[mumofstig]

I don't know if it is because we had a very cold winter............

but my compost from the dalek was still very coarse this year. It smelt sweet enough, not rank, so I dug it into the spuds bed anyway, assuming it to be ok, but it definitely hadn't broken down as much as usually

Anybody else noticed it this year?

I will just add that some of the spud peelings at the top(open) were growing, so the ones I planted should be ok below ground

[JayG]

Yes, one of the (sad!) home-composter's pleasures is lifting the lid off the daleks and seeing how much your huge pile of garden waste has shrunk since you last looked!

Not been a good winter for composting (probably been almost permanently frozen since December!) 

I have 3 "daleks", one of which is near the house and used for "kitchen waste" so will try to avoid using that stuff on spuds and toms to avoid the chance of introducing the diseases which might have been present in the "ingredients".

[BostonInbred]

Every autumn i make a bin with two 2M pallets and two 1M pallets, and in it goes about a cubic metre of horse poo and a cubic metre of sawdust,  finely chopped hedge, shredded paper and grass.

Its definitely not as broken down this year as compared to last year, but its still usable.

[moose]

The cover on one of my heaps had a leak and when I took it off last week there was a puddle in the middle of it - of ice. So much for a hot heap.

[solway cropper]

I never put anything from a potato or tomato in the compost as the little beggars seem to sprout up all over the plot if you put so much as a single cell in the mix.

[strangerachael]

mine's been ok.... (except for the rat... )

[MoreWhisky]

Mine has at least broke down more than those green bagged Tesco ones 

[compostqueen]

I got rid of my rat by adding a strong solution of Jeyes fluid 

Compost bins don't heat up over winter, they just sit there. They'll start up again once a bit of warmth hits them