Rabbit poop as fertiliser?
 

OK, here's the thing ... recently noticed I've been throwing out a huge amount of potential natural fertiliser due to the unstoppable butt of my daughter's pet rabbit. The burning issue is ... would it be good for my orchids? I already occasionally use a fertiliser made from sheep's poop (another vegetarian, hence the idea), and another made from bat poop (which, by the way, is AMAZING for a certain type of plant recently legalized in certain states ;) ... but rabbit poop is unexplored territory. Acidity levels in particular make me nervous. Anyone have anything (other than laughter) to say on this matter?

I've successfully used horse manure for my catasetums ( repotted annually ) and even phrags. At around 1/3 of the mix.
I've even top dressed orchids with a chicken manure mix outdoors. Give it a try.


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This brings back memories. Years ago, when I was a child I had pet rabbits that were kept in a pen. The pen was elevated and the poop accumulated under the pen. Our neighbor came every spring and collected the poo for her flower beds. She loved the way it helped her plants and there is very little smell to it. Horse poo however, eeeew.

Rabbits need to eat some of their poop though. It is part of their digestion process.

Since they are total vegetarians, I think rabbit poop would be awesome, on the level of chicken poop as a fertilizer.

I don't know about "orchid fertilizer" or not. I have heard that "green tea" is good for orchids.

Of course rabbit droppings can be used as fertilizer, just as virtually any other manure. The usual recommendation would be compost first, then use directly or make manure "tea". Rabbit droppings are a bit higher in N and P relative to K than most commonly used animal manure.

"Burning issue"--heh! Manure which is not composted first may be too "hot" for the orchid roots. I would definitely compost first for safety.

How would you put the poo on the orchids? I'm imagining rabbits climbing in trees, jumping from one to the next, and leaving a little treasure here and there...

I've recently used Class A municipal compost as part (~ 10%) of my mix for Cymbidiums and Bletia patula, another terrestrial. Class A refers to high levels of bacteria reduction; approved for vegetable gardens, etc. The municipal part . . . I think you have probably figured out. ,
.. Yeah, THAT poop.

The compost has worked very well. Those plants have never looked better. I would definitely compost the rabbit poo first though.

WE have so many rabbits at the moment...before they all get tularemia that is.....our lawn was covered last fall and coming out of winter I don't think my lawn has ever looked this good this soon. The winter with all of our wind and when we don't have much moister, plus 4 dogs. Well needless to say it usually looks like hell, pardon my expression. Rabbit poo is a great fertilizer.