Composting Weeds
Isn’t it quite nice to see weeds shrivel up in the sun after you’ve pulled them out of your beautiful garden? The best place to put them is a compost pile, or bin.
Though weeds you pull usually have seeds and the best way to kill them are by raising the temperature in the heap.
Below are some tips on how to sufficiently compost your weeds.
Keep it hot. Running a hot heap calls for precise mixing and remixing of materials.
Rather than struggle to heat up a heap that wants to run cold, I suggest waiting until a weedy heap reaches a nearly rotted state to set things right. From there, you can solarize small batches of moist compost in black plastic nursery liners that are enclosed in clear plastic bags and placed in the sun for two to three days.
Now you’re cooking. Easier than solarizing, plug in an old Crock-Pot outdoors, turn it to its lowest setting, and warm batches of compost while you sleep (three hours at 160 degrees F kills most weed seeds).
Heat treating weedy compost destroys many of the microscopic life-forms that give compost its punch, so it’s a good idea to reprocess cooked compost for two to three weeks before using it in the garden. Place it in a plastic storage bin with a handful of earthworms borrowed from your garden and it will soon be laced with humic acids and other plant-pleasing compounds.
Here are some tips on things you do not want to compost:
CHEMICALLY-TREATED WOOD PRODUCTS
Sawdust is often available from constructions sites, friends, or your own building projects. If you are considering composting sawdust, be sure of the origin of the sawdust.
Sawdust from chemically-treated wood products can be bad stuff to compost. For example, take pressure-treated wood (sometimes called CCA), which usually has a greenish tint to it (I have also seen it in other colors).
It contains arsenic, a highly toxic element, as well as chromium and copper. There is evidence to suggest that arsenic is leached into the soil from these products when they are used to make compost bins or raised beds, so composting the sawdust would certainly be a mistake.
You may wish to read the ‘Letters’ section of Organic Gardening, April 1994 and July/August 1992, for more information. Avoid other chemically-treated wood products and sawdust as well, such as wood treated with creosote or ‘penta’ preservative.
DISEASED PLANTS
Many plant disease organisms are killed by consistent hot composting, but it’s difficult to make sure that every speck of the diseased material gets fully composted. It’s best not to compost diseased plant material at all, to avoid reinfecting next year’s garden.
HUMAN WASTES
Human feces can contain disease organisms that will make people very sick. Composting human feces safely requires that the compost pile reach high temperatures over a period of time.
It isn’t necessarily that difficult to reach these temperatures in a home compost pile, but the potential health costs of improper composting are high. Composting of human feces should not be attempted, except by experienced ‘hot pile’ composters who are well informed of the temperatures and times required to kill pathogens, and who are willing to take 100 percent responsibility for the process and product.
MEAT, BONES, AND FATTY FOOD WASTES
These materials are very attractive to pests (in an urban setting, this could mean rats…). In addition, fatty food wastes can be very slow to break down, because the fat can exclude the air that composting microbes need to do their work.
PERNICIOUS WEEDS
Morning glory/bindweed, sheep sorrel, ivy, several kinds of grasses, and some other plants can resprout from their roots and/or stems in the compost pile. Just when you thought you had them all chopped up, you’d actually helped them to multiply!
Don’t compost these weeds unless they are completely dead and dry (you may want to leave them in a sunny place for a couple of weeks before composting). Remember also that composting weeds that have gone to seed will create weeds in next year’s garden, unless a very hot pile temperature can be maintained to kill the seeds.
PET WASTES
Dog and cat feces may carry diseases that can infect humans. It is best NEVER to use them in compost piles. Some people do bury them 8 inches deep in the soil, but ONLY in areas where food crops are never grown.
About the author
Tom Selwick has worked every level of lawn care and landscaping imaginable--from a weeder to a pest control man--he has done it all. He has worked the past 8 years as a organic lawn services Georgia technician. Contact Info: Tom Selwick TomSelwick09@gmail.com http://www.WeedPro.comDistributed by Content Crooner
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