What Vegetable Don't You Compost?

[skunkywintergreen]

Is there one vegetable you don't compost? The one vegetable I don't put in my pile is avocado. The rinds take forever to break down and the pits sprout. Is there anything you don't compost as a rule?

[imafan26]

Vegetables from the kitchen, pretty much everything. I vermicompost and the worms love the avocado shells to hide in.

Vegetables from the garden I don't compost anything that was diseased or had nematodes. I also don't compost nutsedge, it will survive composting.

O.k. this is not a vegetable but it is edible. coconut husk and fronds. They can be composted but they take up to two years. It is best recycled into artwork, or coconut pots for the orchids.

[rainbowgardener]

Can't think of any vegetable I don't compost. I don't compost ivy, because it will sit in the compost pile forever and look just the same as when it went in.

Much as I hate to put plant material in the trash, I bag up ivy and send it to the landfill. It tangles the blades of my chipper shredder and doesn't even burn very well!

[pepperhead212]

I threw out some stuff today, because it would end up tangling my tiller - some very tall, thick, flower stalks from several of my brassicas. I usually don't let them go that long, but it's just been so hot, and I've been so busy, they got out of hand. I tore off the lower leaves, for composting, but tossed all of those stalks.

[HoneyBerry]

I'm careful about composting fruit because it can attract rats. I ljve in a residential neighborhood and have to be careful about compost piles, bird feeders, anything that could attract rats.

Cedar is not a vegetable, but if you ever want to compost it, please be aware that it is very slow to compost. I had some old cedar shingles that were clean and small pieces, so I considered grinding them up for compost, but then I changed my mind after some research.

[Peter1142]

Potatoes... they sprout and spread late blight and a myriad of other diseases.

[HoneyBerry]

I cut up the avocado peelings with scissors so that it doesn't look so garbage-like. I also cut up banana peelings & citrus peelings & cantaloupe rinds, etc with scissors. It might seem weird but it does improve the appearance of the compost pile.

Since we are on the subject of compost, I am attaching a picture of a volunteer pumpkin plant that is growing out the side of my compost pile. I threw some rotten Howden pumpkins on there last year. The volunteer is in a good spot.

[ElizabethB]

Most of the vegetable matter in my compost bin is peelings. Tough peelings like bananas and avocados I cut into small pieces. I do the same with fruit rinds. Since I do not tend to my compost bins as well as I should I try to avoid putting seeds, pits or potato eyes in the bins. Even with that caution I occasionally get volunteer plants in the bins. When I get volunteers I usually just pull them out, cut off the roots, chop them into smaller pieces then return them to the bin.

One year we had a volunteer watermelon. G got excited about the vine and insisted that I let it grow. It grew, and grew and grew. It finally produced 3 small melons. I harvested them when the stem dried up. They were flavorless. Not worth the space that they occupied.

My 2 cents.

[toxcrusadr]

Probably too much nitrogen for the watermelon to fruit very well, so you got nothing but plant. Or the original was a hybrid and didn't breed true. I had a cuke once that produced loads of cukes growing out of a compost pile. You just never know.

I can't think of any veggies I won't compost. If something is too long and fibrous or tough, like canna or corn stalks, day lily stems, etc., there's always the machete and the old stump to take care of that.

[Mr green]

In my bins Avocado peels and pits are no problem. The one thing I would stay away from is non organic citrus fruits!

As many others I do use knifes/scissors to make my material smaller.

[toxcrusadr]

I put banana peels in whole, never saw one come out of the compost recognizable. Same with melon rinds, I guess I chop them in half but mostly to save space in the bucket. Citrus peels: oranges usually already in pieces, grapefruit halves get cut into 2-3 pieces. Really nothing else that comes out of the kitchen needs to be cut up much. Vegetables and fruits are very degradable in general so I don't spend time chopping them.