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Potato tops in compost bin?

Last post 03-07-2008 9:41 PM by sue1002. 22 replies.

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  • 18/06/2008 10:21 PM
    • Dai Dibber
    • Welsh Coast
    • 17 Aug 2007
    • 43
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    Can the tops of the potato foliage be put into compost bins?  This would obviously be after all the potatoes have been cleared from it.

  • 18/06/2008 10:22 PM
    • sue1002
    • Suffolk
    • 06 Sep 2005
    • 3,059
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     The spud foliage from the earlies that we have had so far has gone in the compost bin.

    sue1002
  • 18/06/2008 10:49 PM
    • Rach
    • Hedge End, UK
    • 25 May 2008
    • 33
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    Hello,Nothing wrong with the greenery - just don't add it if it has suffered from disease e.g. blight.... otherwise its perfect.

    Yes

  • 19/06/2008 09:05 AM
    • Phot's-Moll
    • The sunny South coast.
    • 06 Jan 2007
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    I put mine in. I put in just about everything (although I wouldn't if it was diseased) The more stuff you put in, the better compost you can make. I like to get mine to heat up and then I let it rot so I can't identify any of the seperate items - it's good stuff but there's never enough.

    Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.
  • 19/06/2008 08:24 PM
    • Dai Dibber
    • Welsh Coast
    • 17 Aug 2007
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    Thank you all for your advice - compost bin will soon be filled!!! 

  • 24/06/2008 08:44 PM
    • Suzie
    • Oxfordshire
    • 01 Jun 2008
    • 31
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    yep, I too put spud growth into the compost, obviously ensuring it is disease-free first

  • 24/06/2008 09:10 PM
    • digger
    • North East Lancashire
    • 18 Jul 2005
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    After much thought I have done away with home composting completely, of course I use the horse muck from the stables but at home I have begun to de commision all my compost bins. I now put all the green garden waste into the council compost wheelie bins (we have three). This will free up some room in the garden because we did have five of the black plastic freebies from the county council, also it will make the garden look better and give me more room for growing flowers.

    I went to a talk some months ago by an exhibition grower who doesn't make compost either, and his words made me re asses my own composting. now i have to purchase my compost, I am more careful with it, any old potting compost can be used as a mulch but everything else goes in the bin, this also helps to keep out pernicious weed seeds and diseases. I know lots of people will disagree but my composting material is still being re cycled by the council and I don't have the bother of having to make my own compost which takes ages and can be inferior to multi purpose bought in from trade suppliers.

    digger Devil
  • 25/06/2008 06:31 AM
    • Suzie
    • Oxfordshire
    • 01 Jun 2008
    • 31
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    that all makes good sense digger, I had not thought about it like that

  • 27/06/2008 03:15 PM
    • Figwort
    • Peterborough
    • 20 Dec 2007
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    Interesting thoughts Digger.

    I agree that, for best results, potting compost should be bought in bags and not made from your compost heap at home. My local garden centre does 3 x 70-litre bags for £10, and I must have spent around £80 this year.

    However, I hate throwing anything out (I class putting things in the brown bin as throwing out) and all non-diseased vegetation gets composted. We've got clay soil here in Peterborough and the compost is used to improve the soil, as a mulch and to top up the raised veg beds. 

    There are never any problems in gardening - just opportunities!
  • 27/06/2008 03:53 PM
    • digger
    • North East Lancashire
    • 18 Jul 2005
    • 3,436
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    i know what you mean figwort, My soil is always in need of improvement as it's clay as well, I know I have made a very contentious decision, but the benefit of removing the remaining compost bins and having more planting space, out weighs the benefits of home made compost, I can get 80litre bags of humax multi purpose for £1;98 a bag but I have to buy at least 40 bags (which I have done). i talked at length with the lecturer about this and he said,he didn't compost because of the risk of pestilence and disease of course I never put anything dodgy in my compost bins anyway that always went to the municipal heap. i don't have ugly compost bins to hide in compost corner anymore the council have given me three compost wheelie bins and it's one less thing to do, I know it's contraversial, but it's just a better way of doing things for me, and my conscience is clear because the council get my compostible waste free of charge.

    digger Devil
  • 27/06/2008 04:32 PM
    • sue1002
    • Suffolk
    • 06 Sep 2005
    • 3,059
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    The only thing I give the council to compost are the weeds that I don't want back on the garden, the rest goes into my own compost bins. 

    sue1002
  • 27/06/2008 05:44 PM
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    I question this export of garden waste - the price in diesel of collection and disposal and therefore carbon dioxide and promotion of climate change seems to me to be transferring the cost of gardening  (both money and environmental damage) to others.

    Hereabouts the council charge for green waste collection although you can take it to the tip free of charge:  http://www.runnymede.gov.uk/portal/site/runnymede/menuitem.ed490bd38c7f552d5ecf4570af8ca028/  Is it not right that the polluter should pay and that a charge be made for collection?  

    Should not wastes from house and garden, as far as possible, stay on the premises if one has any aspirations to sustainablity and the trade off of free soil improver is valuable?  

    All kitchen and garden wastes over the last two years have not even filled my two black plastic composters and the huge original volume is now, I would guess, hardly enough to fill a wheelbarrow with finished compost so I have not even bothered to empty them.  I admit grass mowings are taken to the allotment, but stupendous quantities of vegetable wastes  are composted at home. 

    It appears as well that there is a misunderstanding here.  Garden compost is merely a soil improver and cannot be considered a viable substitute for multipurpose potting media.  Multipurpose potting compost is unlikely, especially if peat based, to be a satisfactory soil improver although I know of misguided landscapers who buy bargain multipurpose compost for use in landscaping schemes.  Garden compost is actually a better soil improver than multipupose compost.

     

    Boggy

     

     

     

    Beware the bat-eared bogweevil
  • 27/06/2008 05:55 PM
    • sue1002
    • Suffolk
    • 06 Sep 2005
    • 3,059
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    We all get charged for any waste that is collected, it's lumped in with the ever increasing council tax! so most of us pay for our rubbish and recyclables to be collected.  

     

    I have two black compost bins, one is in use whilst the other is rotting down and all of it gets used either as mulch or for digging into the veggie beds. 

    sue1002
  • 27/06/2008 07:20 PM
    • digger
    • North East Lancashire
    • 18 Jul 2005
    • 3,436
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    Ha ha ha ha ha, Better still lets all concrete over our gardens so that no waste is generated. MY garden is an ambitious pursuit of excellence and has no place for untidy in effective little municipal compost bins, as has been said we pay well over the odds for our council tax and the waste will be collected reagrdless of how much i produce. if on the other hand i was offered money back from the council for disposing of my garden waste myself, i may consider it. and the council here compost tons of garden waste and then bags it up and sells it to unsuspecting members of the public in anonymous blue bags with no writing on them. i re cycle my used multi purpose compost by mixing it with well rotted horse manure and then use it for a mulch, I fully agree the project is not cost effective for the council to collect all the garden waste but we are paying for it regardless of wether we use the service or not, then again the government could relax it's demonic taxes on the price of fuel and agree to let suppliers offer re newable fuels as an alternative to the fossil fuels at the pumps at a realistic price. No the councils up and down the UK are on a road to self destruct and we are paying for it they chose this path and it is offered  to everyone in the borough, so it would be foolish (for my finances) not to use the overpriced swindle offered by the town hall.

    digger Devil
  • 27/06/2008 09:12 PM
    • sue1002
    • Suffolk
    • 06 Sep 2005
    • 3,059
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     The council to offer money back, or the government relax taxes - dream on, the next thing we know it will be doubled againDogDog

    sue1002