Existing Compost?

[CARS]

This is an odd question because more questions are HOW to make compost.

My step son started a job this summer working for a local city. They happen to have a city compost pile at the landfill site. Cool! I like a city that takes it's trash and turns it into treasure

Well, he surprised us with a truck load (2 ton) of this beautiful looking compost (if you can pick through the trash that made it way into the pile. i.e. plastic handles from buckets and a few other things).

I have no idea what is in this pile but it looks better than anything I have yet to make on my own. I tend to use it before it completely breaks down.

What concerns should I have about introducing this to my garden? Would waiting till fall be a good idea incase of "weed and feeded" grass clippings? I am certain that since it came from a city dump that 90% of this compost was made from grass and leaves which have had some treatment used on them.

But dang... It is good looking!!! And if my math is correct, it is the equivalent of 80 50lb bags of compost! @ $4.00 a bag... that is $320.00 in free compost!!!! :tools

 

[patandchickens]

We have once a year 'free municipal compost' days here, and I always get some; but I don't use it on food gardens, and I trial it each year to see how it is likely to behave before putting on 'important' perennial beds.

To trial it, spread some out on an unused piece of ground, or in windowbox-sized containers if necessary.

Have one patch that you lightly mulch and keep damp (cover with floating row cover if necessary, or cover with clear plastic and keep somewhere it'll get zero direct sunlight) and leave it for 2-3 wks to test weed seed germination. (YOu can still be surprised by some plants whose seeds take longer to germinate, but IMO it is a good bet that if there are not many quick-germinating seeds, it probably heated up enough to kill slow-germinating ones too).

Then with the other patch I sow some of whatever leftover seeds I have that I can afford to spare some of, that I *know* had excellent germination rate when I sowed them for real the previous month. I sow them as if I were trying to really grow them, and tend them as such. If they don't come up, I worry that there may be Something in the compost that will harm germination and possibly growing plants as well (this happened only one year so far) and to be safe I discard that batch of compost to an area where I don't care what happens.

Of course you don't NEED to do this, but if you worry about screwing up your garden with mystery compost I feel it is worth the couple-week wait.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[vfem]

We purchases a good yard or 2 of compost from a site (Not bad for $20 for all of it)... however, I planted my tomatoes in it (I added this over the winter) and my tomatoes now have early blight... I also ONLY added this to my potato pot and they caught the blight too after a week's worth of heavy rain.

So I found a fungus had been living in that compost, probably from previously infected plants that were in that soil.

However, its not too bad... if I just mulched when I should have it would have been just fine... and so far more then half my plants have taken well to the treatments.

Now I like Pat's idea of letting it sit... introduce it a little here and a little there over time. What if you start a small raised bed as a tester... add some annuals, maybe a perrennial if you want to keep the bed... and maybe a tomato plant and just watch everything for the year.

If everything goes well and you feel good about it... then in the fall mix the remainder into your other beds?! :/

Don't waste good compost, just make sure its really good.

 

[Greensage45]

Hi there,

If your city's refuge system is like ours then you will find that this is not at all compost, what you have is mulch. The city occupants arrive with their debris such as branch cuttings, and leaves, etc; they bulldoze the stuff into a big Shredder, and out comes the fun mulch. It does sit long enough to begin to appear darkened and composted, but typically it is just simply mulch and is full of everything you can think of.

Seeds of all sorts. Insect eggs and larvae. Even fungus and bacteria. All of these going into your garden from other people's messes. One can only imagine the array of products involved.

What you need to do is bring that home and make a pile. Turn it several times over the course of a year and add some of your pre-existing compost to add the activating beneficial bacteria. Then use it in your garden and flower beds. You might still be introducing a ton of weed-seeds if the compost did not reach a high enough temperature, but at least you will have eradicated most of the bad.

Good Luck,

Ron