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Shredding Vegetables
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Posted by
Adam7422 9B (
My Page) on
Tue, Mar 27, 12 at 19:54
| A local fruit & vegetable stand gives me one or two large boxes of vegetables & fruit every day to add to my compost pile but it is not chopped or shredded. Is there an easy way to chop this type of wet vegetation including oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, etc? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| I don't have a shredder, I use a sharp hoe after I dump it in my pile. The worst thing for me is peaches... Those pits won't chop... lol |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| A flat square-ended shovel should chop it up easily. The fruit could be put in a 5-gal. bucket or large tub for chopping. If you are using this much old fruit, then I suspect that the pile is quite large and gets up to composting tempertures quite easily. You probably don't even need to chop the fruit. |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| I suspect you are asking because you've not had much success with your pile heating up. If you're just starting out, the first thing I'd do is see if they'll decompose on their own (be sure to add "browns" to the pile). Some ideas on a food shredder:
1. brush shredder
2. lawnmower
3. string trimmer w/brush blade
4. shovel/hoe
5. tiller |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| I wouldn't bother chopping them. That stuff should break down very quickly. Just bury it deep in the pile or the bugs and stench will be bad. |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| 6. $10 garden machete and an old tree stump. |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| For a couple of years I hauled a few hundred pounds of bok choy and other veggies out of a food store dumpster (with permission). The bok choy did not require much reduction before putting in a large compost pile. I avoided larger and dryer fruits and veggies which took more work. Surprising how many hundred pounds of stuff can can put into a subcompact hatchback. Some options depend on your location, local regulations, neighbors, etc. One cannot run over plastic bags of material with a car as easily in a 'burb as one can in a rural location. Other options depend on your garden, space, soil, and machinery available. In the winter when no compost pile has a nice hot core; I bury my kitchen wastes in a pre-dug hole sometimes. Other times I pop a plastic container in the small downstairs freezer for a few weeks until the weather warms up a bit. This year I am trying two new (to me anyway) ideas. German mound, and bokashi buckets. |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| The only ones that need to be chopped are the citrus - they tend to petrify. Just hack them in half to expose the pulp. The others will rot just fine in the compost heap without any chopping. They'll rot as easily there as they do in your kitchen. |
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| Over on another forum, an adventurous vermiculturist set up an old garbage disposal outdoors to grind waste for his worms. Here's a video of his unit. |
Here is a link that might be useful: outdoor disposal for shredding
RE: Shredding Vegetables
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| ha ha coach g that's awesome... Thanks for sharing |
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