Could some kind person please explain why we do not add citrus fruit to
compost ?

Also what is the reasoning as regards the onion family ?

Most citrus fruit, if not all, bought in shops is coated with a wax
containing all sorts of preservative chemicals which make it ver slow to
break down but other than that I have heard no other reason not to compost
it.


I was under the impression that ALL fruit was coated. I certainly wash any
apple under a running tap and wipe with an 'abrasive' i.e. Terry towelling
as opposed to smooth tea towel, to ensure all additives etc are removed.
They certainly taste better as if I am correct, or is it physiological????

Mike

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 19:00:43 +0200, "Wanadoo"
wrote:

Could some kind person please explain why we do not add citrus fruit to
compost ?

Also what is the reasoning as regards the onion family ?

In my reading about wormeries lately I read that you should not put
citrus or onion in a worm bin because they are too acid for the worms.
It is necessary to keep worm bins on the alkaline side by adding lime
or calcified seaweed.
However I have always put them on my compost heaps with no adverse
effects.

Pam in Bristol

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 19:00:43 +0200, "Wanadoo"
wrote:

Could some kind person please explain why we do not add citrus fruit to
compost ?

Also what is the reasoning as regards the onion family ?

Both go on my heaps and in the wormeries, no problem.

If I had to think of a reason for avoiding onions I would guess that
it might be possible to pass on spores from some of the fungal
diseases that onions are prone to...but then follows standard advice
not to compost diseased material unless you're sure your process will
deal with it.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

In article ,
(Stephen Howard) wrote:

diseases that onions are prone to...but then follows standard advice
not to compost diseased material unless you're sure your process will
deal with it.

You might not know the disease organisms were present on bought onions.
If you imported certain onion diseases into your garden, it could take
8 years to get rid of them.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

In article , Janet Baraclough.
.. writes

We don't compost citrus fruit material because it is part of general
kitchen/household waste and except for delivered horse manure we only
compost herbage, leaves, shreddings, soils etc. which have come from our
own gardening.

I'm curious why you make that distinction, Alan. General kitchen
waste from shop-bought fruit and veg, is from stuff you ate. You've
already ingested any chemicals/preservatives which they contained.

So why don't you want to eat plants fed on compost made from
(bought-in) food which you've already eaten anyway?

Ideally in a fully organic system, one would consume only their own or
other guaranteed organic produce. That is not feasible in practice
though so we buy some foodstuffs which may contain all manner of nasties
introduced by commercial and intensive producers. Quite a high
proportion of the small quantity of kitchen waste we generate is from
our own wide range of fruit and veg. and that is composted. Anything
else is disposed of onto the island in our pond for our resident family
of moor-hens and other wild birds to have. They don't seem to mind!
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
news
In article , Janet
Baraclough.
. writes

We don't compost citrus fruit material because it is part of
general
kitchen/household waste and except for delivered horse manure we
only
compost herbage, leaves, shreddings, soils etc. which have come
from our
own gardening.

I'm curious why you make that distinction, Alan. General kitchen
waste from shop-bought fruit and veg, is from stuff you ate. You've
already ingested any chemicals/preservatives which they contained.

So why don't you want to eat plants fed on compost made from
(bought-in) food which you've already eaten anyway?

Ideally in a fully organic system, one would consume only their own
or
other guaranteed organic produce.

What a puerile and impossible fad that would be.

That is not feasible in practice
though so we buy some foodstuffs which may contain all manner of
nasties
introduced by commercial and intensive producers. Quite a high
proportion of the small quantity of kitchen waste we generate is
from
our own wide range of fruit and veg. and that is composted. Anything
else is disposed of onto the island in our pond for our resident
family
of moor-hens and other wild birds to have. They don't seem to mind!

Those birds, of course, deposit their dreadful dung all over your and
other peoples gardens and fields. What a horrible unorganic
neighbourhood you have..

Franz

Gary wrote:
On 10/24/04 3:43 PM, in article
, "Janet Baraclough.."
wrote:

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:

Janet Baraclough.. wrote:
[...]
I talked to a biologist friend who believed something like this:
I
was able to show her the composted evidence that it wasn't true.
She
said she'd got the impression from finding undecayed orange peel
on
mountains: perhaps it lasts longer when not exposed to more usual
conditions.

Very scientific of her. Was the undecayed peel datestamped? :-)

Ah, yes Janet....good for you to pick up on on that! g...almost a
vbg Gary

Yeah, yeah! She got all the p-taking she needed from me, thank you!
You've made me want to spring to her defence, now (though as the head
of a comprehensive where the parents would scare the daylights out of
me, never mind the kids, she can look after herself). Left exposed on
the surface, orange peel _does_ hang about longer than some material,
especially if treated with fungicide.

An old lady I knew way back had a pill-box made of the two halves of
an orange peel: it looked just like leather. Try that with a
banana-skin! Perhaps these bygone Italian souvenirs were the origin
of the myth.

Mike.

Janet Baraclough.. wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:


An old lady I knew way back had a pill-box made of the two halves
of
an orange peel: it looked just like leather. Try that with a
banana-skin! Perhaps these bygone Italian souvenirs were the
origin
of the myth.

Pomanders made out of whole oranges last ages too; because the
skin
is preserved (with rubbed-in alum, possibly). Maybe you could make
a
banana skin into a pomander, or something more useful, if you
really
tried.

Haud me back, as they say in Glasgow.

I wasn't going to go on about this, but actually I did try to make
one of the orange-peel boxes (I was an inquisitive boy). I smoothed
the two halves over some kind of former and put them to dry.
Shape-wise, it was a failure; but they did dry very nicely, and it
was clear that they would have lasted quite as long as pressed
flowers do in ordinary household conditions. I don't think they need
a preservative. I'd love to think of a rather cleverer urgler taking
on the project and succeeding.

Mike.

In article , Janet Baraclough.
.. writes

Yes, I can see that. Then you eat them. The bit I don't understand is
why you'll eat what you call "nasties" yourself, but think their small
remnants are too nasty for a compostheap to eat.

We have no realistic choice about eating some non-organic foodstuffs.
We do have a choice of whether to compost them. We choose not to because
it would contravene the principles we apply to gardening.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article , Janet Baraclough.
.. writes
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:


An old lady I knew way back had a pill-box made of the two halves of
an orange peel: it looked just like leather. Try that with a
banana-skin! Perhaps these bygone Italian souvenirs were the origin
of the myth.

Pomanders made out of whole oranges last ages too; because the skin is
preserved (with rubbed-in alum, possibly).

I think it's simply that the skin (and the rest of the fruit) dries out.
Certainly pomanders that I've made simply by sticking cloves into
satsumas have showed no signs of rot several years later.

Maybe you could make a banana
skin into a pomander, or something more useful, if you really tried.

You ca 'paint' on the whole banana by pressing with a sharpish object -
the bruised bit goes black and you can make quite striking designs. Of
course the whole skin goes black as the banana ripens so it's an
ephemeral effect. But quite fun if you really don't have anything else
to do with your time.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , Mike Lyle mike_lyle_uk@REMO
VETHISyahoo.co.uk writes

I wasn't going to go on about this, but actually I did try to make
one of the orange-peel boxes (I was an inquisitive boy). I smoothed
the two halves over some kind of former and put them to dry.
Shape-wise, it was a failure; but they did dry very nicely, and it
was clear that they would have lasted quite as long as pressed
flowers do in ordinary household conditions. I don't think they need
a preservative. I'd love to think of a rather cleverer urgler taking
on the project and succeeding.

I would suggest doing it the other way around - let the whole orange dry
out - certainly a satsuma will do this if pierced with cloves, so I
wonder if a hole is necessary to get the innards to dry or whether you
could just put it in a very dry atmosphere? - then cut in half and
scrape out the dried remains of the innards.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In message , Kay
writes
You ca 'paint' on the whole banana by pressing with a sharpish object -
the bruised bit goes black and you can make quite striking designs. Of
course the whole skin goes black as the banana ripens so it's an
ephemeral effect. But quite fun if you really don't have anything else
to do with your time.

And do you know how to slice a banana inside the peel (using needle and
cotton?) Magic!
Goes down a treat with the kids!

--
Klara, Gatwick basin

On 10/25/04 3:48 AM, in article , "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

Gary wrote:
On 10/24/04 3:43 PM, in article
, "Janet Baraclough.."
wrote:

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:

Janet Baraclough.. wrote:
[...]
I talked to a biologist friend who believed something like this:
I
was able to show her the composted evidence that it wasn't true.
She
said she'd got the impression from finding undecayed orange peel
on
mountains: perhaps it lasts longer when not exposed to more usual
conditions.

Very scientific of her. Was the undecayed peel datestamped? :-)

Ah, yes Janet....good for you to pick up on on that! g...almost a
vbg Gary

Yeah, yeah! She got all the p-taking she needed from me, thank you!
You've made me want to spring to her defence, now (though as the head
of a comprehensive where the parents would scare the daylights out of
me, never mind the kids, she can look after herself). Left exposed on
the surface, orange peel _does_ hang about longer than some material,
especially if treated with fungicide.

An old lady I knew way back had a pill-box made of the two halves of
an orange peel: it looked just like leather. Try that with a
banana-skin! Perhaps these bygone Italian souvenirs were the origin
of the myth.

Mike.


Mike good point! Having read your post I now remember an orange that was
left in a desk drawer and forgotten. It dried out with no sign of
deterioration. The skin was as hard as a rock. I do think that when there is
moisture around it would develop mould and breakdown as in a compost pile.
Gary

Kay wrote:
In article , Mike Lyle
mike_lyle_uk@REMO VETHISyahoo.co.uk writes

I wasn't going to go on about this, but actually I did try to make
one of the orange-peel boxes (I was an inquisitive boy). I
smoothed
the two halves over some kind of former and put them to dry.
Shape-wise, it was a failure; but they did dry very nicely, and it
was clear that they would have lasted quite as long as pressed
flowers do in ordinary household conditions. I don't think they
need
a preservative. I'd love to think of a rather cleverer urgler
taking
on the project and succeeding.

I would suggest doing it the other way around - let the whole
orange
dry out - certainly a satsuma will do this if pierced with cloves,
so
I wonder if a hole is necessary to get the innards to dry or
whether
you could just put it in a very dry atmosphere? - then cut in half
and
scrape out the dried remains of the innards.

But, shirley, it'll be difficult to get the guts out once they're
dry? And how do you get the pill-box shape once the skin is no longer
pliable? The one "Aunt 'Nes" had wasn't orange-shaped any more, but
very much pill-boxoid, with a flat bottom, straight sides, and a
slightly domed top.

Mike.