is it ok to have lots of acorn and pecans in your compost? --
acorns, pecans
I have avocado pits in mine - they sprout easily from the warmth.
The squirrels have taken to burying peanuts in one of the piles. (Roasted nuts???)
Will the acorns/pecans sprout? And if so - would they be hard to pull out?
I use my neighbor's oak leaves and they come with lots of acorns. Sometimes they'll sprout and grow little oak trees in the bin, but they're easily removed. I don't consider them a problem.
Anything that grows in the compost is easy to remove because the compost is such a loose material. It's not like you're digging a sapling taproot from hard clay earth.
Karen
ok--that is what i wanted to know--i just didn't want to spread out my compost and then have tree sprouts to dig out all summer long!! i already fight with little tree sprouts and ivy that pop up everywhere! i will go ahead and not worry since i can pull any out easily
When your pile temperature gets up to 140 arena the seed will be cooked for sure. Do try and get there for several days with each pile.
ok--i guess i should get a thermometer
I have a bag of old pecans I want to dump in my pile. I may crack them first to make them smaller.
Dean_W
i have so many pecans under our tree that i guess i should throw them in the compost--they are too small to eat
We have been harvesting pecans like mad. They are lovely this year. I'll include some with my homemade jams and jellies for my non gardening yuppie buddies. LOL
What about your gardening non-yuppie (well, maybe a little bit) friends??? Huh? Huh?
Well, I'll have to see what I can do........grin What's your preference?
Home-made jams and jellies with pecans!
Hey, I'm not picky!!!!
>grin<
But I am teasing you.
Well, now, you never can tell, evil grin
I'll be starting my compost pile and planting my hardwood trees next spring. Acorns & pecans are OK to compost. What about hickory nuts, hazelnuts and pine cones? Anything toxic I need to worry about? I know the walnuts have juglone and probably aren't for the pile -- but I won't be planting them anyway.
Newbie looking for advice from some seasoned veterans...
Sandy
Only black walnuts are aleopathic, so it's not a really good idea to add them to the compost, the other nuts should do fine. I would imagine the same thing for pine cones, maybe those would need be shredded to break down faster. Can one of y'all that deal with those clarify that?
As I was driving around today, I spotted 5 bags of leaves by the curb. I was excited and couldn't figure out why they were still there because they had been there the other day, too. Leaves at the curb usually don't last the night, haha. I looked inside, and they were full of sweet gum balls. Even I draw the like somwhere and sweet gum balls are over that line. 5 bags from one tree and there were still lots swinging up there. Does anyone put them in their garden or compost?
Whats aleopathic? Sweet gum balls - are you talking candy?
Thank you for the answer on the hickory and hazelnuts. They will stay on my 'to plant' list. I just put in a sweet gum this fall -- couldn't resist -- it's a beautiful variegated cultivar. It hasn't produced any sign of gumballs. Certain they'll be coming sooner or later. Or I could always hope for a sterile tree LOL! But since I knew what I was getting into I can't complain.
I assume Cathy, you won't put them into your compost just because they are obnoxious to touch. Not because of any toxicity issue.
Sandy
~ Chuckling and feeling a little better about dragging a trailer full of bagged leaves home from her parents since her own yard has nary a one ~
I was watching where I was going walking into work, but looked up to say hi to a friend. One stinkin' little gumball must have fallen just then and wham, down I went, broke my ankle rolling on it. Tore my dress in two places, I know people saw my underwear, sprained my wrist, missed work and then spent a few weeks in a wheelchair because I couldn't use crutches with only one hand. Any gumball lands in my yard goes into the fire pit. The only good gumball is a burned gumball, hahahaha.
rotfl! i know it wasn't funny at the time i'm sure. i just picture charlie chaplin being the friend you said hi to.
my guess would be that there's gonna be a lot of forests growing in a lot of compost pits.
lol. or anywhere the compost is spread. that little extra heat ought to help break down the shells and allow the seeds to germinate quicker. why some pines even require fire in their germination.
Oh Cathy, so sorry! Gumballs will not be mentioned again! And hey, if my tree ever produces them, I'll toss them in the firepit in your honor :)
We have a few around here, I'm not crazy about them either.
Dean, aleopathic means the tree produces a "toxin" that will kill or severely damage other plants. Black Walnuts are one, you have to be careful what you plant with them. Magnolias are another that don't play nicely with their "neighbors" of another specie.
i love my sweet gum--so pretty in the fall-but it didn't do well this summer and i fear it might not make it--those bag worms were terrrible--but my sweetgum story is when my son vacummed one from the bottom of the pool and it stuck in the pipe--someone had to come out with a big machine and blow it out! 75 dollars! so i am not crazy about them either--i did see them sprayed gold once and used in a christmas centerpiece which was pretty
The rest of the story is my dear friends at work put gumballs in new places every day for the rest of the school year. I received decorated balls, balls in my mailbox, they snuck balls into my lunch box, gumballs as dangle earrings for Christmas...
pretty funny! when we lived in another house we planned to put in a sweet gum and the next door neighbor said they would not like that at all!!! so we didn't