Topic: pallet compost bin

[jo2]

What do you have on the floor of a pallet compost bin when the ground is full of bindweed?  Do I weedkill the area? I've already dug out tonns of roots but know there are loads more as the stuff goes for miles.
Do I put a plastic sheet at the bottom? or will that make it go nasty?
Do I put down a weed membrane?
If I put a barrier in will the stuff still rot down properly with out worms being able to get access?
help please!

[oubykh]

Tricky one that ???

i guess you'll have to ask whether you have to put it there or somewhere else, even if its just for this season?

you can buy worms to use in the bin if you use a membrane, but if its a pallet bin you might lose a few!!
http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/

hope someone else can help more

good luck :)

[busy_lizzie]

Hi Jo2,  You could always put a pallet floor in too to stop the weeds coming up.  If you layer your compost with the usual matter and shovel  some  wormy soil in,  should come out well.  We did ours like that and came out great last year, of course we did have a brilliant dry summer, so everything rotted down really well.  

When we inherited our plot the previous owner has put his manure on a membrane which had rotted and we got fantasticly healthy and robust couch grass and bindweed and thistles feeding off it.  So I do think it is something to bear in mind.  :) busy_lizzie  

[rdak]

I have just used several pieces of thick cardboard to kill the weeds under my pallet bins. The cardboard will rot down and the worms will find their way in.

[allotment_chick]

Hi Jo2
I too suffer with bindweed all over the plots (and couch and marestail).
I don't bother to put anything under the bins as, IMHO, compost in contact with the soil rots down better (because the soil wildlife can get into it and help with the decomposition process).  It is really easy to see the blanched white bindweed roots when you are digging the compost out - I just yank 'em out and lob them in the incinerator bin - very satisfying!
AC

[jo2]

Thanks people that has given me some good ideas to ponder.  I wish I could put it in a non bindweedy spot but to be frank the entire plot is that way inclined!  Doesn't bother me too  much as I've erradicated it from my garden at home by ruthless weeding but I don't fancy it in compost as it has the potential to spread it even further.

[ina]

I have a pallet on the floor of the compost bin (built of poles and chicken wire), the compost falls through tho'. I found that the bindweed didn't root in the compost but underneath and comes up beside it where I pull it out every time I see it. This year I moved the heap and there were no bindweed roots in the compost, only underneath in the soil where I had to dig them out. I thought the problem would be much worse than it was, it was the reason why I moved the compost heap in the first place. Maybe I was just lucky.