From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Cologne / Germany

I have some stuff like last year´s compost and shredded leaves still on top of the patch soil since early December.
Now that the frost is gone, it´s still cold (40 F max) and wet. Would you recommend to till right now for the first time this year or wait? (just thinking about better decomposing if tilled in earlier)

2/22/2006 2:12:05 PM

Indiana

how wet? if its too wet trying to till can make a mess and clog the heck out of the tiller.

2/22/2006 7:32:35 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

If its light sandy soil you can't do much harm working it wet. If its clay you will ruin it for the season or longer. Unless real sandy waint until dry

2/22/2006 7:50:03 PM

Cologne / Germany

It´s dark brown soil (they call it "fat" here LOL), no clay, not sandy. I think I´ll wait for a couple of sunny days to dry out. Thanks.

2/22/2006 9:30:48 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

It is still way to early to till. It is always best to stay off the patch until it is fit to prevent compaction. And I see no problem with leaving the stuff on the surface if it if it isn't too thick. It will help hold down weeds, unless the compost was cooked too cool and is full of weed seeds. Next time fall tillage might be a better choice, as freezing and thawing will break up compaction.

2/22/2006 10:14:27 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Tilling soil that is too wet can have very long lasting negative effects on the physical structure. Better to wait.

2/22/2006 10:37:09 PM

Mocksville, NC

better not till when wet i did that once long time ago! corn didnt even sprout.
ditto what Tremor said.

2/23/2006 9:59:53 AM

Cologne / Germany

Convinced. Will give that soil a break until April or so depending on the weather conditions. Anyway I´m going to add more compost (ready & damped / weed-free from our community supply) in March.
Do you have experience with that stuff from composting plants?

2/23/2006 10:53:14 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

I try to avoid using compost from such sources. We don't know the exact materials which it is made from. Often times diseased plants are processes that people, who didn't want to have them in their garden's compost pile, delivered to the city. Also I hear rumors that cities also put sewage sludge and stuff they collect from the streets (leaves in the fall plus, quite oviously, dirt) when they clean them.
Excessive amounts of dry material high in C (tree and shub cuts, etc.) and only few N sources seem to be a problem to me as well.
To sum it up, I'd only buy compost which I exactly know what it was made of. I don't have such a source for compost available in my region and so I only use self-made compost.

2/23/2006 1:08:24 PM

Cologne / Germany

I have no resources to make my own compost. But I thought if they damp the compost it would be sterile? One great thing when I used it one time - no weeds.

2/25/2006 5:42:29 AM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

Yes, the producers of that compost claim that the high temperatures that they achieve in their piles kill off all pests and diseases. I'm not sure if I can trust them, though, some fungi spores are very heat resistant, etc.
As I have never used it I can't tell about the weeds but I could very well imagine that the temps are high enough to sterilize weed seeds.
Still I wouldn't use it but if it is your own choice......

2/25/2006 10:27:38 AM

ENGLAND

Ingo
The Council in the district that i live in has just started to collect Garden Waste for Community Composting and have supplied all households with Wheeled bins to collect it all in. Out of curiosity i called the Council to ask if this so called Community Compost was going to be as clean as what i could obtain from the Garden Centre. I also asked about the possibility of Weed Seed, Diseases and any other unfavourable things remaining in the so called Compost when it is finished. I was informed that it is not possible to guarentee that any Weed Seeds or Diseases would be killed off during the Composting process. I have also seen some of the places that some of the waste that is going into this so called Community Compost is coming from and i would not want that stuff anywhere near our Gardens. All i can suggest is that unless you want to risk the possibility of having many years of problems i would keep well clear of that stuff.

Regards
Mike

2/25/2006 4:07:06 PM

Cologne / Germany

Thanks for the reminder.
The good news is that some of the composting plants in my area sell certified compost that was analyzed in a lab before and has a quality label for garden usage. Check this link, it´s in english:
http://www.bgkev.de/en/news/index.htm
The cost is between 5 Euro and 15 Euro for 1 cubic meter in my area depending on the structure of the compost.

2/26/2006 5:30:28 AM

Snoqualmie, Wash.

How about turning it over with a pitch fork, not tilling as this kills worms, and other critters. I just did this last week. I'm pleased with how it looks. Jerri

3/8/2006 8:57:16 PM