Pre-Compost of Ingredients

[applestar]

Are you saying you don't put seafood shells in the compost pile?

Since crustacean shells are composed of chitin and so are insect exoskeleton, my understanding is that crustacean compost is an excellent amendment for the garden for increasing microbiology that uses chitin as food source. (think exoskeleton disease for the bugs). Not only that, but the seafood is an excellent source of variety of important plant nutrients.

Lobster of Maine/Master Gardener brand (Gardener's Gold, BumperCrop) uses composted lobster remains in their bagged compost, garden soil amendment, and organic potting soil.

I turn my compost pile every time I have seafood shells (crustacean or shellfish) and bury them in the center/bottom of the pile. Once in a rare while, some critter will burrow into the pile and dig one or two shells out, but for the most part, I have not had any problems.

[ACW]

Applestar are you talking clam ,mussel and oyster shells here .
If so ,how do you process them before composting.

[tomc]

Steamers or mussels just get tossed in bin. Little-necks or oysters get a good bashing with a hammer before being piled on.

[applestar]

I don't pre-process much at all. Seashells I just put them in whole. I don't worry about a little butter, olive oil, or salt used in cooking. Whatever bits left on the shells break down right away. If I screen the compost, they might go back in the pile several times. if I don't they go out in the garden eventually. Bivalves typically lose their hinges pretty quickly in the compost pile -- I don't think I've ever found myself putting hinged shells out in the garden.

Really old clam shells in the compost pile have had their calcium leached out and become brittle enough that they crunch when stepped on. Oyster shells are like rocks and they don't seem to break down as obviously. The teeth like opposable Lobster claws retain their shape for a long time though all the color is bleached out of them. I sometimes push these half shells and claws under tomato plants and pepper plants for a little extra calcium. Everything else gets broken down by the compost organisms and disappears.

I don't till, so hard objects like the shells and claws are not an issue for me as far as overall garden prep.

DH likes blue claw crabs, so those shells and guts go in at least once a month during the warm months -- and the extra nitrogen usually quickly heats up the compost pile -- and the rest of us like lobster so we have those remains to put in once in a while too -- usually in the cold months. Hm... Come to think of it, we're not buying fresh shrimp as often since our favorite seafood store closed down. So not as much shrimp shells of late -- maybe I should remedy that

I also buy chicken grit (crushed oyster shells) at the feed store to use a soil additive and occasionally put some in the compost pile as well.