Composting Weeds

The virus lockdown has given allotment plot holders a taste of exercise in the form of weeding and we have one of our reception bins full of weeds. These are a mix of perennial and annual weeds so they are  not suitable for cold composting without sorting by hand which will take to much time and effort. Which means in this blog we will be looking at different ways to compost, or prepare, weeds for composting.

 The photo shows the mixed weeds in the reception bin

Despite what you may have read it is relatively easy to compost most perennial weeds, but they may need treatment before being composted.

This leaves three choices

• Hot composting. Hot Composting Using one of the pallet bins, none of which are free at the moment or our two Hotbins.  The weeds where added to the Hotbins and as part of the greens and balanced with additional browns and a little woodchip as a bulking agent  for the waste food also being added
• Drying the weeds on the weed rack made of stacked bread trays. The weeds will be left on the rack for a month  (or more depending on how quickly they dry)  Perennial Weeds
• Drowning them in a bucket or bin of water. Plant Liquid Feeds

There is a slight problem in that the soil has not be knocked off the roots of the plants  which means that plot-holders are giving me their worked soil  a little at a time. However, it does mean that it will need removing before the any plants are put in to soak  otherwise, I will be left with half a dustbin of wet soil at the end of the drowning.