{"id":3007,"date":"2019-10-10T00:08:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T07:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-636\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T11:06:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T18:06:30","slug":"inadequately-decomposed-materials-in-compost","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/inadequately-decomposed-materials-in-compost\/","title":{"rendered":"inadequately decomposed materials in compost"},"content":{"rendered":"

I bought compost from the city of Port Angeles and in a sifted wheelbarrow of compost I got three gallons of pencil diameter “twigs”. These are not composted. They break\/snap and are green inside. The compost was supposed to be tilled into the garden and flower beds but somewhere in the back of my mind I sort of remember that this will take nitrogen out of the soil to compost down. Is that correct or should I not be concerned?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It sounds like screening your compost was a good place to start; Mike McGrath recommends removing the “odd original ingredient” from compost this way in his Book of Compost<\/em> (New York, NY : Sterling Pub. Co., 2006). Woody material should definitely be removed, he says. If your compost does not seem otherwise ‘off’ (an ammonia smell, a sulfurous smell, very odd color), sieving off the woody material is often sufficient.<\/p>\n

Twigs compost more slowly than other material, and you could, if you like, simply re-compost them, according to the King County Solid Waste Division<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is some debate over the effects of inadequately decomposed material such as your woody twigs in compost and mulch. Linda Chalker-Scott addresses the question of less-than-fully composted yard waste in her May 2003 myth<\/a>. She agrees that inadequately decomposed yard waste has a reputation of removing nitrogen from the soil, but writes that the way the yard waste is used affects the way it interacts with the soil. As a mulch (a layer over the soil to prevent weeds or retain moisture), it does not significantly reduce soil nitrogen, but as a compost\u00a0 (incorporated into the soil), it may reduce nitrogen in the soil.<\/p>\n

If you are still concerned about the quality of your compost, Stu Campbell suggests using the following techniques on municipal compost in his Mulch It!<\/em> (Pownal, Vt. : Storey Books, 2001) First, test the pH, and, if it is off, store and turn the compost for several months before using it. Mature compost should have a pH between 6 and 8,
\nwhich you can test using a soil test kit or some of the other options listed on Cornell University’s composting pages<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bought compost from the city of Port Angeles and in a sifted wheelbarrow of compost I got three gallons of pencil diameter “twigs”. These are not composted. They break\/snap and are green inside. The compost was supposed to be tilled into the garden and flower beds but somewhere in the back of my mind I sort of remember that this will take nitrogen out of the soil to compost down. Is that correct or should I not be concerned?…<\/p>\n

Continue reading inadequately decomposed materials in compost<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[370,281],"class_list":["post-3007","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-compost","keyword-soil-amendments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/3007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}