[Gleavo]

Sprouting like wild fire!

This is the domestic bin where most of the kitchen waste goes. They seem to be sprouting from old spud peelings. Is putting spud peelings in there a no go or am I not turning over enough? Just worried as this is just the compost i use in the garden not on the plot and i don't want to chuck it all over next year and find spud plants sprouting in my beds.

Before the smart alecs start about me getting free spuds amongst the hollyhocks - I've got a plot for veg!

Cheers
G

[arugula]

Hi Gleavo,

This is quite likely to happen when you compost potato peelings. You could either, not compost the peelings, remove the eyes and compost the rest of the peelings (fiddly) or just pull the potato plants which do sprout.

[JayG]

I also have a bin just for vegetable kitchen waste, and haven't had a problem with sprouting spud peelings (not compared with the seeds of some other veg, anyway!)

Good idea to turn the compost from time to time (a "folding V" stirrer is helpful) and make sure it is all kept moist; they should rot pretty quickly.

[Fisherman]

Winter frosts will probably kill off the potatoes and other seeds in the compost heap epecially if you turn it regularly. If it freezes hard as last year it will kill them irrespective of turning it.

[mumofstig]

I find that peelings that are put in there through the spring and summer, get killed by the heat in the bin.
The later compost doesn't seem to get as hot and the peeling grow again so once the weather starts to cool off I don't add them. I suppose turning the heap encourages it to heat up...but I'm too lazy

[galen]

I picked the tip up from someone on here when I first joined of freezing the peelings before adding to the kitchen compost. Overnight in the freezer does what frosts do to your spuds I suppose

[Zippy]

Eat the skins - job done!