Microwaving compost

[norazina]

OK, just thought about it yesterday...

I have been clearing out the pots with flowers that died off when we got hit by sudden snow last year, and as my "garden to be" is not ready yet, seemed like a waste to chuck away all that used compost (about 100lt volume wise so far, more to go). So I thought - why not dress it with general fertilizer and re-use it at home, but to make sure that no nasties made home in those pots previously, I've put the compost in microwave (in the plastic bag, of course ) for couple of minutes, which surely has killed whatever was in there.

Has anyone tried that before? I have already planted couple of bulbs in "refreshed" compost, will see how this would turn out.

If it works, that would probably mean that rather to worry about crop rotation, you could do early spuds, refresh, then plant tomatoes, or follow brassicas with brassicas, etc?

[Two_Sheds]

Who could be bothered? It might be okay on a small scale, but for ALL your containers? No way Mourinho.

For (permanent) pots and containers you just scrape off the top inch or so of old compost and replace with new. You don't need to have a whole pot-full of new compost every year.

[norazina]

oh well, make sense... although it did save me 20 bucks yesterday...and another 40 today :-)

[quark1]

Its possible that many of us here in UK may not bother - but perhaps resources and cash are in much shorter supply in Azerbaijan and it so could sound like a good recycling alternative.

From what I've just found out on the internet the average wage there is around 250-275$ per month. Perhaps this is why it is so crucial to save and grow as much as possible.

I'm sure we don't spend around 10% of our monthly wage/income on compost?

Its certainly worth a try norazina - but for veg, why not do half with your revitalised version and some with normal compost - that way you can tell which is best and work out whether the saving, by enriching old stuff, is worth it in relation to resulting - possiby reduced? - crops.

[rustylady]

I wouldn't think you'd need to microwave it, just add some balanced fertiliser.

[norazina]

You've done your research well, quark1. Sadly, in Baku (which is a capital), people do not seem to be very interested in vegetable gardening, most you will see in their garden are fruit trees (this, of course, is totally different in countryside, where people rely on their own produce). You can't really get a good selection of seeds (all imported) in the shops, so I had everything ordered either from T&M or Suttons.

Money is not an issue in general- I'm just being practical :-), same as using juice cartons and plastic coffee cups for seedlings, etc. Gives you some weird feeiling of satisfaction of being, I don't know, creative?...Also, when our new house is ready, and my raised beds are built, all of the spent compost would go to the beds/flowers borders, but we are renting at the moment, and I am limited to container gardening.

Although, I have gotten interested in vegetable gardening myself because of my OH. Most of the veg he likes are not being grown here, and either imported or not available at all. Things like rocket, artichokes, gooseberry, chinease cabbage, chard, rhubarb, celeriac, fennel, cohl rabi, swede can't be purchased anywhere, and the likes of parsnips, french beans, runner beans, asparagus, thai chilli etc are only available in supermarkets (imported from elsewhere) at silly prices, something like $20 for a 1kg, so I kinda got fed up spending $300-$400 a month just on the veg, which I doubt are organic. I also prefer to shop at open markets to support local farmers, not chain supermarkets.

Hopefully, if I'm any successful this year, there would be a lot of pictures!!! I have never tasted fresh sprouts, peas or sweet cherry tomatoes, so really am looking towards it!!!

[norazina]

I wouldn't think you'd need to microwave it, just add some balanced fertiliser.

I did both - microwaved it (thought I saw some small bugs/scariad flies crawling in it) and then added a lot of manure to it

[norazina]

Its certainly worth a try norazina - but for veg, why not do half with your revitalised version and some with normal compost - that way you can tell which is best and work out whether the saving, by enriching old stuff, is worth it in relation to resulting - possiby reduced? - crops.

haven't thought about that - will give it a go at "half and half " thing