[courgette]

....can you compost - compost?! i.e. old compost thats had stuff growing in it & not needed anymore. Just emptied a sack that was growing new potatoes.

[peapod]

I throw the odd pot full or two in at the end of use, but mostly I put it on my garden as I have very heavy clay.. it helps to break it up (slightly)

My little sister just FILLED my compost bin up at the plot with..yes you guessed it, old compost :-) So ive taken half of it out, and added some green waste and paper to break down.

Edit..because you have used the nutrients in the old compost, its ok in small doses IMO but not as the bulk of the bin volume

Paula

[lincspoacher]

Compost is compost because its already composted, and it wont compost any further. So theres very little point in adding huge amounts to a compost bin.

You can add a percentage to  composting material to absorb nutrients, but the best use of old compost is as a soil improver, since its most likely to contain addition nutrients. Chuck it into the bottom of a trench, add some fish blood bone, and some green dodo and fill  the trench back up and cover with a sheet. Next year itll be ready to go.

[Yabba]

Maybe it's me? ....but .. wouldn't the roots of whatever had been growing in the compost produce something?

Like peas/beans will add nitrogen ( or summat ) ?

¥

[peapod]

Maybe it's me? ....but .. wouldn't the roots of whatever had been growing in the compost produce something?

Like peas/beans will add nitrogen ( or summat ) ?

¥

Aaah good thinking yabba, I guess they would, Ill add the compost from my bean container when they are finally done (IF Paula IF!)

Paula

[Yabba]

Aaah good thinking yabba

Trust me, unless it's programming computers ... I'm pretty clueless ... and I'm renowned for being b*ll*cks wrong ... even when programming ... I suppose it's the lazy version of composting though "throw it in 'soil' and all"

... hmmm, so non-lazy version would be "get all the roots out and compost those"

Hopefully if I have enough brain waves one of them will strike lucky and sound genius

¥

[lincspoacher]

Aaah good thinking yabba

Trust me, unless it's programming computers ... I'm pretty clueless ... and I'm renowned for being b*ll*cks wrong ... even when programming ... I suppose it's the lazy version of composting though "throw it in 'soil' and all"

... hmmm, so non-lazy version would be "get all the roots out and compost those"

Hopefully if I have enough brain waves one of them will strike lucky and sound genius

¥

Ah well you defined the problem wrong, you see.

the original question was ' can i compost compost' , to which the answer is 'no', but now you moved the goalpost and its a different problem, ie 'shall i sift out the roots and compost them' to which the answer is 'yes'. There was no mention of roots originally............

Typical systems guy, i ran large IT rollouts for 20 years and I never could get programmers to see problems like the rest of the planet....

 

[compostqueen]

[Eristic]

I think the original question is a fair one and I would say yes you can and yes I do. Any old compost or rootballs get chucked back into the freshest compost sack along with any sieved out waste from fresher stuff. While it may not break down much further, it will mix in and the old roots will decay to be recycled at a later date.