Chickens May Help Your Plants Grow

You may not want to stuff your Christmas stocking with it, but researchers here say they know what it takes to grow a bigger and brighter poinsettia.

Chicken poop.

If they are right, chicken farmers on the Eastern Shore may find a new home for the 800,000 tons of manure that is generated each year--your garden and the nation’s nurseries.

And that could prove quite a gift to environmentalists and the state’s seafood industry. Scientists suspect a link between poultry waste used as fertilizer and Pfiesteria piscicida, the toxic microbe that killed tens of thousands of fish and left 30 people sick last summer.

“This is one avenue for using excessive amounts of poultry litter,” said Thomas W. Simpson, coordinator of the Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Programs.

A three-year study at the University of Maryland shows that composted poultry waste is a cheaper and better potting mix than those available commercially.

Thomas A. Fretz, dean of the university’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the chicken compost also works on Easter lilies, chrysanthemums, watermelons and bedding plants, such as petunias and marigolds.

Much of the poultry waste produced on the Eastern Shore is used as crop fertilizer. The researchers said those farmers would use less if other sources were found for chicken manure.

Don’t look for poultry compost on the nation’s shelves any time soon. Even if growers want it, it will take several years for large composting manufacturers to get established.