Quality of Compost

JAM23 1/1/2021, 2:50 pm

Happy New Year!

I am new to square foot gardening and I'm getting ready to put in 2 beds for this spring. I have purchased the 1/3 vermiculite and now I'm working on the compost and peat moss. I have found a local composting company that offers OMRI and STA quality compost for a decent price. My question is whether or not this would good to use for the entire 1/3 of the compost requirement for the Mel's Mix or should I supplement it with other composts. It looks like this compost is a blended of manure, clean landscape waste and clean food waste. Would anyone be able to advise me on what to do? The product is called Organimix which is produced in McHenry, IL.

Thanks in advance!

**Scorpio Rising** 1/1/2021, 3:47 pm

Welcome, JAM23! Glad you have the fever to get gardening! We have a SEARCH bar in the upper left-hand corner with a ton of results, but some members will no doubt ring in.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/search?search_keywords=Compost+&typerecherche=interne&show_results=topics

Over 450 results with just Compost as the search.

I think you need 5 types of different composts to satisfy Mel’s Mix recommendations. I use chicken do, worm castings, homemade kitchen compost, and bone and blood meal to supplement.

Can’t wait to hear more!

**sanderson** 1/26/2021, 1:32 am

Organimix in Illinois sounds good. Use only the product screened at 3/8". I like to have a manure-based and a vegetable-based compost in my blend.

JAM23 1/26/2021, 7:21 am

Thanks! I still plan on mixing it with cotton burr compost, lobster compost, Black Kow and some worm castings. Just want to make sure I'm giving the garden what it needs to be successful. Thanks so much for your time!

**Docwas** 2/18/2021, 12:26 pm

You should try to minimize the animal manure based composts since they tend to be high in phosphorus. Phosphorus will accumulate in your mix and that can interfere with the ability of some other nutrients to be utilized. Since the Organimix has manure in it, I would not use the Black Kow. I also screen all my compost through 1/4” hardware cloth to reduce the amount of wood pieces frequently found in commercial composts.

JAM23 2/18/2021, 2:01 pm

Thank you for your response! I didn't even think about the manure coming from the two sources. I will definitely adjust accordingly!

Sponsored content

Quality of Compost

Quality of Compost

Re: Quality of Compost

Re: Quality of Compost

Re: Quality of Compost

Re: Quality of Compost

Re: Quality of Compost

Re: Quality of Compost


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.