[PennyS]

Evening All

Since last year I have been digging out all the couch grass, nettle roots etc etc from a virgin allotment.
  
We can't have bonfires on site so for the moment I've been putting all the stuff I've dug out, into a pallet-made compost bin.  Some of it has soil attached, I got as much as I could off it though.

I am in two minds how to finally dispose of it and could do with advice.  
Do I
(a) cover this over and try to ferry it bit by bit home to my brown bin or to the dump over winter or

(b) is there any chance that if I cover it all completely with black plastic, sides and all, it will eventually rot away and die down (and I'm thinking it's going to be way more than a year to do that but I could live with that if it saves having to move it!!).  

Many thanks.  Penny

[Beetroot queen]

we took all ours to the tip couch root isnt compostable so we were told, we have taken well over 100 bags and hubby takes all the soil off hes abit funny with things like that, waste not want not 

[PennyS]

Oh well, that's a job for the winter then!  It can stay where it is while I've got the rest of the digging to do and then we'll get rid of it bag by bag.

Thank you for the very helpful advice,
Penny

[Trillium]

Couch and nettles have very determined roots so best to bin them somehow. But nettle tops can be turned into a valuable liquid fertilizer. If you go up to the Search spot, and enter nettle tea, you'll find all sorts of threads on that.

[Jamie Butterworth]

I think it was in the diggers diary book, where he said he got advise to put it ll in a black plastic bag, leave it for a couple of years and when its done its good enough to sow seeds into. Thats what he said anyway

[Trillium]

The next question is, who wants a lot of black bags hanging around waiting for it to turn into compost?   

[compostqueen]

You can hide stuff if its on the plot, eg behind the shed, behind some shrubs etc    I used to chuck leaves and such like down my air raid shelter for a few years

I hate to lose anything from my plot especially if it's got soil on it. You can do the black bag thing or sink nasty weeds in a large water butt til it gives up growing and then finish it off in the compost bin, turfs can be turned upside down, covered and stacked in an out of the way corner to decompose. 

Most weeds are ok to put in the compost bin and you won't make compost if you cart all your stuff off to the dump 

[Carrotcake]

If it's a compost bin just for weeds, I would cover it over to exclude light, let it rot down and then dig out any persistent roots when you clear out the bin, which you can then dispose of off site. We have lots of rough ground that we're slowly reclaiming and I do something like this. Hopefully I'm letting the goodness from the rotted weed growth back into the soil and it means there is less weight when I come to do a tip run as it's easier to split the soil from the roots that survive 

[PennyS]

If it's a compost bin just for weeds, I would cover it over to exclude light, let it rot down and then dig out any persistent roots when you clear out the bin, which you can then dispose of off site. We have lots of rough ground that we're slowly reclaiming and I do something like this. Hopefully I'm letting the goodness from the rotted weed growth back into the soil and it means there is less weight when I come to do a tip run as it's easier to split the soil from the roots that survive 

That's the plan then!  I'll cover it all up and leave it for a year or so.  Then deal with it!  Hopefully can reclaim quite a lot and won't have to get rid of too much. 

Thank you all! 

[Trikidiki]

Touch wood, I've never had a major couch or bindweed problem.

It would seem to me that a way to deal with it if you can contain the roots is to let them grow. As soon as they have put on a reasonable amount of growth, hack them off, then let them regrow and repeat. The roots are going to deplete all their reserves without anything to feed from. Then compost them in sealed bags. They should be ready to use sooner and you will have more bulk of organic matter.

I like to seive my compost before I use it and can pick out anything that I don't want before it goes on the plot. Plastic, stones etc get discarded, twigs or brassica stems go back through the system again. I can also pick out anything like a sprouting dandelion root and chuck it back in the 'raw' compost bin to cycle through again until it gives up. This way all the weeds go through the bin rather than dumping as rubbish.

The seiving also prompts any annual weed seeds, that get through, to germinate before they get on the plot.

[Carrotcake]

Sorry Trikidiki, but I've never met any grass that dies off after being hacked back, let alone couch grass!

I don't think your idea would work for either couch or bindweed, although I have strimmed everything back to ground level in an area I'm not ready to use and then covered the area over to exclude light and left it for a few months. This halts growth and makes digging the roots out easier. If you do this, you do need to dig the weeds out as soon as you take the cover off otherwise you'll be back to square one

For Penny to use her plot this year, digging the perennial weeds out is the only way to go. I agree that sieving the resulting compost left in the weed bin is a good idea though.

[fletch]

Well I've just emptied a load of compost out of my dalek bin this morning (and what a fab feeling that is  ) and there's couch grass roots in there from 18 months ago  :blink:.

I've started bagging them up and putting them out with the rubbish, not very environmentally friendly I know, but I really don't want bags of rotting roots all over my plot.

I have found that if you let them dry out they do burn really well (an even better feeling  ), but that's no consolation to Penny S at the moment.

[diggerjoe]

I had same well still do have the same situation as PennyS I have no transport so getting weeds to the tip or carrying back home is out of the question. I managed to get a builders bag, one of those square ones, and i use this as the 'those that never die' weed bag rasied on a pallet it covers the sump drain on the corner of my plot. I put in here all the stuff I do not want on my good compost heap and cover it with several layers of thick plastic - if you pack it well you can get a lot in there and i stick a couple of courgette plants in the top in about 4 ins soil and get cougettes as a bonus.