Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Lulu on August 26, 2013, 21:09
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Hi
I have a lot of bindweed and other nasty weeds on my lottie and to try to stop the spread I have been putting them in plastic compost bags. in the heat it has really decomposed down - please can I add it to my good compost when it has gone yucky and slimy and will the norty weeds grow back?
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I'd rather burn it then you can use the resultant ash on the plot
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Some allotments don't allow fires.
I put perennial weeds in a big drum of water for a couple of months to rot them down. The liquid can be used as a feed and the slimy mess that remains can be composted.
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Some allotments don't allow fires.
I put perennial weeds in a big drum of water for a couple of months to rot them down. The liquid can be used as a feed and the slimy mess that remains can be composted.
Just out of interest, how do you empty the slimy mess out of a big drum onto the compost heap? I've got a wheelie bin I'm saving for that purpose, but I can't think of the best way to deal with it when it is full.
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My water butts get a few inches of sludge in the bottom, so I tip them over onto the soil when all the water has been used and dig it in. This would be difficult if you let it build up too much.
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I've never had a problem composting perennial weeds. A whole plot of couch grass I've recycled. A tangled mass
of nettle roots is an opportunity, not a problem.
But then I take composting seriously. It's not just a rubbish heap. Covered to exclude light, perennial weeds cannot harm, while being attacked by friendly bacteria.
Anything that survives that is easy to spot when we come to spread the compost. So it gets raked up and put back in the heap.
We clearly have our own approaches, which differ widely. Organic growers might not want to look a gift horse in the mouth, when it comes to composting all weeds.
Tom
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Just out of interest, how do you empty the slimy mess out of a big drum onto the compost heap? I've got a wheelie bin I'm saving for that purpose, but I can't think of the best way to deal with it when it is full.
I use a normal garden fork to hoik it out.
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I use a two stage method
I separate out my weeds/weeds roots and bung them in a black bin filled with water and then put the lid on. I add more weeds until its fairly full and wait a good long time. The bin is best placed in a warm spot - maybe even the green house. This is anaerobic composting.
Once I have gotten over the puke-tastic smell I transfer the sloppy solids to a normal 1st yr compost pile for further breaking down. By this time the roots and seeds are rendered pretty much dead and the wet matter is useful to a dry heap.
The remaining liquid is pretty potent stuff and needs to be watered down significantly (and maybe sieved depending on how broken down the weeds were) to use as a feed