Opinions on Black Kow compost

[veggie babe]

thanks for the information,very interesting and useful. i have had experience feeding cotton seed to dairy cows but other than that i had no idea.
thanks again,
neva

[robin303]

Been using it for years. Only place I can find it is Lowe's and down right $5 a bag. Good stuff.

[creister]

For those of you who use BK, about how many cubic feet are in a 50lb. bag?

[nctomatoman]

I also bemoan the price...it is really good stuff, but sets you back quite a bit.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by creister

For those of you who use BK, about how many cubic feet are in a 50lb. bag?

~ 1 cubic foot in (I think) a 40 lb bag. For $4.50. But a little goes a long way. It's 100% black gold.

[nctomatoman]

One thing I noticed is that if you use soilless mix mixed with something like Black Cow and use lots of pots...well, you don't exactly get the 64 dollar tomato (as in the book that came out a few years ago), but it does get to be a bit of a costly hobby! Worth every penny, though...I tend to mix a big bag of Miracle Grow potting mix per 40 lb bag of Black Cow and fill my pots with that...

[feldon30]

Wow, that's like 30-40% compost. No problems with soil being heavy?

[mresseguie]

Originally Posted by feldon30

P.S. I believe there was a post elsewhere saying that Cotton Burr compost cotton seed meal might have some pesticides since they use a lot on most cotton crops. Just pointing it out since you posted in the "Gardening in the Green" forum. I use it, but I am not trying to be 100% organic.

Up until very recently I would have agreed with the statement that cotton seed meal may have pesticide residues. I just recently read, perhaps in "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" by Steve Soloman, that the pesticides used on cotton are absorbed into the cotton oil (which is pressed out of the seeds). The spent seeds (meal) are free of the pesticides.

I wonder where to look for research on this.....anyone??

Michael

[feldon30]

This morning I rehabilited my 3x16 cucumber, etc. bed. I:

• weeded
• turned it over
• amended with
  • 2 lbs MicroLife 6-2-4 (with microbes) ($2)
  • 1 bag of Living Earth Compost (~$5)
  • 1/2 bag of Back to Earth Composted Cotton Burrs ($4)
• and mulched with collected leaves from our yard and the neighbor's yard

I can already taste the cucumbers.

[dice]

[recent tests of pesticide/herbicide contamination of
cottonseed meal]

You might check around at OSU's ag department for a
pointer to documentation on that. (I didn't turn up anything
recent in 10 minutes with Google.)