Municipal compost and chemicals

[HawfinchParticipant]

Hi Charles and everybody,

I was just reading a blog where the person wrote about wanting to start a large composting business from used flowers. She is a flower decorator. But she had started getting reservations because of the pesticides and weedkillers they very probably have been sprayed with. I partially use municipal compost on my vegetable garden beds, and it occurred to me that couldn’t this also be a problem here? People can throw just about anything in their green waste bins, much or most of it is probably not organic waste, would/could this have an influence on the health of my soil and vegetables?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

[charlesModerator]

Yes this is a problem, but one cannot know how significant it may be.
One feature of municipal composting which reassures me is the high heat they achieve in heaps, through shredding and then constant turning. On the other hand this high heat does kill fungi too and other beneficial organisms, so the compost is a relatively inert organic matter.
At Lower Farm I stopped using it in the last three years but I have found it useful here to make new beds and for initial mulching.

[HawfinchParticipant]

Thank you, Charles. That is actually one of the other things I have wanted to ask ever since reading your excellent Myths and Misconceptions book. If municipal compost is rather inert, as you say, would you recommend spreading some other compost now as it is the kind of compost I spread on my established beds in autumn? Simply didn’t have enough of my own.

[charlesModerator]

Its still good to use, but is bringing few extra living elements. Spreading a little homemade compost, or compost of manure-origin, helps bring it to life, but soil organisms do that too, perhaps a little more slowly.

[LeifParticipant]

Last year I took grass cuttings from a lawn sprayed with selective weedkiller to the local tip. They said put them in the green waste. I refused, and explained why. They got quite arsey, and eventually pointed to the general waste bin. It MIGHT be alright in green waste., but they did not seem concernd. The makers say the second lot of cuttings can be composted, as long as the compost is 6 months old when used. So perhaps increased heat breaks down the chemicals. Or perhaps not.

[RandAParticipant]

We have used tons of the council free compost and whilst it has lots of woody bits the worms soon got to work and I just raked the sticks off, we also got loads of mushrooms sprout all over the veg beds last year after we had put down the compost so I am guessing they were a good sign, am I correct.
Ali

[HawfinchParticipant]

It sounds like it’s doing all right in your garden Ali. Yesterday I checked my veg patch, and in many places the thick layer of compost has almost disappeared, so I guess the worms and soil organisms didn’t mind too much. It has to be said that I did spread a good layer of composted manure under it at the time, so maybe that’s the reason why.

As far as the chemicals are concerned, the jury is still out for me, so I’ll be putting more effort into making my own compost which will be guaranteed to be without any chemicals.

Helle

[LeifParticipant]

RandA: Mushrooms are a sign that there is a lot of organic matter in the compost, that’s all. Some will be decomposing the wood in the compost, which is beneficial, breaking it down into humus. I don’t know if they remove anything from the compost which would otherwise benefit the plants. But Kew purposefully introduce some fungi, I think it is to control pests, maybe nematodes, which the fungi catch and digest.

[charlesModerator]

I like to see mushrooms and toadstools, all indicating healthy fungal life. Since fungi are often absent in municipal compost, from the high temperatures, its good when you see them after spreading it, showing healthy soil below.

[slasherParticipant]

Charles, are waste hops any good as compost for the garden .

[bluebellParticipant]

Slasher they have done a good job of surprising weeds around my raspberries

[slasherParticipant]

Thanks Bluebell I might give them a go .

[Author]

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