Analyses of Various Composts

Source N% P% K% Ca% C/N

Vegetable trimmings & paper 1.57 0.40 0.40 24:1
Municipal refuse 0.97 0.16 0.21 24:1
Johnson City refuse 0.91 0.22 0.91 1.91 36:1
Gainsville, FL refuse 0.57 0.26 0.22 1.88 ?
Garden compost "A" 1.40 0.30 0.40 25:1
Garden compost "B" 3.50 1.00 2.00 10:1

To interpret this chart, let's make as our standard of comparison
the actual gardening results from some very potent organic material
I and probably many of my readers have probably used: bagged chicken
manure compost. The most potent I've ever purchased is inexpensively
sold in one-cubic-foot plastic sacks stacked up in front of my local
supermarket every spring. The sacks are labeled 4-3-2. I've
successfully grown quite a few huge, handsome, and healthy
vegetables with this product. I've also tried other similar sorts
also labeled "chicken manure compost" that are about half as potent.

From many years of successful use I know that 15 to 20 sacks (about
300-400 dry-weight pounds) of 4-3-2 chicken compost spread and
tilled into one thousand square feet will grow a magnificent garden.
Most certainly a similar amount of the high analysis Garden "B"
compost would do about the same job. Would three times as much less
potent compost from Garden "A" or five times as much even poorer
stuff from the Johnson City municipal composting operation do as
well? Not at all! Neither would three times as many sacks of dried
steer manure. Here's why.