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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Gene forwarded:

> So if you are buying mulch, get a printout from the company or 
> municipal group providing it, listing everything in the material. 
> "That means microelements to major elements," Dr. Ribeiro said. "You 
> can have too much nitrogen in compost, or high levels of 
> micro-elements like lead and cadmium."

I'm suspicious when someone mentions nitrogen and lead in the same 
breath.  How can an organic fertilizer have too much N?  If that's so, 
use less of it.  For instance, the second year I grew peppers with 
alfalfa pellets as the N source, and there was too much nitrogen (*in 
the bed*).  Of course, they were huge and leafy and green, with no plant 
pathogens whatsoever, and overall as healthy as can be.  If I'd been in 
the Tropics, they'd have gone on to become giant trees, with hundreds of 
peppers, but they didn't mature fast enough for the onset of winter 
here.  Now when I grow peppers, I use much less of the soaked alfalfa 
pellets, diluting it with hi-potash peat, and now they turn out great.  
The *fertilizer* doesn't have too much nitrogen; I once just put too 
much of it on.

If anything, the products labeled "mulch" and "compost" available in 
little bags in town are little better than blackened sawdust.  If they 
had much nitrogen in them, you might be tempted to skimp on fertilizer, 
and that would be bad for the fake fish emulsion business.

I suspect that if I check them out, I may find that they're offering a 
horrifically expensive organic fertilizer which, conveniently, does not 
contain too much N.  If that's not so, then it's likely that what the 
good Doctor's real concern is how the high-N runoff from your garden 
might cause detrimental algal blooms in ponds downstream.  I appreciate 
people whose concern for the environment outside my garden is greater 
than their concern for my garden itself, and I fully allow them to have 
their value system, but I'd appreciate it if they just let me know that 
first before giving advice.

I also feel that if someone were really out to give you advice on how 
not to cause harm to your garden, they might mention that conifer waste 
breaks down into compounds that are toxic to all plant life except those 
that dwell among them here in the forest: ferns, rhodies, etc.  Nearly 
always when there is free "manure" available, it's mostly conifer 
shavings, and it's usually red cedar (the most toxic of all, according 
to Steve Solomon).  I've even heard it billed as manure without the 
stinky element.  I've learn to detect that smell of red cedar in the 
blackened sawdust mix, and politely refuse it.

But the Doctor's concern about lead and cadmium in compost is also 
valid.  I checked out the analysis of the Eugene, OR, city compost, and 
the zinc content alone could never have come solely from plant 
products.  It's obviously mixed with sewer sludge that contains paint 
residues.

The USDA says their research shows that these toxic elements aren't 
absorbed much by food crops (I wouldn't bet on taproot crops), but still 
it makes me that much happier to know that I can have a virtually 
unlimited "garden from a bag" without using any known toxics, or being a 
slave to exorbitant fancy ferts.

Bill
S. Oregon coast

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