Locate compost that is made from residential yard waste and/or bark products and eliminate anything that includes feedstock wastes or manures. In my area, there are bulk purveyors of the first within a couple of miles from just about anywhere :-)) And the larger municipal compost operation (only residential yard waste, kitchen scraps and compostable paper products) sells their product in bags as well as in bulk.

Look online or in the yellow pages (remember those??) for local bulk soils or landscape supply yards. And check to see if you have any municipal composting operations in your area. Cost will vary from location to location and by quality of the finished goods. Buying in bulk is cheaper than buying bagged and generally the more you buy, the lower the unit price. Don't forget to factor in delivery charges as well unless you have a pickup. And compost is typically sold by volume, not weight. For a 40sf bed, I'd suggest adding about 6 inches of compost - it will shrink over time - so you'd need about three quarters of a cubic yard or 20 cubic feet.

Where in the world are you? Very possibly you may have a member of the US Composting Council nearby that may be of more help. http://compostingcouncil.org/

kimmq is kimmsr

If you are going to exclude GMO feedstocks from any compost that you would want to purchase, you will likely never find any. Perhaps a pure, 100% yard trimmings compost might get you what you want but if one even adds some salad dressing from a plate scraping they will likely be introducing a GMO product. Furthermore, most compost producers will not go to the trouble of making such a product for the very small number of consumers requesting it. They are in the business of waste management not designer compost. Of course they might tell you what you want to hear, but in reality, what goes into the compost is what is thrown out.

I keep rabbit for meat and use their poo pellets as a compost top dressing early in spring or to make a compost tea for intermittent fertilization. The pellets can be used immediately and won't burn plants. And rabbits produce lots of them. All day. Every time they twitch their nose.

So you may want to locate a small organic farm that raises rabbits and see if they would sell you some or allow you to 'shovel and haul'.

They may so have their own composting area that you can tap into.

Oh, and just so I'm well representing myself, I treat my livestock with antibiotics when they are sick. It would be inhumane to allow for suffering, food animal or not. Chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, goats, etc. all become ill at one point or another. There are some small 'organic antibiotic and hormone free' operations I know of locally that don't treat their sick animals in order to maintain organic status. Instead, they isolate them to prevent spreading and see if they improve on their own, which rarely happens because isolation is extremely difficult for herd/flock animals. It sometimes takes weeks for the animal to die, all the while suffering. All that suffering instead of a single antibiotic shot that you can buy at the feed store. The reason these growers have to charge so much more per pound of meat is because they lose so many of their animals to preventable diseases. For this reason, I'm not keen on giving my time and money to 'organic, antibiotic and hormone free' enterprises.

There are plenty of schools of thought on this and you are in your right to your opinion, but I just want to put out there that there is quite a bit of unnecessary cruelty associated with the factors you are looking for.

I'm thinking that an organic farm is going to keep every ounce of nutrients it generates because it can't import chemical fertilizers. I don't know this for a fact but it seems to me that organic farms would not be giving away or even selling compost or compostable material. I'm sure someone will come along and give an example to the contrary, but I would not be surprised if this was very rare.

Having said that, the organic certification body (I forget its official name) does not require that a farm use only organic inputs as described by the OP above in order to be certified. In other words an organic farm can use manure from animals that are treated with antibiotics, and it can use compost made from crops that are treated with herbicides and pesticides. I assume the basis for this is that significant breakdown occurs during composting, and you're not eating the compost anyway. So there is a recognition in the organic farming community that there is a difference between using those chemicals on animals and crops, vs. composting those residues and using the compost on crops.

500 lbs is not a lot. I am guessing that a large paper bag full of leaves is in fact close to 50 lbs. If you have leaf collection in your town, get ten bags in the Fall. I used to collect 40 bags a year. If you want denser stuff, get a load of wood chips.

Soil and compost are not measured and available by weight, but volume. You do not acquire 40lbs of compost or soil. You acquire 2 cubic feet, maybe 2.5 cuft if it's loamy and lighter weight. Measure your bed, width by length by depth in inches. Convert that to cubic feet (there is a quick google conversion available). That is the amount you will need to fill a raised bed. Keep in mind that once watered in, the material will settle so you may want to calculate an extra inch or two of depth to correct for that.

Organic farms, especially in larger scale (>10 acres), do not rely on their own compost outputs. In my experience, well over a 1,000 pounds of raw material will provide less than 80 pounds of compost (2 cu ft) once the pile has matured and seasoned, Berkeley method included. We've attempted many different ideologies and operating procedures for producing compost small scale with leaves, grass clippings, vegetable plant remainders and livestock manure.

There is no maintaining every ounce of nutrients. Rain, and watering during dry periods to maintain activity, will wash nutrients down into native soil. Enriched native soil, though fertile and rich, is not the aim due to heavy bulk. Besides, you would need to dig into the soil at each harvest of compost, creating a soil pit.

I appreciate people who backyard compost, but this is hardly a solution for providing ideal nutrient amendments in a very small scale. You can collect the leaves from 4 very mature pecan or oak trees (an enormous volume), add kitchen scraps and faded crop material from last season, grass clippings, etc. and still end up with only 1 cubic foot of viable compost at the end of all that labor and care. Compost has to be well seasoned to avoid 'burning' the plants via temperature (compost not well seasoned will continue to 'compost' and create a great deal of heat- our piles remain steady at 135F at the center).

For our small farm (3 acres), we have several cubic yards of compost delivered seasonally from a distributor that has the large machinery and irrigation systems in place to produce in large quantities at a reasonable cost (about $50/ cu yd and $80 delivery fee). We do still compost and use what is available at our farm. However, what we produce after at least 2 hours a week (for at very least 6 weeks) turning the compost and maintaining moisture levels via watering, etc., is hardly worth the time. It's rewarding in a bittersweet way, but at the end of the day: not any more beneficial to the crops than $10 worth of compost purchased. We do it because the other option is to burn the materials or to have them picked up as disposal at cost. Plus we have some space along the fence line to accommodate plant refuse (40ft x 15ft).

Just fyi.

What we've found more rewarding labor and material wise is to keep a worm bin. We provide the worms with constant nutrition via vegetable scraps and they produce worm castings that are, in a way, concentrated compost that is ready to use without concern for 'burning'.

Caveat: I feel pretty downtrodden about small scale composting precisely because it's such a time and labor intensive practice. I can't count the number of compost piles that I've seen completely void of microbial activity due to neglect. It's a constant pull of energy, at twice a week, and most backyard gardeners simply do not have the bandwidth with their busy life schedules. I can count the number of healthy and active backyard compost piles I've seen : zero.

So perhaps keep in kind that you can purchase a tumbling composter for the corner of your yard for $100+, spend an afternoon building the requisite 4ftx4ft bin at the cost of $40-50 in materials, or buy compost from an outside source.

The tumblers are just terrible and a waste of money. They are typically black plastic, which in the sun will cook and kill any microbes at work or in the shade, not maintain enough warmth to encourage microbial activity. The moisture requirement is almost impossible to maintain without a specialized moisture meter.

The bins are better, but not by much. You can fill that 4x4 to the brim every week with material, turn and water it every 3-5 days, and still only end up with ONE cubic foot of seasoned compost after a couple months.

One cubic foot. Which is better than none, I suppose.

Though I appreciate the interest and admire the gumption associated with small scale composting, I think that time and effort would be much better served elsewhere. For example, a soup kitchen or neighborhood garden or elementary school where you can instruct children on food production. Or an elderly neighbor who can't quite physically maintain her flower beds or afford a landscaper. Or volunteering at a neighborhood animal shelter. Or regrouting your bathroom tiles.

I guess I should quite composting then. What was I thinking?

Oh yea, by some miracle I end up with 4 or 5 cubic YARDS of quality compost every year. Lucky me!!

LoneJack. Well good for you. But I do believe this segment of the forum is primarily for homeowners with rather average acreage (a yard), time availability (work, family and social schedule) and input material (on site refuse) that wish to supplement food crops in an efficient and productive manner.

Eyeroll all you want, but if you are pulling 4-5 yards of compost a year in that situation then your "quality compost" is more likely a mix of desiccated plant material and green compost--- making it more of a fortified mulch. I'm simply putting in my very well informed two cents so people can reconsider before investing $$$ into materials and time on a venture that will be less than fruitful.

The goal of composting is to allow material to be decomposed by natural elements in order to make the nutrients viable and available. Green compost does not have much of a bio-available nutrient supply and risks burning the plants. In fact, under-seasoned compost can sequester nutrients (nitrogen binding) for long periods of time (even nutrients provided via other broadcast such as compost tea and other fertilizers) particularly when used as a top dress or only mixed into the top couple inches. Additionally, under-seasoned compost is a host to harmful fungi (ex: tomato blight), insects (soil pupating moths and caterpillars such as squash borers) and weed seeds that may be contraindicative to growing food successfully with efficient use of labor. This is why well seasoned compost is important. Tilling deep into the soil disrupts the biology of soil microbes and damages soil structure and microbial integrity and health. Ideally, compost should be spread on the surface of the soil upon or after planting and then covered with a layer of mulch, and watered slowly and deeply to allow nutrients to be slowly absorbed into the soil. Too high of a nutrient dosage in a short amount of time will also cause 'burning' via osmotic pressures. In this instance, it is more of a chemical burn (water is pulled out of the plant due to severe osmotic imbalance) than the physical burn (high temperature) I mentioned earlier.

I do hope you realize that a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet and average material laid for composting decreases in volume by at least 90% when physically chipped down once it's well seasoned. The exclusion to this is fruit and vegetable pulp (sourced easily from juice shoppes), which has already had most of its moisture pulled away, and decreases in volume by 50-60%. How big is your yard and compost pile and however do you source so much material?

90% decrease in volume? Is that a typo? I've never had a pile of raw materials--be they chipped, shredded or just piled intact--decrease by more than 50%.

While I'd agree that some of the methods I have seen are a bit over the top, it doesn't have to be that way. I pile it, flip it if I'm on the tractor and think about it, and wait. I used every bit of 50 yards of finished compost last year as my garden rapidly sprawled into new territory.

As far as the original question, yeah-what Lloyd and Tox said.

I frankly don't understand the applicability of this extended case for abandoning backyard composting to a thread where the original question was where to find a particular grade of compost.

But since we're hip deep in it:

I will add that one of the main reasons for encouraging backyard composting is to divert waste from the landfill. Americans produce millions of tons of food scrap, which is a major component of landfill waste. Composting is a great low-tech decentralized way to reduce that, completely aside from the benefits to soil and plants that the compost provides.

Also, I too think your numbers underestimate the yield. But yield is not the only consideration.

I can't believe that you are really in favor of landfilling green waste, are you? But that is what is suggested by your posts.

I'm with tox on this one :-) I don't understand the apparent denigration of home composting nor do I understand (or support) several of the statements made by dorkstenia.

Composting is dead easy. It happens without any human intervention at all, although not all that rapidly, so any human input at all just serves to hasten the process. And it certainly does not have to be labor intensive - the standard three bin composing process was something my 85 year old dad could manage without issue and he made some ferocious compost. I'd also question the contention that most home composting generates nothing more than a green mulch. I teach classes on composting and soil amendments and the samples of their home compost my students bring in are pretty impressive - rich, dark and earthy and with few, if any, visible signs of what went into the mix. It is not at all hard to do nor is it difficult to come up with a very decent finished product.

"I can't count the number of compost piles that I've seen completely void of microbial activity due to neglect."

I really cannot agree with this statement at all. Microbial activity is omnipresent with any sort of decomposition, 'neglected' or not. There is a common saying one finds on bumper stickers, t-shirts and is actually the title of various extension-led composting programs - "compost happens". If it was once alive (or came from something alive) but now no longer alive, it will decompose without any further attention from us and the end result of the decomposition process is compost. And it requires microbial activity to accomplish that, whether we tend to the process or not. That is the whole theory behind cold or static composting - you just pile the stuff up and let nature take her course!

I also agree that the shrinkage factor was grossly overstated. Most sources (this stuff IS documented, you know) state that a home compost pile will shrink to approximately half its original volume by the time the decomposition process is finished. This may vary somewhat up or down depending on the specific ingredients and their size at time of incorporation but an estimate of "at least 90%" is way off the charts.

I also take issue with this statement: "I appreciate people who backyard compost, but this is hardly a solution
for providing ideal nutrient amendments in a very small scale." On the contrary, it is an excellent way to provide nutrient supplementation, especially on a small scale. Routine mulching with compost will virtually eliminate any need for additional fertilization unless one is focusing solely on harvestable crops. Those may need a bit more specific nutrient attention. No one is out there applying 10-10-10 to woods and natural areas - those plants are relying on naturally accumulating plant and animal debris - aka, compost - for any nutrient supplementation they require. FWIW, compost is all I ever use in my garden by way of nutrient supplementation and is all I have ever needed.

Finally, I believe there is a bit of a misconception about this forum. It attracts a wide range of participants, including those with signification acreage as well as urban/suburban gardeners. And includes both farmers and growers of primarily edible crops as well as those who focus more on ornamental landscape plants. And it includes professional gardeners, horticulturists and other scientists as well as hobby gardeners. Interestingly, it seems that the smaller hobby gardeners are often the ones most interested in home composting and also the ones having some of the best success with it.

And to echo tox's excellent advice to recycle all this stuff at home rather than hauling off to landfills, for those without the time or inclination to manage a hot pile, there is always cold or static composting, sheet composting, trench composting or even lasagna gardening. It all produces the same thing - compost and healthy, happy plants.

Yes, I am well aware that a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet.

"How big is your yard and compost pile and however do you source so much material? "

I have a little over 5 acres, 4 of which is wooded so I have an unlimited supply of fall leaves. I currently have 6 compost piles, 4 that are 4' diameter and 4' tall hardware cloth bins, one that is 4'x6'x4' rectangle with a wood frame, and the other is a 6' diameter x 4' tall hardware cloth bin. I also have a small flock of chickens whose droppings provide much of the nitrogen input for my piles. Other inputs include garden debris, kitchen waste, lawn clippings, cow manure from a friends small herd, and sometimes granular urea is used in the fall when the abundance of leaves outstrips the other available nitrogen sources.

I will typically start 10-12 new piles throughout the year after merging mostly finished piles that have typically shrunk by only half. Depending on the planed crop I will incorporate finished compost to some beds in the spring a few weeks prior to planting and other beds will get compost added in the fall after crops are finished. I also might add some compost to a bed between a spring crop and fall crop. For most crops the compost supplies all the plants need, but for heavy feeders I will usually add some additional nitrogen fertilizer when needed.

Tox, Gardengal, LoneJack ...... I Love you guys. You are right on the money! I am a firm believer in turning a deaf ear to all the "naysayers" out there. Some of these posts just make no sense at all and such negative karma oozing out all over.... wow! I make quality compost every year (many cubic feet) and have plenty to give away if anyone needs some. I have 2 horses, who are not fed anything except grass hay and plain oats and grass. Their manure fuels my compost piles (which are 10'x8') along with sawdust from the bedding and grass clippings, coffee grounds and vegetable waste. Listen folks..... there are a lot of farm animals out there that are not being fed antibiotics or hormones, only the huge operations are doing it and they are the only ones who can afford it too I might add. All of those feed "additives" are not cheap. If you want a quality organic product you should pick your sources of composting materials and make your own! Composting is simple and you will get out of it what you put into it. (oh, jeez did I say that?)

"well over a 1,000 pounds of raw material will provide less than 80 pounds of compost"

Are you counting the added water as a raw material?