On Sun, 3 Jun 2012 06:38:00 -0400, songbird
wrote:

consider the case where you have the innards of a squash
or melon. there are a lot of seeds in there. most of them
will sprout if not composted in a hot pile.

The 95% solution: feed such scraps to chickens, who will ravenously
consume them. out of the MANY squash seeds (from the "guts" I've fed
my chickens), I've had just four volunteers crop up this year in prior
locations of my chicken tractor. Of course, if the chickens were
still situated where they'd been fed the seeds, they'd have consumed
the sprout as it emerged, so survivors are merely a function of my own
process. I just dig 'em up with a post hole digger and transplant
them anyway...

banana peels are great, worms love 'em. same with
melon peels, no pretreatment needed for them.

Also, both are excellent sources of moisture, which the worm bin needs
(in balance).

from last fall's processing that i didn't bother to
chop and dry as a comparison test case).

taking some partially composted material and sending it through a
chipper-shreader with straw (from a straw bale) works wonders. Small
bits = more surface area, and therefore more surface for bacteria to
break them down.