Once again my totally NON-expert advice is offered:

Paul Taylor wrote in message et...
I am considering putting my kitchen waste (peelings + eggshells) into a
trench where I am going to grow peas this year (garden and mange tout). I
haven't done this before so a few questions:

I wouldn't ever use eggshells. Or any animal compost that isn't
clearly safe from creating peculiar moulds etc in the compost you are
trying to make, or possibly acting as a habitat for some kind of weird
disease. And it seems unlikely you can really ever have a volume of
eggshells such that throwing them away would be much of a waste.

How successful is this method of composting - will it be nicely composted
for the crop that I put in the year after (which won't be peas as I
rotate crops).

In my experience, not very successful at all, but it could depend on
the volume of your trench. I guess unless it is a couple of feet each
way it's going to decompose a lot more slowly than in a heap, because
of not being exposed enough underground. I once tried burying some
compost material and found it again a year later. Even green manures
can take 9-12 months after they're dug in before they're actually
adding value I think.

How good is it for the peas?

Probably not that great, for the above reason.

Peas need carbonic compost, being peas, and so if something makes good
general compost you're probably better off using it in the compost
bin. I found that minced leylandii worked as a pea trench material
after it had been left for six months.

How exactly should the trench be done - I guess it would be about 12
inches deep and then say three inches of soil on top of that where I sow
the seeds?

I would think you need more than 3 inches, or their roots won't be
very developed when they're having to deal with the material... in
fact they'd come to the end of the normal soil before they were a week
old.

Can the same method be successfuly used for other veg? In particular
(because I also plan to grow these this year too), marrow, courgette,
squash and cucumber.

I don't think so, not everything's as tough as peas. I've never heard
of using half-made compost stuff with any other crop, and I think the
principle that applies is probably that plants requiring a decent
amount of nitrogen will react poorly to being deprived of it, by it
being locked up in a decomposition process.

So I would say definitely don't try with cucubits at all. They need
the richest and most well-made compost you can find. Might have a
chance with something long-lived like a brussels sprout but I don't
think so.


Warwick Dumas

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