We recently had an ammount of cooked green veg, cabbage etc
left over from a dinner party.I wanted to put it on the compost
heap, but, swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food. Who
is right? To my mind whilst the texture may have changed and a
few additives like salt included basically raw & cooked are the
same!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

Roger Tonkin wrote:

swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food.

You can. It will likely break down faster than raw stuff.
(You actually _told_ her what you were going to do?)


--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

On 15/12/2015 9:51 AM, Roger Tonkin wrote:

We recently had an ammount of cooked green veg, cabbage etc
left over from a dinner party.I wanted to put it on the compost
heap, but, swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food. Who
is right? To my mind whilst the texture may have changed and a
few additives like salt included basically raw & cooked are the
same!

You are. SWMBO is wrong.

On 14/12/2015 22:51, Roger Tonkin wrote:

We recently had an ammount of cooked green veg, cabbage etc
left over from a dinner party.I wanted to put it on the compost
heap, but, swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food. Who
is right? To my mind whilst the texture may have changed and a
few additives like salt included basically raw & cooked are the
same!

It is only a problem if there is fat or meat in it since you don't want
rats or foxes digging in your compost heap. Cooked vegetables are fine.

I won't put raw onion waste on mine for fear of introducing white rot or
raw brassicas for introducing club root.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Mon, 14 Dec 2015 22:51:20 -0000, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food.

I agree with all the other posters, you can compost cooked veg, but
please don't blame 'swmbo' as so many books/newspapers print a blanket
ban on cooked food (but then again wool blankets could be composted! )

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

As others have said, cooked veg on the compost heap is fine, but the
recommendation is to avoid meat products, cooked or raw, as they can
attract vermin, and flies if left exposed. But even they will
eventually decompose if you're prepared to risk it.

Nah. That's one recommendation and it is largely an old wife's
tale. Composting meat products is fine, and does NOT attract
vermin any more than any heap will - unless you start putting
slabs of meat on it! Rats are attracted to the warmth and worms,
both of which are inherent aspects.

Things like club root and white rot are trickier, though I doubt
that there is any risk except from the roots or associated soil,
or when the latter has actually got the 'white rot' on it. But,
if you don't have them, you don't want them; and, if you have them,
you can't get rid of them :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 15/12/2015 08:41, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

As others have said, cooked veg on the compost heap is fine, but the
recommendation is to avoid meat products, cooked or raw, as they can
attract vermin, and flies if left exposed. But even they will
eventually decompose if you're prepared to risk it.

Nah. That's one recommendation and it is largely an old wife's
tale. Composting meat products is fine, and does NOT attract
vermin any more than any heap will - unless you start putting
slabs of meat on it! Rats are attracted to the warmth and worms,
both of which are inherent aspects.

Things like club root and white rot are trickier, though I doubt
that there is any risk except from the roots or associated soil,
or when the latter has actually got the 'white rot' on it. But,
if you don't have them, you don't want them; and, if you have them,
you can't get rid of them :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Have read that watering the area where there is white rot with an onion
liquor in the Spring as growth starts causes the white rot to activate,
then having nothing to fee on dies. Leaving the ground free. anyone any
experience of this, did it work?

In article ,
Broadback wrote:

Have read that watering the area where there is white rot with an onion
liquor in the Spring as growth starts causes the white rot to activate,
then having nothing to fee on dies. Leaving the ground free. anyone any
experience of this, did it work?

Many of us would very much like to know! And how long to wait ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
says...

Roger Tonkin wrote:

swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food.

You can. It will likely break down faster than raw stuff.
(You actually _told_ her what you were going to do?)

Now would I do such a silly thing

No I was trying to stop her putting it in the food recycling
bin.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article -
september.org, says...

We recently had an ammount of cooked green veg, cabbage etc
left over from a dinner party.I wanted to put it on the compost
heap, but, swmbo said that you can not compost cooked food. Who
is right? To my mind whilst the texture may have changed and a
few additives like salt included basically raw & cooked are the
same!


Thank you for all the response, I'm glad I was right!

Strangely I never compost potato peelings, my mothers advice
some 55+ years ago. She said that potatoes would grow from
them. I'm sure it is one of those old wives tales, but such
long held habits are hard to break.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:10:08 -0000, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Strangely I never compost potato peelings, my mothers advice
some 55+ years ago. She said that potatoes would grow from
them. I'm sure it is one of those old wives tales, but such
long held habits are hard to break.

Years ago we had a huge compost heap used for any garden or kitchen
waste. Potato peelings often resulted in some potatoes growing on the
heap. The tubas they produced were perfectly edible.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com

On 15/12/2015 09:02, Broadback wrote:
On 15/12/2015 08:41, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

As others have said, cooked veg on the compost heap is fine, but the
recommendation is to avoid meat products, cooked or raw, as they can
attract vermin, and flies if left exposed. But even they will
eventually decompose if you're prepared to risk it.

Nah. That's one recommendation and it is largely an old wife's
tale. Composting meat products is fine, and does NOT attract
vermin any more than any heap will - unless you start putting
slabs of meat on it! Rats are attracted to the warmth and worms,
both of which are inherent aspects.

Things like club root and white rot are trickier, though I doubt
that there is any risk except from the roots or associated soil,
or when the latter has actually got the 'white rot' on it. But,
if you don't have them, you don't want them; and, if you have them,
you can't get rid of them :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Have read that watering the area where there is white rot with an onion
liquor in the Spring as growth starts causes the white rot to activate,
then having nothing to fee on dies. Leaving the ground free. anyone any
experience of this, did it work?
Well I had a bad infestation of onion white rot this year,so will try it
and let you know. The only thing is where is the best place to get cheap
raw onions to use?

In article ,
Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:10:08 -0000, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Strangely I never compost potato peelings, my mothers advice
some 55+ years ago. She said that potatoes would grow from
them. I'm sure it is one of those old wives tales, but such
long held habits are hard to break.

Years ago we had a huge compost heap used for any garden or kitchen
waste. Potato peelings often resulted in some potatoes growing on the
heap. The tubas they produced were perfectly edible.

We rarely peel potatoes, and never peel them deeply enough to allow
the eyes to sprout successfully, which is probably why I have never
seen that :-) Tomato and physalis plants from rejected fruit are
common casuals, though, and I occasionally have avocados shoot in
the heap.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 15/12/2015 12:37, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:10:08 -0000, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Strangely I never compost potato peelings, my mothers advice
some 55+ years ago. She said that potatoes would grow from
them. I'm sure it is one of those old wives tales, but such
long held habits are hard to break.

Years ago we had a huge compost heap used for any garden or kitchen
waste. Potato peelings often resulted in some potatoes growing on the
heap. The tubas they produced were perfectly edible.

Did they play a tune as well?

Potatoes would be a pernicious weed if they were not edible!
Not quite in the league of horseradish but not so far off.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Potatoes would be a pernicious weed if they were not edible!
Not quite in the league of horseradish but not so far off.

Not in Cambridge, they wouldn't be. Few are deep enough to survive
even an average winter, and blight is ubiquitous.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.