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| Hi everyone! Quick question. I plan to use my nearly finished compost as mulch in my veggie garden. Should I wait a few days in between planting my tomatoes and mulching or is it ok to mulch the same day I put my transplants in the ground? Thank you in advance! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| You can---and should---mulch your tomatoes the day you plant. You're going to love using compost as your mulch. |
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- Posted by heirloomjunkie 5a (My Page) on Thu, Apr 7, 11 at 11:13
| Ally, what do you mean by "nearly finished"? My compost constantly gets added to, so although I have some great stuff in there, I occasionally find the unfinished citrus peel or egg shell or veggie scrap. Will this hurt anything? And is the compost lightly tilled in, or just left on top? Thanks! Kim |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Fri, Apr 8, 11 at 0:30
| You can tell if compost is finished by the aroma. It smells wonderful like a forest floor after a spring rain. If it does not smell like that, then it is not finished. The last microbes to work in the compost are the ones that impart that fragrance. When you buy finished compost the provider should screen out anything that is not fully composted and toss that stuff into the next batch. All the little bits and pieces should be unrecognizable as to the original material. It will not hurt anything to keep them in there but it looks unsightly. And now that I think about it, if you bury unfinished compost (sticks and twigs) the decomposition process of those items will consume massive amounts of nitrogen to the point of absorbing all nitrogen from all nutritive sources in the immediate vicinity. Decomposition of wood is best done above ground. The best use of compost is to apply to the top of the soil. It can be tilled in but there are many reasons not to. Mother Nature never tills her compost in. She applies it on top. |
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| Kim, I use my compost, ready or not, when spring comes. Eggshells are a non-issue. If you don't like the way they look, smack them with your trowel or throw some dirt over them. If, while harvesting my compost, there's anything too raw, I toss it back in my newly emptied bin. If you were to mix unfinished compost into your soil, there would be some (temporary) tie-up of nitrogen, which can be addressed by adding nitrogen. I use fish emulsion fertilizer or manures. If you're using your compost as a mulch (a lovely thing to do), you don't need to worry much about how "finished" your compost is. I don't like to see orange rinds or onion skins in my gardens, so I try to use compost as finished as I can get it, but compost does not have to resemble soil to be used as a mulch. It can be a little rough. The compost I mulch with is always pretty clumpy. |
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| Wonderful! Thank you all so much! :) |
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- Posted by heirloomjunkie 5a (My Page) on Fri, Apr 8, 11 at 12:31
| Thanks, makes much more sense now. Thanks for posting, ally. |
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