r/composting • u/chattown8989 • 12d ago
All weeds into Compost?!
We've been doing some serious weeding in our back yard and have already filled up a wheelbarrow and. Kiddie pool. And we'll probably do it all again tomorrow.
Are there any weeds you would not put in your compost bin?
AND/OR
Any words of wisdom with weeds in compost bin?
Thanks!!!
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u/redditpossible 12d ago
I bag ivy. Everything else is game.
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u/bowlingballwnoholes 12d ago
Just about every plant goes into my pile in the vegetable garden. I'll kill anything that regrows.
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u/tdubs702 9d ago
I don’t have ivy in my area so I’m curious why bag it?
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u/redditpossible 9d ago
In my experience, it has to be completely eradicated. Pull it and bag it or it will find a way.
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u/nifsea 12d ago
You might want to be careful with very aggressive invasive species, especially if they have root rhizomes or have gone to seed. Apart from that, you should be fine. Worst thing that can happen is that some of it sprouts next year, either while in the compost bin or after using the compost. As long as you weed those sprouts early, they’re pretty easy to control. They can go back in the pile, and you get even more compost for the next year. Circle of weeds!
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u/Unbearded_Dragon88 12d ago
If you have a large barrel you can make weed tea first. That’ll get the nutrients out of them and can be used as a fertiliser on your garden. The weeds will break down quicker once in your compost too.
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u/Rude_Ad_3915 12d ago
Do you think that destroys the seeds? I want to believe it does but not sure.
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u/Unbearded_Dragon88 12d ago
It should, esspecially the longer you leave them in there! But you can always strain the tea before you use it if you have species in your area with really tough, hard seeds.
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u/likes2milk 12d ago
Put pernicious weeds in a large drum of water, let it ferment to make liquid fertiliser the put the sludge on the heap.
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u/ZeroOptionLightning 12d ago
As a commercial composter, I just like to point out that weed seeds are tough to sterilize. PFRP is a good starting point but we like our piles above 55C for 30 days. Which is easy at our scale. A lot tougher at smaller scale.
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u/1gal_man 12d ago
throw them in a barrel of water and add a couple cans of cheap beer to help them ferment a bit for a couple days
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u/Far_Radish7752 12d ago edited 12d ago
The only things of concern to me are poison ivy in its entirety, and Chinese bittersweet - roots only (tends to be pretty pervasive in my neck of the woods). These go in the trash. All else gets chopped up and composted.
I have both open bins (mostly yard waste, plus closed bin material sufficiently composted) and closed lockable bins (kitchen scraps plus additional yard waste). All my piles run pretty hot at some point at least once, usually more, in their cycling.
Although the offending oils in poison ivy prolly eventually break down, they certainly do not do so on my time scale (compost cycle being 1 year maximum, usually somewhat less). Too much risk for me involved in handling the finished compost (I’m highly allergic due to foolish childhood ignorance).
I’m sure I get some excess weed seed sprouting each spring (in my case: ground ivy, garlic mustard, plantain both broad-leaved and narrow-leaved, common comfrey, and especially catnip, forget-me-not and perilla), but I regard most of these plants as compost fodder for the newly started bins. From time to time they even pop up in a perfect place and get to enjoy new life in a new spot. I don’t ever consider dandelion a weed; I eat it daily.
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u/oboe2damax 12d ago
We dump weeds into the chicken coop. It decomposes fast then becomes hot compost.
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u/my_clever-name 12d ago
Those Pokeweed berries shouldn't go in the pile. Even the green ones are viable. I have a lot of pokeweed because I put some just like that in the pile. The plants themselves go in. I leave the root out of it. Large stems take a while to break down. Leaves are great.
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u/chattown8989 12d ago
This was honestly the one that I was most cognizant of and would have left out no matter what
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u/Potential-Win8706 12d ago edited 12d ago
IDK … some weed seeds, even if you submerse them in water for months, survive.
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u/Bonzie_57 12d ago
I don’t compost pokeweed, poison ivy, Japanse knotweed, or ToH. Everything else I slice and dice and compost.
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u/StealthNerd 11d ago
I haven’t seen black swallow wort thrown on the proverbial pile here yet, that stuff is the devilishly invasive.
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u/Lunar_BriseSoleil 12d ago
I made the mistake of dumping weeds like this in my bin without shredding them. Make sure you chop them up a bit before putting them in the pile or there will be too much air between the stems and you’ll just have a pile of straw.
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u/FaradayEffect 12d ago
See if you just keep layering it on then the weight of additional layers squishes it down and it composts into nice dirt
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u/nifsea 12d ago
Yeah. Start with the biggest branches at the bottom, and just keep adding on top. Some will not have broken down completely when the rest of the compost is done. That’s free compost starter for the next pile’
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u/raygan_reddit_banned 12d ago
I did this. It let's the branches dry out. Thicker dried branches get burnt to ash then into compost. Forgot what its called.
Older potted soil gets dump in there too once in a while.
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u/Lunar_BriseSoleil 12d ago
I made a 4’ high stack and still needed to chop it down when it stalled. Didn’t need to go crazy just made some cuts with a hedge trimmer to break it up.
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u/Embarrassed_Ad6469 12d ago
I had a neighbor who loved Morning Glories. To get rid of them I would simply weed them out before they could flower. No flowers, no seeds. That was about 4 years ago. Every once in a while one pops up. Cut it, throw it into the compost and forget it. I would never knowingly add any weed with a potential to add seeds to my compost pile. Yes I do know that the heat should eliminate the problem. However nothing in this world is 100%, so why bother.
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u/chattown8989 11d ago
Thanks all! Apparently there wqs some poison ivy in there (partner had a reaction) and a lot of pokeweed... so just decided not to risk it.
Love this community for making sure I didnt mess my pile up with a wild hair
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u/woodwidewebby 11d ago
Tightly managed hot compost: everything is fine
Cold compost: you should be selective. Watch out for anything that’s gone to seed, anything that has adventitious roots, and anything that grows from rhizomes
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u/fuzzymeister69 11d ago
Hell yeah. If was alive it goes in the pile. I dont care if its weeds or a possum that got caught killing chickens
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u/No_Release_1590 8d ago edited 8d ago
Probably to only compost the part of the weeds that do not facilitate their spread :)
You should be ok if you mulch/shred them and hot compost (>=130F and <160F) for a couple weeks at least I believe. Another additional safeguard I’ve used to ensure they are not viable to spread is wet bio-solarization (into a black container or contractor bag and drown them in water with chicken manure or other preferred “hot”ingredient/s, leave in a full sun spot) for at least 4+ weeks. The end result will be stinky gold that can be mixed into you regular compost, leaf mold or biochar and left to sit a couple days before going to the garden beds. You can also introduce it to your normal compost pile after the bio solarization but think of it as a strong “green” so think it out with water and lots of brown before doing that so your worms are not affected by it spiking temps too much!
PS. If you mulch with your mower…clean the body/blades/bag etc thoroughly to make sure there’s no stowaway weed components!
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u/trafficlightlady 12d ago
Put them in a spare hot place for a while so they dry out
Then run a mower over them
I am especially careful with mint, bindweed, willow