Does composting destroy mourning band seed ?
We are regularly control by composting experts that hot compost destroys seeds … yet I have some pumpkin that tap to differ :
Those autumn pumpkin grow as unpaid worker from one of my compost big bucks a few years ago . Granted , it was n’t a on a regular basis turned pile , meaning that they plausibly missed the hottest part of the compost … but how many of you have wrench your compost on a regular basis and still had little tomatoes or gage pop up in it ?
My wager is ALL of you .
Here ’s an illustration of “ red-hot composting killing weed seeds ” advicefrom Aggie Horticulture :
“ The compost process also of course kills weed seeds . decently wield , a compost pile should easily reach 140 ° F , which split up down all constituent topic , admit weed seeds . ”
They recognize the difficulty , though , as the next line of descent learn :
“ The key word is properly . ”
My bet is that few gardeners reach that lofty , “ proper ” goal .
Why Our Backyard Compost Doesn’t Kill Weed Seeds
A typical backyard compost deal is n’t insulate or ferment often enough to maintain heat and rotate all the workable seeds in the compost through the hot shopping center of the pile .
Yes , the heat energy father by thermophilic bacteria in a hot compost nap is eminent enough to destroy seeds , but getting every morsel of your compostable materials hot enough to kill the seeds takes very good compost direction .
My old passel did n’t do it . It was built from reclaimed landscape log with too many gaps to get everything hot . Plus , turning it was a pain .
I ideate if you owned a cement hand truck and packed the barrel of it with a proper mix of carboniferous and nitrogenous materials , then rotated it every day or so , and perhaps insulate the interior with foam , you could get that compost to hot up up perfectly .
I ’m jest . A act .
My composting methods have gone from complicated to simpleton over the years as I ’ve realizedcreating gross compost does n’t really matter .
Nature does n’t create utterly sifted , completely rotten - down chocolate-brown humous . No , she shake off logs and leaves on the priming coat . There ’s always some finished material and some fresh material , some fungi eating at this and some dirt ball boring off at that .
But let me back up . What prompted today ’s C. W. Post ?
This Viewer Asked a Question
There was a comment that prompted today ’s great big post on weed seeds in compost . Four row that run to 1145 words :
Martha asked this head on this anaerobiotic compost tea video I posted back in the summer :
My solution was :
“ in force interrogation . I try out to avoid throwing plant life with mature source into the Camellia sinensis . They never seem to get completely kill in spicy compost piles , either , though , even though we discover all the time that “ hot compost kills weed seminal fluid ! ” It ’s plausibly true for the ones in the middle of the pile , but I ’m always nonplus unpaid worker tomatoes , straw from straw , weeds , and pumpkins popping up even from hot piles . My guess is that this tea method will rot down most of the seeds if it sits long enough but not all of them . ”
It takes a mint of faith in your compost - fu to deliberately throw in weedy materials , no matter how you ’re compost .
If you havespiny pigweedgoing to seed in your food wood , do you really cerebrate you ’ll be able to throw that in your compost bank identification number and then use the resulting compost in your springtime gardens ?
Do you need to take that risk ?
But I Compost the Right Way!
That ’s fine – I apprize the thermometer and sifter brigade .
To those about to compost , I toast you !
I am all certain that I could destruct grass seeds by hot composting if I reckon it out by rights . My interestingness , however , is more in horticulture than in the process that run up to it . Making “ pure ” attend compost is n’t as important to me as growing corn whiskey , pumpkins , attic , yams and fruit tree . I also do n’t like spending money to make perfect systems .
If you delight it , that ’s grand . I love the spirit , look and sample ( well , maybe not taste ) of finished compost . I made some decent - looking stuff myself this class and just sifted it the other Clarence Day :
I made that compost with almost no work , though . No thermometer , no turning , no measuring ratios of carbon / nitrogen to get that 25/1 admixture . No , I just discombobulate it all on the ground in one of my garden beds .
And – oh YES – LOTS of seeds came up in it ! Enough to start my young fruit tree diagram nursery .
I view this as a feature , not a bug . Sometimes I just countenance compost piles turn into garden bed since there are so many volunteer eatable coming up .
But What About Killing Weed Seeds???
Right – that ’s what you all want to know , right ? How CAN you compost those pesky underweight industrial plant ?
My favourite method acting is to keep them out of the compost piles and gardens altogether .
In my former nutrient woodland I would just chop down weeds and cast off them on the ground around my fruit tree diagram and other bush . If they ego - seed and came back , I ’d hack them down again .
Unlike delicate annual garden plant such as shekels and moolah , trees and shrubs do n’t require to be perfectly weed in monastic order to produce . I just bump down the pot again and again , and every time I did , gauge what ?
Those fall weeds rotted into humus .
Nature does this all the prison term . The winter freezes amount once a year and toast all the weeds , letting them fall down and rot into the soil , improve it . The Bible instructed the child of Israel to countenance their land go entirely fallow one year out of seven . Weeds rejuvenate the soil , as I ’ve write before .
If you need to use weeds to feed your gardens , you ’ll have much good fortune in a no - till system where you throw a big money of seedy grass on the ground , then cover them up with mulch … and then DON’T TILL !
If you till , you ’ll bring those seed up to the light and fondness and they ’ll go crazy in your eggplants . Beneath a stratum of mulch , however , they ’ll finally molder off safely .
That ’s my two cents on composting destroying weed source . Yes , it can – but most of us are n’t doing it “ the right way , ” so do n’t trust too much in the magic of compost to pile - push your pesky pigweed problem .
Personally , I favor stale composting anyhow as I think it keep more of the good stuff in the agglomerate instead of steam clean away into the air . Nature almost always cold composts , and while that summons takes longer I suppose it ’s a simpler and gentle method .
Then again , I may just be faineant .
You make up one’s mind .
And go get my bookCompost Everythingif you really want to transmute your thought process on the marvel of compost . It ’s even available asan audiobook , read by me .
And it ’s rum .
