Dog Food = Fertilizer???

riprap

This probably sounds dumb, but here goes: dog food, the dry pelletized kind, looks a lot like fertilizer cakes. I wonder how they would work as fertilizer cakes. Say the lamb- or chicken-meal and rice formulas. There should be plenty of protein in there, which would yield nitrogen as it breaks down. And if made with animal by-products, there may be bonemeal as well, so there's your phosphorus. Could look at the analysis on the package to see whether there's any appreciable potassium.

I think the largest size pellets ("Great Dane"?) would be about right. Before placing them on the soil of the bonsai, maybe saturate once with Sevin and once with Superthrive?

The only problem I see is that there seems to be an oily/fatty component. We usually keep fats out of our compost pile, so maybe they'd be an issue here.

Barry
(who is fully prepared to be called an idiot for this one)

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riprap

Oh, forgot to add:

I would expect it to improve the bark!

Barry

Carl_Bergstrom

Not so stupid, Barry...I know people who use it, albeit after running it through the family dog first.

Best regards,
Carl

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jeremy_norbury

Barry

Then let me be the first.

You're an idiot.

Jerry

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TreeBay

definitely not the first:

http://www.sacbee.com/content/home/...p-7873392c.html

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FredL

Barry, I don't think your question or logic is unreasonable at all. I think that dog food is much like many organic fertilizers used in Japan and the reason that it is not used there is simply a matter of what is readily available.

I, myself, use it occasionaly when our dogs spill some. I also use dry cat food, under the same conditions. They both develop mold rather quickly when damp and decompose fairly rapidly. I also use such things as left over oatmeal and other people foods left over from meals, as well as "processed dog food". All of these things work very well for me and I've reduced the amount of 8-8-8 chemical fertilizer I use. Not because it, too, doesn't work just fine, but because I don't want to over-fertilize.

It appears to me that the fats and oils included in these materials dscompose pretty rapidly. From what I've seen plenty of micro-organisms exist in any soil-like medium to handle just about any naturally occuring organic substance. I wouldn't add cooking oil to my pots, but in the small quantities that such materials exist in dog foods, I haven't seen any problems.

When I've read the books about organics used in Japan, it doesn't appear to me that there is anything magical about them; they are simply the materials widely and cheaply available there. In our culture, I think dog food occupies a similar place.

I have had one minor problem, unrelated to the effect on the soil and trees of such substances. Occasionally, they will attract a possum or racoon in our area. Minor irritation which does not affect my continued use of them

Best regards, Fred

jeremy_norbury

Barry

I'm an idiot.

Jerry

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TreeBay

My big concerns when I hear people using pet foods are the following:

1) SALT. I don't know what the sodium levels are in that stuff. Never tasted it! The ash and meat byproduct and so forth is probably no big deal.

2) Fats and oils can go rancid and smell bad, so there is an issue there.

3) The possibility of promoting rodent or maggot problems and possibly other health concerns from the decaying material.

4) Preservatives - the material needs to be consumed by soil microorganisms before the nitrogen and so forth can be released into the soil. Preservatives in the food might resist this, or they might have some other negative effect on the plants. I simply don't know.

5) Drainage - does kibble go to mush quickly? Will it clog the soil? I haven't had any experience with this in decade(s) but I seem to remember that after a night's rain, the kibble in the dog's bowl plumped up and turned to mush. If it flushed into the soil or became sledgy it could interfere with the drainage and permeability of the soil.

SUMMARY:

So, if you want to give dog kibble a try, please don't use your best plants to begin with!

Regards,

Matt

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pdbbonsai

why not just use what is known to work.

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