Best Florida Compost - store bought

JackieB999 12/4/2012, 9:46 am

Hi everyone... I'm new and am preparing to plant my first SFG in Florida in February (spring). Very excited! I dont have a compost pile and I'm not sure I want to start one right out of the gate. So I will have to buy compost to start, but I've read that different types of compost do better in certain areas than others.

Does anyone have suggestions on 5 different types of compost that I could buy that would do well in Central Florida? Any experiences with what does NOT work? Thanks for any help you can give! ~Jackie

**camprn** 12/4/2012, 9:50 am

Sources to look for:
cow
horse
chicken
goat
rabbit
llama
seafood
forest
mushroom

I can't think of anything else just now.

Welcome to the Forum.

EggplantWizard 12/4/2012, 12:22 pm

Hey Jackie! I see you're in Central FL. I just went to this place in Rockledge (near Cocoa) called Happy Hooves Farm. Very nice people and they make compost consisting of sheep, chicken, goat, horse, and a little bit of llama. They charge $6 a bag, but the amount they give you is over 1cu ft per bag. They also sell llama beans to make a "tea" for your crops.

Nymiko 12/5/2012, 6:57 pm

how about near west palm beach FL??

**camprn** 12/5/2012, 7:14 pm

Nymiko wrote:how about near west palm beach FL??

I would try Craigslist and Freecycle first.

Nymiko 12/5/2012, 10:08 pm

camprn wrote:
Nymiko wrote:how about near west palm beach FL??
I would try Craigslist and Freecycle first.

Would the Free compost from my local SWA okay to use in the garden bed?

**camprn** 12/5/2012, 10:17 pm

what is SWA?
If I could get it from a farmer I would be happy with a variety of composted manure.

Nymiko 12/5/2012, 10:23 pm

The city's solid waste authority, yea I looked on craigslist as well as free cycle and didn't find anything

**camprn** 12/5/2012, 10:43 pm

Nymiko wrote:The city's solid waste authority, yea I looked on craigslist as well as free cycle and didn't find anything

I see a few things here on Craigslist. Maybe contact some of the stables and see if they have composted manure for free. Wink

http://westpalmbeach.craigslist.org/gra/

Nymiko 12/5/2012, 11:08 pm

closest person is about an hr away. I would try to call some farms up

plantoid 12/6/2012, 5:50 am

Just been looking at the area you live in on google earth and around Ranch road area there are what looks like numerous small ranches with horses or other stock .

Perhaps use GE and have as look around to see if you can find anything nearer then go happy tapping on the doors, taking a couple of lidded buckets & a scoop in the car or hanging on the handle bars of your cycle etc.

Where there is a will there is a way !

When my first daughter was just out the pram ( 1975 ) and into a stroller /buggy , I modified the old pram so I could go 2 & 1/2 miles away and collect neat half dried cow pats out a field .
(using a pair of rubber gloves and scrape it up jobby ).

I managed about 60 pounds a load in 20 pound poly sacks , had six or seven loads over a couple of months. We had the best veg plot in the area

**WardinWake** 12/6/2012, 6:34 am

Howdy: As far as using the compost from your SWA take a look at what they are putting in it. If there are no animal or human waste you should be fine. I have used compost from our local SWA but found it was not completely composted so I had to let it sit in my compost pile until it was ready.

As a side note - Compost that is not fully ready will pull nitrogen from your planting mix as it continues to compost. Once it is completely composted the nitrogen will be released into your mix so that your plants can use it.

Bless, Ward and Mary.

CharlesB 12/6/2012, 4:19 pm

Last time I was in Florida the big box stores had Black Cow composted manure, regular composted cow manure and also humus. Each by the bag.

Should get you started and they were all cheap.

Only thing to really be careful of is poultry manure. It might be very strong. Cow, horse, goat or rabbit won't be unless it hasn't dried out yet.

**walshevak** 12/6/2012, 9:12 pm

Black Kow, Black Hen and Black Velvet mushroom compost are Florida based. They make up the work horses of my commercial composts. Then I add others as I find them. Some better than others, but the black hen compensates for a lot. It's powerfuls stuff.

Kay

Triciasgarden 12/6/2012, 9:41 pm

I did recently what Plantoid suggested. I took my granddaughter out in her stroller, a shovel and some plastic garbage bags. I went knocking on doors. I found a wonderful lady who said sure and let me fill my bags. Her daughter and her daughter's friend offered to help bring some of the bags home and I was able to fill them fuller. They loaded up their wagon and I put some in the basket of the stroller and they helped me bring the manure home. I found those girls go to my grandson's school and they were very sweet.

CharlesB 12/7/2012, 8:55 am

Thanks for setting a good example Plantoid and Triciasgarden!

All the materials are out there if one only looks.

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