Are your plants looking on the dull side? Try Lobster Compost.
Did you know that some of a plant’s key ingredients for growing fast and healthy can be found in a lobster shell? Calcium, magnesium, and nitrogen are essential for a growing plant’s diet.
What is Lobster Compost?
Lobster Compost is made with lobster shells, compost and sphagnum peat moss. It is a dark-brown, complex soil filled with everything plants need for healthy growth used to condition flower beds and borders, vegetable gardens, herbs and annuals. It drains well and is an ideal soil conditioner for existing beds that need reinvigorating. It is also OMRI listed for use in organic gardens.
How is Lobster Compost Made?
The lobsters are received, cooked, and the meat is separated from the shells. Culled blueberries as well as blueberry leaves and twigs are then received, as well as specially selected wood shavings and sawdust. These ingredients are all blended together and formed into a “windrow”, or long and straight pile.
The compost is then aerated by a Scarab, or a giant roto-tiller that punches holes in the mix to encourage airflow. Due to the microbes all doing their job, the inner temperature rises to 131- 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperature is essential to kill off any weed starts or foreign pathogens. This “cooking” process can take 4-6 months before the compost is considered finished. Once the temperature starts dropping around this timeframe, the finished compost is packaged and sent out to use.
How Do I Use Lobster Compost?
Lobster compost can be used as a mulch around perennials, trees and shrubs and as a soil amendment for lawns, gardens and container plants.
For flower beds and vegetable gardens, till about three inches of the compost into the top six inches of fairly dry garden soil.
For containerized plants, fresh lobster compost should only make up about one-quarter of the volume of soil in the container.
To recondition poor soil, work 2 inches into the top 4 to 6 inches of soil. To maintain healthy soils and for heavy feeders like roses and most vegetables, 1 inch of Lobster Compost is sufficient.
For normal feeders like herbs and flowering plants, 1/2 inch will do.
To get the best results when organic gardening with lobster compost, thoroughly mix it in with the garden soil prior to planting or allow it to sit over winter and apply in spring.
Please note: One cubic yard of compost will cover about 100 square feet of garden to a depth of about two inches.
For more information or questions, feel free to stop in at Meadow View or give us a call at 937-845-0093. Happy gardening!
MVG – Helping Our Customers Grow Fine Plants Since 1984!
