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Weeds in home made compost

adrianpartonadrianparton Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hi,
Please help.
I made my own compost in a bin last year.
Ive started to add this to pots for new plants however, there are LOADS of weeds coming through which I have to remove one by one.
Is there a way to prevent this happening in the first place without ruining the compost?

Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Not really. You could try a layer of gravel or bark chippings on the top of the compost but the weeds might push through anyway. But even with bought compost you'll get some weed seeds blowing in.  What I do is go over all the pots about once a week pulling out the weedlings. It's not much different from keeping on top of the weeds in the borders.
    For next time you could try turning your compost more often to make it rot down faster and hotter, or don't add seed heads to your compost (snap off and put in the council green waste which is generally composted on a large scale and is supposed to get hot enough to kill weed seeds).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Chris-P-BaconChris-P-Bacon Posts: 943
    edited May 2021
    You're not on your own. It's likely your compost didn't get hot enough (to kill weed seeds) so decomposed via fungal action rather bacterial or microbial. I have weeds in mine for the same reason. Mainly Hairy Bittercress which is easily removed. A bit of a pain though.
  • BiljeBilje Posts: 811
    We’ve all done it, the trick is to ensure you don’t add weed seed heads or indeed seed heads from herbaceous plants to the compost bin. No way to cleanse the existing compost other than almost constantly turning it. I’m currently planting dahlias I’d potted up in garden compost each pot has its complement of weeds and verbena bonariensis? No option other than hand weeding. 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    If it's any comfort, it'll be your own weeds, not weeds introduced from elsewhere. Verbena Bonarensis one of my main compost heap survivors. If you jiggle the surface of your pots and containers now and again, that will put paid to the seedlings  as they come and hoe the ground where you've used it as mulch.
    What you can't do is use it to sow seeds. You'll have to buy in compost for that.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I don't put weeds in my compost bin - I put them in garden green waste for council collection. Bins need to get up to around 70oC to kill off seeds and mine are nowhere near that.
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    edited May 2021
    Aquilegia, foxgloves, forget-me-nots and poppies are just 4 flowers I can think of that you might want to think about twice before adding their seed heads to the compost bin. They will pop up everywhere around your garden if you use the compost for mulching. I actually don't mind a few rogue foxglove and aquilegia seedlings - but I'd never add forget-me-nots to the compost bin.

    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I personally am happy with all of those. I wouldn't put bindweed anywhere near my own compost. It goes in the dustbin, every little bit I can find. If you grow tomatoes and reuse the compost, you might find your garden covered in tom plants for the following ten years. 
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Topbird said:
    Aquilegia, foxgloves, forget-me-nots and poppies are just 4 flowers I can think of that you might want to think about twice before adding their seed heads to the compost bin. They will pop up everywhere around your garden if you use the compost for mulching. I actually don't mind a few rogue foxglove and aquilegia seedlings - but I'd never add forget-me-nots to the compost bin.


    I'm happy with all of those too , as well as the various kinds of honesty which self-seed as prolifically, although I usually leave the seed heads on poppies and honesty because I like how they look. I don't mind easy-to-pull annual weeds (more compost-bin fodder), but I try not to put in dandelion clocks and roots, or roots of brambles, bindweed, couch grass and so on.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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