when composting weeds and other things on my allotment is there anything i should not put in my compost bin ?
Hello
What to compost - depends who you ask!
As a general rule, avoid meat & diary products. Some say avoid cooked food in general as it attracts vermin, but my experience is that they are just as happy with a raw, veggie diet!
With regard to weeds, I don't put in hard to shift stuff like bindweed and horsetail. Others will leave it out the dry/drown in a bucket of water then add to the bin - the choice is yours.
The more you can chop up whatever you add to the bin, the quicker it will break down.
Enjoy
Make sure the weeds don't have seeds!
In theory if your compose heap gets hot enough - so lots of air and not too wet or dry - weed seeds will be killed, though it doesn't work for me.
I throw everything on my heap, couch and bindweed included, but I make a good effort to shake all the soil off, and I usually leave it to bake in the sun for a bit before it goes on the heap.
The only thing that doesn't go on is rotten onions because that just spreads the problem.
I do have a bit of trouble with fat hen seeds remaining viabale, but they're easy to weed out by hand.
This link might help; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Compost%20heap/Compost%20heap.htm (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Compost%20heap/Compost%20heap.htm)
Talking weeds only, I wouldn't put in Couch grass, Dandlions, Marestail and Bindweed, my bins are in a Sunny area and we get more Sun than most but still don't get hot enough to kill these weeds, I also don't put in spud peelings.
;D ;D ;D
Quote from: cornykev on May 09, 2010, 20:23:37
Talking weeds only, I wouldn't put in Couch grass, Dandlions, Marestail and Bindweed, my bins are in a Sunny area and we get more Sun than most but still don't get hot enough to kill these weeds, I also don't put in spud peelings.
;D ;D ;D
Now you tell me, I've a compost bin full of baby potatoes :'(
I've built a couple of worm bins, I now feed everything to the worms. Flies/ maggots love it but the compost and liquid is far better and quicker to produce than a regular bin.
I do put my spud peelings in but there are peelings & peelings.
We use a peeler rather than a knife to peel our potatoes meaning we damage the eye (the growth source) when we peel so we have no problem with potatoes growing.
Whereas with a knife; the peeling is invariably thicker and the eye is not damaged so there is the potential for re-growth!
This is a good site from the environmental agency:
http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/index.html