When you are looking for good compost, the first question you need to answer is what it is you plan to glow. Different types of plants require different types of soil and compost material, however, there are some commonalities to look for that you will want in all types of compost product. One of the quickest ways to determine quality compost in San Diego CA is to learn to use your hands and your eyes and your nose.
It does not matter if you are shopping in a big box home improvement center or a local garden center, start with the compost that is on sale, the compost sold in bulk. The bulk material is out in the open, so you can walk right up to it and feel it, see it and smell it. The products sold in bags make your initial evaluation difficult because they are sealed up and the marketing on the bag may hide what is inside. If you can find a bag that is torn, then you can inspect the compost in San Diego CA for its grade.
Take a handful of the material and feel it in your hands, looking for what kind of filler is used. You want a compost material that is substantially broken down. You don’t want it full of finger-sized pieces of wood chip or other materials you can identify. You also do not want the compost to look like potting soil, which is dry and caked together. The coloring should be a dark brown, like the color of coffee grounds, but not black. Black compost could indicate that the temperature during the composting process rose above 150 degrees which means the organic material was turning to charcoal.
Using your nose, smell the compost in San Diego CA. It should have a rich, earthy smell, pleasant, like a smell you would expect from soil in forest. If you pick up a metallic smell or an ammonia smell, you don’t want to invest in that compost. Any smell that has a chemical or non-organic scent to it you want to avoid purchasing, as more than likely the composting process had not completely finished when the material was bagged.
Sometimes, you may smell compost that has a manure smell to it. There are numerous reasons why it smells this way, but if the manure has been composted for fifteen days and the temperature has been a steady 131 degrees and the manure has be turned five times during that fifteen day cycle, then technically speaking, it is compost. Some gardeners do not consider a material that smells like manure to be compost but a weed-free manure. Regardless of the name, it should would well for your garden.
