Recommended store bought compost - Photos of composts

bigblue94 wrote:Sanderson or anyone else that can help I know what I need to fill my new boxes and old ones .WITH the old boxes I need to add about 3 inches in each I know I use the 5 compost but do I mix it into the whole bed or just leave on top

I mix mine in. My thought process being that you want the vermiculite and peat moss spread throughout the mix to help retain the moisture evenly. Also, if the compost was better just on top, I don't think we would need to mix it up at first. Of course, you can reserve some compost to top dress the beds.

bigblue94 wrote:Does anyone know how many pounds would equal a cubic foot  example 20 pounds would be this many cf thank you all for help

According to the Soil3 website (bulk compost sales) their 1 cubic yard bag weighs about 1200 pounds. There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard so according to my math...1200 pounds/27 cubic feet = 44 pounds/cubic foot

bigblue94 wrote:Sanderson or anyone else that can help I know what I need to fill my new boxes and old ones .WITH the old boxes I need to add about 3 inches in each I know I use the 5 compost but do I mix it into the whole bed or just leave on top

Does anyone know how many pounds would equal a cubic foot  example 20 pounds would be this many cf thank you all for help

I would definitely mix the compost to get it down to eventual root level.  It should not be all that hard.

As for weight, if my high school/college math is correct, there is no one correct answer to your weight question, since the mass of each possible compost ingredient cannot be converted to a standard weight.

1/4 inch of one ingredient weighs different from a 1/4 inch of any other ingredient.

You can figure it out by making a tiny bit of Mel's Mix from your ingredients you have and fill up a small box of which you know the cubic footage.

For instance, let's say you have a 6 inch by 8 inch by 12 inch box.  You add equal parts of the peat moss you have, the vermiculite, and your compost blend.  You weigh the box and it comes to 10 pounds.  That box is roughly 1/3 CF, so multiply by 3 to get 30 pounds per CF.

A 4' x 4' x 6" Raised Bed requires 8 CF to fill, so you would need 8*30 or 240 pounds of mix to fill a regular 4 x 4 square.

I just used numbers out of the blue to show the math, and these numbers will not be all that close to reality.  I don't have any idea how much it might actually be.  Maybe, you will try that experiment and tell us what you came up with in your box.

I do know that one of my 3 CF garbage cans when filled with just compost weighs more than I can lift.

It was around 8 inches deep I may not be able to get mushroom compost would it be ok to use  just 4 compost or is there anything else

I read on this thread that a nursery was making their form of Mel's Mix from 1 part peat moss, 1 part vermiculite, and 2 parts compost, saying that you will eventually end up with that ratio anyway.  I don't believe that is true.  I have found that the "settling" in my beds is never more than 1/3 the depth of my Mel's Mix.  To me, that confirms that the peat moss and vermiculite is remaining, but the 1/3 compost used in the original mix is consumed.  I always add enough compost to bring my squares back to their original height, and mix that well all the way to the bottom so that I have reconstituted the original ratio of Mel's Mix.  I started out using a blended compost, but now have my own compost that is all vegetable matter (90% leaves and grass, 10% kitchen waste.) I also do vermicomposting on a limited scale and add that into my compost mix before replenishing my SFG.

No, I no longer use any farm manure in my compost.  I had my blended compost, which did contain farm manure, and my homemade compost both tested.  My homemade compost had a higher % of N and a lower % of P compared to the blended compost.  Since P is so abundant and too high already in my SFG, I decided to go with just the homemade compost.  Interesting what you can learn when you do testing.

1Round two......
I am using the harvest supreme as the backbone due to the multiple ingredients

 it has. As this includes 15% chicken manure. Next is the composted Steer, mushroom comp, then a local compost of lawn and yard stuffs and a more regional brand, and last is the worm poop. Mixed Yesterday.....batch looks good...back a little tired after 8 cu/ft made.

sanderson wrote:Worm castings are probably the most expensive, but that's okay because castings are supposed to be used as no more than 10% of the compost products.   

What happens if you use more than 10%?

after reading about worm castings, they claim that they will not burn plants.  Would using too much castings have an effect on flavor of vegetable?

Should have waited for a response. I'm still learning (even though it feels like the hard way)......mixed 30 gals worth of compost mix and keeping it in a 30 gall bin for now. I have 3 cu/ft of harvest supreme, 1/2 cu/ft of the two compost bags, mushroom and steer compost and 1 gal. of worm castings. That would make another 5 cu/ft of compost.....would you say that that still would make a solid blend of compost?

Second, is it harmful to the compost in the bin and/or worm if i toss a few of them into the compost I'm not ready to mix yet? The worms are all collecting under my bins chowing on what was spilled on the aggregate slab I have them stored on?

Last, I added photos...but I do not see them.

sanderson wrote:Even lining the bottom and sides of the bed with commercial grade weed fabric, the ground worms will find their way in.  

This amazes me.  I am putting my raised beds in what used to be a rock mulch "garden".  Maybe a decade or so ago a previous owner of my house put weed cloth down and several inches of river rock.  I have placed some beds on top of the rock and have been digging out as many rocks as I can. About a foot down, I have finally reached the old weed cloth.  I want as many rocks as possible out of there so they don't mix in with my super expensive MM.

I know that 6" of MM is all that is needed but I'm young enough to dig deeper and build a soil that will be prolific for a very long time. 

I was thinking of putting down fresh weed cloth to keep the remaining river rocks out of the MM but was scared I would be keeping the worms out.  Glad to hear that those ground ninjas will find a way in....hey, if they can find their way out of a vermicomposter, then they can find their way in a garden. 

They definitely will get in! We had newspaper sandwiched between 2 layers of ground cloth & they managed. :-) (insert happy dance emoticon here)

="sanderson"]Nikko, If you have reached the old weed fabric, I would stop digging.  Deeper MM does not equate better results.  Depending on the native dirt, one can create a soggy pit if there is higher ground.  Line the beds with commercial weed fabric, running it up the sides also.  Can you post photos of what you are doing?[/quote]







Not meaning to hijack the thread....I dug each box about 6-12” below their base.  Now that I know worms have ninja powers and can make it past weed cloth, I’m not digging deeper. The plan is to fill back in the boxes with local compost (leaf origin I believe). The 4x4’ boxes and the 4X12’ box will have about 8 inches of MM. The 6x6’ Keystone box will be deeper at about 12” of MM. that box is 2’ high

That snow.....makes me sad

And look at the snow this way: The water is getting the ground ready for seedlings... Nice & moist!

Nikko wrote:

sanderson wrote:Worm castings are probably the most expensive, but that's okay because castings are supposed to be used as no more than 10% of the compost products.   

What happens if you use more than 10%?

after reading about worm castings, they claim that they will not burn plants.  Would using too much castings have an effect on flavor of vegetable?

Worm castings by itself does not feed plant roots. The castings supply food for bacteria in the mix. Bacteria process this then distribute it into the various sections of the rhizosphere ( root tips )
Can you just imagine 2 billion bacteria in one teaspoon of compost ?

OhioGardener wrote:

jimmy cee wrote:
Can you just imagine 2 billion bacteria in one teaspoon of compost ?

I just recently read "Teaming with Microbes", and was fascinated with it!  I have always worked to support a lot of microbes in my gardens, but this provided a lot of new insight.

Can I just imagine 2 billion microbes in a teaspoonful of compost? Yep, I have seen their work.  Yesterday I top dressed the tomatoes and bush beans with fresh compost. Last evening I went out to check to see if there were tomatoes to pick, and there were night crawlers everywhere collecting that compost to pull it into the ground. I love it!

That two billion turns into 4 billion in compost tea..

I hate to sound really dumb here (I’m brand new to square foot gardening, any my only other garden was two Earth Boxes last year), but is manure and compost the same thing?  How about potting soil?  I keep trying to find good compost, but very few places having anything labeled as “compost.”
 
Thanks for all your help!