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| Don't laugh... I'm taking this composting thing way too seriously. I'm hesitant to throw anything in my garbage anymore. LOL.
Can I compost...
+ Bread & crackers that are stale or I don't want? + Table scraps from meals (cooked food - all kinds, pasta, vegetables, etc. (no meat though!)? + And what's the controversy over tomatoes, tomatoes stems/plants, potatoes, onions & garlic... Set me straight... do I or don't I dare? :) Thanks in advance for tolerating me! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| All cardboard boxes are fine. Not sure about anything with a photo on it(cereal box). You are right, everything, but meat, grease, some persons do not do milk & cheese. Tomatoes could have a viral disease, I never had that problem. I never had BER or early & late blight ether. So what do I know about it. Garlic & onions I compost with all other table scrapes,coffee & tea grounds, egg shell.. But a few other will give you more details on you post. NOTE: there is a WHOLE thread on how egg shells will NOT help your garden, but I think it is better then putting them in the land fill. |
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| "Can I compost... + Empty boxes from the pantry (cereal, granola, crackers, etc.) or is the ink bad for the pile?" Since they held food, there are strict rules on what the inks can contain. They're safe to compost. "+ Bread & crackers that are stale or I don't want?" If I ever composted bread, I would never let annpat know. In theory, bread should compost because it is made of wheat etc. But it really grosses annpat out, so if you do compost it, pretend you didn't if annpat is in the vicinity. "+ Table scraps from meals (cooked food - all kinds, pasta, vegetables, etc. (no meat though!)?" In some cases, I've even composted meat. I will usually only do it if I know I'll be able to have a hot compost pile, and I always make sure I cover it with plenty of high carbon matter to keep it from stinking. |
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| I work by the old truism 'If it's lived, it can live again'. The only thing I avoid is petrochemical products. And that's a pretty relaxed 'avoid', since I keep a bucket beside my compost to drop plastic that's been through the pile in. So without getting too pedantic about the origins of oil, I compost anything that was at one point a carbon-based lifeform. I'm not worried about disease, rodents or chemical residues, and everyone has to do whatever leaves them feeling good. |
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| Pretty much what Feijoas said, anything that once lived. There are some caveats...no polygonum cuspidatum rhizome or other hard-to-eradicate invaders; using meat scraps or roadkill require at minimum a cubic yard pile; some C sources require finesse with construction ratios to get proper reaction. I'm no longer fussy about constant turning, so some of the seeds mentioned in the OP volunteer in the spring, a great source of transplants. |
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| No bread or crackers, in case you have neighbors of refined sensibilites. The rest is fine. |
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- Posted by curtludwig New England (My Page) on Tue, Mar 29, 11 at 17:29
| I'm a compost commando, I compost EVERYTHING. If it was ever alive it goes in the compost. We compost all our paper (saves me running it to the recyclers) and all our food scraps, even the thanksgiving turkey goes into the pile. That said my pile gets cycled once a year so theres lots of time for any pathogens from the meat to die out. Occasionally a turkey bone (those darned drumsticks) makes it through, I just sift it out and toss it back in the pile for another year. |
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| LOL...I don't know why I find the ban on bread and crackers funny, but I do. What's the story with that Annpat? Should I not be laughing. Don |
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| Do you find planarians laughable, Don? Does sog crack you up, Don? Does making your children and wife sick to their stomachs every time they go out to the pile make you smile, Don? Of course the answer to all of that is "No!" So, yes, you should not be laughing. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Planarian discovering a cracker in the compost pile
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| Anyone of refined sensibilites will not open Annpat's planarian link. Almost put me off ever even eating bread again, never mind composting it! I think the planarians in my compost got cooked tho. ;-( |
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| I've fallen for annpat's trick links before. This one didn't get me though. annpat, I want you to know how much you have influenced my life. My kid was scraping her plate into the compost bowl and stopped to ask if it was okay to put noodle's in there. I answered her, "Of course, because it's in a noodle's nature to be soggy." She looked at me like I'd lost my mind. I just smiled. |
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| momstar! You made me laugh! I'm thrilled to be in your head sometimes. luckygal, you, too. About cooking planarians, though...we'd all hope so, right? I'm always worried they're going to locate a cool wheat spot. |
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| Ya know, every time this planarian subject comes up, I realize that many forum readers would wish to know the following: Reproduction is principally by fragmentation at the posterior end. Lateral margins pinch in about 1 cm from the tail tip. Severance occurs when the posterior fragment adheres to the substrate and the parent worm pulls away. The posterior fragment is motile immediately, and within seven to 10 days a lightly pigmented head begins to form. One to two fragments are released each month. Is that cool, or what? I mean, if it was a whole big box of like stale doughnuts left over from the office Christmas Party were tossed in the compost, there'd be a planaria in each doughnut (beginning with a single, robust planarian) in about 36 hours. |
Here is a link that might be useful: more than you'd ever want to know
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| OMG! I've felt so alone all these years, but not now! It's such a relief to have you three people join me in educating the ignorant. (No offense.) |
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| Wow! If that's a creature formed by pulling its head from its a$$, there's a lot more of them than I thought. |
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