# screened or unscreened compost



## Belgianbillie (Apr 3, 2018)

One is 50 bucks the other is only 22 bucks. Does it matter for doing an overseed?


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Unscreened means rocks/wood chips etc. I would want to see it before purchase. I find there is no universal definition for "compost". The best quality compost I ever bought was full of driveway gravel...

But I would probably choose screened. Is that $50/cubic yard??


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## Belgianbillie (Apr 3, 2018)

yea 50 bucks per cu yard with a 35 dollar delivery fee or 22 dollars with a 25 dollar delivery fee. Two different places.

I am thinking i need about 4-6 cu yards.


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## ForsheeMS (May 21, 2018)

I would go take a look at both. If the unscreened doesn't have a lot of large chunks in it I would go with that and put the savings towards your fall nitrogen app. I actually like the compost to have small visible wood chips because that's basically "slow release" compost. Those wood chips will break down slowly feeding the microbes for a longer period of time.

The stuff I get from the local city waste water treatment plant has a lot of small wood chips in it as well as a few larger pieces. I pick out the bigger stuff and the rest will disappear into the existing grass with a pass of the leaf blower. After the first rain you would never know it was there.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

ForsheeMS said:


> I would go take a look at both. If the unscreened doesn't have a lot of large chunks in it I would go with that and put the savings towards your fall nitrogen app. I actually like the compost to have small visible wood chips because that's basically "slow release" compost. Those wood chips will break down slowly feeding the microbes for a longer period of time.
> 
> The stuff I get from the local city waste water treatment plant has a lot of small wood chips in it as well as a few larger pieces. I pick out the bigger stuff and the rest will disappear into the existing grass with a pass of the leaf blower. After the first rain you would never know it was there.


@ForsheeMS "city waste water treatment plant" I saw this online recently in your area. I'm not driving this far for compost, but is it just leaf mulch or is also combined with sewage sludge?


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## ForsheeMS (May 21, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> @ForsheeMS "city waste water treatment plant" I saw this online recently in your area. I'm not driving this far for compost, but is it just leaf mulch or is also combined with sewage sludge?


It's a mixture of chipped limbs, leaves and other yard waste the city picks up curbside and they combine that with sewage sludge. Out of all the loads I've got from them none of it was completely cooked yet. Yes, it does smell pretty bad! But it has always been really hot so any weed seeds that might have been in it should be cooked enough not to cause a problem. Never had a weed issue from using it so far. Around here we call it dookie dirt. I live outside of the city limits but it's only a 7 mile drive for me and it's $10 for a large wheel loader scoop. It will fill the bed of a full size pick up.


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## erickdaniels (Jun 29, 2018)

@Belgianbillie 
I would go with screened. I had 10 cu yd of unscreened leaf compost delivered and it has shreds of plastic in it (garbage bag like). Screening would have removed this debris. I now know better.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

ForsheeMS said:


> probasestealer said:
> 
> 
> > @ForsheeMS "city waste water treatment plant" I saw this online recently in your area. I'm not driving this far for compost, but is it just leaf mulch or is also combined with sewage sludge?
> ...


Sounds like cheap milorganite.


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