Last year I had Black Soldier Fly larvae in my compost. Was pretty excited about that actually. Maybe I’ll build some specific compost bin to attract them this year.
That’s so cool! I’ve taken care of cabbage loopers three times now, and it’s so cool to see them do their thing. My fiancée is not a fan though since both her and the caterpillars love our Swedish ivies lol
Probably, because only two of them decimated a whole plant here. They’re hungry little buddies, so much so that I actually captured them and keep feeding them with veggies leftovers lol
Proper composting not only destroys seeds, it also kills pathogens like e. coli and salmonella while even breaking down things like diesel and TNT.
There’s a ton of misinformation about composting and I think the central cause is that multiple decomposition methods that produce different results are all lazily called composting by lay people.
As an example, composting uses biological heat produced by thermophilic microorganisms (mostly bacteria) to destroy pathogens etc. and which eat the material to produce compost. Worms, used in vermiculture, do not raise the temperature, have much less success destroying pathogens, and produce worm castings, which are physically distinct from compost and typically sell for around 10x the price.
I’ve even seen discussions where people think that fire, which produces ash, is compost. Like… you can see a pile of compost, and a pile of ash, and literally can’t tell the difference? Add water (and oxygen) to compost and you’ll get compost tea for plants and trees. Add water to ash and you’ll get lye used in drain cleaner products. They are not the same.
I am surprised a city would have a rule against seeds. Their industrial composting should be good enough to kill seeds. That said, boiled seeds should be super dead.
I am curious- what veggie scraps you use that have seeds?
Bell peppers (“paprika” outside the N.America) and butternut squash (I toss the slimy sludge with seeds into the freezer scrap bag which then eventually goes into the veg stock).
Assuming you’re bringing your stock to a boil before reducing to a simmer, thirty minutes ought to be more than enough time to kill the seeds in your vegetable scraps.
Technically, proper composting itself should be hot enough to kill off any seeds. Boiling should definitely be good enough. My guess is they don’t want people just loading up the compost with weedy yard waste
Right, but the city also requires people to separate food waste from garden waste. I’m not sure why, because I would expect both kinds of waste to be going to the same place. Garden waste would be full of stems (I haven’t read those rules on that), but stems that would turn into clones are probably less common in food waste.
Just to be sure, your pile is directly on the actual soil? Second, how are the moisture levels? In my pile, I noticed an increase in worms when I things were wetter than they were before. Depending on your setup that might be tricky to control. But moreover, time. In the first months I hardly spotted any worms in my pile. After say two years, there are plenty. Never added them myself, they just found the party.
My pile is on the soil (I actually have two right now, but I’m referring to the main one). It just rained not too long ago so the pile is decently wet as of now, but I think it generally stays at a decent moisture level. I try to aim for the wrung out towel level recommended by the infographic on the main page.
Sounds good to me. I wouldn’t sweat it and just give it more time. You have a somewhat decent balance of greens and browns? Not trying to compost a humongous amount of orange peels?
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