Any recommendations of where I can get a compost pile blanket in Canada?

beyondorganic · February 25, 2019, 2:12am

Hi, there.

I was just about to order a compost blanket from the US when I found out that they don’t ship to Canada and my efforts to ship it to my sister in the US were foiled by their lack of Canadian addressing when putting in the billing address. I couldn’t find a compost cover at Dubois Agrinovation and my Google search hasn’t been that fruitful. Does anyone have a source and recommendation for a suitable compost blanket that can be sourced within Canada?

Thanks.

Rodney

dheraud · February 26, 2019, 8:51pm

Hey Rodney/@beyondorganic !

I used to tarp my compost over (to prevent runoff, leaching, and volatilization). How does a compost pile blanket differ from silage tarp?

beyondorganic · February 27, 2019, 1:23pm

Hey, @dheraud!

That’s a good point. I had thought that there was a difference. One of the presenters at the last EFAO conference made reference to a compost blanket, and so I assumed that it was different from a tarp. Okay, I’ll use a tarp, then.

Thanks!

dheraud · February 27, 2019, 2:33pm

@beyondorganic Well I can’t say for sure as I’ve never heard of a compost blanket per say. I even had to Google it out of curiosity and all I could find was products for erosion control, which I’m sure is very helpful in landscaping applications, but as far as I can tell offers no benefit when composting on a farm.

If you do get tarp, I always liked the ones that are white on one side and black on the other, it’s pretty versatile as you can flip it over when you don’t want things to heat up too much (white side up) or when you need some extra heat (black side up).

rob · February 27, 2019, 2:58pm

Compost covers are designed to allow air exchange while shedding excess moisture.
Global Repair is one Canadian supplier: http://www.globalrepair.ca/compost%20fleece%20covers.htm

beyondorganic · February 28, 2019, 12:35pm

Thanks for your help, @rob and @dheraud! I’m going to try out the Global Repair cover. Failing that, I’ll get another of the white/black tarps from Dubois that we have.

dheraud · March 1, 2019, 2:04am

Ooooh very nice, thanks @rob! Now I wonder what those go for!

beyondorganic · March 10, 2019, 1:33pm

I just got a quote from Global Repair and unfortunately, their product is far too expensive for a small fry like me. They require a minimum length of 50 meters and have varying lengths:

Compostx19.pdf (28.3 KB)

So, I’m going to need to find another vendor that can supply on a smaller scale.

dheraud · March 10, 2019, 4:51pm

Wow! That is expensive indeed!

beyondorganic · May 4, 2019, 1:19am

I just stumbled across a good solution to this problem when I was buying trees. A company in Waterloo called Irrigation Plus has a roll of this landscaping fabric that lets air and water through it but not light. It’s also not expensive. I’ll post some details shortly.

dheraud · May 4, 2019, 2:18pm

Please do! And if you could share prices as well that would be great!

beyondorganic · May 12, 2019, 8:56pm

Okay, I finally found it. Here’s the description in the Irrigation Plus catalogue, p.4:

Here’s the address and phone for anyone who is interested in looking into things:

1575 Scotchline Road, Elmira, ON
519-664-1400

dheraud · May 16, 2019, 1:26am

Thank you for sharing!

I’m guessing that it’s a typo on the catalogue, but it’s 300ft, not 300 inches, right? :::

beyondorganic · May 17, 2019, 2:28am

Yeah, I saw that. I’ll confirm for sure. Heading over there tomorrow for my tea-towel sized ground sheet!