Bat Guano, A Very Good Soil Amendment

On August 18, 1856, the US Congress passed an act giving citizens exclusive rights to remove bat guano for the use of American citizens.

The word guano originated from the Inca civilization in Peru and means "the droppings of sea birds." Guano describes both bat and sea bird manure.

The Incans guarded and regulated this treasured soil enricher. Access to the guano deposits were restricted to chosen caretakers.

Using Bat Guano

Guano can be safely used as a soil amendment, both indoors and outdoors. Improving the soil will in turn improve the health of your plants.

Its primary ingredients are roughly 10% nitrogen (plants' healthy green color and their rapid growth), 3% phosphorous (for root growth and flowering), and 1% potassium (strong stems).

Due to the high nitrogen level, use bat guano as an amendment rather than as a fertilizer. That is, add it to the soil to improve it. Do that a few days or weeks before planting, so that the plants aren't injured by the nitrogen.

If you're having fungus problems on your plants, use a guano foliar spray to protect your plants. The guano has lots of microbes that will go to work for you.

Uses for Bat Guano

Guano improves the richness and texture of soil. It produces excellent growth when spread on lawns. It also gives the grass a healthy appearance.

Using guano as a foliar feed kills fungus attacking those plants. And it's an excellent compost pile activator.

An Important Note About Bat Guano

One thing to note about the guano from bats: it's been shown to lead to declines in bat populations, and even bat species, due to the disruption caused to the bats from cave mining. And fewer bats mean many more bugs in the areas where guano is mined.

I'll leave it to you to decide if the bat health vs. garden health tradeoff is worth it in your particular situation.

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