Compost Ingredients

urine

Nitrogen (2:1). Mix one part urine with two parts water before adding to pile. (Can also be added directly to pile, but your chances for problems with odor are less if you dilute first with water.) Adds nitrogen and potash. Includes human urine.

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vegetables

See Food Wastes

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vegetable oil

See Oils

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wallboard

In response to a reader's question on this, I spoke with Jim Doersam, the Composting Manager at Texas Organic Products who composts various wastes from construction sites. He said that manufacturers of mobile homes frequently use a type of wallboard that is vinyl on one side. That wallboard vinyl can NOT be composted. However, regular wallboard with paper on both sides definitely can be composted. In fact, he says it is made of calcium sulfate, i.e., gypsum, which is beneficial to your soil.

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walnuts

Most varieties of walnuts can be composted. However, see the caution about Black Walnuts.

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weeds

First of all, pull your weeds BEFORE they seed. Otherwise, you will have to prune from your weeds all seeds, rhizomes, and other reproducing parts. Most experts recommend that you do not put weeds which have gone to seed into your compost pile because the seeds will likely survive. When you spread your compost, you will be seeding your lawn and garden with seeds for the coming year. Rodale's book says that you can compost them if you carefully monitor the pile where they are to ensure that the temperature gets hot enough. Over 140 degree temperature is required to kill most weed seeds. It is safest not to compost them. Send them to the municipal recycling site.

Weeds spread in different ways. If you think about the way that a weed reproduces, it will assist you in your decision as to whether or not to put it in your pile. [A good primer on weeds appeared in Fine Gardening magazine's May/June 1996 issue (4 pgs.)] Also consider that if you are not building a hot compost pile, live weeds will probably continue to grow in your pile. Experts disagree as to whether the weeds' ability to reproduce is destroyed by the heat of the pile, but they all agree that hot piles are not uniformly hot. Unless the pile is monitored and turned in such a way that ALL weeds spend adequate time in the "hot spot" at the center, you can not be sure of the fate of your weed. If you have any doubts about a weed, don't include it. It is not worth seeding your garden with weeds as you spread your finished compost, then finding out you were wrong. Send weeds to the municipal recycling site.

Invasive weeds grow by sending roots or runners out below or just above the ground. Examples are Bermuda grass, bind weed, and white clover. Even shredding these types will not kill them. In fact, shredding them may just make them more plentiful, as they can reproduce from a small runner in adequate conditions. I have read one method of addressing these, but I have not tried it for myself so I cannot attest to its verity. If you spread weeds invasive weeds out on concrete or other pavement that becomes very hot, they will dry up. When thoroughly dried, they may be added to the compost pile.

Quack grass, Johnson grass, Sheep Sorrel and Canada thistle are examples of weeds that reproduce from small parts of rhizomes and should not be put into the compost pile. As these rhizomes break up, they simply have additional opportunities to create a new weed. Once again, I have heard of an anaerobic method of composting these weeds, but I have not yet tried it myself. The method is to close the weeds up in a black plastic sack, depriving them of oxygen and sunlight. Eventually, they should break down under the anaerobic composting process.

Other weeds and plants that have these characteristics include ivy, Morning Glory, Comfrey, Dallisgrass and crab grass. I have read one source that said the plastic sack method does not work on Morning Glory.

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wood chips

Carbon (500:1). Compost only in thin layers. Use a lot of nitrogen materials.

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woody wastes

Will compost over a year to two years. Chop before adding to pile, or use a separate bin just for long-term composting.

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yard trimmings

Compost if no chemical pesticides or fertilizers have been used. Large limbs may be put into a separate long-term composting bin as they will take 1 - 2 years to decompose. Also includes old plants, wilted flowers, small prunings.

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yogurt

Do not compost. See Dairy Products

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yogurt cups

Yougurt cups make excellent cutworm guards when the bottom is cutoff.

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