#1   Report Post  
Old 08-08-2006, 05:13 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 11
Default Spent compost

I've only started gardening this year. I have some raised beds, 3m x 1m
each, in which I'm trying 'square foot gardening' (hampered mainly by the
slugs and local cats) and a lot of tubs and pots.

What do I do with spent compost from the pots and tubs? I've been doing a
form of crop rotation in some tubs - peas followed by carrots, for
instance - but I've got a good 100l of compost that I grew potatoes in that
I know I can't grow the next set of potatoes in, in case of disease. So what
can I do with this compost? I'll use some of it to fill up the raised beds
but I can't do that every year. Does it go in the compost bin to help out
there?

I've just realised I can shove a fair bit of it on the borders but even so,
I'll take answers!


  #2   Report Post  
Old 08-08-2006, 05:28 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 617
Default Spent compost


"Linz" wrote in message
...
I've only started gardening this year. I have some raised beds, 3m x 1m
each, in which I'm trying 'square foot gardening' (hampered mainly by the
slugs and local cats) and a lot of tubs and pots.

What do I do with spent compost from the pots and tubs? I've been doing a
form of crop rotation in some tubs - peas followed by carrots, for
instance - but I've got a good 100l of compost that I grew potatoes in
that I know I can't grow the next set of potatoes in, in case of disease.
So what can I do with this compost? I'll use some of it to fill up the
raised beds but I can't do that every year. Does it go in the compost bin
to help out there?

I've just realised I can shove a fair bit of it on the borders but even
so, I'll take answers!

A 100L of compost will easily get lost on the raised beds you mentioned.
It's fine on the compost or anywhere in the garden.


  #3   Report Post  
Old 08-08-2006, 06:03 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 38
Default Spent compost

Just note of caution with regard to reusing old compost - take care as you
empty the pots in case there are any vine weevils. Sift throught the compost
carefully.
They love to infest pots and eat plant roots. The trouble is with pots there
are no predators to munch on them unlike open soil. Keep an eye open for the
adult beetles too - kill them on sight.
They are nastly little blighters and you definitely don't want to spread
them around.
If you find any in the pots - they are around 1cm long, white with a brown
head and usually curled up into a letter C - any such compost put it into
the dustbin. Do not attempt to reuse it or it will lead to a major contagion
of the things - and no plants, no veg.
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/



  #4   Report Post  
Old 08-08-2006, 09:42 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 617
Default Spent compost


"David (in Normandy)" wrote in message
...
Just note of caution with regard to reusing old compost - take care as you
empty the pots in case there are any vine weevils. Sift throught the
compost carefully.
They love to infest pots and eat plant roots. The trouble is with pots
there are no predators to munch on them unlike open soil. Keep an eye open
for the adult beetles too - kill them on sight.
They are nastly little blighters and you definitely don't want to spread
them around.
If you find any in the pots - they are around 1cm long, white with a brown
head and usually curled up into a letter C - any such compost put it into
the dustbin. Do not attempt to reuse it or it will lead to a major
contagion of the things - and no plants, no veg.
--
David
... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/


Well it's war with me and the vine weevils. One or more has/have chewed the
leaves of a very precious banana plant that has taken ages to germinate.
Can you give me an approximate time of night when the little darlings
appear? :-)


  #5   Report Post  
Old 08-08-2006, 10:23 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 38
Default Spent compost

"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
Well it's war with me and the vine weevils. One or more has/have chewed
the leaves of a very precious banana plant that has taken ages to
germinate.
Can you give me an approximate time of night when the little darlings
appear? :-)


You have my sympathy. They are horrible things and just multiply and
decimate everything in pots.We used to keep lots of plants in pots back in
England and usually the first sign of a problem was wilting leaves, which
upon further inspection revealed a complete lack of roots. If you have one
or more adult beetles roaming around eating leaves I'd guess they are just
the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. If I were you, and the plant is
precious, I'd do an exploratory dig looking for the grubs in the soil and if
necessary lift the plant, wash all the compost off the roots and re-pot in
fresh compost, then to be on the safe side water it with some of that
wine-weevil killer. I think the adult beetle lays its eggs on the leaves or
the stem and the grubs hatch out and work their way down into the soil. At
least there is a soil-drench / pesticide nowadays that you can buy, albeit
expensive. Not so many years ago it was a case of just too bad! I once asked
an expert for advice about what to do about vineweevils - his advice was
simple but drastic - "Move House!".
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/




  #6   Report Post  
Old 08-08-2006, 11:15 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 617
Default Spent compost


"David (in Normandy)" wrote in message
...
"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
Well it's war with me and the vine weevils. One or more has/have chewed
the leaves of a very precious banana plant that has taken ages to
germinate.
Can you give me an approximate time of night when the little darlings
appear? :-)

snip

At least there is a soil-drench / pesticide nowadays that you can buy,
albeit expensive. Not so many years ago it was a case of just too bad! I
once asked an expert for advice about what to do about vineweevils - his
advice was simple but drastic - "Move House!".
--
David


Move House. The standard answer for Japanese knotweed,Giant Hogweed, Mares
tail and now Weevil.
At least a property with this lot ought to be very cheap:-)


  #7   Report Post  
Old 09-08-2006, 10:30 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 805
Default Spent compost


"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
...

"Linz" wrote in message
...
I've only started gardening this year. I have some raised beds, 3m x 1m
each, in which I'm trying 'square foot gardening' (hampered mainly by

the
slugs and local cats) and a lot of tubs and pots.

What do I do with spent compost from the pots and tubs? I've been doing

a
form of crop rotation in some tubs - peas followed by carrots, for
instance - but I've got a good 100l of compost that I grew potatoes in
that I know I can't grow the next set of potatoes in, in case of

disease.
So what can I do with this compost? I'll use some of it to fill up the
raised beds but I can't do that every year. Does it go in the compost

bin
to help out there?

I've just realised I can shove a fair bit of it on the borders but even
so, I'll take answers!

A 100L of compost will easily get lost on the raised beds you mentioned.
It's fine on the compost or anywhere in the garden.


as long as the compost contains no nasties (as discussed by others) it can
go back in to a compost pile or be mixed with fresh compost, it can be used
on a lawn if you are planting new seed, it can go under a tree or hedge as a
mulch, fill for a hole or gully, given to a neighbour who is building a
raised garden, used on clay soils to add organic matter etc etc. Some of the
nutrition may be gone from it but as a soil amendment it is still valuable.
You are only bounded by your imagination.


  #8   Report Post  
Old 10-08-2006, 02:31 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 11
Default Spent compost

Rupert (W.Yorkshire) wrote:
"Linz" wrote in message
...
I've only started gardening this year. I have some raised beds, 3m x
1m each, in which I'm trying 'square foot gardening' (hampered
mainly by the slugs and local cats) and a lot of tubs and pots.

What do I do with spent compost from the pots and tubs? I've been
doing a form of crop rotation in some tubs - peas followed by
carrots, for instance - but I've got a good 100l of compost that I
grew potatoes in that I know I can't grow the next set of potatoes
in, in case of disease. So what can I do with this compost? I'll use
some of it to fill up the raised beds but I can't do that every
year. Does it go in the compost bin to help out there?

I've just realised I can shove a fair bit of it on the borders but
even so, I'll take answers!

A 100L of compost will easily get lost on the raised beds you
mentioned. It's fine on the compost or anywhere in the garden.


Thanks to Rupert, David and George for your help! I will look carefully for
nasties then spread the compost around.


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Spent mushroom compost BarryF Lawns 0 11-10-2008 09:13 PM
Feeding spent container soil to compost worms Frank Gardening 3 29-12-2007 08:10 PM
Recycling spent compost David W.E. Roberts United Kingdom 2 20-04-2004 02:07 PM
Spent mushroom compost Bob United Kingdom 6 14-01-2004 08:02 PM
Spent mushroom compost Bob United Kingdom 0 07-01-2004 12:14 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:20 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 GardenBanter.co.uk.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Gardening"

 

Copyright © 2017