Unless it is organically grown cotton, leave it. Current non-organic cotton production uses a variety of products such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, plant growth regulators and chemical defoliants. See the link below from OCA describing conventional cotton for more info.

Here is a link that might be useful: background info

If you trying to produce a truly "certified organic" style compost, don't use any chemically treated, nor pesticide nor herbicide treated plant or animal matter in your compost pile.

However if all you want to do is produce a "sustainable", yet totally safe, compost product, you can use any form of biodegradable animal or plant matter!

The main trick is to keep the compost stockpile so that at least 75% of its volume is normal conservative browns and greens (i.e. grass clippings, food scraps, straw, leaves, etc.). Then you have to keep the entire pile constantly aerated and moisturized either by turning or static aeration pipes for at least 2-4 weeks. The stockpile has to maintain internal temperatures of at least 145 degrees F for at least 3 days to neutralize off the bad pathogens, toxins, and anaerobic microbes from the pile.

If you constantly feed and breed the beneficial thermal and aerobic microbes in the pile long enough, you can guarantee a safe sustainable compost product.

Normally I can make a good compost from normal organic greens and browns within 1-2 months, in a hot active aerobic composting process.

However for controversal composting materials, it is a good idea to go over 6-12 months in some cases!

Happy Holidays!

Well, there is no doubt that the crop is NOT organic, and from the link you have given Althea, I WON'T be using that stuff in my compost. But, if I do run across material I am not sure of, or I question its safety I will use the technique you have suggested, Captain. Thank you Althea and Captain for your response and insight. Happy Holiday to you both and your families...

Blutranes

That link above is from a very extreme group of people. Remember, there are two sides to the truth. Yes cotton is sprayed, not nearly as much as years before, and the materials sprayed today are much more enviroment friendly. I have been around cotton spraying all my life and have a very normal life with 2 very normal kids.

You can take the word of someone from Minnesota or someone from the Mississipi Delta.

That said, go buy cottnseed meal, good natural fertilizer with NO chemical residue.

Hayne, I use the cottonseed and plant waste from non-gmo cotton I grow here in my organic garden to feed acid loving plants. :~)

hayne: Well, I'm neither from Minnesota or the Mississippi Delta, but I can do a search for "pesticides in cotton cultivation", and learn from approximately 1,000 different sources that 25% of ALL pesticides and 10% of ALL herbicides used in agriculture, are used on Cotton--and some of the most dangerous pesticides known to man, at that.
YOU can do the same search.
Althea: Certainly have to hand it to you--as it says in "Desiderada", "state your truth quietly and clearly...", and that's what you do--against all odds.

"Organic Consumers" is an "Extreme Group"? I don't think so and I think the person that posted that is an apologist for those not organic. I would believe what is on the Organic Consumers mewsletters before anything from anyone that indicated anything other than organic cotton was safe to use.

The information on that website is so dated, they need to update their statistics. Alot has changed in the last 10 years, less material is sprayed and what is sprayed breaks down faster, leaving little or no pesticide residue in the plant, seed, and lint.

Those of you with an open mind will realize that the "opinions" of outsiders to the cotton industry are just repeating what the zealots have been saying for the last 40 years. They need to update their playbook.

For Kimmsr, marylandmojo, and althea, don't take any of this personal, but when untruths about the cotton industry are put out on this forum I will do my best to change their mind about the cotton industry.

hayne, you may want to keep up-to-date by becoming familiar with this story about thousands of sheep in India that died after grazing on BT cotton.

Here is a link that might be useful: oca

Not to distract from the "discussion",what about "cotton gin compost"I go to the gin about 15 miles from me and buy truckloads of compost at $20 a load.This stuff is made from the cotton gin "trash",left over from last year,so it is at least 12 mo old and really well heated and broken down,beautiful,black-gold.I can take my pick of piles to have them load it from,they always tell me which is the oldest.I have planted directly in it,and even screened it and used it as seed starter,with great results.I looked up cotton gin compost on the web when I first heard about it,the info I got was that it is one of the best composts available.Is that info wrong?I just started veggies this year,I am already picking tomatoes,have lettuce,had beets,carrotts,lots of herbs(only give them a little compost)My flowers are gorgeous,everything looks so good!

hayne,

do you have a link to what is currently done with cotton? If so posting it would be helpful.

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. I do have information that will say there is miniscule or NO pesticide residue in cottonsed meal. If there is ANY amount it is so miniscule it is barely traceable.

I will be glad to email this info to anyone with an open mind.

You can email me direct at: phdmatthews@hotmail.com
Also here is a link to the Bremen Cotton Exchange website, scroll down to Bremen Test 2004- Cotton without residues, at the end of the story you will see a link to see their results.

I hope to hear from some of you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bremen Cotton Exchange News

76 percent of the cotton grown is from genetically modified seed that is supposed to lower the amount of herbicides used on the fields and yet the USDA reports increases in per acre applications of herbicides on cotton fields. Iowa State University reports that many of the weeds targeted by the herbicides used on GMO crops are becoming genetically modified and resistant to the herbicides. We, the consumers of these products, are being forced to buy, use, eat products we may not want to because the companies the produce them stand to make more money and have convinced the idiots that run the USDA that injecting a gene that would in no way ever get into a plant otherwise is substantially the same as what happens in cross pollination. This whole GM thing is all about making money, not making the world a better place, not about making things better for the consumer, just making money which is not at all a bad thing if done for the right reasons. Any pesticide/herbicide residue in a product is unacceptable to an organic gardener.

Please read the info below.

BTW, I don't understand, you start by using information from USDA to say there are more herbicides being sprayed but later on you call the USDA idiots, can't have it both ways. Anyway the facts below dispell any rumors that bt seed are harmful. Remember, they are cutting down on crop duster sprayings.

Biotech cotton  DNA and protein from the transgene

[see G.P. Fitt, P.J. Wakelyn, J.M Stewart et al. Report of the Second Expert Panel on Biotechnology of Cotton. International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), Washington, DC, USA, Nov. 2004.]
Rigorous assessments have identified no human health risks from biotech cotton varieties or the products generated from them. A review of all safety information indicates that current biotech cottons do not pose any different risks to human or animal health than conventional cotton (Gustafson et al., 2001; Nida et al., 1996, 1996a). DNA is considered a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substance by U.S. FDA and is readily degraded by the human digestive system. Each of the pesticidal proteins introduced into commercialized biotech cottons has been exempted from a tolerance by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which means these proteins are considered safe (based on digestibility, lack of toxicity, and lack of allergenic potential) for human or animal consumption (Matten, 2000). Regulatory approvals for the use in food and feed of products derived from biotech cotton varieties have been obtained following scientific review in the USA, Japan, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, Canada and China (Mainland). In addition, there is no evidence for indirect effects on beneficial species through consumption of Bt intoxicated prey.