Topic: Weed seeds in home made compost.

[Baaaaaaaa]

Now that its warming up, my fresh pile of compost, emptied out of the compost heap late last year, is now sprouting all over.

I was hoping to use this on the garden, but it's just going to spread weeds all over the place.

My heap is only 1 metre cubed, too small to make a 'hot' heap.

What can I do, both with last years stuff and for this year ?

[Eristic]

Stop worrying.

[carolinej]

Dont panic, just run the hoe over it and get rid of the seedlings before they get too big.

Every year, I miss some, and have had a few tomato plants for free from my compost ;D

cj :)

[Pickle]

 Hi Baaaaaaaa.
    my solution for small amounts is to zap in an old microwave I bought at a bootsale,
 I.ve found this will serialize the compost and see off all but a few hardy weed seeds that  germinate and I pull these by hand. :-\ I riddle first to remove any stones then zap on high for between 3 and 5 mins if its damp a little longer& to 8 mins if its wet ,I use an  3 pint old microwave dish and can do 4 or 5 black builders buckets in an hour. :D
 
As i say its a bit slow but I find it works ok, Pickle  ;D

[ThomsonAS]

Given that you're going to get windblow seeds anyway, I'd echo the suggestion that you simply hoe or pull! 

I'm intrigued at microwaving soil - but it doesn't strike me as terribly energy efficient - and anyway, I like the naturalness of gardening - too much technology and it becomes a chemistry experiment.  And I was never any good at chemistry!

[laurieuk]

Microwaving soil is likely to ruin the soil by killing the bacteria that you need to break down feed for the plants,also any good insects that are in the soil.Weeds with ripened seed should not be put on the compost heap then the problem does not arise.

[Baaaaaaaa]

...  zap in an old microwave

I quite like that idea, but am worried on what effect it has on the compost, but ... I guess this is no different to what you buy.

I don't use the home made for potting, just for soil improving on the flower beds. but I see little point in introducing LOADS more weeds when I struggle to keep up with what grows naturally.

Hoeing is not practical at the moment, the soil is still too wet, it just moves the things around to root elsewhere.

I too like the naturalness of gardening, but thousands of weeds, kind of, spoil the effect of all those expensive plants.

Weeds with ripened seed should not be put on the compost heap then the problem does not arise.

Nice in theory, but I don't really see how this is practical, unless I just put everything out for the landfill collection, which I dont want to do.


So, I'm still looking at being on hands and knees in the rain, snow, wind and frost over the next week. I'm beginning to think this homemade compost game is not all its cracked up to be.

[MrsKP]

having spread the contents of my first ever two homemade compost bins of dark crumbly stuff over a couple of my raised beds, i was horrified that within days, i had a full carpet of green seedlings of the unknown variety.

I'd spent plenty of backbreaking hours riddling everything until i got a lovely fine growing medium and was more than a little disheartened.

Luckily, I'd not yet sown anything I actually wanted to grow, so I just kept handing weeding until the germination rate slowed down enough for me to identify where an intended seed had been sown.

No-one ever said it would be easy !

 8)

[Robert_Brenchley]

When i made my own compost, I used to bake it in the oven to sterilise it. It worked fine as compost, but that's the only context in which I'd do it. I'd still roll my own if it wasn't for the smell; my family would raise Cain.