Regarding cottonseed moats. I used cottonseed moats (hulls) for years in my vegetable garden until 1979. That year, the moats I acquired from the same manufacturing source as before was infected with southern bacterial wilt. While I had previously harvested 1,640 pounds of tomatoes from 30 plants, my harvest went to zero, as about the time the tomatoes began to ripen, the plants all died overnight. I now have to grow my tomatoes in raised buckets or in other areas of the property, away from my vegetable garden and it has been 30 years since the infection.
My point is: be careful about introducing pathogens into your environment that may create problems. Anything you import should be fully composted with enough heat to destroy such pathogens, otherwise you may wish you had deferred. Also you need to be careful about the contents of any compost material such as lead, cadmium, and especially arsenic. Municipal derived compost products may contain stuff you don't want. The arsenic content of ironite has been long recognized (
http://www.epa.gov/NRMRL/lrpcd/wm/projects/135367.htm ).
Another consideration for cottonseed moats is pesticide residue that may be included as a "bonus" ingredient. Unprocessed cotton hull byproducts will contain such residue. "Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S. (cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin) are KNOWN cancer-causing chemicals. All nine are classified by the U.S. EPA as Category I and II— the most dangerous chemicals." (
http://www.ecochoices.com/1/cotton_statistics.html) .
I am not trying to throw cold water on your practice, just raising a red flag, hoping to spare you from a negative experience such as I had.
