I have been picking up loads of old produce from a nearby stand for almost 2 years, about once every 2 weeks. I have looked into this and supposedly after you compost the stuff you don't need to worry about what it was sprayed with, it will break down. Remember these things are supposed to be edible in the first place. There is a danger from some kind of herbicide or pesticide in grass clippings, something that doesn't break down in composting, but produce should be safe. I do get tired of taking the little plastic stickers off oranges and other fruits, I wish they would make them all from paper. This year I didn't have many leaves stored, so especially when it rained a lot my compost smelled awful for a while. I am thinking about starting some huge compost piles in chicken wire or some kind of fencing and layering produce with wood chips, and letting it just sit for a long time. Marcia

I learnt that "what has lived, can live again". eg, you can compost anything that was alive at one point. That's presuming vermin and disease aren't issues, but my compost's full of supposed no-nos like dairy, meat and cooked leftovers, as well as cotton clothes and various things I suspect won't break down, but I've shoved them in anyway. I'm not worried about 'toxins' in my compost, I reckon a good lungful of city air'll do more harm than the mouldering banana cake and shiny paper. Only thing I avoid is poo in compost for veges.

kimmsr, Disagree with you, simply based on experience. I used to have lots of grubs in my very moist compost before using BT. Rarely see a grub of any kind anymore, using the same methods/materials with the addition of BT. http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/bacteria.html States: Primary hosts: caterpillars; some BEETLE and fly larvae. Also states: "Over 90 species of naturally occurring, insect-specific (entomopathogenic) bacteria have been isolated from insects, plants, and the soil, but only a few have been studied intensively". So I give credit to BT. I put some good soil in my new compost piles, which has had applications of all commercial BT strains, so I can't say which one (if any) are at work against grubs. Doesn't matter to me. So I give credit to BT, et al. - and don't have names for the other 86 or so insect-specific (entomopathogenic) bacteria spoken of, OR other such non-specific bacteria that may not have been identified yet. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2500.html : 'Grubs' is a 'generic' term, used for larvae of a large group of beetles called SCARABS. The most important species are: Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman; May or June beetles, Phyllophaga spp.; northern and southern masked chafers, Cyclocephala spp.; and black turfgrass ataenius, Ataenius spretulus (Haldeman). Other, more localized, white grub pests are: European chafer, Rhizotrogus majalis (Razoumowsky); the Asiatic garden beetle, Maladera castanea (Arrow); and the green June beetle, Cotinis nitida (Linnaeus). Option 4: Biological Control - Milky Diseases - Several strains of the bacterium, Bacillus popilliae (bacterium is extracted from Japanese beetle grubs and is most active against this species), have been found that attack white grubs...Unfortunately, recent studies in Kentucky and Ohio indicate that the currently available products have NOT PERFORMED WELL IN OUR SOILS. (caps are mine). Goes on to say that parasitic nematodes are a up to 80% effective, but "...do not appear to be effective from one season to the next". So you can take exception with me if you want to - your opinion is just as valid as mine - but now let's hear from YOU about your EXPERIENCE with grubs... Robert

I probably should of separated it into different posts but once I started typing, all these questions came to mind! :) Thank you for taking the time to answer. I've been trying to add organic matter whenever I'm out in the yard. I just throw grass and weeds on whichever bed I'm looking at :). I don't even mow anymore. I just rip all the grass that's grown too large and throw it on the nearest bed. I have a worm bed that has composty stuff in it but I don't know if I should add quite that much per bed as it may be more potent than compost. I was thinking I'd just leave some worm compost in each of the holes prior to transplanting and mound all my melons and squashes with it. I did buy about 10 yards of organic compost last year and have used it on many of the beds I've made. I do have almost 40 beds though so it didn't go as far as I wanted. I was hoping not to have buy so much this year so maybe I can go with just a couple yards and add that to the beds that didn't get as much last year. It sounds like I'll have to amend the fertilizer recipe a bit to counteract the loss of N while there's still plenty of P to go around. Maybe adding just soybean/alfalfa later in the season and spraying with fish/seaweed emulsion every other week might help. I definitely have getting a soil test on my to-do list but I might need several as my yard varies quite a bit. Some places are just rock, some is clay so hard it seems like rock and some of it is like a fluffier clay with few rocks. I'm a little terrified the test will come back saying I shouldn't even try to garden in this soil! That'd be so discouraging I'd almost rather not know! I know it's silly but that's mainly what's held me back, that and I'm really bad about penny pinching. I could spend 10$ on a soil test or $10 on a half yard of compost and every time I go with the compost :) I have a neighbor who does a lot of hydro/aeroponics and I think he's got some nice at-home tester that I could use to get a rudimentary idea of what's in the soil but not as accurate as sending it off. In the mean time, it sounds like this years garden will be a good experiment that, with any luck, will pay off :)