My Garden

Pistachio nuts and compost

Last post 14-01-2009 9:40 AM by JamesA. 11 replies.

• 13/01/2009 09:52 AM
  JamesA Location: Peterborough Joined on: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 160	Reply | Contact We eat a lot of pistachio nuts, about 300g a week. I put some shells in the compost, but there are so many that I'm planning to use the shells as drainage at the bottom of my patio pots. They're salted nuts. Do I need to bother rinsing them to get the salt off with water from the water butt?

• 13/01/2009 10:42 AM	In reply to
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact Good question JamesA, Are you putting the shells into the ground whole or are you going to crush them first? digger

• 13/01/2009 10:59 AM

  In reply to

  Victoria Location: Wandsworth Joined on: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 10

  Reply | Contact I'd be very wary about putting anything with salt on it near any plants. Salt is a herbicide: some people use it as a weedkiller, for example on a gravel drive or paved terrace. Personally, I wouldn't use these shells as drainage in pots, certainly not without soaking them really thoroughly. I don't think it's ideal to put salty shells in compost, but I don't see that it would do that much harm, unless the shells were a major part of the compost. Ideally, you'd rinse them first. However, at the bottom of a pot, you'd have a concentrated mass of salty shells, and even if this didn't hurt the plant in the pot, there is the risk that water from the pot will drain through the salty layer and run onto plants nearby, such as a lawn. I think it's great that you don't want things to go to waste, though, and experimenting is half the fun of gardening. If you do try it, soak the shells really well in a bucket or washing up bowl, rather than rinsing them, and choose a small pot with a plant that is easily replaced.

• 13/01/2009 12:52 PM

  In reply to

  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2,043

  Reply | Contact No need to worry - shells will be at bottom of pot, you will water pot from top, water travels downwards, salt very soluble, salt therefore washed out and the tiny amount present greatly diluted.  Salt not very toxic in any case (and in fact is a useful fertiliser for asparagus, beetroot and carrots when used at no more than 30g every square metre). Shells and compost OK too. I feel that for your shells will decay quite quickly so perhaps best for short-term (<2years) plants and it is always good to repot every two years in fresh compost anyway. Boggy     Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 13/01/2009 01:41 PM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,976	Reply | Contact I haven't used pistachio shells as drainage but have from time to time added piles of shells and olive stones to the compost. They rotted down quickly and I didn't see that they caused any problems.

• 13/01/2009 02:06 PM	In reply to
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact I use salt water on my beetroots, it was told to me ages ago that they like salt water, the biggest (and ugliest) beetroots are usually grown by people living near to the coast. digger

• 13/01/2009 05:13 PM	In reply to
  Victoria Location: Wandsworth Joined on: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 10	Reply | Contact Fascinating! I use salt to kill weeds and slugs (a little bit of salt on the end of a cotton bud will see off a dandelion), so I tend to think of it as a hazardous chemical.

• 13/01/2009 06:00 PM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2,043	Reply | Contact I am astonished that such a little salt will kill a whole dandelion root with all its dormant buds running deep into the soil.   Boggy Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 13/01/2009 06:33 PM	In reply to
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact Yes it does sound incredible, I must try it on some of the monsters I have here, is it any old salt or does it have to be sea salt? the water I've used on my beetroots is just mixed with table salt, but if a tiny dab of salt on the end of a cotton buds can destroy a dandelion it must do the same on other weeds? I'll have to try it first just to see if it does really work digger

• 13/01/2009 07:52 PM

  In reply to

  Victoria Location: Wandsworth Joined on: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 10

  Reply | Contact Um, yes, seems to work for me. If you wet the salt (and the cotton bud), you can pick up a nice little lump of it and deposit it right in the middle of the dandelion. If you Google dandelion salt, you'll see there are quite a few commercial versions of the same idea. I use Saxa, but you can also use dishwasher salt, apparently. I don't use weedkiller, and usually weed by hand. Salt's good when you can't actually get at things very easily, such as weeds growing through cracks in paving.

• 13/01/2009 08:22 PM

  In reply to

  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 3,347

  Reply | Contact  I've heard of a pinch of salt killing dandelions, but never tried it. I'll give it a go as I've got one in the lawn. (yeah, just the one ) I'd suggest you put the shells in the bottom of the pots for short term things and then put the compost, shells and all on your compost heap at the end of the season. The salt will be washed away by then.   Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 14/01/2009 09:40 AM

  In reply to

  JamesA Location: Peterborough Joined on: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 160

  Reply | Contact The stupid thing is I'd prefer to buy them unsalted if they weren't so expensive. I'll have to keep an eye on where the water runs off from my patio pots. Apart from the few hot weeks we (hopefully) have, it's usually a question of finding things to do with the water so I may wash them most of the year round. I'll have to consider crushing the ones that go in the compost to speed up the composting process. I've often wondered whether a salt solution poured in to the cracks between paving slabs would prevent weeds.