How much value are over cooked veggies and fruits,

to the compost pile? We all know that over cooking ruins the food value of foods, and white flour has no nutrients in it. That all being so, of what value are these items to the compost pile? Or are they just soil 'conditioners'? Are we literally starving the poor worms who eat this stuff? And how do they add nutrients to the soil to be passed on to the plants grown in them?

We never add refined flour to our compost, nor do we add cooked veggies, unless they are without added salt or butter. I really don't think processed foods are a good idea, although we have added such things as old iguana feed, etc.

Old iguana feed? This is very specific.

Really made me laugh

This message was edited Nov 2, 2007 6:20 PM

Didn't someone say that the worms don't actually feed on the material in the pile so much as the microbes that grow on the decaying material? If so then bread and such should still supply them with nutrients as it rots and add that extra little bulk to the pile as well. After all, what rots faster than moldy bread? Or is there something else in the bread that would be bad for the compost?

Although the title sounds weird, I highly recommend reading "The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms" by Amy Stewart. Sounds pretty boring, but it is a fascinating read. It relates history of the study of worm activity going back to work done by Charles Darwin in the 1800s. Stewart relates her own findings on years of working with worms and puts everything in language easy to understand by the home gardener.

Worms actually eat some soil along with decomposing organic matter and it is mixed and chemically changed into a form of N easily used by plants. That form is found in the worm's feces which we call worm castings. Since I began mulching my planting beds with shredded leaves a few years ago, my worm population has exploded. I have networks of huge worm tunnels running through my beds. I did not quite grasp exactly how that was happening until I read this book.

I can't recommend that book highly enough. (I asked Santa for it last year, a wise move).

Karen

I've used leaves for mulch and tilled them into soil for additional nutients and conditioner for the soil.

Weezingreens,If you don't add the cooked fruits and veggies to the compost pile, just what do you do with them. Send them off to a landfill to feed rats & roaches? Sooner or later it does rot down, but of what value is it to the pile. I will make an effort to find and buy that book, Karen. There are other family members who will probably like to read it.

I put my leftover veggies in a container in the freezer, and when it is full, they all go into the big pot of veggie soup. You can also let it thaw out and wizz it in the blender for cream of veggie soup, I use a can of evaporated milk with the stuff from the blender and then doctor it up with needed spices or some cheese. Yummy on a cold day. Try it, you'll like it. I started doing this when we didn't have 2 nickles to rub together, nothing was wasted.

The iguana feed was a present from my step daughter who owns a little pet store. It was past its expiration date. I use coffee grounds, fish guts, egg shells, discarded fresh veggies, weeds from the garden, grass clippings (no weed & feed), decomposing leaves, and anything else that will break down easily, isn't 'meat', and isn't greasy. Our composting techniques and results may be quite different from warmer climates. Our summer days seldom get up to 70 F, as a rule, so it is a challenge to get the compost 'cookin'. I wouldn't presume to tell any of you how to compost in your area. And yes, much of the kitchen waste I consider goes to the landfill, I imagine. We do not have open pits, but rather, it is shipped over to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula where it probably ends up in the landfill. I would prefer that a rat or a roach got some nutritional value from it, but it is unlikely here... now, maybe a bear.

Cathy, here in Alaska, nothing is cheap, and a pot of soup is always welcome. We use most of our left overs for a pot of soup on a chilly day. I don't like to see food wasted, but it happens sometimes. It sure helps if you've got kids around... they can sure clean a fridge!

Even cooked veggies have some worthwhile qualities left. And, bottom line, it is more organic matter to rot and hold nutrients from other sources in the soil.

Another book which I found so valuable in learning about this stuff: "Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web" by Lowenfels and Lewis. . I learned a whole lot from that one too. I want to read it again, if I ever find time. That is probably the best garden book I've ever laid eyes on.

Karen

Again, we are limited by the temperature of our soil. We look for those things that will create heat as they decompose. Even straw is marginally successful in that it takes so long to break down. The same with branches, etc.

Weez: Because I made so many lasagna beds this year I ran out of leaves for my compost in early summer. I bought a bale of straw to have a source of browns, and it took forever to break down for me, too, even in our 100 degree temps this summer. It did lighten the compost well though. I began chopping the straw into smaller pieces to get it to break down faster, and that helped. I really prefer leaves though.

My biggest issue for composting this summer was the drought. Our rain deficit got to be a foot by late summer. That didn't help with the straw rotting, either, so it's hard to say whether it might have been different if we'd had decent rainfall.

Karen

Ceeadsalaskazone3 uses some of my straw from winter mulch on her compost, but I think she uses it for chicken bedding first. The chicken manure really heats up the compost, so it probably breaks down for her a lot better than for me. Our problem is usually just the opposite of yours, Karen. We get too much rain and the compost gets soggy. Consequently, we have built double bins with a fiberglass roof that lets in light, but not rain. My DH is the real compost controller, and he takes a hose out to the compost pile when it needs more moisture. You never hear the word drought around here. Being coastal, we see more rain than we care to. Our rivers are glacier fed, cold, and clear, unless the glacier silt is kicked up during the flood season. You are probably right about the straw aeriating the compost. We add enough leaves, etc, that I think it does the same thing. Our yard and woods are full of cottonwood, so I never lack leaves.

Have you tried putting the straw through a shredder first? That will allow it to be more dispersed in the heap - especially if you turn it in late winter.

Cathy, by the time I get it from the cafe' or throw out stuff from home it is no longer what one would want to put into soup. This is food that has been canned, cooked for an afternoon, sat in a steam table for hours, refrigerated, reheated, more hours on the steam table, then ends up in the garbage because whoever ordered the plate didn't eat all of it.

As for meat and the fat in it being bad in compost, what about the animals that die, decay and end up as part of the soil? The next year there is usually very lush vegetation at that spot.

I don't have a shredder that would handle straw without wrapping it around the blades, strings, etc. I usually use straw for mulch, and for all my beds, that requires ten or eleven bales that sell for over $10 a bale. This year, I've tried to use all cottonwood leaves, but now that snow has fallen, I'll be back to the local feed store for some straw to finish up. I've been taking the used straw down to Ceeadsalaskazone3 in the spring for her chickens. Once they break it down, it's not only shredded, but fertilized!

Up here, our compost is slow to heat and never really 'cooks'. By late winter, it is hybernating like the bears. We keep our kitchen waste in 5 gallon buckets on the porch. When they start to thaw in the spring, my DH hauls them out to the compost pile and begins the process of layering with waste and last falls leaves. Once things green up, we can add weeds and grass clippings, as well.

As I said before, leaflady, our composting situation is probably much different than yours. If your compost gets hot enough, it will probably break down anything. Ours does not. When I was a child in Indiana, our summers were hot, and I can recall my father hoeing coffee grounds, egg shells... even fruit rinds into the space between the rows. It always broke down.

I wonder if this bokashi composting/fermenting is worth considering with the cooked veg/meat material. Especially for those of you that have to hold things over for the winter - here's the link for an interesting article:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/109/

Very interesting. I'll show it to my husband.