Yes, you can. They can't survive once removed from the plant or if the plant is pulled up. I wouldn't dump hundreds of them in all at once though. ;)

Dave

WOW! I was just going to post on this very topic, and do it as a warning. A few weeks ago, right after a soaking rain, I was out "popping" dandelions out of the ground right and left. Like you, I was worried about putting them in my compost, but was assured by this forum that there was "no problem". Now, no hard feelings here, but I opened both my bins today, and they were just COVERED with mature seed heads for dandelions. I was horrified! It was clear to me that the plants I had put in there must have continued to mature until the seed head were ready. There is no other explanation. They were the last thing to go into my compost. Needless to say, I did my best to get them all out!

I also noticed that after I sprayed the dandelions in my courtyard with Round Up, they also continued to develop seed heads, even while the plant was dying. Twice I ran around and cut down all those fluffy heads so I wouldn't "seed" more plants than I had just tried to kill off.

Someone else in the forum said she always let the plant lay out in the sun until she was sure it was dead before she put it in the compost. I am going to take that approach in the future. I am only lucky I caught these seed heads while they were still connected enough to the stem to be removed fairly easily from the compost -- otherwise I'd have ended up with millions of weed seeds in my compost!

Has anyone else had this experience?
MacThayer

Once the dandelion flower is pollinated the seeds, viable sees, will continue to develop. You can compost them if you put them deep into the middle of your compost pile where the bacteria are most active and it is dark so the seeds (which do need sunlight to germinate) cannot get sunlight and therefore will not germinate.

but I opened both my bins today

Closed bins, Mac Thayer? Yeah, good point. You can do lots of things easier and more safely with open bins or piles that you can't do if you use some sort of closed bin or tumbler system - one reason why I've never seen much point to them - too many do and don't rules. ;)

But if you religiously turn or mix it in, even in the closed system they should be no problem.

Dave

Or, if compost is not hot, just remove the blossoms or seed heads and trash them then add the rest of the plant to the compost. I often do this when my compost is cold.

Karen

Yes, I was using closed bins. But I do wish someone had warned me! I mean, I ASKED and no one said anything about making sure the pile was hot, or that they will continue to develop if pollinated. It was just "no problem" -- go ahead and add them. Sorry, I don't mean to sound angry or upset, but I could have ended up with thousands of weed seeds in my compost! I'm not taking any more chances. I'm just not putting any more dandelion "flowers" in the compost. MacThayer

ANY seeds can survive cold compost, not just weeds. You need it hot to kill seeds.

Karen

MacThayer,

Yes, I've seen that. I've pulled all their flowering heads off and left them in a pile, and the next time I looked, they had all turned into fluffy seed heads.

But I still put them in the compost, flowers and fluffy seed heads and all. Some people think that seeds will either be killed by the hot temps of a good compost pile, or they will survive a compost pile, waiting to be put in your garden so they can sprout.

I think there is a third thing that happens to many/most seeds: they just rot. What happens if you plant corn or squash or watermelon seeds too early in moist soil? They rot, don't they? Now, why would it just be crop seeds that rot under cool, moist conditions?

Granted, there are things I don't put in my compost piles, mainly because they MIGHT survive: bindweed seeds and plant parts (esp roots), ivy and gopher purge come first to mind.

I used to cut the seed heads off everything. Now I don't bother with most of them. Some yes, but mostly not.

Sue

Dandelions are your friend! I love 'em, and they're there for a reason. They'll move along when the conditions in your yard change naturally and make them feel less at home...

Some reading...

Dandelions can be beneficial to a garden ecosystem as well as to human health. Dandelions attract beneficial ladybugs and provide early spring pollen for their food. In a study done at the University of Wisconsin, experimental plots with dandelions had more ladybugs than dandelion free plots, and fewer pest aphids, a favorite food of the ladybugs. Dandelions long roots aerate the soil and enable the plant to accumulate minerals, which are added to the soil when the plant dies.

And of course, kids have so much darn fun with them!

I was reading recently in Organic Gardening that fast, hot composting kills most weed seeds. Also, slower, colder composting kills most weed seeds. If you don't have the high temperature it takes longer to compost, but the effect is the same. It was the time period that was critical, I think it was about 5 months of composting that was supposed to do in weed seeds regardless of the temperature.

We put dandelions in our compost quite often. The main thing I get growing all over my gardens in my compost/soil is tomatoes, and to a lesser extent melons. I don't get many dandelions coming up in my gardens, and the few that do I attribute to the seeds blowing in. Perhaps because dandelion seeds are so small they fall victim to composting quite quickly?

The fact that you spray dandelions with Roundup shows that you are overly frightened of them. Back when I lived in a 'nice' suburb we had neighborhood girls ask us if they could pick our dandelions to play with, because they didn't have any in their yards. I felt sorry for them! I remember spelling out "Happy Mothers Day" with dandelions when I was a kid, I had no idea they were plants to be hated and feared!

Marcia

Dandelion Greens are great, Ive transplanted several in our garden and they make beautiful plants. We pick the leaves to mix in with our our greens, even lambsquarter and poke.The leaves keep comming out the blooms are good in salads. The greens are really high in in calcium and other nutrients.Dandelions are also one of the earliest plants to bloom making them a benefical food for bees and other insects.

There is research that tends to show any "weed" seed in compost will be killed, if that seed is buried in the pile where it is deprived of the sunlight those seeds need to germinate. If a "weeds" roots are also buried, deeply, in a compost pile they too may well die, however some are known to grow in that environment so due care is needed with viable roots. Just throwing "weeds" on top of the compost and expecting any seeds to die is not someting that is going to happen.

O.K. I feel much better now. Thanks. And by the way, the only reason I did the Round Up "thing" with the dandelions was because I was sick this spring, and they just got ahead of me in the courtyard. I only sprayed the courtyard, where they were growing in the mulch around my raised beds. I tried to dig them all out, and got a whole lot of them on one day after a soaking rain, but I also just ended up exhausted. There were too many of them. I don't like to use Round Up. Especially since it means I can't put the results in the compost! That means good stuff going to waste. But it couldn't be helped this year. Sigh! Gotta do what you gotta do. Thanks for all of the wonderful and useful information -- as usual! What would I do without the Garden Web family?! You're terrific! MacThayer

My lawn has a lot of dandilions. With 10 acres to care for, lawn is just what grows betweent the trees.

I mulch with the lawn clippings, dandilion heads and all. There are no dandilions growing in my garden. You need a combo of moisture, light and contact with soil to get germination. The mulch eliminates at least one of these at any given point. I think dandilions are not near as prolific as those big fluffy, o so noticable seed heads make them appear to be.

Kay

I'm constantly pulling weeds, and I throw them all in the compost bin. But I leave the dandelions alone. They attract honeybees. They're pretty, unlike most weeds, and next year I intend to collect them before they go to seed and try my hand at dandelion wine.

Can I compost just the greens not the flower? I have a breaded dragon who eats them so when I buy them in the market they have no flowers?

You may compost just the greens and not the flowers, or roots, if that is what you wish to do.

I'm sure that was just a typo but I got a chuckle out of visualizing what a 'breaded dragon' looks like. :-D

Thanks for clarifying that Tox, I read JustTheMa 's post several times and was trying hard to get the joke, but failed to and was really disappointed.

I still don't understand the post, what's up with a dragon and buying dandelions in the market I don't know, but now I feel less frustrated ;-)

It may just be my dyslexia showing but I read that as Bearded Dragon.

My eyes 'auto-corrected' it too :-)

Francoise, a bearded dragon is a reptile commonly kept as a pet.

Do I get it properly :

JustTheMa has a dragon (does it blow fire through its mouth ?) which itself has a beard.

This dragon feeds on flowers from dandelions.

JustTheMa goes to a market where blooming dandelions are sold. He brings his bearded dragon pet with him.

The greedy dragon eats the flowers of the dandelions that are offered for sale on the market stalls. Naughty little pet !

Obviously dandelions sellers don't dare preventing a dragon from ruining their blooming dandelions (for fear of being burnt to death ?)

So they shout rude words and threaten the dragon's owner, poor JustTheMa. Hence he must buy the dandelions whereas they have no flower left.

So JustTheMa has now many dandelion leaves which are useless since he doesn't eat them and his dragon only eats their flowers (already has).

Hence JustTheMa wants to know whether he can compost the leaves of the dandelions he was forced to buy because his dragon ruined them by eating their flowers.

At last I got it ! Took me a long time to brain-process a little post of just 2 lines !

JustTheMa, I don't see why you couldn't compost the greens from the dandelions.

However, if it is a problem for you to have so many greens from the dandelions, I would suggest to stop bringing your dragon to the market.

Personally, I wouldn't mind having so many dandelion leaves to compost, but I would be pretty mad to waste my money again and again because my pet couldn't help stuffing his face with flowers !