Can I add bread to my compost?

[gardenjenny]

Does bread add anything good to my compost?

It's basically just kitchen scraps and egg shells (with the paper carton) and some paper scraps from my daughter's artwork. I have no access to leaves (no trees in my yard) or grass clippings (my yard is too full of weeds).

If it matters, it's homemade bread.

[GardeningCook]

Whether store-bought or homemade, I personally wouldn't add bread to compost, although some people do. It tends to attract vermin (I.e. rats, mice, ants, etc., etc.).

[toxcrusadr]

Bread is fine as far as the composting process and the product. It's high in carbon but does have some nitrogen, both of which the compost needs. It's mostly wheat, which grew on a plant so it is perfectly compostable.

I have not noticed any difference in the population of decomposers in piles of just yard trimmings, leaves and grass vs. ones that have kitchen scraps. I get a few field mice at home in my piles (they are around the area anyway). Oddly we don't get any critters at all in the bins we have at the office, which get 5-10lb of kitchen scraps per day layered with sawdust. The general rule of thumb is to avoid meat scraps and bones if you have raccoons, dogs, rats, lions, grizzly bears, etc., but I wouldn't worry about bread.

[rainbowgardener]

I agree bread is fine for compost pile. I don't see how it attracts critters any more than the scraps of fruits and veggies that go in. I always have to have my compost pile in cage or bin that is critter proof.

Re: It's basically just kitchen scraps and egg shells (with the paper carton) and some paper scraps from my daughter's artwork. I have no access to leaves (no trees in my yard) or grass clippings (my yard is too full of weeds).


Kitchen scraps, eggshells, and paper scraps is fine as long as the volume of paper scraps is at least equall to the volume of kitchen left overs, but it's kind of limited - not a big variety or quantity. Compost piles work better with more of both. I have trees, but mostly in my woodland shade garden and I let the leaves stay there. But every fall I collect bags of leaves that other people put at the curb for pick up. I usually aim for a dozen or so yard waste bags and that lasts me most of the way through the year. But in the meantime see the greens/ browns stickies for other things you could be adding. For browns, buy a bale of straw and feed it in a bit at a time, or shredded paper, toilet paper and paper towel cores, junk mail torn in pieces, pizza boxes, the paper bags the yard waste comes in, etc. For greens your weeds are fine! Just try to get them before they go to seed. Any other pulled weeds, deadheaded flowers, yard trimmings. Go to places that sell coffee and they will usually give you bags of coffee grounds.

[GardeningCook]

You know what? Personal preference rules here. If you want to add bread to your compost pile & don't see an influx of critters, all the more power to you. I'll abstain from adding it because of what I personally have seen it attract.

[imafan26]

Bread is o.k., what you really want to avoid are meat and meat by products. That will really bring in the bigger vermin like the cats and dogs. Compost piles are by nature going to attract a lot of critters. Mine attracts a ton of roaches and I thing I am doing more roast composting than worm. I have to evict them regularly.

[applestar]

It probably makes a difference how you add them, too.

Is it moldy bread? Leftover (not eaten at the table)? Dried up and too hard?

... To be honest we add every kind of bread including pizza crust. By the time they go out to the compost piles, they are buried in the compost ingredients. I'm not a "take out the compost daily" gardener -- we use a brown bag in plastic bag combo with paper egg carton or fast food beverage tray in the bottom, keep adding kitchen waste to it until it's full or begins to smell ...or the kitties start to take interest in what's in there (anything from cucumber and carrot peelings, trimmed bean ends, pizza crust, lobster claws....), -- this takes longer than a few days but is variable depending on ingredients and weather -- then put the entire paper grocery bag minus the plastic bag in the bottom of a turned, watered pile.

[BradleyBryant17]

When I was a kid, my dad used to add bread to our compost pit. Then he tells me that anything that is biodegradable was good for the compost..

[gardenjenny]

Thanks everybody! I'll try to look for some more bulk for my compost. It is a pretty wimpy little pile. I'll definitely ask friends for their bags of grass and leaves!