subject: Ill-suited Items for Composting [print this page] Ill-suited Items for Composting Ill-suited Items for Composting
Composting can be free of problems providing we follow a few easy rules. Composting is actually a breaking down of left-over plant remnants and other materials that were once living. This breaking down process makes a dark, earthy material that we add to our garden soil to enhance it for growing. It is a very simple way to recycle our yard waste and our kitchen waste so that we do not continue to add to our landfills. It is very eash to learn composting.
One of the ill-suited items for composting is animal waste, even though some gardeners still use cow manure, which has been aged, in their gardens. Dog wastes and cat litter wastes contain pathogens and that is what we do not want in our compost bins. Even though our compost pile will get hot enough to cook the majority of the waste, it simply will not reach temperatures hot enough to kill the animal pathogens.
Some items will attract rodents and other unfavorable critters to the compost pile. Our breads, dairy products, and meat products are some of these items. These items do not have problems composting but placing them in open compost piles will bring these critters. If you have a compost tumbler that is completely closed it will probably have the ability of composting dairy products and meat products without attracting flies, rodents, bears, or other unwanted critters.
If your neighborhood has had problems with plants that have been invasive and you decide to compost them they could survive in the compost pile and start an invasion all over again. If you compost clippings from plants that have a disease it could very possibly spread that disease unless the plant is already dead and then composting should be fine. Some plants such as morning glory, ivy, sheep sorrel and several types of grasses can end up re-sprouting in the compost pile from the roots and stems. If these weeds are already dead or completely dried out you should not have any problems of re-sprouting in the compost. If the weeds have already gone to seed and your compost pile does not reach a hot enough temperature to kill the seeds you will end up with new weeds in the garden for next year.
You also want to be very aware of toxic materials; whatever goes into the compost pile will produce new soil. You do not want any of those toxins going into your vegetable garden or fruit garden. Those materials that you need to avoid are treated wood, and plants that have been heavily treated with pesticides. We really do not want to be composting any of these products.
Worms are wonderful to have in a compost pile but there are items that they will have problems composting. They will have problems with egg shells unless you crush them before hand. The oils in citrus worms find offensive and they probably will not eat onions at all. The citrus will probably break down on its own in the compost pile and the onions will most likely sprout and become new plants for the garden.
The sawdust from chemically-treated wood is an ill-suited item for composting and pressure-treated wood will have a greenish tint which means it contains arsenic along with chromium and copper. If you have any raised beds or if the compost bin is constructed of these woods it is a possibility that arsenic could leach into the soil. You also want to avoid composting any wood products that have been treated with creosote.
These as just a few of the ill-suited items to use in a compost bin. You just need to follow some of the guidelines to achieve success in composting. The soil that is created by this method is great for any vegetable garden, fruit garden or orchard, or in a flower garden.
