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jemsister
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Location: Western Washington, USA

New composter with mold, lol

I was going to start a worm composting bin. I don't have things set up yet, so I was just saving composty things for when I'm ready to go (brown paper, vegetarian food scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells...). Problem is, the pile is now moldy. Is that a bad thing? Should I throw it in the trash and start over?

tomc
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jemsister wrote:Problem is, the pile is now moldy. Is that a bad thing? Should I throw it in the trash and start over?
Something is gonna eat all this lovely garbage. I'd tuck it into the garden. or compost bin.

estorms
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Just put it in a pile in your garden. I put some grass clippings over mine so I won't have to look at egg shells or carrot peels. I don't know how much worms eat, but you probably don't have to save up in advance.

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jemsister
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So the mold won't be harmful? I'm not completely sure what you mean by put it in the garden. I thought you weren't supposed to put stuff in that hasn't decomposed yet--that it would burn your plants?

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rainbowgardener
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the mold isn't harmful. Estorms is right that the worms can only eat a little bit at a time, so you really don't need to save up for them. But it is good beginnings of a compost pile. Mix in more of the brown paper or other browns and let it sit for awhile.

estorms
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Your kitchen scraps will not hurt your plants. Manure will, as will too much fertilizer. I do not hurry my compost. This years's compost pile is next year's fertilizer.

brinboise
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estorms wrote:This years's compost pile is next year's fertilizer.
my compost pile is ready when it's ready, usually next season. When in need of compost sooner, I have a barrel type tumbler composter that gets the job done a lot quicker but not much volume :()

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jemsister
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Location: Western Washington, USA

Thanks for all the help, guys! =)



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