Been on the allotment today and pulled a
few sticks of rhubarb, cut off the leaves and
threw onto the compost heap.
I have since been told that I shouldn't compost
the leaves as they are poisonous.
Other allotment holders have said that it will not
cause a problem.
Not knowing what advice to listen to, I turn to
your good selves in here.
Comments please.

Wally

Wally wrote:
Been on the allotment today and pulled a
few sticks of rhubarb, cut off the leaves and
threw onto the compost heap.
I have since been told that I shouldn't compost
the leaves as they are poisonous.
Other allotment holders have said that it will not
cause a problem.

I've been composting ours, having read (either here on a link posted here
previously) that they aer ok to compost.
(but yes, they are poisonous. Don't feed them to your pet rabbit, or put
them in a salad - as a German friend's mum apparently does!)

On 09/05/10 22:58, wrote:
(but yes, they are poisonous. Don't feed them to your pet rabbit, or put
them in a salad - as a German friend's mum apparently does!)

Oxalic acid - great stuff to remove rust stains.

--
Tim Watts

Hung parliament? Rather have a hanged parliament.

On Sun, 9 May 2010 21:57:01 +0100, "Wally"
wrote:

Been on the allotment today and pulled a
few sticks of rhubarb, cut off the leaves and
threw onto the compost heap.
I have since been told that I shouldn't compost
the leaves as they are poisonous.
Other allotment holders have said that it will not
cause a problem.
Not knowing what advice to listen to, I turn to
your good selves in here.
Comments please.

Wally

We have composted ours for years, never a problem.
Of course you should always have a good mix of ingredients in the
heap.

A large proportion of what you put on your compost heap is poisonous to people. I'm with Janet on this - rhubarb leaves make lovely compost.

Thank you all for your comments, so into
the compost it goes.

Wally

Wally wrote:
Been on the allotment today and pulled a
few sticks of rhubarb, cut off the leaves and
threw onto the compost heap.
I have since been told that I shouldn't compost
the leaves as they are poisonous.

You shouldn't eat the leaves because they contain oxalic acid which is
poisonous. But the compost heap doesn't care. Same for foxgloves and
delphiniums and lots of othe toxic plants.

Other allotment holders have said that it will not
cause a problem.
Not knowing what advice to listen to, I turn to
your good selves in here.
Comments please.

The big leaves of rhubarb are quite useful for keeping moisture in the
heap during dry spells.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Let the kiddies play with the leaves first (After explaining that the
are not edible). Use them as Rhubarb hats for a while and then into the
compost heap with them - the leaves, not the kiddies g

Always compost my rhubarb leaves. As someone said, they keep the
moisture in during dry spells.

--
Compo

Paul Simonite wrote in
:

Let the kiddies play with the leaves first (After explaining that the
are not edible). Use them as Rhubarb hats for a while and then into the
compost heap with them - the leaves, not the kiddies g

Always compost my rhubarb leaves. As someone said, they keep the
moisture in during dry spells.


A neighbour of mine composts EVERYTHING from the house and garden,
including disposable nappies, un-eaten food from the table, bird corpes
which his cat killed, cardboard, paper, as well as the rhubarb leaves.

He buries it in rotation and you should see his broad beans and potatoes.

I know someone is going to say thats the best way to get a rat infestation
but I havnt seen any and neither has my neighbour.

OK its not a compost heap but it IS composting in the most robust way.

Could I have your views please as I am thinking of doing a similar thing.

Kindest regards
PtePike

PtePike wrote:
including disposable nappies,

Someone pointed out recently that a disposable nappy is the best source of
"water retaining gel" you can get.

"PtePike" wrote in message
...
Paul Simonite wrote in
:

Let the kiddies play with the leaves first (After explaining that the
are not edible). Use them as Rhubarb hats for a while and then into the
compost heap with them - the leaves, not the kiddies g

Always compost my rhubarb leaves. As someone said, they keep the
moisture in during dry spells.


A neighbour of mine composts EVERYTHING from the house and garden,
including disposable nappies, un-eaten food from the table, bird corpes
which his cat killed, cardboard, paper, as well as the rhubarb leaves.

He buries it in rotation and you should see his broad beans and potatoes.

I know someone is going to say thats the best way to get a rat infestation
but I havnt seen any and neither has my neighbour.

Anybody who lives in the country has rats, especially if it's a small town
with elderly underground drains. We have a giant compost heap onto which we
throw everything, and yes, we all have rats hereabouts, but our cat
dispatches the ones in our garden quickly, sometimes two juveniles a day for
a week then they're gone.

The heap has been going for 30 years, we mine it from the bottom and it
produces marvellous compost.

On the allotment, all the rhubarb leaves go in to that pile along with other
vegetation. It all breaks down quite quickly and makes good compost too.

someone

I wouldn't compost nappies because of the faeces (no problem with water retaining gel and urine.

But everything else goes in. In winter, our compost heap is mainly paper and cardboard, seasoned with veg peelings (we don't have uneaten food from the table), but it all breaks down into beautiful compost, and over the years the soil in the garden has improved immensely in texture as a result. I don't bother to dig it in, just leave it on top in a 6inch layer and let the worms do the rest.

Sellotape and those little windows in envelopes don't rot down, and are easier to remove before composting. And fruit juice cartons and flour bags have plastic linings which don't rot, so are best kept off the heap.

Rats' preferred food is grain, so I don't think adding cooked food is going to increase your problems.