You Are Being SCAMMED - What Bagged CONpost Companies Don't Want You to Know
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
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Thank you all so much for watching and Grow BIG!
Most people would not call out companies by name. Thank you for speaking truth to power!!
It’s not just them. It’s more widespread than just this.
@MIgardener that's very true, but it starts with accountability. That's the only hope for any change in this.
And a widely advertised brand, at that. 🤨
As Mark Twain said...."it's easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they were fooled."
What compost do we use?
I absolutely love the sarcasm and thank you for calling out the scammers.
Sometimes you have to laugh at them.
@@MIgardener
Actually, many dairy farms do use sand for bedding material. It is probably the best bedding material to use in cow barns from the cow's perspective.
Sawdust and wood shavings are also used in some dairy barns as bedding material. I have not seen any dairy farms that actually used wood chips, but it is possible that some might use them.
Oat straw and grass hay are what most people would think dairy farms would use for bedding, but they also use bales made from corn stalks, soy beans, and hemp plants.
I stopped buying conpost several years ago and now I make my own compost mainly from shredded leaves in the fall.
@@Well_I_am_just_saying Black Kow is made in Florida where there are large amounts of beef cattle. They often use wood chips as bedding. I just watched a video of a farmer scraping up the old, manure saturated bedding and refreshing it with more wood chips.
I don't buy manure or compost either. I make my garden compost mainly from chicken manure, corncobs, and shredded leaves composted for one year. I make compost for my fruit trees with pig manure and shredded leaves composted for one year.
MI Gardener is for the people 💪
At least someone is looking out for you.
@ 🤜 🤛
✊Comrade MI Gardener
Yeah they got me last year. Sifted out many pounds of wood chips, rocks, plastic, and other questionable materials. I found a red plastic screw. Thank you for sharing this. Homegrown compost from now on.
That's my experience with Vigorro wood mulch.
Yup
Timberline was the worst for me, plastic, plastic, and what can only be called wood-by product….never again.
Me as well& even shards of glass! I could’ve cut My hands!
I get “composted leaves” for free from a local town that collects leaves for that purpose. And that very nice compost (the compost heap there is “steaming” hot) also contains things that are filler, such as wood, plastic, rocks and stones - because those things were mixed in with the leaves when the leaves were collected. So I end up having to remove that stuff myself, just like when I paid for bagged products. But the price was right so I am not really complaining, just pointing out why this issue is present.
I've noticed that potting soil quality has been getting worse and worse for the last few years. Plants hardly want to grow in it.
Ever since covid and the boom in gardening the quality had decreased to meet the demand. I'm relying more on mulched leaves, kitchen scraps and Espoma garden tone, which is essentially chicken manure
With free fungus gnat eggs in it! I was talking to a friend about that. Quite sure we did not have fungus gnats in our houseplants growing up!!!
@@Bolletjehopla47
Bonus 😅
YES! The quality of so many things during/after the COVID era.
True, I realized the same thing. You have to add amendments to make the soil better. Before, you can put a plant in regular potting soil and it would just grow. The plants are telling us they don’t like the soil. 😮
I’m really thankful now that I have a local dairy farmer who makes her own compost and sells it very reasonably.
She usually ages each batch for at least 3 years before selling it so everytime we get it, it’s rich dark soil that’s been broken down very well and contains an incredible amount of earthworms.
We pay her and always try to offer her some fresh walleye or salmon from our fishing adventures to say thank you.
Lucky you!!!
There's a place near me that composts turkey manure. I recently bought 10 yards from them. It was still steaming as they unloaded it. I think I'll do the mason jar test on some just for curiosity. I hope it turns out good.
Scary what about herbicide in the cows feed .now in your compost and now in your dirt .been there before .
Lucky duck!
I see the same issue with seed starting soil. Chunks of wood so big they don't fit in the cells of the seedling trays.
Which ones have you found this in?
I bought it at Fred Meyer, but I don't remember the brand. This year I'll write it down and try to figure out a good brand.
making my own this year!
Black Kow used to be a great product. I stopped buying it three years ago when I opened a bag and it was mostly sand, bark, and rocks.
Was about to say the same. Smh...
I know what you mean! It's not as good as it used to be. Greed has ruined so many brands.
@@MIgardenerKellogg too! I moved across the country last year so I HAD to buy. Fortunately, I bought at the end of the season, saw it was just bark, and got MY compost bin started.
It wasn't enough for my raised beds, so I attempted to plant in-ground (I have an EXTREMELY ambitious groundhog that climbed the fencepost and ate everything).
Since that failed, I will be making more compost from my bags of compost, adding 2 acres of grass and leaves, then buying some hungry little worms at Walmart.
I will garden this year if it freakin' kills me! I WILL succeed 😂 (I'm enclosing-ish my porch)!!! Worst case scenario, I can plant garlic and onions!
Hey, Luke, will you be selling short-day onions or should I get mine from that place (can't remember name) in Texas?
@@twanabanawna3878 funny enough i used to buy a product kellog called "soil conditioner" thinking to myself if anybody was not garden smart they would do so much harm to their soil in the short term. Only reason why i used to buy it was because it was cheap wood chip mulch!! lol
@@twanabanawna3878 Kellogg is perfectly fine . . . as long as you set it aside for another couple of years to finish composting.
seriously, this one irritates me SO much because my introduction to it was a couple of bags my neighbor gave me when she moved away in mid-2020. It was awesome stuff, and I thought, sweet, I can just buy more! But nothing I've bought since matches the original vintage.
I’m glad someone finally pointed this out and is standing up to the man it wasn’t like this 15 years ago
I think it wasn't like this 5 years ago. The huge resurgence in gardening, thanks in part to vloggers like Luke, created a scenario for which the composting companies were unprepared. They are scrambling to fill demand, and compost can't be rushed. Their sources are probably less scrutinized. Does this mean they should compromise? No! But I guarantee the stores will run out of compost pretty fast in the spring if everyone finds their scruples again.
@@heidiweinert3260agree I feel this particular company Black Kow use to be quite decent! I bought some this year and it was mainly rocks and wood pieces.
Your making excuses for them@heidiweinert3260
@@heidiweinert3260 It ABSOLUTELY was like this 5 years ago. I first noticed it 20 years ago at Lowe's. There was a broken bag of Black Kow "manure" on top of the pile of bags. I noticed it was glistening in the sunlight. I poked my fingers in and scooped some into my hand. Sure enough it was sand. Before 20 years ago I was never in the market for compost or manure, so I doubt it first started then. On the plus side, Black Kow has always been the least expensive of the bagged compost-like products. Somewhere between the sand and wood chips there is likely to be something beneficial to the soil in there. I'm still not buying it, but I would only point out the issues and let people decide for themselves.
"Bidenomics": shrink the product quantity, double the price. Get them both ways. 😢
Keep putting companies on blast Luke! This is one of your best videos for us gardner's! Scammy greedy companies like this need to be brought to the plate! THANK YOU!
I agree that is not composted cow manure. Obviously it is beaver compost.
Carbon like wood chips is necessary for the "hot composting" process. Google it.
😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣😂😂
good one :)
This is probably my favorite video by far! The sarcasm and honesty is great! Call the what they are Scammers! Merry Christmas Luke and team! 🎅
I am glad you showed this. I thought it was just me seeing this. Bagged dirt never had so much wood chips in it as it does these past years. I was second guessing myself that I was seeing things but thank you for exposing them. I mainly use my own compost but at times I have to purchase dirt when my compost pile isn't enough/or ready.
😱 I'm both thankful to you for saving my future budget, while pissed for having wasted money on this for years.
I'm checking out more of your videos now.
In the past they were a great brand. I’m shocked to see this!
Thank you! I signed up with a local family owned Happy Earth Composting subscription. We send out the kitchen scraps and green wastes, in return they bring us the fresh compost. Love it ❤
I hope more people can support this kind of work and business.
Your boldness and passion is commendable. It doesn’t feel good to find crud and to minuscule to no compost. The truth will prevail!
Thank you, I appreciate your support!
Moving to a new house next year...taking the compost pile with us
I’m moving and taking my garden soil and compost pile too. Freaking a lot of work and I have to replace the soil in the old garden but ‘soil’ worth it!
That does it! I’ve bought BK for years at its premium price because it was touted as the best. Now I’m going to get started on more compost making than my dual side tumbler. I am setting up pallets over a heavy duty tarp and composting everything I can . No trees, no grass, just lots of weeds and cardboard, but I have calls in to local landscaping guys to offer to take their waste rather than the paying the dump. I can sort it out myself or hire neighbor high school kids to help’. I’m old. Time to get chickens for their manure and straw/bedding to compost too. Ps thanks for he earlier tip on fish tank drops to help seed up he process,
I quit buying BK after a few yrs of doing without, and noticing that having it did not make a difference. Real compost. Real leaves etc.
@@lanabisson2675 Agreed, same here.🤨👍🏾
Make blackwood bottom line RED !!! 😅😂😅😂😊
Watch out 4 grazon contaminated hay as it takes 3 yrs 2 break down n not negatively stunt or prevent plant growth!
Woodchips will break down much faster if they can be broken down into wood shavings. I figured the big companies could at least do that!
Thank you Luke. I've always wondered. Can you give us a list of your best bagged composts? You're the best!!
Yrs please
Yes!!!
Admittedly, I didn't watch any gardening videos for the last month or two because my gardening season was over and I had other things going on. This week I jumped back into the gardening videos as I'm getting excited for the growing season. Watching your videos, and a few others, feels like a reunion of friends! I'm looking forward to starting the seeds that I ordered from you in the off season!!
I actually contacted the company and included this video (I would be shocked if the person that responded watched it) and this is what they said to me in reply: "Benjamin, we add no fillers to our Black Kow. There will be wood shavings in the cow manure since the the dairy farmers use wood shavings as bedding which is mixed with the manure. There should be no more than 10% shavings in each bag."
Thank you for taking this investigation a step further. I would let the company know that it doesn't look like just wood shavings in the video, it looks like sticks and twigs and chunky bits. I've never seen a dairy use that sort of stuff as bedding, shavings are thin little square pieces.
@@jojo5715 it looks like hog fuel i can honestly believe it depending where they get it from its not great but i can believe it, biggest thing though is thats honestly a lot so its like whoevers picking it up is scraping deeper then they should cuzz like esh
So ironic you posted this today. As I did sift through topsoil &
some Black cow today. And I agree. Tons of woodchips. Which I threw around some bushes. Last couple years, bagged compost and dirt both are BAD. I make my own compost, but it’s just not enough. So periodically I buy some bags.
Great vid, so timely and TRUE!!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thank you for exposing this.What I would have like to have seen is a part 2,to let us know what to buy or how we can combat this problem because after that reveal I don't know what to use in my garden this coming season and I'm really disturbed😢
I am right there with you.
Thanks fo highlighting this, keep up the fab work MI Garden team.
OMG! NICE! .. its so refreshing to see someone call out the big Scammers.. I myself just told my girls I will not be doing a lot of gardening this yr .. because I can not get compost for it, I have been trying for several yrs now but the ones that have it around here want to charge more for delivery then the compost cost.. (I am 63 with no vehicle).. there are little options to choose from in my area .. they sell that brand of cow 💩/wood .. but I have to get the cheaper of the 2.. and it does nothing for my garden .. sick of putting the money in and getting little to nothing in return.. so I give up.. I will keep growing some things like my peppers in my bags and my tiny time tomatoes and some herbs/garlic but thats about it.. just because I can not get a good compost..😔
I love your passion and enthusiasm! Thank you for sharing and for calling them out!
I lost an entire growing season to black kow a few years ago.😢 Luke you mentioned there are a few “good” bagged composts what are they called if you don’t mind sharing them please. Thank you for your honesty it takes courage to call out big name companies
Hey Lucas. An extraordinary video leaving no stone unturned, to the point and bringing the receipts. Here on our garlic farm we make our own compost. When get manure its from grass feed cows that live down the road. The only additive is an occasional rock or large stone. We also find the nylon strings used to tie bails, after turning a few time its easy to remove the unwanted. We get real organic rice straw in 1000 lbs. bails. We do use ORMI approved saw dust and 1/4 inch chips, from the local lumber mill in 80 yard truckloads, not the stuff in this video. We also have oak forests and add 10s of 1000s lbs of leaf's and of course all the bush that comes on 100 ac. chipped into fine particles. We age a batch for 2 years before using and we don't make enough to publicly sell, but our garlic loves its annual compost feeding.
So many You Tubers show that they use Black Cow (and me living in Southern Cali), I always wished I could buy it locally. Now I'm glad I can't😳... Thank you MIG!
Not missing out on anything!
I have almost bought it. Now I won't
So frustrating - thanks for putting this out! Bought a ton of the black kow for my raised beds and found the same problem but I just assumed it was okay and 'normal'
HAHA!!! The ending was gold. 😂 Thanks for doing this, Luke! So eye opening! You know what else sucks to have in your composted manure? Aminopyralid. Don’t get me started. I’ll never forget that devastation. And I’ll never put compost in my garden again unless I made it.
I've bought our local compost company bags and sift it all before I put any in the garden and it was half a bag of wood chips and peoples! Last year we picked up from the farm real compost that's beautiful! The garden is much happier!
I would not use a Manure based compost or aged manure unless I knew the source and if the feed Hay Grain whatever was Ever sprayed with herbicide or pesticides and definitely stay away from Municipal Compost for eatable garden You do not want residual herbicide or forever chemicals being brought into your garden
Thanks for the heads up!
Very enlightening and very entertaining..Thank you for calling it what it is. I admire your courage and integrity. Thumbs up.
Wow! I literally was thinking of buying Black Kow for next year several bags to top off my garden . Thank you for sharing… money saved !
Thanks!
I noticed this too when I bought the Black Cow manure. I was shocked and double checked that I had bought the right bag. I dont have any other options at home depot. It is awful! I hope your video helps people become more honest.
Man alive , I'm glad my local co-op sells it by the truckload. They also sell mulch but the two never together. Thanks for a informative video
Cowgirl's Compost from Boise, ID is absolutely fabulous. I get it at Lowe's.
Black Cow was a good compost 30-40 years ago. But I noticed a lot of companies have a lot of wood in them now. Glad you showed this. 😊
LOL...Luke I appreciate your passion. I used Black Kow for the first time last year after watching some vids. Think I bought 20 bags for some of my 6" raised bed garden. The FIRST thing I noticed was HOLY KOW there's a lot of wood in this. Some of the wood was so big I had to throw it out of the garden. I won't be buying it again. Things grew in it but last season's garden was better than previous seasons but left more to be desired. It's in there now and I'm not taking it back out so I'm just gonna have to layer on top of it. When we first moved here (I'm in MI) the old garden was essentially a weedy sand lot. I've been trying to build the soil over all these years and it's been nothing but a years long experiment. I think I'm winning the battle but it's taking time. I found another mix from a local green house that I bought one bag of last season that I'm going to try...it looked promising but don't know yet. I don't know the brand but I saved the bag so I can get more this spring. Keep up the great work...watch you all the time!
Wow.
Ever since you became a "real farmer" (congrats on becoming a landowner!),
I like seeing how much more serious you became on some common problems that mid-upper income home gardeners don't worry about.
B.S. bags of compost is a huuuuuuge problem, even for home gardeners, and even more so for intensive, market gardeners.
Just getting started in the world of gardening. This is outrageous !!! This year I purchased compost from my local garden center. It looked pretty good, but in the spring, I’ll have to test it before buying my large load. Thank you for everything you are teaching us Luke.❤
It’s a good thing you’re testing it! You can never be too sure.
Such a scam!! Thanks Luke:)
We rarely bring any soil, compost or amendments into our garden. I am a Firm! believer in composting your own stuff….grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, chicken manure and food waste. If you need to bring something in, PLEASE test first! Grow some bean seeds and see how they do. We used some cow manure from a local farmer a few years ago and lost most of our plants from persistent herbicide:(
Thank you so much for doing this video!! I fell victim to this last year. I bought two Greenstalk grow towers last year and was super excited to grow in them. I bought an organic bagged soil that barely grew anything! It was SO discouraging! As I was filling the first tower I noticed a lot of wood chips in the bagged soil. I bought the grow towers at two different times and because the first one was failing so badly and I figured that it was likely the soil I couldn't even get myself motivated to plant anything in the other one. I'm hoping that the wood chips will break down by the spring and I'm also wondering how I should go about amending the crappy soil or maybe I'll scrap it all and just use it in the ground somewhere. I don't know. Fortunately I had great success with my in ground garden. Again thank you for sharing this video! Note to shelf, no Black Cow!
Great rant. All gardeners should up their game and start composting. Then you know exactly what is in it.
I agree. I bought a bag and topped off my bed and stopped there. I spent a lot of time picking out wood chips. I was very disappointed! Still finding wood as I work. In the garden.
He’s not lying. I opened my bag of black kow and was surprised at the amount of big wood chips. I won’t be buying any more of it. Thanks for the video MI.
Thank you for sharing, Luke! I am sharing this video with my gardening group, too. Merry Christmas!
Good job on showing where the manure really is.
Any bagged product I've ever bought was either used in the very bottom of deep beds which I mixed with clean sand as filler like hugel (spelling?) culture or I would spread it on top as a mulch to help keep raised beds moisture in but NEVER mixed into the soil where the roots would be for annual crops and NEVER in beds of perennials (esp oxygen sensitive plants like avocado and gardenia) BECAUSE OF THE MASS OF CHUNKY WOOD CHIPS
And I sift out the chunky wood chips for ground cover around the landscape to suppress weeds.
When I sift, I've found plastic wrap and metal shards on a regular basis.
The product is marked OMRI and for organic gardening
Ha! Definitely not made with care in mind
I have a brown cow. I mix wood chips with my bedding (manure and straw), The chips break down in a few months, the chips I use though are at least a year old.
I am going to do this test on my manure from now on, heck if can take the wood chips out once I bought it I will be happy that what I am actually putting in my bed will not be wood chips. I had my suspicions last year that it didn't look right. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing, Luke. I have been sifting through any compost bag that I buy. Getting most of the wood chips out. Thank You again. I learned about wood chips are bad for gardening from you, Luke on an earlier video years ago. Happy New Year!
The last bag of Black Cow that I purchased had almost 2 pounds of rocks and large sticks (according to my Pampered Chef kitchen scale).
I was in Michigan some years ago and loved every minute of it. I noticed in my friend's garden the natural virgin earth was really black. She planted seeds and they sprouted very quickly. She bought some compost and noticed exactly what u are saying. She ended up sifting out what she could. I enjoyed ur video.
I've seen a big change since 2021. I use Jungle Growth, and the last few years, there have been more wood chips and less mix. I have 3 worm bins and am working to make my own compost this year.
Very helpful show and tell. I definitely wasted my $ on multiple bags last spring. Not this year.
Great episode! That was actually a good bag of black kow. The ones I've seen had so many rocks and wood chips and sand that the bags of died mulch looked like a better compost. Theres some videos on youtube ive seen a year or 2 ago were people used black kow and got unfinished compost in their bulk purchase of it and it destroyed the majority of their plants within weeks of use.
(Edit, typo)
This has to be one of my favorite videos you've done. Thank you for exposing the scammers.
I ordered horse manure pellets two years ago and I was happy with the product. I only grow on a balcony in containers so I can pay the premium price. I was happy with the product and it was also aged properly. I was also happy with the horsy smell (only when planting!) because it brought me memories from when I was riding as a small girl... I was amazed when I found earthworms too from my containers! I had only used store bought bagged soil, horse manure pellets and worm castings. I grew everything from seed so the worms really were born at my place😊
the problem with compost that is animal derived, say from a grazing animal, is the type of feed they had. There are some nasty biologicals such as grazon that can really screw up your gardening dreams. The people who buy the animal feed have to check that the feed isn't from a source that has a relatively persistent herbicide such as grazon. (look, you can grow wonderful grass with it. But say bye bye to anything else. It involves a lot of remediation and hard labor if that stuff gets in your garden beds.)
For you, it's not so bad. A few buckets can be trashed. For others, this is a significant cost. cubic yards of soil that will need to be sequestered and replaced. That sucks.
Yes. I had sifted BK for a portion of my blocking mix last year and what a disaster. I couldn’t believe how many wood pieces there were and my blocks came out like cement. Must have been the sand. Thanks for exposing this. I started to use Es**** instead for starting seeds. I don’t have a decent source for homemade compost. Just started my pile last year. Hope to have some this year.
Every autumn I cover my entire garden with 8-10 inch layer of fresh manure, then cover it with equal depth of shredded leaves. I collected over 100 bags of leaves and created a leaf mold pile with whatever was left. In 3 weeks my 6’ cube of leaves began rotting and decreased by a foot. In two years it’ll be fantastic for seedstarting.
maple leave are the greatest!
Way to go! Thanks for being brave enough to stand up for truth. You are appreciated for being honest and straight forward with us.
Thank you! I am just starting this video. I am bad. I will pick up compost wherever I am at at the moment. I have had compost infested with bugs, I have had compost with plastic bottle caps and other plastic debris in it. I have had compost full of invasive weed seeds. I am still yanking lambs ear out of my gardens. I have had some horrible compost experiences. The best product I get comes from the guys who trim trees from electric lines. It’s mulch, not compost but it breaks down beautifully. I don’t have the wherewithal to spend 17.00 a bag on the really good compost. I think the average Gardner has been priced out of that market.
Me too
all you have to do is top dress with 30-0-0 and your golden( test your soil because if you add to much your screwed.)
Mind blown Luke. I used it in my garden. You have educated us. Thank you! Will have to rethink my garden mix.
Thank you so much! So many gardeners say that Black Cow is the gold standard for compost.
Thank you for this, you basically showed me why my garden failed this past summer everything was stunted because of Black Kow. I will never use it again, I learned about it after I had already planted. I need to figure out how to restore my garden soil for this upcoming season I'm in 6B Mi
I totally respect that MI love and live by good business practices! We should all expect more from businesses, and be more selective.
THANK YOU!!! As a fellow MI gardener, we are all well aware that since we have shorter growing season when things we buy for growing our plants aren’t sold as advertised and expected, it costs us precious time. Our harvests are affected therefore affecting being able to feed our families!!!
Multiple videos this year reported crop failures due to Black Cow brand not being fully composted. I now let my bags of manure sit for at least 6 months to ensure they are ready to use.
thank you for showing this. I gotta figure out where I can get my garden a better product!
Thank you, I stopped buying Black Kow years ago for this exact reason.
Your videos have taught me ALOT last summer bro, keep up the awesome work 👍👍👍👍
Thanks for putting it in the light…. For all to see. !!!!
No problem 👍
Great topic! Here in the South, I’ve experienced the potting soil here being labeled as locally made.
I believe it’s ground up hurricane trees/vegetation.
They throw a handful of perlite and fertilizer and call it potting soil. It turns to compacted sludge before the season is over.
The landfill is worse. People bring their debris including evasive weeds, vegetation and trees.
The landfill grounds all this up and offers for sale or gives it away.
Thus, spreading the weeds so people have to buy weed killer products when they realized what’s happened to their soil.
Nutsedge, dollar weed and Florida bétons.
As someone who grows 2 or 3 shoebox size tubs at a time of mushrooms pretty consistently in my master bathroom, I can tell you that perlite and vermiculite are not uncommon in small production. But it's minimal enough that even if my garden soil was sand, it's not a bad addition. Considering that I'm working with slick, heavy, grey, clay, I'm so glad we're growing mushrooms, and I have access to spent mushroom substrate.
Thank you, this is an eye-opener. We bought 20 bags of organic compost last year (we're in the UK) for new raised beds and the content was shocking, full of plastic, glass, wire, and even plastic gem stones, a real fiddle. The problem seems to be universal.
We compost our cattle manure on farm , we bed down our cattle with straw , corn stalks and wood chips. The C/N ratio increases with wood chips and it allows oxygen to flow through the compost when composting
Not sticking up for the bagged product. Just not surprised there is wood in the sample
Exactly, cow manure is a high Nitrogen input and anyone who knows about the composting process knows you need a high carbon input to balance out the high nitrogen input. If one wanted to purchase pure manure it would likely be marketed as aged manure, not composted manure
Yeah, I wouldn't be too upset about a finding a small amount of wood chips in the manure bag for reason as such even though I would like/expect non ..... But right now that stuff isn't what it use to be.
I think he is more outraged that is just "filler" of sand and wood chip. It would be more interesting to talk to the company about their processing practice and requirements of labeling on a manufactured final product. Good point on carbon to nitrogen ratio in the composting method.
I have a friend who has cows. If they had cow manure to spare for me to source so I can make my own compost, what do I need to know about their feed?
@@marystrong3371 I think it could be useful to ask what kind of sprays they use on feeds and straw. Some herbicides are persistent in manure for years before breaking down. Just ask at a feed and farm store and do a little online research to find out what chemicals are used in your farming area.
I love these types of videos! Telling us the truth about what is really what. I hate companies filling our heads with their false claims us spending money we need in the garden or other places especially those of us just getting into gardening. I want to see more of these.
I live in Australia; the amount of added "filler" in bagged compost and soil over the past decade has gone from "not much filler" to "mostly filler" ~ typically wood chips
Oh man it's bloody bad. Seasol used to be good, now it's junk. Osmocote just the same.
Brunnings is probably the worst of them all.
Whether Bunnings, or even Flower Powers "Super-Soil" bags. Everything has become muck
I am so glad to see your Vedio. Now I know what the issue of my raised bed plant is. Compared to the plant that grows directly from the ground
I just sifted about 35 kilos of humus. Best thing ever for our garden. We only use our kitchen scraps, chicken coop bedding and weeds or anything that comes from the garden. We do it the lazy way with the help of worms and that's it. Black gold.
I also get rabbit manure from our bunnies, which our tomatoes love. We are able to get very good sheep manure that we get to use in our garden beds.
I noticed this, too, last year. Mixing my own gardening soil......using a different composted bagged material, topsoil, perlite, and adding in my own garden compost soon. Great video!
Thank you! A couple of years ago I purchased this product and it seemed good. Last year I purchased about 7 or 8 bags and could not believe the garbage in it. They will never get another dime from me! All mulch and garbage .
Thank you for sharing and showing these concerning facts many of us have noticed and shrugged our shoulders about. After all, not many would return a bag. Do you think professional potting mix should have uncomposted wood chips in it? I am continually shocked at the size and volume of the wood chunks in it these days.
Ty Luke can u tell us some good brands of compost
Hahaha! Thanks Luke for the presentation of commercial scammers! Love your channel!!
I've been researching compost and making my own soil for container gardening. From what I've gathered, there is NO commercially available compost that can pass the 1/4" screening test, because of all of the fillers. The best I've seen is about 20% by volume wood chip filler with a 1/8" screening test....
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I figured it out too, which is why I don't buy it anymore! I make it myself. Thanks for sharing such a useful and educational video 👍🏼
You did the checking so we don’t have to. Thank you!
Thank you for the information! I don't want to waste my money!
I bought THE acclaimed Black Kow "compost. Shocked it was at *least 30% shredded wood chips. 😤😤😤
Oh, and the rocks! 1-2" , totalling about a POUND.
Similar findings here!
Try 1/2-1” tile squares and chips.😖😡 Excellent, valuable information, I’m a landscaper, and maintain my raised but vegetable garden, also fruit tree and other, trees and plants Glad someone like yourself is bold enough to demonstrate and bring out the truth in these matters, haven’t heard my customers nor neighbors speak on this issue, if I do, I’m brushed off, people feel they have no alternatives. Keep up the good work, you’re reaching us.😃👍🏾😧
Thank you Luke!
Nice video Luke! Down here in Australia we don't get much sand in mixes but a lot of woodchip.
It appears to be shredded woodchip as you would find in very hot (commercially) composted garden waste.
Black, but not even close to broken down. It doesn't seem to make much difference if it's a $2 or a $10 bag.
Thanks for illustrating some of the industry's dirty tricks. Cheers!
I have seen that too. Potting soil..was full of wood chips and sticks. HOW CAN I PLANT SEEDS IN THAT?
I love when you make these types of videos, I am a frugal gardener and this information is so important! Perhaps you should start your own compost brand! I know we can trust you Luke! I’m going to rewatch your video on making your own seed starting soil next👍
I’d like to see you test more of the premium composts. I watch Garden Answer and they use Espoma land and sea compost a lot. I can’t afford to pay $30 for one cubic feet of compost but every time it’s used at Garden Answer I think maybe I should try it but the price is RIDICULOUS!
Hi, Please consider turning on the (cc-Closed Captions) option on all of your videos. It is very useful tool to help follow along with your advice. Thank you in advance. 😊
You can turn it on using the cc box located in the top right of the screen.
Thank you for this video. I am going to share it with everyone I know that has interest in gardening.
I had major issues with miracle grow garden soil this year. It was completely nitrogen deficient and ruined my gardening year. We only have a 3 month growing season and by the time I realized why my plants were so stunted, it cut into my season too far 😢
Agree 100%.
Like anything else lately find a local supplier they usually have a superior product! Here in CT Collins Compost and New England Compost are my favorites ❤
Looking up Black Kow compost they get the inputs from dairy farms. From my knowledge of dairy farms their are two primary sources of bedding they use for cows, sawdust/wood chips and sand. Finding wood chips and sand in composted cow manure is no surprise at all and depending upon your soils can be very beneficial.