Posted by OhioGuy on March 24, 2009, 12:09 pm
I just bought about a dozen bags of "Organic Valley" cow manure & compost.
When I spread it out, small wood pieces made up roughly 1/3 of the whole
composition!
The wood certainly is not composted, and I certainly would not feel right
about selling something marketed as a composted cow manure and compost, when
it has this much foreign matter.
Does this sort of thing happen often in the industry?
Posted by brooklyn1 on March 24, 2009, 1:23 pm
> I just bought about a dozen bags of "Organic Valley" cow manure &
> compost. When I spread it out, small wood pieces made up roughly 1/3 of
> the whole composition!
> The wood certainly is not composted, and I certainly would not feel right
> about selling something marketed as a composted cow manure and compost,
> when it has this much foreign matter.
> Does this sort of thing happen often in the industry?
Your error was in buying "cow manure *and* compost".
You should have purchased "composted cow manure.
Whenever you buy "compost". regardless from who, you are buying a pig in a
poke... compost is a verb (something occuring), not a noun (a finished
finished product)... those wood chips are composting... compost is something
one does, not something that is. The fully composted portion of organic
matter is called "humus". There is one and *only* one way to know from what
humus was composted, that's to make your own... composting is like grinding
meat, the *only* way to know what/who's in it is to grind your own.
Mulch can be any solid matter that impedes plant growth, for gardening
organic matter is desirable, but mulch can be stone, plastic, rubber,
roofing shigles, broken glass, anything that doesn't readily decay.
Posted by gar_newbie on March 24, 2009, 2:12 pm
> > I just bought about a dozen bags of "Organic Valley" cow manure &
> > compost. When I spread it out, small wood pieces made up roughly 1/3 of
> > the whole composition!
> > The wood certainly is not composted, and I certainly would not feel right
> > about selling something marketed as a composted cow manure and compost,
> > when it has this much foreign matter.
> > Does this sort of thing happen often in the industry?
> Your error was in buying "cow manure *and* compost".
> You should have purchased "composted cow manure.
> Whenever you buy "compost". regardless from who, you are buying a pig in a
> poke... compost is a verb (something occuring), not a noun (a finished
> finished product)... those wood chips are composting... compost is something
> one does, not something that is. The fully composted portion of organic
> matter is called "humus". There is one and *only* one way to know from what
> humus was composted, that's to make your own... composting is like grinding
> meat, the *only* way to know what/who's in it is to grind your own.
> Mulch can be any solid matter that impedes plant growth, for gardening
> organic matter is desirable, but mulch can be stone, plastic, rubber,
> roofing shigles, broken glass, anything that doesn't readily decay.
So is there a way we can make this “something occurring” to “a
finished product”. (Thinking like throwing them alone in compost bin
and wait for some time to see it as “a finished product”)
TIA.
Posted by Phisherman on March 24, 2009, 6:44 pm
> I just bought about a dozen bags of "Organic Valley" cow manure & compost.
>When I spread it out, small wood pieces made up roughly 1/3 of the whole
>composition!
> The wood certainly is not composted, and I certainly would not feel right
>about selling something marketed as a composted cow manure and compost, when
>it has this much foreign matter.
> Does this sort of thing happen often in the industry?
By cutting product with a less expensive one, the company increases
profit. Laundry soap has been playing the filler and
measuring-cup-size game a long time. Often, cow manure that is
packaged for retail is mixed with compost, peat or sand. 100% cow
manure is no longer locally available, as it was 5 years ago.
Not good if your mix contained a large amount of wood chips, buy no
more. Better yet, tell us which brand to avoid. My woodshop
produces more wood chips than I can give away, sure they compost but
take an extra long time.
Posted by brooklyn1 on March 24, 2009, 9:03 pm
> And one very last bit; never buy compost in bags. Rarely, if ever is
> it compost.
That's just not true. If one buys "composted cow manure" it is indeed
composted cow manure. Buying composted cow manure in small bags is not very
economical but very often that's all some may need. There is no reason to
cheat on composted cow manure, it's not like there is any shortage of cow
shit... no shortage of bull shit either, Victoria..
Anyway, commercially composted material is not a very wise choice regardless
from whom it is purchased... and composted cow manure, or any composted
llivestock manure is not a very good choice because livestock, especially
cows do not eat a very varied diet.
And the typical bulk topsoil/compost merchant cheats, cheats big time, they
fill their product with bank run (essentially clay and sand) and wet it down
just prior to delivery so it looks nice. Composted wood chips is about the
very worst choice. The *only* way to get quality composted material is to
compost ones own... typical kitchen scraps, being of widely varied
materials, make a far better composted material than anything one can buy.
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> compost. When I spread it out, small wood pieces made up roughly 1/3 of
> the whole composition!
> The wood certainly is not composted, and I certainly would not feel right
> about selling something marketed as a composted cow manure and compost,
> when it has this much foreign matter.
> Does this sort of thing happen often in the industry?