Adding seeds to compost ?

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Adding seeds to compost ? doughockey6 08-10-2008
Posted by on August 10, 2008, 7:38 pm
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Hello, my wife and I just started a compost heap outside.
Can we add seeds to the green portion - such as avacado pits, cherry
pits, etc ?

-Thanks

Posted by dyogi on August 10, 2008, 9:02 pm
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On Aug 10, 7:38 pm, doughock...@aol.com wrote:
> Hello, my wife and I just started a compost heap outside.
> Can we add seeds to the green portion - such as avacado pits, cherry
> pits, etc ?
>
> -Thanks

I do it all the time. Seeds have very high nutrition. Most will
break down along with everything else you compost. For those that
sprout, they become instantly vulnerable to the composting process.
If your heap gets sun, you'll have weed seedlings sprouting on it most
of the season anyway (my compost heap is a nursery for thistle, for
example), so toss the avacado and cherry pits--along with the
strawberry caps and the mash from raspberry and blackberry juicing.
When you apply your compost, you may find some of the very toughest
seeds intact, but I've never had a problem with rogue cherry trees in
my vegetable garden.

Posted by YMC on August 11, 2008, 6:35 am
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what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot enought
to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings into
the compost for this reason.



Posted by dyogi on August 11, 2008, 10:54 am
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> what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot enought
> to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings into
> the compost for this reason.

Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
The seeds were never been a problem (except for that top-most layer of
compost that sprouts weeds all through the growing season). Thumbing
my nose at convention, I now skip the composting step for my lawn
mower clippings: I mulch my vegetable garden with the stuff. The
downside? It smells pretty bad for a few days--particularly after a
rain. However, the clippings rot in place through the growing season,
and I keep adding as long as there's grass (and seedy weeds) to mow.
By spring, there's little evidence at all of the grass from the
previous season, but there's a quarter inch of rich compost waiting to
get turned under.

Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, <a href="http://
www.smallkitchengarden.net">Your Small Kitchen Garden</a> and try to
expand on it in the next week or so.

Posted by Val on August 11, 2008, 12:14 pm
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>> what about grass seeds and runners? apparently the compost isn't hot
>> enought
>> to kill them; my old gardener refuses to put the lawn mower clippings
>> into
>> the compost for this reason.
>
> Holy smokes! For years, my compost heap was 90% lawn mower clippings--
> and I usually mow when there are seed heads on the plantain, fluffy
> balls of seeds on the dandelions, and seed heads on the grass itself.
> The seeds were never been a problem .............................waiting
> to
> get turned under.
>
> Do I get more weeds than I did before I mulched with lawn clippings?
> Not at all. I'll add this topic to my blog, <a href="http://
> www.smallkitchengarden.net">Your Small Kitchen Garden</a> and try to
> expand on it in the next week or so.

The only reason I can think of not to put grass clippings in compost or use
as mulch is if the lawn has been dosed with weed & feed. I took all the
clippings from a neighbor who never put anything on his lawn but the
sprinkler. There were all kinds of weed heads and seeds in it that caused no
problem. The other two neighbors, whose 'golf course' lawns were regularly
gone over with spreaders full of Scott's Weed & Feed and had who-knows-what
sprayed from hose end sprayers, offered their clipping which I graciously
didn't accept.

Val



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