On 17 Jun 2004 10:07:37 -0700, (Jay Chan) wrote:

Plant compost is excellent for improving garden soil, but has little
nutritive value. Start to dig in some of your lovely composted manure
by all means.

I am more than a bit alarmed when I read this. I have been using leaf
compost in my backyard vegetable garden. I prepared the compost in my
backyard using tree leaves from last fall. If what you said is true, I
will have to add more fertilizer than what I am adding now. Please
tell me what type of nutritions are available in leaf compost, then I
can supplement whatever that it is lack of.

I should have framed that better. Compost without animal manure has
*some* nutritive value; just not a great deal.

I will use my leaf compost regardless the low nutrition level that it
may have. The reason is that I depend on the compost to improve the
sandy soil in my vegetable garden.

Exactly. Compost is terrific. It is not, however, a powerful
fertilizer. In fact, we all talk of 'compost' as if it were a single
substance, and that isn't really correct. Compost from fall leaves,
grass clippings, newspaper, broadleaf plants, and vegetable waste all
have different chemical profiles. There isn't a single 'recipe.'