rhubarb in compost?

tomf · Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:31 am

I have a bunch of rhubarb leaves to compost, as they are poisonous will they hurt the compost?

rainbowgardener · Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:33 pm

Not a problem. Rhubarb does contain oxalic acid which is slightly toxic. In the compost pile the oxalic acid rapidly breaks down and is Ph neutralized .

In this reference https://www.rhubarbinfo.com/rhubarb-growing.html it says

Compost piles which were nearly all rhubarb leaves and stalks have decomposed very nicely and the compost has behaved like ordinary compost and no inhibition of plant growth was noticed from the compost.

cynthia_h · Sat Oct 10, 2009 2:32 pm

I put spent rhubarb leaves into my compost and haven't noticed any ill effects, either on my compost critters or on my plants.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

opabinia51 · Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:51 pm

I concur, Rhubarb is totally fine in the compost. I've been doing it for years. The Oxalic acid doesn't seem to harm plants.

tomf · Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:32 am

Thank you for the infomation.

Nice link RainbowG.