Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap compost
that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.

On Apr 29, 8:58*am, Naga Jolokia wrote:
Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? *I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap compost
that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.



What do they make the compost from? Trees & such? No organics
mixed in , like grease, meat, etc/

I prefer to mix with at least 1/3 soil. Interested to see what others
do.

Also, I'll spread on top of veg. beds to keep in moisture; avoid dry,
cracked earth.

Persephone

In article ,
Naga Jolokia wrote:

Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap compost
that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.

No. The best soil is 30 - 40% sand, 30 - 40% silt, 20 - 30% clay, to
this add 5 - 10% organic material (such as your compost and/or manure),
and don't forget bone meal, or rock phosphate, and some wood ashes.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

On 4/29/10 8:58 AM, Naga Jolokia wrote:
Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap compost
that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.

A neighboring water district gives away compost free. It's derived from
sewage sludge. The water district gives the following guidelines for
usage:

When planting a tree or shrub or for a planter, use 1 part of compost to
2 parts native soil in the planting hole.

For new flower bed, vegetable beds, and lawns, spread 1-3 inches of
compost and work to a depth of 5-6 inches. That's about 1 part compost
to 6.25-7.0 parts native soil.

For existing beds and lawns, top with 1/2 inch of compost once a year.

Using my own compost (which is mostly leaf mold), I would use all
compost in a planter. But my own compost contains nothing from toilets,
garbage disposers, washing machines, etc; thus, it has fewer nutrients
than compost derived from sewage.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

In article ,
"David E. Ross" wrote:

On 4/29/10 8:58 AM, Naga Jolokia wrote:
Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap compost
that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.

A neighboring water district gives away compost free. It's derived from
sewage sludge. The water district gives the following guidelines for
usage:

When planting a tree or shrub or for a planter, use 1 part of compost to
2 parts native soil in the planting hole.

For new flower bed, vegetable beds, and lawns, spread 1-3 inches of
compost and work to a depth of 5-6 inches. That's about 1 part compost
to 6.25-7.0 parts native soil.

For existing beds and lawns, top with 1/2 inch of compost once a year.

Using my own compost (which is mostly leaf mold), I would use all
compost in a planter. But my own compost contains nothing from toilets,
garbage disposers, washing machines, etc; thus, it has fewer nutrients
than compost derived from sewage.

My neighboring recycling center also gives away compost for free. The
compost is mostly grass clippings and leaves. IN THE PAST, I have used
the compost straight up with no problems and with great results. The
company test their compost on a regular basis, very good stuff, little
to no herbicides and pesticides found in it. Not as many people use that
space merchant stuff these days.

However, in the past most people set out the grass and leaves in large
paper bags which also composted well. Now days they use clear plastic
bags. So sometimes I see some plastic strips in with the compost. If I
find the plastic strips I remove them. So I am NOT SO SURE these days.

Compost - I just cannot get enough of it!

--
Enjoy Life... Dan

Garden in Zone 5 South East Michigan.

David E. Ross wrote:
On 4/29/10 8:58 AM, Naga Jolokia wrote:
Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap compost
that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.

A neighboring water district gives away compost free. It's derived from
sewage sludge. The water district gives the following guidelines for
usage:

When planting a tree or shrub or for a planter, use 1 part of compost to
2 parts native soil in the planting hole.

For new flower bed, vegetable beds, and lawns, spread 1-3 inches of
compost and work to a depth of 5-6 inches. That's about 1 part compost
to 6.25-7.0 parts native soil.

For existing beds and lawns, top with 1/2 inch of compost once a year.

Using my own compost (which is mostly leaf mold), I would use all
compost in a planter. But my own compost contains nothing from toilets,
garbage disposers, washing machines, etc; thus, it has fewer nutrients
than compost derived from sewage.


Add to that the fact that I have seen on virtually every bag of compost
from sewer sludge: "Do not use on vegetable crops or any crop raised
for human consumption". Good advice. Might be harmless. Might not.

Tony

Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or
other additives? I plan to fill up some raised beds with cheap
compost that I can get from a local recycle center.

Thanks.


There is a very good - but overpriced - brand of bagged composted cow
manure called "Black Kow". They have a video on their site showing the
planting of a tomato plant using nothing buy a bag of the stuff laying
on it's side (drainage holes cut in the underside). Supposedly, the
tomato plant thrives to harvest in it.

More realistically, composted cow manure (a favorite of mine, BTW), does
have a measurable NPK ratio, besides it's usefulness as organic matter.
But with a heavy feeder crop (and that includes tomatoes), you will need
a little more N, and especially more P and K than the manure can supply
alone. Composted cow manure is a great source of organic matter and
trace elements, and a fantastic storehouse of soil microbial life, but
only a minor contributor of NPK.

Tony

Hi all,

Many thanks for your answers, suggestions.

I am quite sure that the compost is derived from wood chips, grass
clippings, and leaves. It's not the sewer sludge type through.

Per your suggestions, I am going to mix it with some sand to improve
drainage. I will also try it straight to see if the result is different
or not. I can't use the native soil in my back yard since it's like
pure clay. You need a hammer to break it when it's dry. And when it's
wet, you can't even work on it.

Again, many many thanks for your insights, answers, and suggestions.

"Naga Jolokia" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Is it alright to use compost straight without mixing it with soil or other
additives?

yes, provided as other people have said it is from a food grade growing
source, it will work fine as a growing medium.

Whether it is the best thing to use. Well, what is the perfect soil anyhow.

If you make a raised lasanga garden you can pack it with partially composted
or even uncomposted material provided you have a few inchs of soil or fine
compost on top as a planting bed.

If that is what you have to use, use it. If you choose to mix some soil into
it, that'll work as well.

As a new gardener I fretted for some months as to whether the raised bed I
had filled with composted horse poop would be any good for growing.
Eventually in spring the crops came up and said to me 'relax son, we'll grow
ok here'.

Rob

Compost soil is very rich soil and used for many purposes but it is much better if you put soil in it .. Composting is only a simple way to add nutrient-rich humus which fuels plant growth and restores vitality to depleted soil. .

Naga Jolokia wrote:

Many thanks for your answers, suggestions.

I am quite sure that the compost is derived from wood chips, grass
clippings, and leaves. It's not the sewer sludge type through.

Your only problem is one of short arm disease... your arms are too
short to reach your wallet.

In my experience (when I was very young and very foolish) the FREE
"compost" from municipal sources is not compost at all, it's
rotted/fermented organic matter in various levels of doneness,
typically not very done at all... if you can see the wood chips and
discern all the other bits of organic matter it's certainly not
composted or even rotted (composted and fermented are more different
than night and day). Also those wood chips (and other debris) are
collected willy nilly from various sources, most usually
contaminated with nefarious insect larvae, fungi, and quite possibly
toxins, especially toxins from lawn clippings... usually
shredded/chipped branches from roadsides collected by utility
companies and highway departments, but can well be chipped chemically
treated lumber, and even scraped up roadside soil containing oil
spills. The two times I availed myself of the freebies it was
definitively mulch (extremely poor quality mulch), not compost.
Placing it in my beds was a serious mistake, the insects/plant
diseases it harbored nearly destroyed all my shrubs and trees.
Fermented sewage sludge is a lot worse. If you really want compost I
strongly suggest you make your own, or buy bagged *sterilized*
compost. But (like ground meat) it's best to make your own, that's
the only way you'll know what/who is in it. If that FREE compost was
of any quality at all it would not be free, they'd bag it and sell
it... they are using citizen's property for supplimenting municipal
landfill sites.... it's called spreading the wealth around, so when
the inspectors arrive they won't designate your town dump another
Super Fund site.

Per your suggestions, I am going to mix it with some sand to improve
drainage.

Sand needs nothing to improve drainage, sand drains perfectly well on
it's own... adding compost to sand inhibits drainage... compost will
fill the voids between the sand particles. The compost won't last
long but for the short term it will hinder drainage... a lot of sweat
labor for nothing. To improve drainage look towards creating proper
grading, installing culverts, adding drainage ditches, placing
perforated piping, burying shale, etc. Adding compost will not
improve drainage... otherwise folks whose basements flood would get
rid of their sump pumps and spread compost about the basement floor.

I will also try it straight to see if the result is different
or not. I can't use the native soil in my back yard since it's like
pure clay. You need a hammer to break it when it's dry. And when it's
wet, you can't even work on it.

Mixing compost with poor soil will literally do nothing, nada,
zilch... compost will NOT improve soil one iota, certainly not the
kind of soil you describe. Compost is pure organic material that will
continue to decompose until in a very short time (less than a year)
will be totally gone... it will become dust that blows away from wind
and/or washes away from rain. Compost is a very short term
improvement that should be used in direct contact with plant roots on
a very temporary basis, as though it were potting medium. Working
compost into *your* soil is fine if you want to save on gym fees. What
you need, from your own words, is many 10 yard dump truck loads of
quality top soil, enough to cover your entire gardening area at least
six inches deep, preferably a full foot deep... but first tend to any
drainage problems with excavation.

After reading this group for a few years I've discovered that
absolutely no one (not even one person) knows what compost is, they
don't know the difference between compost and mulch... they are not
synonymous, in fact they are the exact opposites... compost is
decomposed organic material that *promotes* plant growth, mulch is any
material that *inhibits* plant growth (mulch is not necessarily
organic).

Free compost... nothing is free... fergedaboudit... t he only solution
to your problem is to grow longer arms.

In article ,
Naga Jolokia wrote:

Hi all,

Many thanks for your answers, suggestions.

I am quite sure that the compost is derived from wood chips, grass
clippings, and leaves. It's not the sewer sludge type through.

Per your suggestions, I am going to mix it with some sand to improve
drainage. I will also try it straight to see if the result is different
or not. I can't use the native soil in my back yard since it's like
pure clay. You need a hammer to break it when it's dry. And when it's
wet, you can't even work on it.

Again, many many thanks for your insights, answers, and suggestions.

You can vastly improve that clay soil by growing rye and buckwheat on
it. Afterwards, include legumes or clover for nitrogen. Look for seed
mixes called "Green Manure".
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

In article ,
brooklyn1 wrote:

Naga Jolokia wrote:

Many thanks for your answers, suggestions.

I am quite sure that the compost is derived from wood chips, grass
clippings, and leaves. It's not the sewer sludge type through.

Your only problem is one of short arm disease... your arms are too
short to reach your wallet.

In my experience (when I was very young and very foolish) the FREE
"compost" from municipal sources is not compost at all, it's
rotted/fermented organic matter in various levels of doneness,
typically not very done at all... if you can see the wood chips and
discern all the other bits of organic matter it's certainly not
composted or even rotted (composted and fermented are more different
than night and day). Also those wood chips (and other debris) are
collected willy nilly from various sources, most usually
contaminated with nefarious insect larvae, fungi, and quite possibly
toxins, especially toxins from lawn clippings... usually
shredded/chipped branches from roadsides collected by utility
companies and highway departments, but can well be chipped chemically
treated lumber, and even scraped up roadside soil containing oil
spills. The two times I availed myself of the freebies it was
definitively mulch (extremely poor quality mulch), not compost.
Placing it in my beds was a serious mistake, the insects/plant
diseases it harbored nearly destroyed all my shrubs and trees.
Fermented sewage sludge is a lot worse. If you really want compost I
strongly suggest you make your own, or buy bagged *sterilized*
compost. But (like ground meat) it's best to make your own, that's
the only way you'll know what/who is in it. If that FREE compost was
of any quality at all it would not be free, they'd bag it and sell
it... they are using citizen's property for supplimenting municipal
landfill sites.... it's called spreading the wealth around, so when
the inspectors arrive they won't designate your town dump another
Super Fund site.

Per your suggestions, I am going to mix it with some sand to improve
drainage.

Sand needs nothing to improve drainage, sand drains perfectly well on
it's own... adding compost to sand inhibits drainage... compost will
fill the voids between the sand particles. The compost won't last
long but for the short term it will hinder drainage... a lot of sweat
labor for nothing. To improve drainage look towards creating proper
grading, installing culverts, adding drainage ditches, placing
perforated piping, burying shale, etc. Adding compost will not
improve drainage... otherwise folks whose basements flood would get
rid of their sump pumps and spread compost about the basement floor.

I will also try it straight to see if the result is different
or not. I can't use the native soil in my back yard since it's like
pure clay. You need a hammer to break it when it's dry. And when it's
wet, you can't even work on it.

Mixing compost with poor soil will literally do nothing, nada,
zilch... compost will NOT improve soil one iota, certainly not the
kind of soil you describe. Compost is pure organic material that will
continue to decompose until in a very short time (less than a year)
will be totally gone... it will become dust that blows away from wind
and/or washes away from rain. Compost is a very short term
improvement that should be used in direct contact with plant roots on
a very temporary basis, as though it were potting medium. Working
compost into *your* soil is fine if you want to save on gym fees. What
you need, from your own words, is many 10 yard dump truck loads of
quality top soil, enough to cover your entire gardening area at least
six inches deep, preferably a full foot deep... but first tend to any
drainage problems with excavation.

After reading this group for a few years I've discovered that
absolutely no one (not even one person) knows what compost is, they
don't know the difference between compost and mulch... they are not
synonymous, in fact they are the exact opposites... compost is
decomposed organic material that *promotes* plant growth, mulch is any
material that *inhibits* plant growth (mulch is not necessarily
organic).

Free compost... nothing is free... fergedaboudit... t he only solution
to your problem is to grow longer arms.

The above comments DO NOT reflect the majority opinion of rec.gardens.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

On Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:16:03 -0700, Billy
wrote:

In article ,
brooklyn1 wrote:

Naga Jolokia wrote:

Many thanks for your answers, suggestions.

I am quite sure that the compost is derived from wood chips, grass
clippings, and leaves. It's not the sewer sludge type through.

Your only problem is one of short arm disease... your arms are too
short to reach your wallet.

In my experience (when I was very young and very foolish) the FREE
"compost" from municipal sources is not compost at all, it's
rotted/fermented organic matter in various levels of doneness,
typically not very done at all... if you can see the wood chips and
discern all the other bits of organic matter it's certainly not
composted or even rotted (composted and fermented are more different
than night and day). Also those wood chips (and other debris) are
collected willy nilly from various sources, most usually
contaminated with nefarious insect larvae, fungi, and quite possibly
toxins, especially toxins from lawn clippings... usually
shredded/chipped branches from roadsides collected by utility
companies and highway departments, but can well be chipped chemically
treated lumber, and even scraped up roadside soil containing oil
spills. The two times I availed myself of the freebies it was
definitively mulch (extremely poor quality mulch), not compost.
Placing it in my beds was a serious mistake, the insects/plant
diseases it harbored nearly destroyed all my shrubs and trees.
Fermented sewage sludge is a lot worse. If you really want compost I
strongly suggest you make your own, or buy bagged *sterilized*
compost. But (like ground meat) it's best to make your own, that's
the only way you'll know what/who is in it. If that FREE compost was
of any quality at all it would not be free, they'd bag it and sell
it... they are using citizen's property for supplimenting municipal
landfill sites.... it's called spreading the wealth around, so when
the inspectors arrive they won't designate your town dump another
Super Fund site.

Per your suggestions, I am going to mix it with some sand to improve
drainage.

Sand needs nothing to improve drainage, sand drains perfectly well on
it's own... adding compost to sand inhibits drainage... compost will
fill the voids between the sand particles. The compost won't last
long but for the short term it will hinder drainage... a lot of sweat
labor for nothing. To improve drainage look towards creating proper
grading, installing culverts, adding drainage ditches, placing
perforated piping, burying shale, etc. Adding compost will not
improve drainage... otherwise folks whose basements flood would get
rid of their sump pumps and spread compost about the basement floor.

I will also try it straight to see if the result is different
or not. I can't use the native soil in my back yard since it's like
pure clay. You need a hammer to break it when it's dry. And when it's
wet, you can't even work on it.

Mixing compost with poor soil will literally do nothing, nada,
zilch... compost will NOT improve soil one iota, certainly not the
kind of soil you describe. Compost is pure organic material that will
continue to decompose until in a very short time (less than a year)
will be totally gone... it will become dust that blows away from wind
and/or washes away from rain. Compost is a very short term
improvement that should be used in direct contact with plant roots on
a very temporary basis, as though it were potting medium. Working
compost into *your* soil is fine if you want to save on gym fees. What
you need, from your own words, is many 10 yard dump truck loads of
quality top soil, enough to cover your entire gardening area at least
six inches deep, preferably a full foot deep... but first tend to any
drainage problems with excavation.

After reading this group for a few years I've discovered that
absolutely no one (not even one person) knows what compost is, they
don't know the difference between compost and mulch... they are not
synonymous, in fact they are the exact opposites... compost is
decomposed organic material that *promotes* plant growth, mulch is any
material that *inhibits* plant growth (mulch is not necessarily
organic).

Free compost... nothing is free... fergedaboudit... t he only solution
to your problem is to grow longer arms.

The above comments DO NOT reflect the majority opinion of rec.gardens.
--
- Billy

This is not contradicting your particular stance about this issue, but
have you consulted everyone reading this group to establish that this
is the majority view, bearing in mind that not everyone who reads this
group, and has an opinion, actually posts to it in every thread? You
should be very careful about extrapolating views. It's like the people
who jump on posters they disagree with to say "we do not want you
here", and assume that they have the right to speak for everyone who
reads the newsgroup.

Geoff

On 2010-04-30, Naga Jolokia wrote:
Hi all,

Many thanks for your answers, suggestions.

That clay needs lots and lots and lots of peat moss.
--
Bud