Dixana's method would be faster, but I agree in the long term (if you are turning regularly) it's unnecessary...
HG
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Okay - will try it out and see! 
(I had another one but I keep forgetting what it is!!).
In the mean time: what about raw bones?
(COW bones - I don't want to start anything illegal here...
).
Like the little bits that are too small for my dogs to eat any more - just out of curiosity, I'm sure they'd take forever but does anyone know if they would eventually degrade in a home composter? (2-3 years?)
(I had another one but I keep forgetting what it is!!).
In the mean time: what about raw bones?
(COW bones - I don't want to start anything illegal here...
).Like the little bits that are too small for my dogs to eat any more - just out of curiosity, I'm sure they'd take forever but does anyone know if they would eventually degrade in a home composter? (2-3 years?)
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Bones are one of those places where I think anaerobic digestion speeds bone decomposition. Sepp Holzer has some anaerobic bone recipe for an evil smelling paste he wipes one time on tree trunks to keep pigs from rooting around trees... Bone meal is not a process I want to take on myself just yet...
HG
HG
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
I know there may be a seperate thread on Sun Chip bags, but searched long enough. 
After 90 days, I can say that it is another hyped up go-green marketing tool with negligeable results. The bag is NOT decomposted while everything else is to include whole banana peels, watermelon rinds (4-8 inch), and apple cores.
The coloring has faded and there are some tears, but there is no way this thing is composting in a landfill. My pile was turned about every ten days and was cooking quite well.
Bummer.
After 90 days, I can say that it is another hyped up go-green marketing tool with negligeable results. The bag is NOT decomposted while everything else is to include whole banana peels, watermelon rinds (4-8 inch), and apple cores.
The coloring has faded and there are some tears, but there is no way this thing is composting in a landfill. My pile was turned about every ten days and was cooking quite well.
Bummer.
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
I put a lot of stuff nto my compost piles that I know I will be seeing for years. I really don't mind as I am still benefiting and I like a pretty rough product anyway. My soil cries out for some "partially" finished compost.
Clam shells, mussel shells, Lobster bodies, fish skins and racks, deer bones, broken teracotta, plant labels, rusty old bent nails and unidentified pieces of iron. I just flip anything that needs a few more years
over my shoulder and into a new pile.
The stuff I dig up in the gardens each year is funny. I keep finding old fish tank marbles from when I dumped a tank in the heap 15 years ago. I find toy soldiers, matchbox cars and such. I'm like an archeologist.
As long as it's not toxic throw it in. It might be with you for awhile but so what.
Clam shells, mussel shells, Lobster bodies, fish skins and racks, deer bones, broken teracotta, plant labels, rusty old bent nails and unidentified pieces of iron. I just flip anything that needs a few more years
over my shoulder and into a new pile.The stuff I dig up in the gardens each year is funny. I keep finding old fish tank marbles from when I dumped a tank in the heap 15 years ago. I find toy soldiers, matchbox cars and such. I'm like an archeologist.
As long as it's not toxic throw it in. It might be with you for awhile but so what.
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I don't understand the point of nails, iron, terracotta in the compost pile. I thought the point of a compost pile is that it is ORGANIC materials. ... OK so you accept that they won't break down (which was the point of this thread, will it compost, I.e. break down). But it doesn't seem to add anything...
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30540
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
Ah, but *I*'ve been adding bits of broken terra-cotta in my compost pile. I used to have a spot where I put broken terra-cotta pots and saucers not far from the compost piles, then one day I looked at them and said, you know, the little pieces will serve no other function so I might as well put them in the compost to soak up the good stuff and add drainage. I still have larger pot halves and whatnot that I haven't decided if I should pulverize with a sledgehammer, but I'm tending towards that conclusion.
I've put nails in with potted plants to add "iron" when I get a yellowing of the leaves that just "might" be an iron deficiency and I have without a doubt had nails rust and oxidize to a point where they can no longer be found in the heap or ground.
As far as broken pots and small rocks I just figure they will add some loft which in turn will hold a little more air which in turn will help things along.
I also figure with terracotta I am just putting it back where it came from.
The pile is the perfect place for old broken terracotta. What else are you going to do with it although it does replace rocks at the bottom of pots for drainage and I do use the broken pieces like a puzzle around delicate new planting or seedling to stop the soil from being overly disturbed when I water.
Given time everything goes back from where it came even though I might not see it get there.
.
There is a BIG pile of oyster shells in the woods next to the house and there have not been any oysters to speak of in the North River in decades and decades. I actually think without proof that they are from the native americans but wherever they came from they ARE adding calcium to the area.
Composting does not require a finite recipe like baking. Unturned naturally rotting detritus and duff recieving NO attention is still gonna be better than nothing.
As far as broken pots and small rocks I just figure they will add some loft which in turn will hold a little more air which in turn will help things along.
I also figure with terracotta I am just putting it back where it came from.
The pile is the perfect place for old broken terracotta.
What else are you going to do with it although it does replace rocks at the bottom of pots for drainage and I do use the broken pieces like a puzzle around delicate new planting or seedling to stop the soil from being overly disturbed when I water. Given time everything goes back from where it came even though I might not see it get there.
.There is a BIG pile of oyster shells in the woods next to the house and there have not been any oysters to speak of in the North River in decades and decades. I actually think without proof that they are from the native americans but wherever they came from they ARE adding calcium to the area.
Composting does not require a finite recipe like baking. Unturned naturally rotting detritus and duff recieving NO attention is still gonna be better than nothing.
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Parker.. I compost nails but they happen to be old iron ones. I just can't say that I have ever thought of adding toe nail clipping to the heap. It's not that I don't think they wouldn't compost it's just that I've never thought of it... 
I've pit composted a road kill Raccoon as a place to plant a future tree so I can't imagine they would be anything but good but still dude you have slipped off the deep end of gardening. Welcome and it's good to see you.
Maybe I will see you down on the beach gathering seaweed or shoveling guano out of a very old barn attic cause there was just SO much pigeon "activity". Of course we'll take the old mumified pigeon carcasses and feathers with us as well. A year in the pit and they will be gone too. 
It's not that I don't think they wouldn't compost it's just that I've never thought of it... I've pit composted a road kill Raccoon as a place to plant a future tree so I can't imagine they would be anything but good but still dude you have slipped off the deep end of gardening.
Welcome and it's good to see you. Maybe I will see you down on the beach gathering seaweed or shoveling guano out of a very old barn attic cause there was just SO much pigeon "activity". Of course we'll take the old mumified pigeon carcasses and feathers with us as well.
A year in the pit and they will be gone too. -
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
HG I have every confidence that our family rating will remain intact. Aside from myself I see no one drifting away from sanity.
As a side note an English Oak seedling resides over the raccoon. The interesting part is that they are somewhat common around here on the coast as their ancestor's came over as acorns mixed in with the ballast of sailing ships...
Yuh just can't get to much organic matter..
Aside from myself I see no one drifting away from sanity. As a side note an English Oak seedling resides over the raccoon. The interesting part is that they are somewhat common around here on the coast as their ancestor's came over as acorns mixed in with the ballast of sailing ships...
Yuh just can't get to much organic matter..
-
rot
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 728
- Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:15 am
- Location: Ventura County, CA, Sunset 23
..
Nail clippings and hair are fine. Hair and dog fur take longer and will clump so mix that stuff well or let it set for a while.
Got a bucket in the bathroom for all of the above plus snot rags.
Maybe it don't amount to a whole lot but the diversity of ingredients I think brings more than just the calories.
to sense
..
Nail clippings and hair are fine. Hair and dog fur take longer and will clump so mix that stuff well or let it set for a while.
Got a bucket in the bathroom for all of the above plus snot rags.
Maybe it don't amount to a whole lot but the diversity of ingredients I think brings more than just the calories.
to sense
..
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Ivy is one of the few things I just don't bother composting. I have thrown ivy trimmings in the compost pile and a year later they were still looking green and healthy. Just isn't worth the trouble to me. If you could chop or grind them up, they would compost, but I hate to try running it through my little chipper shredder, I'm worried about tangling the blades up. So I just bag them... hate ivy!
-
karenslife
- Newly Registered
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon May 20, 2013 3:07 am
Ok I'm new to this. I've been on the waiting list for an alottment for abt 8 years and got 1 last week.
It's completely overgrown with long grass & dandelions so got a lot of clearing to do.
My question is can I compost the dandelions? Been looking it up & there are a lot of differing opinions on this.
Please help?
It's completely overgrown with long grass & dandelions so got a lot of clearing to do.
My question is can I compost the dandelions? Been looking it up & there are a lot of differing opinions on this.
Please help?
-
toxcrusadr
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 970
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 4:50 pm
- Location: MO
If they are blooming or full of seeds, you are likely to get viable seeds in the compost unless you can get the pile very hot and turn it a couple times to make sure everything gets cooked at a high temp. I avoid putting dandelion seeds in for that reason. If you don't' mind pulling weeds, go right ahead. Likely the patch will have plenty of existing seeds anyway, from the sound of it.
BTW dandelion flowers will go to seed even after they are dead!
BTW dandelion flowers will go to seed even after they are dead!
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30540
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
When I don't want dandelions to come back, I put the flowers/seed heads in my "drowned weed bucket".
It's just a 5 gal bucket 1/2 filled with rain water. Add any questionable weed clippings and plunge with a tool, stick, or booted foot until all parts are submerged. Keep covered with breathable but insect barrier cover (I use a piece of burlap folded twice = 4 layers, tied on with a haystring.) Keep this next to the compost pile and add to it until full, then let it ferment for about a week to 10 days. It starts to bubble so don't fill to the top.
When everything looks "digested" and it sort of smells like fresh horse manure, use the tied on burlap to filter the contents. I dilute this and use to water/feed trees and shrubs, fruit trees, etc. Sludge left in the bucket goes in the compost pile (amazing results -- heats up quick) Burlap gets dried in the sun and the dried out "cake" is popped off and put in the compost pile.
It's just a 5 gal bucket 1/2 filled with rain water. Add any questionable weed clippings and plunge with a tool, stick, or booted foot until all parts are submerged. Keep covered with breathable but insect barrier cover (I use a piece of burlap folded twice = 4 layers, tied on with a haystring.) Keep this next to the compost pile and add to it until full, then let it ferment for about a week to 10 days. It starts to bubble so don't fill to the top.
When everything looks "digested" and it sort of smells like fresh horse manure, use the tied on burlap to filter the contents. I dilute this and use to water/feed trees and shrubs, fruit trees, etc. Sludge left in the bucket goes in the compost pile (amazing results -- heats up quick) Burlap gets dried in the sun and the dried out "cake" is popped off and put in the compost pile.
-
watermelonpunch
- Senior Member
- Posts: 207
- Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 8:04 am
- Location: Pennsylvania USA
rainbowgardener wrote:I have thrown ivy trimmings in the compost pile and a year later they were still looking green and healthy.
The reason for this happening would have to be explained to me by a biologist, a horticulturist, a physicist, and a theologian, and I would probably still be really creeped out!!
Not that I go through the compost with a fine tooth comb & tweezers or anything. ha ha. But really I've just been amazed at how quickly dead plant material just "disappears". Or at least becomes unrecognizable and much smaller in size.
If I put something in the pile, and it was still recognizable months later... I would definitely put that on the "non compostable" list!!
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30540
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I have a separate dry pile for English ivy which keeps invading from the woods behind our poroperty. They had originally move out to the woods from the next neighbor's fence line border where they planted it.
I pile them up dry and they go through the summer drought until they are completely crisp, then I can stomp on the pile to break them down and stat composting. Sometimes, if they catch a good amount of rain while still alive, they start to grow out of the pile. Tenacious.
I pile them up dry and they go through the summer drought until they are completely crisp, then I can stomp on the pile to break them down and stat composting. Sometimes, if they catch a good amount of rain while still alive, they start to grow out of the pile. Tenacious.