What you can and cannot compost

Terra Preta [black earth], found in the Amazon basin, is essentially compost with large quantities of charcoal. It creates very productive topsoil that is difficult to wear out. I’d like to attempt duplicating it; any recommendations?

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I heard some NPR story or something about that, I think. I was not familiar with the concept at all until very recently, and I don’t know much about it.

I don’t know how to produce it, but I found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

Oh, and I found the NPR story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92455289

Good luck!

Just want to check on using lake weeds in our compost pile! we live on Lake St. Clair and have lots of weeds growing up from the bottom of the lake. Can these be harvested and put into our compost pile? I know they are a good source of nitrogen. ALSO, we have a large community garden where we live…does the seaweed have to be composted before it is put in the beds? (Probably a dumb question, but thought I’d ask anyway!) Our veggie garden soil is low in nitrogen and phosphorus, which we can most likely amend next spring with organic fertilizers. Meanwhile, though, we do need to get those nutrients into the soil to help the poor plants which are struggling to survive! Ph yeah, and a coffee roaster friend of ours gave us a lot of coffee hulls, can they go directly into the soil? Any advice will be most appreciated!!!

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Yes, you can compost those lake weeds. You should definitely compost them before adding them to your beds. Or at the very least, bury them at the beginning of the winter, so that they have all winter to decompose before you plant in the spring.

It seems that you can use coffee hulls as a soil amendment. It wouldn’t hurt to add some to your compost, too.

http://www.oisat.org/crops/economic_crops/coffee.html

“Return coffee pulps and hulls as organic fertilizer in coffee fields. These are rich in nutrients. A 60 kg bag of coffee pulps/hulls contains: 1 kg N; 0.60 kg P; .09 kg K and other trace elements. The pulp resulting from processing contains: 1 kg N; 0.84 kg P; 2.25 kg K and trace elements (Coffee Research Institute, 2001). “

If you compost bread, what about the old bread on top of the fridge that has got moldy? Would this ruin the compost?

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It’s perfectly fine to add moldy bread to your compost pile. It won’t hurt anything.

We’ve started composting recently and despite not adding any meat or dairy products, we have tons of maggots. It seems like they’re just eating everything and leaving very little but themselves behind. What to do?

Thanks!

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It’s normal for bugs and larvae to get into the compost. It’s not a big deal, and they aren’t hurting anything. They are helping the materials break down. Kitchen scraps often attract bugs more than yard waste, so I’m guessing you might be adding a lot of vegetable and fruit scraps and things like that.

Burying that stuff under more carbon rich materials like leaves will keep a lot of bugs from flying into the bin and finding the stuff, so that might help if you really don’t want to see any larvae.

Great tips! Can diatomaceous earth be used to control insects in a compost pile? We currently use it in the hen house to diminish odor and flies. We also sprinkle a little around trees and plants but not sure how it might affect compost materials.

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My understanding is that diatomaceous earth doesn’t work very well when it is damp. And compost should be about the dampness of a wrung out sponge. So I’m not sure if it would be very effective.

I don’t think it would hurt anything to try it though.

Thank you for your response. Do you think its ok to use it to cover my plants for the winter. It all has been shredded with a chipper.

Thank you for your reply

what about onions?????

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Yes, onions are fine. Onions are covered under the category of “fruit and vegetable scraps.”

Can you compose in the winter? If so how do you turn it when it freezes? Thank you Cheryl

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We have a page about composting in winter here!

http://compostinstructions.com/composting-year-round

My husband and I are renting our first home and I’m excited to start composting as about 70% of our weekly garbage is compostable. It appears as if the family who lived in the house before us set up a wire composting bin directly behind the children’s swingset in the back yard. I was wondering if that was in any way dangerous in terms of toxic fumes, children eating the dirt, etc.

I saw peanut hulls on your chart but it doesnt specify weather its carbon or nitrogen? please let me know.
Thanks

I am currently composting using a rolling drum in my backyard. It was 50% full of kitchen waste. I dethatched my lawn and put all of the dry dead grass and moss in the bin. I just read that it isn’t ok to compost yard waste treated with weed-b-gone. I used Scotts fertilizer with moss control and now I’m worried that the whole bin of compost is toast. Any insight?

I am tired of wrapping organic matter from the kitchen in plastic and sending it to the landfill. Can I just sprinkle my peels and celery tops etc around my acreage. Will it attract animals? I really don’t want another thing to maintain around here so a compost bin doesn’t appeal to me. Thanks

I have a few questions. I am a very beginner to composting, and I saw this online: http://dinnergarden.blogspot.com/2009/05/dinner-garden-learns-to-compost.html
I wondered if something like this bin thing would work? I have a very small garden, so we decided to try this bin thing.
We set up this bin thing like they said on their website, but I see from your information that I should probably drill some holes in the bottom, too, for drainage. Also, we put in a lot of dandelions and some thistles, with some leaves and some soil to get it going. What else should I use? How often should I turn something like this? We have a pet house rabbit (herbivore of course), and I see I can use his litter as well. Oh, and I see you have weeds in the “ok to compost” and in the “May be composted but with skill” section. Since we are definitely not skilled at this, is using the dandelions and thistles a problem?

I’ve read that eggshells are great for composting, but what about the whole egg?

Please read this article on the use of eucalyptus in composting: http://slosson.ucdavis.edu/documents/1993-19942140.pdf

More on the benefits of Eucalyptus in composting for plants and vegetables… A California research project on Eucalyptus leaves in compost:

http://ucanr.org/repository/CAO/landingpage.cfm?article=ca.v047n03p22&fulltext=yes

The finding that both sludge products similarly affect crop growth indicates Eucalyptus trimmings (present in the compost, but not in the heat-dried sludge) do not suppress crop growth at the rates being evaluated in this study. This is an important point because it was initially feared that allelopathic compounds in the Eucalyptus would inhibit crop growth. The authors hypothesize that the composting process degrades the allelopathic compounds into harmless products.

In summary, the field experiment showed that incorporating sewage sludge compost 4 inches deep as a soil amendment in spring plantings significantly increased yields of onion, snapdragon, turf and spinach. Greenhouse experiments produced similar results and demonstrated that the presence of Eucalyptus trimmings in compost does not depress yields.

Oh, I put a wire cage around it and on top of it to keep out Cats in the neighborhood… So, my Container is technically “open” and moist…there is a Water Source nearby…

When the composting process is finished and you have your product compost, do you have to use it right away or can you store it until you are ready to use it for your garden?

I like to go to Starbucks and get the spent coffee grounds to add to my compost. It seems to really heat up after I add a fresh batch…