The Official, "Will It Compost" thread...

[cynthia_h]

Mango pits break down. Along the way, though, compost worms *love* using them for little hide-outs.

Certain persistent and invasive plants, e.g., English ivy, poison oak/ivy, and blackberries, are nothing but trouble in most people's compost piles.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[RamonaGS]

I was warned about the ivy already, and the other plants you mentioned I don't have around. But thanks on the heads up, I'll have to keep those in mind if I do end up with those around.

What about blueberry clippings? I did plant a blueberry bush...do they have a tough time breaking down?

[applestar]

...I would try to root blueberry clippings...
(though so far, I'm ground layering the longer lower branches)

[rainbowgardener]

I'm just tossing the ivy out in the city "green waste" containers. They can deal with my zombie plants, LOL!

I am curious about if anyone knows if mango pits break down? Do they need to be chopped up and broken up like avocado pits?

OK now I'm curious. How do you chop up avocado pits? They are another thing I regretfully throw away. They seem so full of life, I hate to do it. But I don't need an avocado forest full of trees that may not produce anything in my lifetime and have to be dragged in every winter. And unchopped they don't break down anytime soon. It never occurred to me that you could chop them up.

Incidentally, I throw away the avocado shells too, which also don't break down in compost pile. Has anyone tried putting avocado shells in with the drowned weeds? I was wondering if they would compost if they were soaked for awhile first?

[cynthia_h]

I just split my avocado pits in half along the natural dividing line. If I don't do it, they seem to do it themselves in the compost bin. No big deal.

Cynthia

[RamonaGS]

I break up avocado peel and toss it in my compost for extra aeration. Cynthia, I was told to break up/chop up avocado pits or they could grow. Avocado trees are so temperamental I just would rather not even try to deal with them yet. They grow well in our area, but fruiting is another matter. People will live no more than a few blocks apart, treat their avocado trees exactly the same way, with fertilizer, companion trees, watering, and climate, but one person's trees give an insane amount of fruit, and the other person's tree is beautiful, but gives nothing. My grandma had 3 trees for 15 yrs, never fruited, and when she gave them to someone who lives on the opposite side of the same town only 3 miles away, the things are now fruiting like fiends. I'll probably try my hand someday, but phooey! Not until I am ready, LOL!

[toxcrusadr]

If you have an old stump near the compost bin, and a garden machete (or a hammer, in the case of avocado pits), it will make short work of em.