterday I went to a local feed store and all they had were alfalfa cubes; I'd read those are hard to break apart, but these seemed really crumbly. I didn't have enough cash on me (10 bucks for a 50 lb bag) and they didn't take plastic, so I have to go back Monday. But I have so many bags of shredded leaves and decided it was easier and cheaper (considering gas prices and several trips to a horse or rabbit farm) to just buy the bag of alfalfa. Same with Starbucks....closest one is about 30 minutes away. And my groceries are all jerks about it.

This 50 pound bag will supposedly do a full compost pile, and I may save some out for alfalfa tea.

BTW, my mom spent time in Germany and always raved about their window boxes. She finally asked a native what their secret was. The secret: bat guano. The German country ladies swear by it and mom says they've got the biggest, brightest geraniums she's ever seen.

I'd love to have a bat house myself, but I'm afraid I'd freak out the neighbors.

Here is a link that might be useful: More info on Alfalfa

I think through living our years, its come to our attention that bat quano is a great fertilizer. It is.
One of the best mining areas for such is evidently in the caves of Arizona.

I saw a movie once....way back when....Cornel Wilde, as a sheriff fought with a dangerous character in the bucket that was used to collect the guano...and it was high over a canyon...something like 1000 feet up.
I think that was my first initiation into hearing about this valuable resource.

But evidently, all birds doo-doo is valuable.....its just the volume of it from these caves is so abundant, it makes it easy to mine.

I think someone here posted a link to a guy who started a guano collection company. It was really interesting; he was in Texas I believe. There were only a few weeks out of the year that the bats migrated south to Mexico, and during that short time, he moved in with giant vacuum hoses and sucked as much as they could into a vat or something.

It reminded me of a news spot many years ago where some company was sucking prairie dogs out of their holes into a truck. You saw the poor little things just sucked right out, riding through the tube and landing in the truck. But headed to (supposedly) happy homes in Japan, where they were popular as pets.

Anyway, the whole bat guano collection company was so interesting.

Bat Guano has a very high level of readily available Nitrogen and is very expensive. If no other source of Nitrogen is available at less cost it might be something to consider, but like all other products sold in stores the value is only what if can do for you and at the level of cost for that product there are many other things of greater value.

It's my understanding that much of what is sold as bat guano is actually bug guano from insects that live in bat caves and eat bat guano directly (just an interesting point rather than a correction or detration). No matter, it's supposed to be a great fertilizer. It would be a little silly to spend that kind of money for an N source. If you have no access to horse stables or other free N- and have to buy something- then $10 for a 50# bag of bunny food is MUCH more economical. Pee works well too.

Bat guano is much more than just a nitrogen source. Blended (from both insect and fruit eating bats) guano is a naturally complete fertilizer, offering a full range of macro and micronutrients as well as trace elements. It is extremely popular as a complete nutrient source for hydroponic growers. It also has some rather unique features compared to other organic fertilizers in that it has high concentrations of bioremediation microbes as well as fungicidal and nematocidal properties. It also has a high concentration of chelates, so promotes soil particle bonding and improved cation exchange. And this is pretty potent stuff - a very little goes a long way, so the higher price makes sense. At an application rate of 1-2# per 100sf or 1 tsp per transplant, you don't need much.

Gardengal- lots of reports tote it's effectiveness in the garden. The original question was about adding it to a compost pile, however. That seems a waste for such a valuable commodity.

It sounds like you may use it. What sort of prices do you see it for? I'm curious about how it compares in price and performance to worm castings, which, likewise, are supposed to offer MUCH more than just a good NPK rating.

Thanks,
-pH

It was a 13 pound bag by gardenville ( I think?) the self same company that goes foraging in these here texas caves. i think it was around $26.00 or some oddly high number. What got me looking at it twice was the large nitrogen number (14-11). I was thinking with such a high nitrogen number, it might be too hot to apply it in the garden over the winter. Just wondering is all.. by the way, I am a Ucg kind of guy for nitrogen

Here's a couple of tidbits that serve me well.

1. Never buy anything brand new and dump it in a compost pile.

2. Never buy bat guano because I have developed an intense dislike for the stink it has. But maybe that's just me. I can smell it in the parking garages where we shop - ugh!

The largest caves of Mexican free-tail bats in the world is apparently nearby. Garden-Ville is the company that mines the guano as they are located nearly on top of the caves. National Geographic, in a study they did on the bats, did DNA research on the guano to determine what the bats were eating. What they found immediately was that the dna was not from bats but from bugs, a form of dung beetle. But the guano on the floor of the cave contained bat guano dna. In more controlled studies they found that the bats were eating cotton weevil moths (the infamous boll weevil). The economic effect on agriculture of the bats catching 2.5 million pounds of boll weevil moths per night for 150 nights, is quite probably incalculable.

pablo - I don't use it (don't have the need for much in the way of any fertilizer :-)) but I do sell it. 3# box goes for $7.99 at my nursery. They do recommend it to kickstart compost piles though - lots of hungry microbes. And I agree it's a bit pricey for that purpose and unnecessary for an accomplished composter.

Bagged worm castings here are a little more than double that price. I think they are incredible and I mix what I can lay my hands on (friends in the vermiculture biz) to my container soils and if any left, directly to assorted heavier feeders in my garden. IMO, worm castings are the Mercedes Benz of composts :-)

I'm glad to hear that! By the end of the season last year my garden was at least 6" deep pure worm castings. I couldn't believe it. The worms colonized that area pretty quickly. I'm turning it into a major vermicompost operation with OPL and other stuff. Hope it's near done in the spring.

I don't exactly have access to bats... I suppose I could keep a couple dozen in the woodshed :)

thank you so very much for the insight,I appreciate this very much.