Composting Weeds

iguana

This might be a silly question but can you compost weeds? I've recently moved into my first house and have started composting. My garden is also in a pretty bad state and I'm in the middle of weeding it.

But I'm worried that if I put the weeds in the compost, that when I eventually use the compost it will be full of roots and seeds from weeds and I will be quickly over-run with them again.

damiand

Its not a good idea to compost weeds.

The temperature of the compost heap never gets hot enough to kill the seeds and some weed roots. When you use the compost you will end up spreading week seeds all over again.

Best to put them in the rubbish bin.

Eddiethehill

damiand wrote:

Best to put them in the rubbish bin.

Sacralige surely. Isn't composting supposed to be THE thing to do?

I am not a gardner at all but I have never been told NOT to compost vegetable stuff before.

How about nuke them in the microwave, then dump them on the compost heap?

Yes I am serouus... maybe... duhh !?

RiderOnTheStorm

I am reliably informed that weeds in the compost will create weeds when the compost is spread on the garden later. Unless compost is hot enough to kill the seeds (as earlier post said).

However, if you do not put weeds in the compost and then spread it on garden later, you cannot be assured of a weed free garden. You are stuffed if you do, and stuffed if you dont! Weeds are eternal! So I put the odd few weeds in, the ones that get cut / pulled in normal course of gardening. But if you have a lot of weeds (if you have just moved into new house & garden is already overgrown) then I would set aside a small corner of the garden and pile all the cuttings / weeds there as a one time option. Let them break down by themselves and use a compost bin / box for the future stuff, ie keep them seperate.

iguana

Thanks for the replies. There are quite a lot right now, so I'll just pull them and let them rot a bit and then throw them in the bin.

Oldtree

Having done the composting thing for a few years now, I would advise the following:
I put everything I can into my compost heap which is surrounded by pallets, and then turn it into a compost bin when i have spred the contents of the bin onto my veg patch.
Do not put couch grass in the compost as it dosn't seem to break down very well. If you are composting correctly, the heat should kill off most seeds, with just the odd bit of weeding in the veg patch. Ones that make it through are poppys, feverfew, nettle. Do not put dock into your heap, very strong seeds, and it can root from a piece of root (or any like plant) I include bindweed and japaneese knotweed in this category. Burn the plant and the seeds. Then every month or so add the ash to the compost heap. I do this when I'm turning the heap.
I have a small fire pit for burning plants like the above, I let them dry out in the pit then burn with a bit of paper and wood to get it going.
I keep a seperate (secure from rats) compost bin for cooked veg, potato leaves, etc, that never seems to get more than half full. This waste is 90% water anyway and i'm sure insects eat lots of it. It dosn't appear to smell either.

edanto

Anyone know if you can put ashtray waste into compost? We're chatting about it her and no-one really knows what exactly they're made of and if it's a good idea or not.

Another thing we're wondering is if we can compost tomato plants.... this page ( http://www.howtocompost.org/success_story_walter2.asp ) says no because they can carry diseases. But we're thinking of starting the compost pile with tomato plants from the balcony and then using them on peppers and more tomatoes. So... maybe it'd be ok?