PHONETOOL
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Organic or Not ?

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From the looks of this would you say this is organic or not?

Flowerhead
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When a gardening product says Organic, it's not the same as USDA Organic....It means there's no artificial ingredients

The label on that pic says it's made with forest products and sawdust

So, yes.....it is organic

PHONETOOL
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Flowerhead wrote:When a gardening product says Organic, it's not the same as USDA Organic....It means there's no artificial ingredients

The label on that pic says it's made with forest products and sawdust

So, yes.....it is organic
It's a great deal... Hard to believe it's only three dollars a bag I better go get some more

cynthia_h
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Impossible to say whether it's organic or not; not enough information. What's in it besides the forest products and sawdust?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

DoubleDogFarm
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Does it have the
USDA organic seal

Eric

DoubleDogFarm
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PHONETOOL wrote:
Flowerhead wrote:When a gardening product says Organic, it's not the same as USDA Organic....It means there's no artificial ingredients

The label on that pic says it's made with forest products and sawdust

So, yes.....it is organic
It's a great deal... Hard to believe it's only three dollars a bag I better go get some more
$40.50 a yard. You may want to compare it to a landscape material yard.

Eric

Flowerhead
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the USDA doesn't have authority over garden products. The label will not be on any garden products

The organic label is on the bag twice posted above. It just means it's made from leaves and bark and sawdust and some other stuff from the woods....(pine needles- whatever)

Non-organic garden products may include: artificial dyes (mulch) and non-organic items like rubber chips (mulch)

My concern is: is it really a quality product for $3? I get a much better compost for $6-$7 a bag

DoubleDogFarm
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[quote]USDA Accreditation
Question:
Why is OMRI not USDA accredited as an organic certifier?

Agricultural products (foods, fibers and feeds) which are outputs of organic farms or processors are the only materials that can be considered USDA “certified organic.â€

Flowerhead
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The OMRI label is good to see but just like the USDA organic label, it takes some extra work to get certified. There are good companies out there that aren't certified OMRI

It really takes some time and experience to know what a good store bought compost looks like....internet quote:

1
Pick up a handful of each compost and feel it. Compost should be loose and granular without large chunks of undecomposed material. Avoid compost varieties with large chunks of bark or other solid materials in it.

2
Look over the compost. Compost should be dark brown or black in color. The darker that compost, the more rich it is in organic materials.

3
Pick up a bag. Compost should be moist, not dry or soggy. Since compost is sold per weight, if it is soggy or waterlogged, you will mostly be paying for water in improperly stored or packaged bags.

4
Smell the compost. Good compost should have an earthy smell. Most bagged composts will have a slightly musty smell from being confined in plastic. If compost smells sour or rotten, avoid it.

DoubleDogFarm
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3
Pick up a bag. Compost should be moist, not dry or soggy. Since compost is sold per weight, if it is soggy or waterlogged, you will mostly be paying for water in improperly stored or packaged bags.
Interesting. I've never seen it sold by weight. Always Cu. Ft. Our landscape yards have 1 cubic yard loader buckets. They just scoop and dump.

Eric
Last edited by DoubleDogFarm on Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

Flowerhead
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^^^ It's referring to store bought bags

It's often sold in 40 lb bags...plus it's sold in 1 or 2 cubic ft bags

DoubleDogFarm
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Flowerhead wrote:^^^ It's referring to store bought bags

It's often sold in 40 lb bags...plus it's sold in 1 or 2 cubic ft bags
I'm just trying understand. Do they raise and lower the price of a 40lb bag if it is left out in the weather. It's less when it dries out and more when it gets waterlogged. Is it not a unit price. :?

Eric

cynthia_h
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I just dug around in the carport and found an empty bag which formerly contained 2 cubic feet (56.6 L) of GreenAll brand Organic Potting Soil, produced by E.B. Stone, an established northern California purveyor of organic gardening products.

Here's what the GreenAll Organic Potting Soil bag says about its ingredients:

"A ready-to-use potting soil composed of natural and organic ingredients including earthworm castings, bat guano, kelp meal, feather meal, and greensand."

E.B. Stone also provides its mailing address on the bag (this bag may be a few years old; they now have a website at https://www.ebstone.org/ but who knows how long I've had the bag knocking around? (I keep extra empty bags for those occasions when my non-compostable green waste exceeds the capacity the city has given us and I have to keep some over until a future pick-up.)

Thus my earlier recommendation to read the ingredients on any bag of gardening product one purchases. If a list isn't forthcoming, neither is my purchase.

Cynthia

Flowerhead
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DoubleDogFarm wrote:
Flowerhead wrote:^^^ It's referring to store bought bags

It's often sold in 40 lb bags...plus it's sold in 1 or 2 cubic ft bags
I'm just trying understand. Do they raise and lower the price of a 40lb bag if it is left out in the weather. It's less when it dries out and more when it gets waterlogged. Is it not a unit price. :?

Eric
honestly, that line isn't the greatest quote - the internet is hit and miss with facts and not-so factual stuff

no, the price won't change at the store but if the company bagged it when it was very moist, it could affect the weight.

If a bag of store bought compost is soaking wet, you probably shouldn't buy it. That's how I feel. Dig down in the stack and try to find a bag that didn't get soaked in rain and then left to stay water -logged at the top of the stack

DoubleDogFarm
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Flowerhead,

You are right. If a company is deliberately wetting down the product, like with hamburger, it would boost their bottom line. If water content is taken to the extreme, content volume would be missing.

I would recommend staying away from compost sold by weight. Waterlogged compost may have leach out all its nutrients.

Eric

Flowerhead
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I'm OK with bags sold by weight but be sure the bag is stored out of the rain

I buy Nature's Guide mushroom compost from a garden center that keeps it indoors and not out in the parking lot. It's really the highest quality compost I have access to. It's sold in 40 lb bags

toxcrusadr
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More important than storage is what the moisture content was when the stuff was bagged. I tested a bunch of locally available products a year or two ago and by and large they did have the advertised amount in them, or more. It doesn't matter whether it gets wet after that. If they put nice dry stuff or soaking wet stuff in the bag in the first place, you get more or less organic matter regardless of what happens after that.

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ElizabethB
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I think I have gotten a little lost on this discussion. My 2 cents. I never pay full price for bagged products. When I need bagged product to suppliment my compost or to add to my garden or pots I call the Nursery Specialist at Lowe's and have her put together a pallet of broken bags. I get a mixed pallet of top soil, garden mix, potting soil, compost whatever - shrink wrapped on a pallet. I pay 50 cents to a $1 per bag. Some of the bags are 3 cubic feet. I dump every thing in the trailer and toss it up. I have a couple of large covered garbage cans with holes cut in them to store my soil. I found some rabbit breeders in the area so I pick up a couple of 5 gallon buckets of rabbit manure and add to the mix. Super cheap. Since I am a licensed landscaper I can buy bulk product wholesale - still much more expensive than buying broken bags.

IDK - just my little thought.



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