Mary, it's a shame you don't make compost in a bin. In light of which my advice based on 30+ years of organic experience will only help you next year. I use one part good garden soil and one part compost -- either bin or worm comost from the basement worm bin -- together with a dash of soft rock phosphate if I feel like it. I take two precautions to make this work : 1. a cheap fan to prevent damping off, and 2. I water from the bottom, using a tray, rather than create compaction by watering from the top. And I use home-made newspaper pots. Total cost: negligible. Regards, Peter.

It probably has added non-organic iron in the mix...such as ferric oxide or ferric sulfate. It's a legally allowed use of a restricted substance. One reason I advise most people who want to be organic to form their own opinions/methods on what matters to them and what limits whey want to enforce rather than going by "certified" status is because of stuff like this. Here we go... Okay, adding something like this to a soil, potting mix, disease/weed/pest control, or fertilizer can be approved if the product can be proven it's deficient in it and the people producing it pay for each product they want certified to be tested. You'll also find non-organic copper, zinc, cobalt, manganese, and molybdenum in this same class of "non-organic product in a certified organic product" use occasionally. For the most part this is allowed because we're talking about extremely small amounts of additions of things which aren't toxic (or even close to it) in the amounts added as well as aren't in danger of leaving harmful amounts of residues...as well it being hard to naturally get these substances available and balanced in many applications of use. Some people find this sketchy...the organizations that certify as well as the industry finds it pretty much harmless even if not fully organic in full faith.

Skid steer: Itsa cow that he uses to pull stuff around (kind of like a cheap ox), but as you can see, Lloyd only had $11 to spend, so he had to buy one with worn hooves, thus the poor traction thing. I didn't just drop 11 large on a loader for my compost (you go, Lloyd!) but I am mildly envious of Lloyd's easy/immediate access (because he OWNS the darned thing) to the equipment. I'm sure as heck not going to look at his (I'm sure) hard earned acquisition as having stolen the food from someone else's mouth (or as having deprived them of their flat screen TVs and iPods). I guess that puts me squarely in the camp of those believing there is nothing wrong with wanting to retain a little fruit of your own labor for yourself instead of being forced to distribute it amongst those with PERCEIVED need. That whole Marx thing - "Jeder nach seinen Fhigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedrfnissen!" doesn't have the same ring of clarion call for all, I guess. Humic acid and fulvic acid CAN indeed immediately enrich certain soils w/o the addition of other organic matter or a history of having added OM. I'm not saying what the OP is considering is wise or not wise. He can decide exactly how HE wants to spend HIS money, but if the product isn't a pig-in-a-poke, it has the potential to benefit the soil and by extension, his plantings. Following, is something I wrote on the container gardening forum, so it will be slightly OT in areas because of it's 'container' bent, but there should (hopefully) be some info in it worth considering. Humic acid (HA) is formed during the humification process (decaying/composting) as plant and animal matter break down. The main source of HA is lignin, which is the most common bio-compound on earth next to cellulose - it's what makes plants stiff. As the organic matter breaks down, it forms several acids called carboxylates and phenoxides. While there are several acids formed during the breakdown of organic matter, While there are several acids formed during the breakdown of organic matter, the acids formed by a variety of decaying vegetable matter end up being pretty much the same group of acids in the same proportions. Further, it's not the acids formed during humification that vary with any significance, it's the compounds they form with free ions when mixed into (primarily) mineral soils. It's easy to envision why that is true when we consider that all plants are made up of the same building blocks (nutrients/elements) in almost exactly the same ratio. IOW, there is little difference, chemically speaking, between sequoias and snapdragons. Also important to consider is that peat moss is made up of a combination of cellulose, lignins, and humic acids. This fact is probably what would allow any/all container media producers to lay claim to the fact that their product contains HA. As I mentioned upthread - advertisers often lay claim to things their research shows the general public might consider a huge plus, when it's an intrinsic part of all similar products. Shell Oil used to advertise that their gasoline contained lead to guard against spark knock, when in fact all gasoline used to contain lead. If I thought a little, I'm sure I could quickly come up with another dozen examples more current. I'll leave an answer I posted to a thread on the container forum back in Nov '08. The question posed was, "Does humic acid serve any purpose for container plants?" I drew a delineation between mineral soils and container media primarily because the immense volume of organic matter in almost all container media. This would even include the gritty mix, which has a 1/3 organic component - roughly 6-10 times what you would find in most natural and garden soils. Hopefully, we have built or are using container media with a suitable structure, but even if we were not, the type of structural improvements usually associated with the use of HA in mineral soils do not apply to container media. Where container media is concerned, if the structure is not there from the beginning, the only way you can add it is by adding enough soil particles of the size required to physically achieve your objective, You cannot change container media structure by adding HA or its associates. The reply to the question (about plants in containers) I mentioned a little upthread: "Humic acid (and its accompanying fulvic acid) are most often used as an amendment to improve the quality of clay soils, sandy soils, and/or other soils organically deficient. The primary value of adding humic acid to clay or other compacted soils comes from the resulting structural break-up (increase in friability) of these soils. Obviously, this should not be an issue in the soils you are using. In sandy soils, humic acid's value is in its addition of organic material to soils, which would also in the end improved water retention and root function, neither of which are anything you would be lacking in the soils you use. In some soils, humic acid can also play another role in facilitating a plant's ability to assimilate nutrients. Humic acid can lower pH and help unlock otherwise bound nutrients in the soil that might not be unavailable under conditions of higher pH. Again, this should not be an issue for you, given the fertilizer regimen you use and a known favorable pH. Finally, humic acid can stimulate soil micro-biology in some soils, increasing the numbers and activity levels of soil micro-populations, the primary function of which are to make available minerals and nutrients which could be stored within the humic acid complex and hopefully available on an 'as needed' basis. Again, not much of a benefit when you consider you're supplying a full compliment of nutrients in a readily available form on a regular and 'as needed' basis. I suppose if I was to sum it up, I would say that a build-up or adequate measures of humic acid in garden soils is to be desired & most effectively accomplished by the regular addition of organic materials to the soil. How valuable wholesale applications of humic acid are to garden soils is probably highly variable by soil type, soil composition, and the intrinsic quality/value of the individual product at hand. It's value in containers would probably be extremely marginal at best or go completely unnoticed (as it did when I tried the product for my container plantings several years ago) but there's nothing to stop you from trying it." Al

The trex transend is an intersting approach plastic coating on three sides with the bottom left open. The core material is the same thing they have always made worn out wood fiber/ plastic.As you say time will defentley tell, again. J.