can I plant directly in this compost?

[sheeshshe]

It is a compost made of cow manure and seafood waste. Is it ok to plant directly into it or should I mix it with something else?

I am thinking about doing some raised beds. 1 for my 6 1/2y old to have a little garden of his own, and a couple of strawberry beds. Potentially some container gardening for jalepenos and even maybe some tomato containers. what about potato bags? blackberries?

would using it straight be bad in any of those scenarios?

[alaskagold]

Potato bags are great! I also use a fish/seafood/moose nugget based composting and have never had any problems. But I make sure that I use 1 cup composting per 1 gallon of soil as I don't want the potatoes to come out tasting funny.

Fish and seafood is great for soil, personally, I have used more fish in my compost and sometimes the vegetables taste a little wierd, but not bad.

Have you decided which type of potato bags to use or have you thought about using burlap bags which work just as well?

[jal_ut]

I don't know, perhaps I am an old fashioned gardener with farmers roots, but soil to me means a mix of sand, silt, and clay with a bit of organic matter mixed in. The earth has a thin covering of natural soil on it in many, if not most areas of the land. When I hear the word "soil", this is what I think of. Compost is an amendment for soil where I came from. IMO, we would probably do better if we started out with some real soil and added some compost to it.

Many different, so called, soil mixes can be bought in bags. These usually contain peat, spagnum, perlite, manure, and compost. Never any real soil. Yes, you can plant directly in these mixes, but your plants will love you if you get some real soil with sand, silt and clay then amend it with your compost.

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil]Great article on soil on Wiki[/url]

Worth a read.

[rainbowgardener]

It certainly would be an expensive way to garden. Plants can grow in straight compost. I usually have a squash plant or two start in my compost pile every year. I don't leave them, because the location is too shady for them to produce much, but they like growing there. But nothing really needs a mixture that rich. I put some compost in the planting hole for transplants and spread an inch of it over a raised bed and trowel it in a little bit. Mid season I topdress with a bit more.

Cow manure and seafood would be very nitrogen rich. Depending on how well composted, it might actually burn some plants.

I'd get some regular topsoil and mix in some of your compost. A 1:4 mixture of compost to topsoil would still be plenty rich.

[sheeshshe]

IDK, it just seemed easier to get one thing. but maybe I'll find some topsoil as well?

[rainbowgardener]

Just to complicate it, for container gardening, both compost and topsoil are too heavy/dense, not well enough draining and should be at least mixed with some of that soil less mix jal-ut was talking about - potting soil or potting mix.