[chickpeacurry]

Is it okay to put potatoe peel in the compost waiste.  Saying all my vegetable waste .   

[rowan57]

Yep.

[3759allen]

i have heard of some people avoiding it as it may produce a plant when the compost is used.

i'm adding them to my bins, along with pretty much everything else as long as there's no visible signs of disease.

[Beetroot Queen]

We do too. If they produced plants they would just get chopped up and churned around with the rest.

[mumofstig]

I do as well 

[Big Gee]

Is it okay to put potatoe peel in the compost waiste.  Saying all my vegetable waste .

If you hot compost, then any 'eyes' in the peel will get killed & you won't have problems with volunteer spuds popping up on your plot. Hot composting also kills the seeds in any weeds you add to the heap.

If you 'cold' compost (leaving the process to anaerobic bacteria) then some peelings will sprout, and you'll find haulms developing in your heap. This is not a satisfactory method, because not only are volunteer spuds a problematic source of disease accumulation, but you can cause a build up of blight spores in your soil, as the spores that may be present in the compot becomes a reservoir for blight oubreaks. This is why commercial growers often point a finger at sloppy allotment growers for being sources of blight outbreaks. In any case insufficiently composted material should not be carted back to your plot before the process is complete.


I hope that helps!

G.

[Kristen]

If you 'cold' compost (leaving the process to anaerobic bacteria)

Cold composting can be aerobic, surely? That is to say aerobic composting that doesn't get very hot - I would think the majority of home-composting fits into that category through lack of the right mix of "brown and green", or insufficient material all-at-once to create a big enough heap to be self-fuelling and have sufficient insulation, or insufficient time to turn the heap often enough to introduce oxygen to maintain aerobic reactions.

not only are volunteer spuds a problematic source of disease accumulation

Normal advice would be not to put diseased material in the compost heap in the first place - a compost heap would have to be very well made for all of it to reach sufficient temperature to kill all diseases and seeds, rarely achieved in home-compost heaps IME as I said above (whereas council communal composting, using mechanical turners, is more likely to achieve that)

This is why commercial growers often point a finger at sloppy allotment growers for being sources of blight outbreaks

More likely, (or maybe "as likely"?) than compost heaps I would point the finger at volunteer plants from potatoes left in the ground, and not rogued out promptly the following season.  A common response to seeing a potato plant appearing the following year seems to be "goodie, a free potato plant" rather than "quick, remove that before it kills all the others around it" !!

[Big Gee]

If you 'cold' compost (leaving the process to anaerobic bacteria)

Cold composting can be aerobic, surely? That is to say aerobic composting that doesn't get very hot - I would think the majority of home-composting fits into that category through lack of the right mix of "brown and green", or insufficient material all-at-once to create a big enough heap to be self-fuelling and have sufficient insulation, or insufficient time to turn the heap often enough to introduce oxygen to maintain aerobic reactions.

not only are volunteer spuds a problematic source of disease accumulation

Normal advice would be not to put diseased material in the compost heap in the first place - a compost heap would have to be very well made for all of it to reach sufficient temperature to kill all diseases and seeds, rarely achieved in home-compost heaps IME as I said above (whereas council communal composting, using mechanical turners, is more likely to achieve that)

This is why commercial growers often point a finger at sloppy allotment growers for being sources of blight outbreaks

More likely, (or maybe "as likely"?) than compost heaps I would point the finger at volunteer plants from potatoes left in the ground, and not rogued out promptly the following season.  A common response to seeing a potato plant appearing the following year seems to be "goodie, a free potato plant" rather than "quick, remove that before it kills all the others around it" !!

We are talking in generalities here and not specifics Kristen.

Get the nitrogen/ carbon balance wrong & let your heap get soaking wet, cold and have no air circulating through it then oxygen is not available in sufficient quantities to allow aerobic bacteria to thrive. The job is left to smell producing anaerobic bacteria, sufficient heat is not produced & you have a smelly soggy mass that will eventually decompose after a very prolonged period, but it will have a lot of weed seeds, fungal spores & diseased matter contained in it. Something to be avoided.

I disagree that most garden composts fall into the "cold" composting category. Any allotment gardener worth his/ her salt will ensure that his/ her composting technique ensures that the heap is well balanced, has sufficient air & insulation and that the heap is turned regularly. The result is a 'clean' crumbly mix of brown odourless compost that is relatively disease & weed seed free. That should always be the goal.

On 'volunteer' spuds. Not all of them are disease ridden or disease hazards that warrant a panic laden response. However it is bad practice to allow a situation where they are encouraged. We all miss the occasional tiddly tuber when we lift our crops, BUT you don't encourage their spread. Besides you will not get a realistic harvest from volunteer spuds - so don't treat them as pets or as a bonus.

I personally think that commercial potato growers are unfair to accuse allotmenteers of producing reservoirs of blight. But again, they have a point, when you see heaps of blight hit haulms being piled in heaps in the corners of plots, or added to 'cold' compost bins - instead of going to the effort of burning them. It's just common sense and good housekeeping for the benefit of all.

Getting back to the original question. Potato peelings are fine in a properly maintained 'hot' compost heap. In a poorly managed 'cold' compost heap I would not recommend it for the reasons I've stated. The choice is obviously up to the individual after making their own informed decision. All I've attempted to do is provide some information based on my 40 odd years of allotment gardening.

[Kristen]

I disagree that most garden composts fall into the "cold" composting category.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that .  My reasoning is:

I agree that many/most allotment holders will build compost heaps that are "hot" and kill pathogens and seeds.  But there are also allotment plot holders that don't have much time to attend the plot, and their heaps are likely to be ... just that!  Lots of questions on the forums along the lines of "I don't have much time what can I easily grow" etc. -

In additional to allotment holders with limited time etc. there are the compost heaps in people's gardens; councils commonly charge extra for a wheelie bin for plant material, and also subsidise sales of Dalek type compost bins, so folk are incentivised to home-compost. I doubt many of them are routinely producing temperatures that kill pathogens (doubtful that many have the right mix of ingredients, or the incentive/knowledge).  Fair chance that they will harbour blight on anything already diseased added to them. Dalek bins have a lid, so I think most won't be soggy / anaerobic (I have two Daleks, we just chuck stuff in them, mine aren't anaerobic).

Thus I think there will be significant numbers of compost heaps that are not "hot", but also aren't anaerobic.  I don't have any figures to back up my reasoning though.

On 'volunteer' spuds. Not all of them are disease ridden or disease hazards that warrant a panic laden response.
...
I personally think that commercial potato growers are unfair to accuse allotmenteers of producing reservoirs of blight

Yes, you are quite right that a "panic laden response" is not called for . My point, poorly presented, was that where there has been a blight outbreak on an allotment site, even if every plotholder did diligently burn their haulms (and I agree some/many won't ...) there is then a substantial risk from volunteer spuds the following year ... and maybe that is something for the farmers to justifiably point a finger at.

But I wonder if it actually matters to farmers?  Do they often lose spud crops to blight? (I don't know the answer). It seems to me that they put so much blight prevention chemical on them that maybe they can avoid the crop actually getting blight? The thought of the amount of chemicals that go onto food crops is what drives us to try to grow as much as we can ourselves.

I don't know what the percentages were on this forum, last year, but on other gardening forums where I am more active it seemed that most people got blight last year, and many of those have got blight late in the season this year (e.g. Tomatoes rather than Spuds)

[Big Gee]

I think we've just about exhausted our debate Kristen!

I agree to disagree on how many allotmenteers use 'hot' (aerobic) composting  techniques, compared to how many use 'cold' composting. Like you I have no national figures and I can only go by what I see on our allotment site.

There are many 'Daleks' on our site also (my plot included) but they're mostly a convenience item that are used as a temporary holding vessel until the contents are removed to the main compost holder. Surprisingly (given the lack of air circulation) it gets the job done quite quickly and it does get quite hot - especially when it gets loaded with a lot of fresh nitrogen rich plant debris.

On the volunteer spud & blight control front I think we're basically singing from the same hymn sheet Kristen!

Commercial growers do use a lot of blight defence sprays, but it seems a losing battle according to Blight Watch, as new strains are fighting back hard. I'm an allotments blight watch 'scout' for the Potato Council's "Fight against Blight" network, and it seems that the fight is not being won. Last year was a total disaster - blight wise. This year due to the weather with lower  rainfall the outbreaks were lower, but it's picked up again towards th end of the season.

Blight is here to stay - regardless of the fungicides being used by the commercial growers. However a big factor is educating people about blight and encouraging good clean housekeeping habits when it comes to the disposal of infected plant material.

[Yorkie]

I agree with Kristen that there is a middle ground for many allotmenteers, of which I am one.

I have daleks that do not reach hot temperatures sufficient to kill off spores etc.  I do not turn them for reasons I'm not going to go into.  But the compost is not anaerobic.

'Cold' compost does not automatically equate with 'anaerobic' in everyone's world.

[Trillium]

I cold compost out of sheer lack of time, we always throw our potato peels in the compost, and we've never had a potato yet but we get great compost by the next year.

On the other side, I've missed the odd potato when digging them up and the next year the potato yields an even nicer crop than planted ones. In my area potato blight is rare so it's not a problem for me to let it grow on, but sometimes they're in the wrong spot   

[Amilo]

At what temp does a cold compost become hot? I have regular layers of garden/kitchen on top of grass mixed with shredded paper,about 50/50 and that gets hot.

It seems to kill everything except chickweed   so maybe its not hot enough!

I have a ongoing project of heating compost up in a steel drum which is sat over a fire which is in a metal bust bin with a chimney lid on that works OK and I use it for  seed compost but that is only a small percentage of my total compost. so the weeds continue.

[Kristen]

At what temp does a cold compost become hot?

its an interesting question

I used to make Hot compost, and I do recognise the benefits, but lack of time and idleness are what prevents me nowadays (although this thread has got me to reconsider it).

We have a large garden and a huge amount of material to compost, so at the least I do have opportunity enough.  Monty Don's compost heap is like a production line, and I am envious, but the turning looks onerous (on that scale, which is similar to mine), although I'm tempted to acquire a Boy's Toys mechanical digger to do that bit!

When I chuck stuff on the heap, or in the Daleks, it often gets hot - exactly as your describe - but I would still define it as a "cold heap" though as the temperature is not maintained and the heat is localised; because I don't turn it to bring new material and oxygen close to the active bugs, the temperature drops again.  The net result is that I don't wind up with nice crumbly compost but something more like soil (and there is probably a high proportion of that in the heap as lots of weeds go in with the roots and soil attached to them)

To kill pathogens and seeds needs both a decent temperature, but also duration of that temperature.  The temperature is, usually, not hot enough to kill them instantly, but over a period of time I presume they get denatured, which does the job. (If the temperature gets too hot the composting bugs will be killed, the moulds will then take over, and they are well capable of raising the temperature to the point where the heap catches fire - but those microbes are unsuitable for the best composting process)

It seems to kill everything except chickweed   so maybe its not hot enough!

Bindweed is my bugbear. I know I shouldn't put it on the compost heap, but when weeding pretty much everything goes into the barrow.

A possible solution to pernicious weeds, and maybe your chickeed too?, is to drown them in a bucket of water for a couple of weeks and then chuck the lot on the compost heap.

I have a ongoing project of heating compost up in a steel drum which is sat over a fire which is in a metal bust bin with a chimney lid on that works OK and I use it for  seed compost

How much do you have to make?  Would microwaving it be an alternative?  I think if it "burns" over the fire it will be a different material?  I have known folk use the burnt soil under a bonfire as "sterilised soil" but all the humus in it has been burnt too, and I wonder if that has robbed some of its potential?

[Trillium]

At what temp does a cold compost become hot? I have regular layers of garden/kitchen on top of grass mixed with shredded paper,about 50/50 and that gets hot.

When you see steam, it's 'hot'. I know there's an 'official temperature' reading somewhere but who really cares? As long as there's steam, it's cooking and doing a faster job.

Like Kristen, the turning over part is very hard work and I do it only once a season. It's when I separate the mostly composted parts from partly composted from 'who threw this fresh stuff in here!!' parts.