Gin trash

daddylove306 · June 3, 2012

I have 3 raised beds 12 inches deep and are completely filled with gin trash, and I never have to fertilize and very rarely have to water. I was just curious if anyone else did this.

rocan · June 3, 2012

Sorry if I'm a little slow, but what is "gin trash"? Just wondering.

daddylove306 · June 3, 2012

All of the waste products that come from ginning cotton. Cotton gins produce tons of it each year and it is extremely fertile once it ages for a year of so.

rocan · June 3, 2012

Okay thanks. I know what gin is and I know what trash is,but had not heard that term before (I'm pretty far north of cotton country).

b54red · June 6, 2012

We tried to get some the past couple of years but all the gins around here return it to the farmers. I assume they spread it back on their fields.

tuk50 · June 6, 2012

When I was a kid my family used it on all of our gardens (we called it gin trailings) in Oklahoma, even slid down the piles on cardboard sleds just for fun.. I now live and have for about 40years in Arizona and Pima cotton is a big crop here.. I tried a few years ago to get some trailings from a local gin and they wouldn't give it to me... they said all the cotton here uses herbicides now to drop the leaves so the mechanized harvesters can strip the bolls off the stalks... so I got a bag full of seeds from one of the fields and just grow it as a green manure crop in my garden. Each year I save enough seed to plant the next year. I do buy 50lb bags of cottonseed meal from a local feed store and use it in rows when I plant vegetables .. its about 7-2-2 and doesn't burn, in my heat.

daddylove306 · June 6, 2012

We use all the same herbicides on our cotton here and I have absolutely no problems using the gin trash. The herbicides obviously don't carry over, it is common practice around here to use gin trash because our dirt is so sandy.

tuk50 · June 7, 2012

Yeah, I was wondering about the carry over. They use it back on the fields and it doesn't seem to bother their next years crop.... but since I didn't know if it would bother vegetables I just started growing my own.

barnetmill · March 26, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by daddylove306

We use all the same herbicides on our cotton here and I have absolutely no problems using the gin trash. The herbicides obviously don't carry over, it is common practice around here to use gin trash because our dirt is so sandy.

I know this is an old thread, but it seems to be a worthwhile one for me since cotton gin trash is available under varying conditions from the mill. One in my locale demands that you pull it away in their trailers. I will look in to getting somethe trash since I want to build up my poor soil. The accumulation of residial pesticides is the major concern and I will research it a bit more and probably use it in an infrequent manner. Arsenic was once used in my area.

Cole_Robbie · March 26, 2013

I just bought a bag of "composted cotton burrs." I haven't opened it yet, but it smells. The store owner I got it from said that the last brand he had stunk so bad that he thought an animal had died on the property. He was crawling through culverts and under the building looking for a corpse. He finally figured out the smell after his employees handled the bags - they stunk up the store for the rest of the day.

June 3, 2012	#1
daddylove306 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: mississippi delta Posts: 5	Gin trash I have 3 raised beds 12 inches deep and are completely filled with gin trash, and I never have to fertilize and very rarely have to water. I was just curious if anyone else did this.

June 6, 2012	#6
tuk50 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Tucson, Arizona (catalina) Posts: 413	When I was a kid my family used it on all of our gardens (we called it gin trailings) in Oklahoma, even slid down the piles on cardboard sleds just for fun.. I now live and have for about 40years in Arizona and Pima cotton is a big crop here.. I tried a few years ago to get some trailings from a local gin and they wouldn't give it to me... they said all the cotton here uses herbicides now to drop the leaves so the mechanized harvesters can strip the bolls off the stalks... so I got a bag full of seeds from one of the fields and just grow it as a green manure crop in my garden. Each year I save enough seed to plant the next year. I do buy 50lb bags of cottonseed meal from a local feed store and use it in rows when I plant vegetables .. its about 7-2-2 and doesn't burn, in my heat. __________________ Hangin on for dear life!

June 7, 2012	#8
tuk50 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Tucson, Arizona (catalina) Posts: 413	Yeah, I was wondering about the carry over. They use it back on the fields and it doesn't seem to bother their next years crop.... but since I didn't know if it would bother vegetables I just started growing my own. __________________ Hangin on for dear life!

June 3, 2012	#2
rocan Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: South Puget Sound Posts: 5	Sorry if I'm a little slow, but what is "gin trash"? Just wondering.

June 6, 2012	#5
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	We tried to get some the past couple of years but all the gins around here return it to the farmers. I assume they spread it back on their fields.

March 26, 2013	#10
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	I just bought a bag of "composted cotton burrs." I haven't opened it yet, but it smells. The store owner I got it from said that the last brand he had stunk so bad that he thought an animal had died on the property. He was crawling through culverts and under the building looking for a corpse. He finally figured out the smell after his employees handled the bags - they stunk up the store for the rest of the day.