organic products in bulk - SoCal

YoHx · October 4, 2011

We are starting a organic garden from scratch. Our native soil is clumpy so we were thinking of adding in organic matter. We got a few bagged products (from Home Depot/Lowe's) however it seems most contain biosolids or has not been screened (contain plastics, biosolids, painted wood, and/or particles that seem like it was dyed black).

Can anyone recommend any places where we can buy decent to high-quality compost/soil mix/manure (preferably organic without toxic such as biosolids) in the sgv area? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

shatbox · October 7, 2011

My last bed was filled with the organic planter mix from Whittier Fertilizer. The only thing is that it's mostly composted "forest" products. I think it's a little heavy, but most any blend sold in the area is made this way. The best of the best is Agromin, but it will travel quite a distance. I think the closest distributor is Canoga Park or Cypress. What makes Agromin better is that they have more mixes that contain composted vegetable matter. Some books say forest products are fungal dominated and veg matter is bacterial dominant. I don't know if it is true or not or if one is better than the other but, at the very least, the texture is different.

sBox

dice · October 9, 2011

Best plan is to find someone with llamas or alpacas that will give away
manure for free (U-haul). Second best is rabbit manure, then horse
manure. Watch out for aminopyralid in manures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopyralid
(If you get manure of any kind, grow some test plants in soil or potting mix
with the manure mixed in to see if you get any of the symptoms before
mixing it into your garden.)

Check Craig's List. Search in the free section for "manure" and "mulch".
You will probably find lots of useful stuff. Free coffee grounds are good
stuff, too. You can also look in the "Farm/Garden" section there. Most
things will be for sale in that category, but you can find stuff like bales of
alfalfa cheap, etc. (Hay is good, but it can have a lot of viable seed
in it, ie weeds, so you might want to compost that before using it. The
composting process builds up enough heat to kill most of the seeds.)

October 4, 2011	#1
YoHx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: CA Posts: 1	organic products in bulk - SoCal? We are starting a organic garden from scratch. Our native soil is clumpy so we were thinking of adding in organic matter. We got a few bagged products (from Home Depot/Lowe's) however it seems most contain biosolids or has not been screened (contain plastics, biosolids, painted wood, and/or particles that seem like it was dyed black). Can anyone recommend any places where we can buy decent to high-quality compost/soil mix/manure (preferably organic without toxic such as biosolids) in the sgv area? Any suggestions would be appreciated! Last edited by YoHx; October 5, 2011 at 12:24 AM.

October 9, 2011	#3
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	Best plan is to find someone with llamas or alpacas that will give away manure for free (U-haul). Second best is rabbit manure, then horse manure. Watch out for aminopyralid in manures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopyralid (If you get manure of any kind, grow some test plants in soil or potting mix with the manure mixed in to see if you get any of the symptoms before mixing it into your garden.) Check Craig's List. Search in the free section for "manure" and "mulch". You will probably find lots of useful stuff. Free coffee grounds are good stuff, too. You can also look in the "Farm/Garden" section there. Most things will be for sale in that category, but you can find stuff like bales of alfalfa cheap, etc. (Hay is good, but it can have a lot of viable seed in it, ie weeds, so you might want to compost that before using it. The composting process builds up enough heat to kill most of the seeds.) __________________ -- alias

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October 7, 2011	#2
shatbox Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Los Angeles County, CA Posts: 258	My last bed was filled with the organic planter mix from Whittier Fertilizer. The only thing is that it's mostly composted "forest" products. I think it's a little heavy, but most any blend sold in the area is made this way. The best of the best is Agromin, but it will travel quite a distance. I think the closest distributor is Canoga Park or Cypress. What makes Agromin better is that they have more mixes that contain composted vegetable matter. Some books say forest products are fungal dominated and veg matter is bacterial dominant. I don't know if it is true or not or if one is better than the other but, at the very least, the texture is different. sBox