Compost??

[lulubell]

Hiya again everyone
I found out the weekend that my council are giving away free compost from one of our recycling plants So I was over there like a shot on saturday morning dragging my hubby armed with a shovel and a few bags.
Well the aroma in my car was unbelievably rank (had my head out of the window whilst driving)
It stinks like horse manure and the bags have attracted a army of little flies and I was planning on using this for planting out some cabbages that are in the green house will it be ok to do this? or do I need for it to go off a bit (was told by the gentleman that works there it is a fresh batch) Im just worried that the cabbages will get eaten when I put them in.
Sorry to sound a bit dim but still getting into this veggie growing lark

[Vince G]

Properly rotten compost doesn't really smell much in my experience, maybe a little earthy but certainly not as stinky as you describe.

Also, I'm a bit wary of the stuff the council gives away. I know what I dump in the council green waste - ivy, horsetail and couch grass for a start - so despite the fact that the temperature all the dumped vegetation would get up to during de-composition ought to be enough to do for most of these nasties, I'm not sure I'd want to be digging it back into my plot.

There might be someone along in a while who could tell you what to do with your pongy load (maybe let it rot down a bit more in a heap).

[areia]

was chatting to a plotter on how he got rid of his blighted leaves he said he took it up the dump when he told them what he had the guys just said throw it on anyway.

plus human waste plants are more popular youve only got to smell it spread on the feilds to know it, as its used for potatos

I personally dont trust it either seeing as we ar ement to be putting in ALL food waste, its all fine if you are doing your own as you can check it your self, council stuff im afraid im a bit wary off

[Vince G]

Took my blighted leaves to the council dump too. In the middle of a hot heap, blight ought to be destroyed, but as I said, don't really want it back thanks

[Two_Sheds]

Blight can only survive on living plant tissue (ie potatoes put in the heap). The foliage won't be living, so blighted leaves are fine in a normal compost heap.


Anyway, Lulubell's compost isn't fully rotted if it's attracting flies. I'd put it in a covered heap for another few months before using it.

[rustylady]

The council stuff is more of a soil conditioner than compost. I certainly wouldn't use it for potting or sowing anything.

[kathycam]

I've used it direct on my beds, as it was expensive to buy lots of compost. I mixed other stuff in too, such as manure, rotting veg, leaves, straw. The beds do get a lot of weeds, but this time last year the plot hadn't been cultivated for 2 years, so not that surprising. I've got some potatoes growing in it, and seems fine. But as others said best to let it sit a couple of months before using it.

Others on allotment have tried sowing seeds into it, and it didn't work. But I think if you mix with other stuff it should be fine. You do get junk in it, so good to sieve. Often chicken bones or bits of cardboard, pens etc. It works great as a mulch too.

[lulubell]

Thanks for all your advise everyone I think I will leave it for a few months and mix it with some mpc after sieving it. xx

[lukens]

I've been using Pro-Grow compost, which is essentially council collection compost, and it has worked a treat.

One thing to be wary of, which has been mentioned in another thread, is that it may contain residues of weed killers that people have used on their lawns, etc.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Properly rotten compost doesn't really smell much in my experience, maybe a little earthy but certainly not as stinky as you describe.

Also, I'm a bit wary of the stuff the council gives away. I know what I dump in the council green waste - ivy, horsetail and couch grass for a start - so despite the fact that the temperature all the dumped vegetation would get up to during de-composition ought to be enough to do for most of these nasties, I'm not sure I'd want to be digging it back into my plot.

Our local branch of the NVS had an outing to the 'plant' that processes Aberdeen's green waste. Fish guts and other waste is added during the process so if what you came home with hadn't stopped cooking, you will understand why it was a smidgeon pongy. Fish apparently is very high in nitrogen which helps the composting process. Loads of rough stuff is also added, branches, broken pallets and such like to keep the compost open and aerated and then screened out again at the end of the process (before being added again to the next batch).

This is the important bit and should remove your concerns. The whole process is computer controlled and each batch must be maintained at a s minimum set temperature for a minimum period. If the computer record shows the temperature has fallen below the required level at all, the whole batch must be recooked. The whole process is also heavily regulated and supervised by I think by the Department of Agriculture up here so no scope for shortcuts or skimping on anything which is very important as much of the end result goes on to local farms as a soil conditioner. Diseased materials leaving the processing plant could have horrendous implications hence the high levels of supervision and regulation.

[veggiechicken]

Interesting AP, thanks! I've often wondered what happens to the green waste. I feel better about using it now (if I had the opportunity!).

[Potstubsdustbins]

But does the process get rid of weed killers? I ask because recently SWMBO treated our lawn against beetle larva and on the bottle it stated quite clearly do not compost the first two cuts of grass.

There seems to be very few people where I live with any interest in GYO or for that matter the enviroment in general so all these clippings would go in the green waste bin.

Coli

[MojoJojo]

No, it doesn't. The herbicide in most lawn weedkillers needs 9 months to break down. A law is going to come in to force in a couple of years that will mean manufacturers will have to put a notice on the bottle to not put lawn cuttings into green bin waste.

That's from my dodgy memory.

[dod]

There is a quality standard for compost (BS PAS 100) and material meeting this standard nolonger needs to be considered as waste. This does need to have been maintained at a certain temperature for a specified time, and there are criteria for quantities of viable weed seeds and contaminants, and criteria about what can be put into it. I would have thought that material produced to this standard would not be given away, which might lead one to suspect that compost which is given away for free probably doesn't conform to this standard.
It is also worth being aware that fresh compost can be slightly toxic to plants, this is predominantly due to the salt content being relatively high (total amount of material is less than you started with, but the ammount of salts is the same). As advised above, just letting it sit for a while longer will probably sort it out OK.
As for whether or not pesticides will be removed (degraded) depends very much on what the active ingredients are. Glyphosate, for example, is likely to be degraded effectively by composting, but there are no doubt a multitude of other ones which will be much less affected, and could potentially still have some activity in the finished material.