Hello, my wife and I just started a compost heap outside.
Can we add seeds to the green portion - such as avacado pits, cherry
pits, etc ?

-Thanks

On Aug 10, 7:38 pm, wrote:
Hello, my wife and I just started a compost heap outside.
Can we add seeds to the green portion - such as avacado pits, cherry
pits, etc ?

-Thanks

I do it all the time. Seeds have very high nutrition. Most will
break down along with everything else you compost. For those that
sprout, they become instantly vulnerable to the composting process.
If your heap gets sun, you'll have weed seedlings sprouting on it most
of the season anyway (my compost heap is a nursery for thistle, for
example), so toss the avacado and cherry pits--along with the
strawberry caps and the mash from raspberry and blackberry juicing.
When you apply your compost, you may find some of the very toughest
seeds intact, but I've never had a problem with rogue cherry trees in
my vegetable garden.

Hello, my wife and I just started a compost heap outside.
Can we add seeds to the green portion - such as avacado pits, cherry
pits, etc ?
-Thanks


http://www.organicleap.com/dosdonts.php

Avoid walnuts.

what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings into
the compost for this reason.

On Aug 11, 6:35 am, "YMC" wrote:
what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings into
the compost for this reason.

Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
The seeds were never been a problem (except for that top-most layer of
compost that sprouts weeds all through the growing season). Thumbing
my nose at convention, I now skip the composting step for my lawn
mower clippings: I mulch my vegetable garden with the stuff. The
downside? It smells pretty bad for a few days--particularly after a
rain. However, the clippings rot in place through the growing season,
and I keep adding as long as there's grass (and seedy weeds) to mow.
By spring, there's little evidence at all of the grass from the
previous season, but there's a quarter inch of rich compost waiting to
get turned under.

Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, a href="http://
www.smallkitchengarden.net"Your Small Kitchen Garden/a and try to
expand on it in the next week or so.

"dyogi" wrote in message
...
On Aug 11, 6:35 am, "YMC" wrote:
what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot
enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings
into
the compost for this reason.

Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
The seeds were never been a problem .............................waiting
to
get turned under.

Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, a href="http://
www.smallkitchengarden.net"Your Small Kitchen Garden/a and try to
expand on it in the next week or so.

The only reason I can think of not to put grass clippings in compost or use
as mulch is if the lawn has been dosed with weed & feed. I took all the
clippings from a neighbor who never put anything on his lawn but the
sprinkler. There were all kinds of weed heads and seeds in it that caused no
problem. The other two neighbors, whose 'golf course' lawns were regularly
gone over with spreaders full of Scott's Weed & Feed and had who-knows-what
sprayed from hose end sprayers, offered their clipping which I graciously
didn't accept.

Val

On 8/10/2008 4:38 PM, wrote:
Hello, my wife and I just started a compost heap outside.
Can we add seeds to the green portion - such as avacado pits, cherry
pits, etc ?

-Thanks

Avocado pits are fleshy and should decompose okay.

I would avoid the pits of stone fruits such as cherries, peaches, plums,
etc. While the shells will split and allow the kernels to either
decompose or sprout, the shells themselves are harder and denser than
wood and will take forever to decompose. The same is true of certain
nut shells (almond -- which is actually a stone fruit, walnut, pecan,
and others). The problem with the shells not decomposing is that they
will not go through a compost sifter and will block the sifter from
passing finer materials.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/

In article ,
"Val" wrote:

"dyogi" wrote in message
...
On Aug 11, 6:35 am, "YMC" wrote:
what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot
enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings
into
the compost for this reason.

Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
The seeds were never been a problem .............................waiting
to
get turned under.

Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, a href="http://
www.smallkitchengarden.net"Your Small Kitchen Garden/a and try to
expand on it in the next week or so.

The only reason I can think of not to put grass clippings in compost or use
as mulch is if the lawn has been dosed with weed & feed. I took all the
clippings from a neighbor who never put anything on his lawn but the
sprinkler. There were all kinds of weed heads and seeds in it that caused no
problem. The other two neighbors, whose 'golf course' lawns were regularly
gone over with spreaders full of Scott's Weed & Feed and had who-knows-what
sprayed from hose end sprayers, offered their clipping which I graciously
didn't accept.

Val

I know of no reason not to compost clippings. However fresh grass
clippings can take up nitrogen as it rots. Learned this some where.
Perhaps I am wrong.

Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

Why not? All the more the merrier. When my wife and I bought our house four years ago, the previous owners left us their compost heap. They must have composted many tomatoes as we now have tomato plants growing all round the garden. Unfortunately none of them have flowered this year, so we won't have any tomatoes of our own.

P.

On Aug 11, 8:35 pm, "YMC" wrote:
what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings into
the compost for this reason.

My compost heap is usually 50-80% grass clippings. If I didn't use
grass I'd be waiting a year just to get enough organic waste. It heats
up very quickly and if turned regularly seems to get hot enough to
kill both grass/weed seeds and kikuyu and couch runners. Of course, if
you're cold composting I'm sure you'd run into problems. If you look
at the C:N ratio of grass (see:
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFar...apa.taba1.html)
it's pretty close ideal if not a little high in nitrogen so its
technically a good candidate for hot composting on it's own. The main
problem I've come across when only using grass is its tendency to form
saturated, anaerobic clumps in the centre of the pile (another reason
not to cold compost them). Regular turning seems to reduce this.

"Val" wrote in message
...

"dyogi" wrote in message
...
On Aug 11, 6:35 am, "YMC" wrote:
what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot
enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings
into
the compost for this reason.

Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
The seeds were never been a problem .............................waiting
to
get turned under.

Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, a href="http://
www.smallkitchengarden.net"Your Small Kitchen Garden/a and try to
expand on it in the next week or so.

The only reason I can think of not to put grass clippings in compost or
use as mulch is if the lawn has been dosed with weed & feed. I took all
the clippings from a neighbor who never put anything on his lawn but the
sprinkler. There were all kinds of weed heads and seeds in it that caused
no problem.

Odd they didn't germinate. Healthy seeds from healthy grass germinate with
great vigor, especially in a rich organic garden.


The other two neighbors, whose 'golf course' lawns were regularly
gone over with spreaders full of Scott's Weed & Feed and had
who-knows-what sprayed from hose end sprayers, offered their clipping
which I graciously didn't accept.

I wouldn't accept them either.


Val

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Val" wrote:

"dyogi" wrote in message
...
On Aug 11, 6:35 am, "YMC" wrote:
what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot
enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings
into
the compost for this reason.

Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
The seeds were never been a problem
.............................waiting
to
get turned under.

Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, a href="http://
www.smallkitchengarden.net"Your Small Kitchen Garden/a and try to
expand on it in the next week or so.

The only reason I can think of not to put grass clippings in compost or
use
as mulch is if the lawn has been dosed with weed & feed. I took all the
clippings from a neighbor who never put anything on his lawn but the
sprinkler. There were all kinds of weed heads and seeds in it that caused
no
problem. The other two neighbors, whose 'golf course' lawns were
regularly
gone over with spreaders full of Scott's Weed & Feed and had
who-knows-what
sprayed from hose end sprayers, offered their clipping which I graciously
didn't accept.

Val

I know of no reason not to compost clippings. However fresh grass
clippings can take up nitrogen as it rots. Learned this some where.
Perhaps I am wrong.

It's better to compost them as hot as possible because if there are weed or
grass seed heads they'll germinate when you spread the mulch or compost made
from them. You'll be pulling weeds all summer.


Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA