Farmer, There's a Hair in My Salad...

File this one under “Ewww, gross.”

Researchers say that human hair could potentially be a great addition to our compost piles someday. Studies conducted have shown that the hair, which is readily available as a waste product from barber shops and beauty salons, may provide high levels of certain kinds of nutrients which could be used to enrich soils.

Apparently, the stuff has already been made available to some farmers. But one day in the future we may all find the stuff for sale at the garden center.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at Mississippi State University and published in the journal HortTechnology, was designed to assess whether commercially available non-composted “hair waste cubes” would support plant growth. Their tests involved using the cubes as a sole source of nutrients for four crops: lettuce, wormwood, yellow poppy and feverfew. Results suggested that hair waste could not be used as a single source for fast growing plants, but that the stuff could provide sufficient nutrients to container-grown plants in a manner similar to the way conventional commercial fertilizers are now used.

The team notes, however, that there are health concerns associated with using this kind of product, and it is unclear if hair cubes would be a viable option as fertilizer for edible crops. It also seems that the hair takes a really long time to break down, and so there fore it takes a long time for those nutrients to become accessible to the crops.

Ugh. This is terribly gross, and I am not a person that is easily grossed out! Perhaps it is unscientific of me to say so, but YUCK!

This takes having a hair in your salad to a whole new level. I am picturing tumbleweeds full of tangles rolling across drought-afflicted fields… although that might not be accurate I have to say that is what comes to mind. Also, I can’t help but wonder what kind of run-off would come from hair that had been color-treated or straightened using strong solutions, or curled into perms. Those are some powerful chemicals. How would hair waste contaminated by that stuff get filtered out, I wonder? I suppose those are the health concerns they are talking about….

The complete study and abstract are available at the American Society for Horticultural Science HortTechnology electronic journal website.

Will Termites Invade Compost Piles?

Someone recently inquired on one of my favorite listservs about whether or not their newly established compost piles would attract termites.

I would not worry about termites as much as rats and raccoons. Termites want standing dead wood. Healthy piles of compost are not what they like best.

After years of experimenting with completely open bins, I found that unwelcome animal visitors were a real problem. The one I have now is rat and raccoon proof. (I also was lucky enough to buy it for $10 a yard sale...recycling at its finest!)

The bin works well, although because it is small I cannot do all of our yard waste. I can do kitchen scraps year round, though, and most of our garden waste except the leaves.

The leaves are staying put around the root zones of my larger trees. I've raked them neatly with a sort of a serpentine edge, so that it looks like a garden, and not like someone just forgot their chores. They are forming a border to my yard, basically, with grass in the middle. (In past years we raked them to the curb where they were vacuumed up and recycled into leaf mold for gardens by the county.)

Some people say you should shred the leaves before winter, but most of the info I read from cooperative extension offices online said that wasn't really necessary if you were leaving them under their trees. I'll see how it goes. Admittedly, my leaves are mostly small maples and break down pretty quickly, so they won't blow away or anything. I might spread some finished compost on top in a few places, just to give the breakdown process an extra jumpstart.

In the spring I plan to augment some of the native wildflowers under the trees, by planting more Virginia bluebells. I already have white wood aster, violets, golden ragwort and snake root plants that come up in those areas. We also get some lovely green moss, which I think is dreamy-looking in early spring. All of these native plants have proven themselves to be kid proof, and come back stronger each year, providing an area where my kids can run through wildflowers any day they want to, just because. It is so shady, no lawn would grow under there anyhow, and I have not mowed under my trees for three years. I just have to constantly make sure the invasive exotics don't pop up and take over. This takes constant vigilance on my part, and a pretty good knowledge of the differences between native sprouts and non-native sprouts.

I hope that now the leaves will help feed the soil and the trees. I also think it will increase the food available for birds, because the number of worms and other insects available will increase.

I keep my closed compost bin away from the house, but its on rollers and I can move it through the year. During winter we put it right over top of the veggie garden, which is now at rest. That way, any excess moisture that runs out of the bin feeds the soil, and the worms and come and go as they want on warm days, in and out of the bin's little air holes. (Two days ago when I opened it there were hundreds of them going crazy in the warm, fresh, rainy air at the top of the bin. )Also, on cold or rainy winter days we do not have to walk far out the door to put our kitchen scraps in there, which means we are more likely to actually make sure to put them in the bin at the end of the day.

In the summer, we roll it back to its base by our shed in the far back of the yard, where its smell cannot permeate the play areas. I am proud to say our bin is alive and well and that the smell is one that is supposed to be there... It is a smell I actually like because to me it is like smelling the freshness of a garden in summer, akin to the way some people feel about the salty smell of the beach. But I am sensitive to the fact that my guests to not always have the same happy associations. (Also, it is important to note that the back of my yard is not close to my neighbor's house, so they don't have to smell anything in summer, either.)

You can find a lot of the basic info on compost by hunting around, but the EPA's compost site is a good place to start.