The Helpful Gardener
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It's official; avocado skins do not compost...

Citrus WILL compost, but adds volatile oils that can drive off worms and damage fungal side if the content gets too high. We have mandarins right now and I will compost those as the skins are smaller and lighter, but I usually shy off of the citrus mostly. Once and a while is fine, but even 10% is too much for citrus...

HG

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applestar
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I put the avocado skins in the compost simply because I put all veg/fruit remains in the compost. When avocado skin resurfaces while I'm turning the pile, I put it out in the sun to dry, then stomp on it to crumble it up. Even if it doesn't compost down, it can help to aerate/drain within the soil texture. :wink:

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True... and EVENTUALLY those lipids and phosphorus need to disengage, so it will turn into soil. Just has a half life like uranium...

HG

tylianna
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How about sod? I took off a layer of sod to plant my strawberries. About 5' x 5' square. There is still some soil attatched to some since we couldn't shake it all off. Just wondering if this would compost well?

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Sure it composts, but I bury it to the bottom and leave it for a while to be sure to kill the grass off, just turning everything on top of it. Eventually it just sort of works in...

HG

tylianna
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Ok I guess I need to start getting more organic material to help it along! Hmmm another one... What about thatch? I think I read that thatch isn't supposed to go into the compost pile, right now we are burning it, but if that is just more material for the compost.. I should use it!

Thanks for answering my questions. I feel like such a noob by asking a question on every other post here! Lol

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Burning? Carbon into the atmosphere? No, dear, it will compost just find and you can put your carbon back in the soil where it belongs...

Remember, thatch is a "green" no matter how brown it gets...

HG

GardenJester
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salted pistachio nut with shells and all. I have some that went stale, do I have to soak it to get rid of the salt? or should I just scatter it to feed the wild lifes?

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Soak em.

A little salt is okay, but not that much. Nutshells are great for trace minerals...

HG

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But peanut shells take FOREVER unless you crunch em up first. Our old pile ran pretty hot and I swear I was picking the stupid shells out and tossing them back in the pile three years later :roll:

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:lol: just screened a bunch of mine out of the compost this afternoon...

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applestar
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Maybe that's when you should decide they would make good "composted" mulch :idea:

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Nah, out of the bottom of the bin and back in the top. More carbon to keep my stuff fresh... they'll go eventually... :D

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Are coffee grinds good for adding to compost pile?

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rainbowgardener
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2nd generation wrote:Are coffee grinds good for adding to compost pile?
Yup! High nitrogen "green" for the compost pile. Throw them in filter and all.

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moldy breads and other baked goods?

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Sure, absolutely!

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Carbohydrates are EXCELLENT bacterial foods so I count them as a green, but bread heats things up fast...

HG

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I've always pulsed my bread through the food processor to break it up into crumbs.......do I not need to do this? (keep in mind I break almost everything down first from food to leaves)

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Do not need to crumble it. It will do that on it's own. I've thrown whole loaves of bread in the pile, that got moldy. They disappear quite nicely.

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Dixana's method would be faster, but I agree in the long term (if you are turning regularly) it's unnecessary...

HG

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nes
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Butcher paper?

rot
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..
Straight paper good. Anything with a moisture barrier I'd say no go.

If it isn't plastic for the moisture barrier, it's wax. I haven't tried wax and I've never heard of anyone else either.
..

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I doubt it; natural waxes (phospholipids in plants) are naturally resistant to breakdown (that's usually what they are there for). I'd say try a little, but I have my doubts... paper great, wax, not so much...

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nes
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Okay - will try it out and see! :)

(I had another one but I keep forgetting what it is!!).

In the mean time: what about raw bones?
(COW bones - I don't want to start anything illegal here... ;)).
Like the little bits that are too small for my dogs to eat any more - just out of curiosity, I'm sure they'd take forever but does anyone know if they would eventually degrade in a home composter? (2-3 years?)

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Bones are one of those places where I think anaerobic digestion speeds bone decomposition. Sepp Holzer has some anaerobic bone recipe for an evil smelling paste he wipes one time on tree trunks to keep pigs from rooting around trees... Bone meal is not a process I want to take on myself just yet...

HG

LynnDG
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I know coffee is good for composting, but what about flavored coffees? I recently spent a whole day removing the aluminum tops of k-cups and digging out the coffee and filter from each one. A lot of them were French Vanilla / Blueberry... :?: Did I just damage my compost? :shock: :(
lynn

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rainbowgardener
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Can't imagine it's a problem. The flavorings have to be edible and non-toxic or they couldn't put them in your coffee!

Dixana
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I put grounds form flavored coffees right in my garden, I know it doesn't hurt the compost ;)

LynnDG
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Thank you SO much! I just checked my main compost and it's close to ready. Just in time to rototill into the vege gardens before I plant. I'm so glad I didn't ruin that whole batch!!!
Lynn

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Can I put the nasty, caked together, moldy clumps of grass I cleaned out of the under side of the lawnmower in the compost pile?

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YES! :D

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I know there may be a seperate thread on Sun Chip bags, but searched long enough. :oops:

After 90 days, I can say that it is another hyped up go-green marketing tool with negligeable results. The bag is NOT decomposted while everything else is to include whole banana peels, watermelon rinds (4-8 inch), and apple cores.

The coloring has faded and there are some tears, but there is no way this thing is composting in a landfill. My pile was turned about every ten days and was cooking quite well.

Bummer.

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My Sunchip project is not quite as old as HWs, but I am reaching the same conclusion...

I like their chips (occasionally) but if this is hype, I'm boycotting.

And what is in that material anyway? I'm not composting it in my regular pile until I know...

HG

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nes
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This is more a should-I then at can-it:

Bugs from the pool?

It's a little blow up pool but there is a filter & there is chlorine in the pool.

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Lots of trace elements, not much protein, and the bacteria that eats chitin is a good insect check in the soil...

I say yes; the chlorine gasses off quick...

HG

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nes wrote:This is more a should-I then at can-it:

Bugs from the pool?

It's a little blow up pool but there is a filter & there is chlorine in the pool.
Maybe we can float sun chip bags in the pool and THAT may decompose them?

:lol:

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I put a lot of stuff nto my compost piles that I know I will be seeing for years. I really don't mind as I am still benefiting and I like a pretty rough product anyway. My soil cries out for some "partially" finished compost.

Clam shells, mussel shells, Lobster bodies, fish skins and racks, deer bones, broken teracotta, plant labels, rusty old bent nails and unidentified pieces of iron. I just flip anything that needs a few more years :shock: over my shoulder and into a new pile.

The stuff I dig up in the gardens each year is funny. I keep finding old fish tank marbles from when I dumped a tank in the heap 15 years ago. I find toy soldiers, matchbox cars and such. I'm like an archeologist. :)

As long as it's not toxic throw it in. It might be with you for awhile but so what. :D

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I don't understand the point of nails, iron, terracotta in the compost pile. I thought the point of a compost pile is that it is ORGANIC materials. ... OK so you accept that they won't break down (which was the point of this thread, will it compost, I.e. break down). But it doesn't seem to add anything...

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Ah, but *I*'ve been adding bits of broken terra-cotta in my compost pile. I used to have a spot where I put broken terra-cotta pots and saucers not far from the compost piles, then one day I looked at them and said, you know, the little pieces will serve no other function so I might as well put them in the compost to soak up the good stuff and add drainage. I still have larger pot halves and whatnot that I haven't decided if I should pulverize with a sledgehammer, but I'm tending towards that conclusion.



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