Poisonous plants in the Compost

[john gault]

Anyone every throw posinous plants (such as poison ivy...) in the compost? I would, but don't have any around here. It would be very interesting to throw it into a worm pile and see what the worms do with it.

Just be curious if it would create a "dead zone" for a while until the toxin(s) breakdown.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't put poison ivy in the compost, because it's toxin is a skin irritant oil, which doesn't break down very easily and can get spread through your compost, so that you would break out from touching your compost. I don't put poison hemlock in the compost for similar reason; it's toxin can be absorbed through the skin.

I do put some things in the pile that are rated as toxic to ingest.. there are many, many plants that are listed like that, usually fairly mildly toxic to humans and large creatures. Those toxins are usually safely broken down in the compost. Do they create a "dead zone"? Not that I know of, but if such a phenomenon were at the micro level and transient, I wouldn't know about it. In the long run, they don't effect the compost at the level of ordinary observation.

Haven't tried this with worm bin; don't know how much toxicity the worms could withstand...

[cynthia_h]

Similar response here: I don't compost the uncompostable or hostile plants. No redwood *sigh; I have a HUGE redwood tree occupying what would otherwise be a modest back yard* no kikuyu grass no burr- or spine-producing weeds

If I had poison oak in my yard, I would not compost it. It's a contact toxin.

However, I do have a few rhubarb plants. The leaves are toxic to eat, but they do just fine in the compost bin. The compost critters seem to eat it down just fine.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Vorguen]

why not spine or spine producing weeds?

[soil]

poison ivy/oak is only toxic to you the human. its not going to create a dead zone, its going to decompose just as any other material would.

[john gault]

I understand that different organisms have different enzymes so what may be toxic to one animal/insect is a food source of another. What got me thinking about this is because I've read more than once that these items should not be put in the compost. However, I'm willing to agree with you. Maybe it will deter some things like worms, pillbugs...but something in there will make use of it or neutralize it. After all it does decompose in nature.

Maybe a good topic for the "favorite Myth" thread

[DoubleDogFarm]

I put a flat of 18 tomato plants in the shallows of my duck pond. I thought bottom watering from nutrient water would be good. I came back, what tomatoes, the ducks ate them down to the pots. Nightshade yum!

Eric

[soil]

our gophers will pull entire 3 ft tomato plants into their tunnels. they love tomato greens.

[cynthia_h]

poison ivy/oak is only toxic to you the human. its not going to create a dead zone, its going to decompose just as any other material would.

And it is I, the human, who will add other ingredients to the compost before said poison ivy/oak is decomposed; who will turn the mass of compost ingredients, perhaps contacting something which contacted the poison ivy/oak before it was decomposed, etc.

In March 2000, I had systemic poison oak *before* we diagnosed what it was. My doctor thought I perhaps had systemic yeast, since there was no KNOWN exposure to poison oak. We finally figured out the only possible pathway:

1) Myles, my then only dog, went to doggy day care once a week, on Wednesdays.
2) At doggy day care, he must have brushed against dogs who walk on the trails in the parks in the hills around here. Said trails are just bursting with poison oak at all times of the year.
3) Myles sacked out on the couch that night for a couple of hours when he and I got home. (He was permitted on the couch; it was covered with a sheet as a kind of slipcover.) I cleaned up the kitchen and started dinner and corrected some papers (I was teaching).
4) I sat on the couch with Myles, reading or something.
5) He and I crashed out together on the couch.

I was wearing a longish dress with a square-cut neckline in front and scoop neckline in back. Guess where the outbreak occurred first?!

THAT is how allergic I am to poison oak. My dog touched another dog, then laid on the couch. I laid on the couch. I got a systemic case of poison oak.

Nope. It doesn't go into my compost pile. I'm not taking that chance.

Cynthia

[thanrose]

Spines and burs can just take longer to break down. So you put your hand in good dark compost with great tilth, and squeeze a spine into your palm or what ever. While they are essentially nothing but plant matter, they take a much longer time to become humus. If you toss them on a dying barbecue fire, you'll singe most of them into something less fierce.

I don't put pau d'arco AKA taheebo tea cambium shreds in my compost after I've brewed a pot. It's purportedly anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. It's such a tiny amount each time that I'm more likely to scatter it on what passes for lawn here.

[john gault]

Nature does suck

[Tomwalked]

[quote="john gault"]Nature does suck :flower:[/quote]

HAHAHAHA!!!

[toxcrusadr]

Nature is still out there, but we're doing all we can. We have top men working on it right now.

[rainbowgardener]

Nature is still out there, but we're doing all we can. We have top men working on it right now.

Indeed! In all fairness, a few women too!

[Moley]

I've gone ahead and downgraded Natures credit rating

[tomc]

I am not particularly alergic to poison ivy-oak. A splash of bleach (on my hands-arms) and I won't even get an itch. Others have noted something different.

I guess I'm positing is how the gardener reacts that dictates what they will or won't do with-around poison ivy-oak.

The microherd dines on them just fine.