Is there one vegetable you don't compost? The one vegetable I don't put in my pile is avocado. The rinds take forever to break down and the pits sprout. Is there anything you don't compost as a rule?

My rule for composting is if it can be composted It will be compost. I like it when the seed sprout that means thay won't sprout in my garden.

Hi & welcome!

Sprouting stuff = more material to compost. If it's something like avocado that would be killed over winter, no effort to uproot is even needed, just let it "melt" back into the compost.

Corn cobs are the only thing from the realm of kitchen scraps that I'm aware won't decompose in a timely manner (within a year.) I still put them in though, they help augment the mulch though I'd not leave them laying in a front yard bed, just in the back.

Tomatoes, because the seeds germinate everywhere, and raw potatoes, because they'll usually sprout. Banana peels take a long time to break down but my worms in the bin love them and don't leave much behind.

Well, egg shells aren't vegetables, but I stopped composting egg shells when I saw them unchanged after what seemed like months. Big, glare-white egg shells.

If I did compost them again, I would grind them small before putting them in my jar.

I hoard my eggshells instead of putting them in the compost pile. Crush them in a plastic bag with an old rolling pin and scatter them throughout the beds before putting down leaf mulch. I know they take forever to break down but they're not visible under mulch. Some also go to the worm bins but I really pulverize them first.

I leave tomatoes out, to avoid the seeds and because my plastic tumbling composter for sure didn't heat up enough to kill disease and I can't be sure my big bin will heat up that much everywhere.

I was putting my compost through the chipper to deal with stuff like avocado, corncob and eggshells, but I'm now composting in a giant bin on the ground and if there are worms in there I wouldn't be able to bear chipping some of them. That barrel composter got stinky, though, so I'd rather have the bin.

My compost bin doesn't heat up enough to kill off seeds or pathogens because it sits at the back of my wooded lot.
Wow - so there's a downside to the compost tumbler? Have never had one but think about it from time to time.

I think a compost tumbler is a waste of money. I bought one a long time ago and spent over 4 hundred dollars on it. And never got the amount of compost out of it that I get out of my bin. I can get 4-5 wheel barrows twice a year out of my bin. And maybe a five gallon bucket out of my tumbler. Now I just put vines in the tumbler they are to hard it stir in my bin.

I don't like having critters going though the compost for food so the tumbler was a quick way to get a second secure bin, so I could let the stuff in the first bin age. It heats up some but not as crazy as my new giant bin. I drilled additional holes in the plastic so it would drain better but it's still kind of an anaerobic composter. If someone needed a critter-secure composter and wasn't handy I'd still recommend the one I got, which was less than $200

In all honesty, I haven't done a lot with my compost bin this year. Most of the fruit and veggies go to the worm bin and I've been experimenting with the chop and drop method this year. In the "wild" part of the garden, I left last fall's leaves in place as an experiment in weed control. If I pull weeds, I put them into a pile off to the side so that I'm not introducing even more weed seeds that won't be killed off by lack of heat in the pile. I also bagged shredded leaves for mulch last fall so there weren't a lot that went into the bin. Will focus this fall on getting more leaves into the bins for compost (well, really leaf mold) for next year.

The tumblers will definitely keep the critter's out. When I go out to stir mine I can see where a skunk or Raccoon has dug. I never see them in it. But I can tell they've been there.

Bet that compost tumbler is a big lure for the critters. And I thought raccoons knew how to get into everything.

I bet if I put a cantaloupe or some old peaches in the tumbler Mr Raccoon will find a way to get in it.

I try not to put many fruits into compost because of the critters. Banana peels and some other fruits go into the worm bin. I had some wrinkly cherries that I put out under the bird feeder and the squirrels scarfed those up. Yup, I feed birds all year. I like to make sure they'll stay in my area to eat mosquitoes in the summer. But I only put fruit or stale baked goods out in the morning so that it's gone by nightfall and won't attract raccoons or possums. Luckily, haven't seen a skunk in my yard but have seen a red fox from time to time.

Uhm nope, pretty much anything goes in there

I compost anything that was at some point, a plant. This includes pasta, citrus peels, breads, peanut butter, chips, humus... anything rotten in the fridge that isn't meat or cheese (although I do throw fish skins in occasionally). Avocados, corn cobs, sticks, those all do take awhile, but I sift my compost before putting it into the garden, so big stuff just goes back into the compost to break down for another few months.

I love composting, between that and recycling, our trash is significantly reduced.

Great avatar, ReesaAnne.

skunkywintergreen said:Is there one vegetable you don't compost? The one vegetable I don't put in my pile is avocado. The rinds take forever to break down and the pits sprout. Is there anything you don't compost as a rule?

I never compost my tomato plants. Tomatoes are prone to so many fungal diseases that it is safest just to bag the plants and put out in the trash. Or one could burn them if your out in the country and burning is legal.

RickCorey said:Great avatar, ReesaAnne.

Thanks! We grew 2 varieties of cherry tomatoes last year (3 if you count the one in the middle, Pink Vernissage. it's kind of a large cherry). The purple one is Blue Berries Tomato from Baker Creek and the orange/red one is from some saved seed (maybe a sun gold or wild cherry?) This year we're adding Hssiao His Hung Shih and Black Cherry.