Compost in food plots

[schoolsout]

Thought this was interesting. About 3-4 months ago, we put about 3200# of compost from the county landfill (yard waste). It was only enough to get about 1/3 of plot area done.

Planted field peas/black eye peas in the plot in both composted areas and uncomposted areas. The composted areas are growing great and much better than the uncomposted area. That said, the deer chowed down on the uncomposted area and haven't touched the composted area.

What would cause this? Smell of compost? (yard waste) or is it giving the peas in the composted area a different taste the deer don't like?

Anyone else run into something like this?

[Carl_NH]

Cant say for a food plot but I make our compost for the gardens 20 yards a year with leaves fertilizer and some horse manure and deer graze the plants around and growing in the compost.

Depending on what they mixed with the compost - it could have some other waste products mixed in but would have thought the heat generated in the process would neutralize these waste products..

[schoolsout]

It's definitely interesting. When we picked up the compost, it was steaming hot.

I like the way the peas look as they are larger than I thought they would have been, but they aren't doing what they're supposed to do!

[Carl_NH]

You have some picky deer in SC. I think the mixture of waste is probably the issue - its a temporary thing - the important part is next year they will grow better with amended soils.

Put down compost in the fall, and let it "season" for the winter then plant in the spring.

[MikeFarm]

Hiya

Using "county landfill (yard waste)" is very risky for food crops. There is always the possibility that some jerk got rid of that small container of PCB or organic pesticide or something else that would have cost him $ to dispose of the correct and legal way. Landfill can't be checked 100%. I'd use compost that is known to be safe for crops. I'm sure you have legislation in the US that regulates what compost is used for food crops.

Mike

[schoolsout]

Hiya

Using "county landfill (yard waste)" is very risky for food crops. There is always the possibility that some jerk got rid of that small container of PCB or organic pesticide or something else that would have cost him $ to dispose of the correct and legal way. Landfill can't be checked 100%. I'd use compost that is known to be safe for crops. I'm sure you have legislation in the US that regulates what compost is used for food crops.

Mike

Interesting...haven't ever thought about that. They do market the compost for home gardens and whatnot. Being a government entity, that could go either way...

[schoolsout]

pic of the peas in question...never had them get this large before deer mutilated them. And in this same strip, further down where we ran out of the compost, they were eaten. I now have birdseed planted in that area as that was all I had at the time.

[Rio_Grande]

I know we spray a brew that i cant remember the name of but it is made from sewer plant water. It keeps the deer back until we can get a stand going and then after a few rains they are all over it! Maybee this had some fecese of some sort in it or the odor of rot? They will get into them.

[schoolsout]

I know we spray a brew that i cant remember the name of but it is made from sewer plant water. It keeps the deer back until we can get a stand going and then after a few rains they are all over it! Maybee this had some fecese of some sort in it or the odor of rot? They will get into them.

There shouldn't be any feces in this stuff as it is supposedly all yard debris. I'm sure some stuff may have found its way into the debris, but shouldn't have been enough to matter.

That said, they are eating the peas now. Still have a good stand, but lots of stalks sticking up.