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Buying compost isn't as simple as looking for the best brand. We can't even give you a brand-by-brand comparison because most commercial composts are produced and sold locally; you won't find the same products in South Dakota and Tennessee—or even in Nashville and Memphis.
Fortunately, a simple look (and sniff) can be all you need to do to find a good-quality product. Here's how to check out compost before you buy.
Touch The texture should be loose and granular, with little or no recognizable wood or bark. If the compost isn't loose enough for you to spread and work into your garden beds easily, don't buy it.
Look The color should always be dark brown or almost black in color. Avoid products that are light in color. They probably contain too little organic matter and too much soil. It's easiest to tell the true color if you let the compost sample dry out.
Lift Compost should be moist, not dry or soggy. One of compost's biggest benefits, once it's in the soil, is that it can hold up to 2 1/2 times its weight in water. But in bagged products, excess moisture makes the compost difficult to spread. It also means that if the compost is sold in 40-pound bags (as most of them are) and you buy a wet product, you'll be paying for water, not compost. (Hefting a bag will give you a good idea of its moisture content. If it feels like a big glob, the compost is probably too wet; if it feels loose, it is probably drier.)
Sniff Ideally, mature compost will have a nice earthy smell, but this isn't a reliable test for bagged compost—at least not right away. That's because the plastic bags restrict the oxygen supply to the organisms that release the earthy odor. If you do find an earthy, woodsy odor, you've probably struck "black gold"—a mature, good-quality compost. Most bagged composts will probably have a slight musty or barnyard odor when you first open them, and that's fine. Avoid any products that have a strong unpleasant smell (ammonia or sewer gas, for example) because the odor indicates an immature compost that might damage plants. If you don't want to smell it, don't put it on your garden. (Some stores may not let you inspect a bag before you buy it. So if you buy a bag and find it's not up to these standards, either take it back or dump it onto your home pile to dilute and fully compost.)
