Soil Conditioner vs Compost: Which is Better for Your Lawn?

Soil conditioner and compost are very similar to one another. In fact, they can both be found in stores or made at home. However, it’s important to know the differences before you choose one over the other. They’re both effective soil enhancers, so let’s dive into the details today.

When it comes to soil conditioner vs compost, compost is made from organic scraps and materials around your home, whereas soil conditioner is usually bought as a pre-made mixture to enhance the nutrients in your soil. Both of them are worth using for gardens and lawns.

Throughout this article, you’ll also learn the following information about soil conditioner vs compost and other organic matter:

• Pros and cons of both soil amendments
• Recommendations to use certain soil conditioners or compost
• How they can be used in your garden

What is Soil Conditioner?

A soil conditioner is a substance added to the soil to improve the soil’s physical qualities by increasing aeration, water holding capacity, and nutrients or soil fertility.

They are used to enhance poor soil or to rebuild soil damaged by improper management.

Soil conditioners loosen up compacted, hardpan, and clay soil and release locked up nutrients.

According to SSWM, they can raise or lower pH levels, depending on what they are made of.

Soil conditioners can be either organic or inorganic or a combination of synthetic and natural matter.

Ingredients in soil conditioners include pulverized limestone, gypsum, slate, polysaccharides, glauconitic, polyacrylamides.

What is Compost?

Compost is defined as decayed or decaying organic material used as a fertilizer for growing plants.

It’s made in a process called composting that involves gathering plant materials such as leaves, vegetable peels, and grass clippings into a pile and letting it decompose as a result of the action of aerobic bacteria, fungi, and other organisms.

It’s worth noting that certain substances can ruin the usage of compost and other organic materials. One of them is dog urine, unfortunately. If you want to know how to repair grass damaged by dog urine, review my article here.

Should You Use Soil Conditioner or Compost?       

Pros Of Composting

• Compost improves the nutrient mix in the soil structure. Using compost enhances water retention in the soil mix, which is essential in hot climates since plants can survive without irrigation much longer than soil that is not mixed with compost.
• Compost is made up of organic food waste and other materials that can be composted making it entirely organic, unlike other fertilizers that can lead to soil and groundwater pollution.
• Higher crop yields are realized by the use of compost in gardening. Compost is a fertilizer that improves growth in plants and also maximizes crop yields. Plants treated with compost are more likely to increase in overall yields depending on the original materials used for producing the compost.
• Composting is entirely eco-friendly as it ensures the amount of household waste is reduced. There’s less need for chemical fertilizers. Composting your organic food waste saves plenty of waste in the long run.
• It’s relatively simple to produce compost from organic materials as no special physical abilities are needed.
• Composting makes use of organic food waste leading to low cost. The only cost implication is of purchasing a compost bin as there will be no need for conventional chemical fertilizers from the store.

Cons of Composting

• An unpleasant smell is produced from the composting process, depending on the sort of organic food waste used. Composting is often not suitable if you live in apartment complexes (follow these tips if you live in an apartment). One way to avoid the smell is to make sure not to use certain foods for composting that are known to emit large amounts of unpleasant gases.
• Composting is rather daunting. To ensure proper air circulation, you will be required to move the compost pit around at least twice a week. This adds up to plenty of physical work, depending on the amount of compost.
• To get the best results, you need to monitor the composting process. Ensure that your compost has the optimal temperature and is set up at an optimal location where it gets the right amount of sunlight.
• The time taken to decompose the food waste into useful compost takes long. Environmental Conscious shows us that, depending on the kind of input materials, the composting process can choose from one month to one year until the organic matter has been fully decomposed and is ready to be used as fertilizer or soil conditioner.

Pros of Soil Conditioners

• You can easily do a soil test of your garden and get the exact conditioner that the soil in your garden needs. This is because the label has a breakdown of constituent nutrients that your farm might need.
• Soil conditioners, much like compost, can be easily produced at the comfort of your home by using organic waste food. This has an added advantage of reducing costs. Gardening Know How also points out that it can promote aeration in the soil.
• In places that are prone to water shortages or rainfall, soil conditioning by making use of humus helps to retain water since the spongy structure of the organic matter aids in binding water molecules together along with some other inorganic matter that acts as micro or macro-nutrients.
• Soil conditioners, such as polysaccharides and polyacrylamides, help minimize soil erosion due to their ability to bind and stabilize soil particles by promoting soil aggregates and preventing surface runoff of water or sheet erosion.

Cons of Soil Conditioners

• It can be costly, especially buying inorganic substances compared to organic substances that you make at home from organic waste.
• Inputting the right amount of soil conditioner in the soil requires skill as the soil needs to be tested first before the right amount can be administered. Too much or less of it can damage soil fertility.
• Excessive fertilizer use in the soil can contaminate the water table once water seeps in through the soil. Water bodies like rivers can be contaminated through water surface runoff.
• It’s time-consuming, especially if you are using composting as your preferred soil conditioner. This is because it takes roughly a year for compost to be ready, depending on the organic content used.

Final Thoughts

The soil in your yard depends upon whether to use composting or soil conditioners. Composting is solely organic.

This method has been lauded as being more eco-friendly and less harmful to the soil than soil conditioners that have both organic and inorganic components.

However, soil needs specific amendments added to it for proper soil management. It’s faster and has a more scientific approach compared to composting.

At the end of the day making use of either boils down to the type of soil and soil requirements of your garden.

Another natural way to promote a healthy lawn is to use seaweed, believe it or not!