Bulbs in compost heap?

[broadway]

Folks,

Not sure if I imagined it or not but I’m sure I read daffodils’ are poisonous? Did I imagine it or not, are daf’s and general bulb cuttings ok for the compost heap?

[Capsid]

Poisons will get broken down in the compost bin. I put bulbs in the bin but I'm always surprised at how they survive and start sprouting in the spring, so I inevitably throw them in the garden waste bin that the council collect.

[broadway]

Thanks Capsid

[Dynamo]

When I have bulbs to throw in the compost I always stamp on them first to squash them. They compost down just like anything else then.

[Two_Sheds]

Like the others said, once rotted down daff bulbs are perfectly safe.
They're only poisonous if you eat them, and you don't eat compost anyway ...

[Flummery]

Oh! Don't you? (Says Flum dusting compost crumbs off face!)
I once put a load of spanish bluebells in me compost. They just kept growing - long stalks a foot and a half - horrors! When I used the compost which was all otherwise beautifully rotted down, I just hoiked them out and put them in the council bin.

[KVFilms]

old bulbs used as O/M

Hi All,


Just for clarification... I bought a bag of Daffodil bulbs the other year, which never found their way into the garden, subsequently, I found them in the garage today, dry to more or less crumbly, flaky dust, nothing green or living about them.

I know that Daffodils are poisonous, as living, growing, flowering bulbs, but what about after that, when they are well beyond use as bulbs and are desert dry, flaky, crumbly brown remains?

is it safe to put them on the garden as O/M along along with the grass cuttings and manure, on ground where I grow edible veg/ fruit etc? not plants

[Flummery]

Yes you can put them on the ground where you grow veg. There doesn't seem to be any living material left and they are only toxic if eaten. You'e unlikely die of it even so. My Mum and her friend brought home what they thought were onions near Christmas when they were in the Land Army in the war. Ma's family made stuffing, her friend's decided to plant them for seed for the future, fresh stuff being scarce. Guess what grew?

Daffs give you an upset stomach but they all survived - or I wouldn't be here!