[bazh]

Has anyone ever tried composting perennial weed roots using Ammonium sulphamate as a compost accelerator.?

I'm guessing it would kill off any roots but you'd have to layer it with the compost material to get the full effect from it. I'm also guessing it would kill the seeds as well?

Anyone any experience?

[Goosegirl]

Never tried it but I would guess that the resultant compost would make an ideal growth medium. Unless the roots are really well-dried out, I would bin or bag them - the amount of compost to be gained from them probably isn't worth the risk.

[Trillium]

I wouldn't bother either because perennial roots generally tend to be so hardy that they would simply start growing again in the compost bin matter and use the A.S. to feed on.

The easiest way to use perennial roots is to submerge them in a bucket of water and hold them down with a big rock or such. Leave for at least a month and you'll have a lovely liquid fertilizer which you can use on veg and such. But don't keep adding fresh roots and expect a liquid. Start another bucket for a fresh batch. Perennial roots contain loads of nutrients and can be reclaimed this way. Learned this tip from a Bob Flowerdew book.

[bazh]

Never tried it but I would guess that the resultant compost would make an ideal growth medium. Unless the roots are really well-dried out, I would bin or bag them - the amount of compost to be gained from them probably isn't worth the risk.

The problem being I have 2 big compost bins full of a mixture of decent compost material and perennial weeds, roots and most likely seeds and need to find a way of turning it into usualble compost.

Another option would be fresh horse manure and layer it with the existing stuff hoping the heat kills them off.

[Trillium]

Fresh manure will kill a lot of stuff, but in future it would be worth it to simply not put in any weed seeds. I always cut off the seed heads and root ends off all weeds before composting. The seed heads can be burned or binned, the roots put into the water bucket to reuse as liquid fertilizer.

[bazh]

I wouldn't bother either because perennial roots generally tend to be so hardy that they would simply start growing again in the compost bin matter and use the A.S. to feed on.

The easiest way to use perennial roots is to submerge them in a bucket of water and hold them down with a big rock or such. Leave for at least a month and you'll have a lovely liquid fertilizer which you can use on veg and such. But don't keep adding fresh roots and expect a liquid. Start another bucket for a fresh batch. Perennial roots contain loads of nutrients and can be reclaimed this way. Learned this tip from a Bob Flowerdew book.

Thanks Trillium I know about drowning them but because of them being mixed with other material it's not really an option, Ammonium sulphamate is useful in controlling tough woody weeds when an ingredient in weedkillers, so just wondering if anyone has experience of it's effectivness when used as a compost activator.

[Trillium]

I've used activators in the past, but unless you are diligent in turning over the whole bin every 2 weeks, then your compost simply won't get hot enough to cook weed seeds, perennial roots, etc. And activators don't work by themselves; you must do the turning on the same, very regular basis. At this time of year, it'll get harder and harder to keep compost piles really hot, and you'd need to turn them weekly, if not biweekly.

This is where a lot of folk are mistaken; activators only help but are not the sole remedy.

[bazh]

May give the fresh manure option a try much cheaper and guaranteed heat.