What did you compost today?

[karstopography]

I compost any leave, stems etc from cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and any other brassicas resulting from kitchen prep. Any plants pulled from the garden mainly go back to Mt. Brushmore. That's the "everything" pile at the edge of the woods; tree branches, old plants, weeds etc. By the time I'm pulling garden plants those plants are most likely harboring some kind of funk at the end of their run in life so they don't get composted. I don't have a chipper shredder so large stuff (corn stalks) would take forever to compost and there's no front end loader to turn a big pile. No time to sit and chop up corn stalks or cobs. Did that one year and quit after about an hour and many stalks to go!

The only sanitation I do other than washing out tomato buckets is on the tools I use in the garden. That's because it is recommended to reduce the spread of nematodes that are in my garden soil. When I'm finished with one bed, the hoe or shovel will get rinsed with water and sprayed with a 10% bleach solution before being used in another bed.

As a side note, it seems that there's recently been a few stories in the literature about finding that there is something produced by brassica roots that seems to deter nematodes. I have been rotating my brassicas through beds where the 'tode problem has increased and it seems that subsequent plantings haven't been bothered by 'todes as much, at least through one season.

I can’t prove brassicas help mitigate root knot nematodes, but the evidence in my garden strongly suggests that is the truth. I have also read mulching in place mustard and brassicas leaves help battle some of the other soil borne diseases.

All I know is that since I started growing brassicas and mustards in the cool season, my tomatoes, peppers and other nightshades have been healthier. Anthracnose used to be present in my garden, but I have not seen any sign of it in three years.

Plans are to continue to grow, compost and mulch in brassicas and mustard family crops as they have improved the overall health of subsequent crops grown in the same spots.

[karstopography]

https://www.sare.org/publications/manag ... -mustards/

Link offers supporting evidence brassicas and mustards residues battle fungal diseases and RKN.

[karstopography]

https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/6 ... ce_07f.pdf

Might be some of the same information as the previous link, but this one seems to have more details.

[GoDawgs]

@karstopography, thanks for those links. It's been a while since I looked to see if there was any more out there.

[Seven Bends]

All I know is that since I started growing brassicas and mustards in the cool season, my tomatoes, peppers and other nightshades have been healthier. Anthracnose used to be present in my garden, but I have not seen any sign of it in three years.

Great to know; thanks for posting this. Maybe I'll grow some extra cabbage and broccoli this fall/winter to see if it helps with the anthracnose here.

[slugworth]

Sidewalk edging from various houses in the neighborhood.
May contain weed killer and other contraindicated chemicals for usual garden use.
I dumped it on a spot with weeds away from the garden to take advantage of any residue.
Also contained cling-on dirt as a bonus.
Starting to get offers of clean grass clippings from neighbors that would normally have to take it to the dump.
No fertilizer or weed killer, so they say.

[JRinPA]

Yeah I'd take the grass clippings as long as you are there to use them, not a pile up on the driveway when you are on vacation. If there is one thing that makes compost stink, it is pure green and wet that gets hot but then fails from composting correctly without the brown. Grass piles at the township dump, yack!

[karstopography]

Watermelon rinds, some cherry tomatoes that got overripe, a few runt tomatoes that weren’t very good looking. Stems scars, cores and trimmings from good tomatoes, cucumber skins and end pieces, some pepper tops, stems and peppers that were nibbled on by wildlife.

Whatever is at work in my geobin compost pile is now faster than I have material going in. I had the pile overflowing the top with packed down tomato leaves and stems, used up potato plants, onion and garlic tops, old bolting radishes, wormy kale, plus more and now the level is about 1/2 to 2/3 to the top. The level shunk down seemingly almost overnight.

I haven’t stirred the pile in a long time, but there’s something hungry in that pile eating and shrinking down all that material going in. I’m almost too scared to stir the pile with the fear I might unleash a carnivorous compost monster.

[slugworth]

Yeah I'd take the grass clippings as long as you are there to use them, not a pile up on the driveway when you are on vacation. If there is one thing that makes compost stink, it is pure green and wet that gets hot but then fails from composting correctly without the brown. Grass piles at the township dump, yack!

they were talking about seaweed removal every week and how the people they hired take it to the dump.
somebody once said you can compost that, but the neighbors would really give me the finger.

[Nanooknorth]

Late to the game, but I just put together my compost bin. In went grass clippings and all the peels, tea leaves, radish tops, pea pods saved from the week. Don’t plan on putting in any leaves or stems from tomato plants. Coffee grounds go in the woodland garden and egg shells in the container garden. Going to get some innoculant to get the process underway tomorrow.

[JRinPA]

Not sure about he innoculant you mean, but I would just use some of nice black dirt from the woods. Some loamy black leaf mold.

Boy I must be slipping, no actual composting today. Picked a lot of weeds and put them in the green pile but not in the actual, literal, compost pile. I guess I took Sunday off.

[Nanooknorth]

Compost maker in a box. Just to get it started.

[karstopography]

Wormy Kellogg’s Breakfast tomatoes. Tight clusters of tomatoes buried in thick foliage equals fruitworms.

[GoDawgs]

Just the usual kitchen peelings, coffee grinds and egg shells. Plus corn husks from shucking four ears for lunch.

[JRinPA]

One thing I never compost. Mint.

So the mint is cut, any top seeds cut off, and no roots attached. Put in a jar for mint tea. Just fill the jar with mint then water and set it in the sun. I make one pitcher, refill with water, and make a second pitcher. Then I toss the mint stems and leaves in the trash.

Should I be composting that mint? I don't want mint popping up everywhere. And I can't guarantee hot compost.

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[JRinPA]

I guess the best I can do is use the mint for mulch in the same place it came from. I don't trust spreading it around.

I chopped up some pea vine the other day, used a bait shears, went well, still have my fingers, but started to feel the rub through my glove after a while. I pulled the skin off that night and it was really sensitive to heat and touch. Three (or five? losing track) days or so later, healing, but keeps getting banged open. And dirty of course.

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Using a scissors and getting blisters was why I tried that machete cutter a few years back. That worked well for a while until -

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Can't win when it comes to pea vine, even the stuff I let out to dry got soaked the other day. I only had 2-3/4" in my backyard gauge, but down the road there were a few 6" and by the comm garden it was 4" something. I forgot to check the actual comm garden gauge. But I'm glad my compost is covered - that much water will cool down a hot pile. My backyard pile is still cooking at 145F, just scissored up greens and kitchen waste layered with chipped, stored arbor vitae chips in an earth machine.

[JRinPA]

I have found the solution for the scissor blisters...

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[JRinPA]

I turned over the backyard pile today.

I have a 3 bin setup from pallets, but it doesn't get great sun over the winter. It was not covered over the winter. With the recent rains, it was very heavy to turn, almost compacted in places. Full of worms throughout, but no BSF larvae. (I took a bunch them in the basement for winter to inoculate the pile in May.)

I need to start taking notes, but basically it was the second half of last year's kitchen compost home garden compost, with just some few carp in the initial pile setup. I set the earth machine on top of that pile and it gets hot if I do it right with layering. Then I lift it up, rake the pile flat, reset the composter on top and start filling. But it doesn't do much over winter, just gets filled.

So today I lifted that earth machine off, forked off the uncomposted latest additions into a wheelbarrow, and turned that 1st mix pile over into the 2nd mix pile. I layered in some dried grass saved from de-thatching, to keep some air in there and hopefully help it along this spring. I put a pvc air tube in initially and built the pile around it so it should breathe again. And finally covered the pile with cardboard to try to keep water off. I think it will pretty good by late May. It is a little heavy with wood chips, and I think that accounts for the denseness. I was using them as brown. If it is not ready for this summer I'll let it sit the whole year.

I have taken the citrus peels out of the compost rotation. I have read it both ways, but have to admit I can recall plenty of times when orange peels seem to take a long time to break down in there.

[GoDawgs]

We have a four bin composting area made with pallets. I filled one and then started a second pile. On Sunday I turned them both. Stuff from #2 get's pitched into #3 and the big pile in #1 moves to #2. The next time the process will be reversed. Both piles now have a lot of red wigglers in them.

24.01.17 Fourth compost bin added.JPG

There's a 5 gallon bucket with a gamma lid on the front porch where I can dump the contents of a full kitchen scrap container. When the 5 gallon bucket is full it goes down to the bins. Both piles get turned and I spread the bucket stuff on the top of the newer pile. That gets topped with some old used potting soil and a layer of leaves. The process seems to be working although since the set up is in the shade nothing's heating up much yet.

[karstopography]

I’ve got two geobins, one that gets greens and browns, and the other mainly leaves. The green and brown one is overflowing with brassicas and chicories. However, Leaf season is also upon us. For those that don’t live in live oak country, live oaks lose all their leaves at the end of February into the first half of March almost simultaneously as the new spring leaves are busting out.

Those last year’s live oak leaves are the mulch I use for my beds. We will rake them up soon and fill the beds. Some pine and cypress needles get raked up also. Surprisingly, very little if any weed seeds get raked up.

I compost a lot of the brassicas and mustards in place in the garden. Throw a little soil on them and they magically disappear in a week or two. Pretty amazing how fast it happens.