Does anyone know if the yellow seed heads of dandelions are able to
grow?...what I mean is that I chopped about a million of them down today
with the lawnmower, will they grow after being composted, or do they need to
dry out and become 'clocks'.

Also, does anyone have any experience of composting inside a binbag? - if I
seal lawncuttings and a little soil (and some pee!) inside a black bag, will
it compost any quicker than on my heap, which is now just a foot of grass
clipings, with some partially decayed caedboard underneath...I want to use
some in the hanging baskets next month (late May - we get frost in early -
mid May up here)

TIA

--
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.
They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country
and our people, and neither do we."
- George W. Bush, 5.8.2004

Yellow heads are flowers only and therefore will not grow. Need to
change to 'clocks' to seed.

wrote:
Yellow heads are flowers only and therefore will not grow. Need to
change to 'clocks' to seed.

But, by heaven, they're determined to! A chopped-off flower will turn
itself into a clock overnight. The female dandelion is a fine warning
to all males with a proper sense of self-preservation not to offer
our feeble resistance.

And Phil, you aren't going to get compost between now and next month,
whatever you do, or whatever you use. Grass clippings are too wet to
deliver the goods as quickly as mixed material: the smelly
cow-dung-like mush they produce on their own excludes the air we need
for compost-making; putting them in a plastic bag will only make it
worse. (Come to that, pee will make it worse still: there's loads of
moisture and nitrogen in there already.) You could end up with a
small quantity of nourishing silage if you let the grass get half dry
first; but it wouldn't keep a cow going for a day! (I've actually
used gone-wrong silage for composting, and it made decent stuff, but
it took a long time.) For compost, it's important to mix grass
cuttings with drier airy material.

--
Mike.

In article , Phil L
writes
Does anyone know if the yellow seed heads of dandelions are able to
grow?...what I mean is that I chopped about a million of them down today
with the lawnmower, will they grow after being composted, or do they need to
dry out and become 'clocks'.

In practice, they don't seem to grow in a compost heap, perhaps because
most of them end up buried far too deep for the small energy store in
the seed.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article .com,
writes
Yellow heads are flowers only and therefore will not grow. Need to
change to 'clocks' to seed.

But many people believe that they will still change to seed even when
chopped off the plant.

--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , Kay
writes
In article .com,
writes
Yellow heads are flowers only and therefore will not grow. Need to
change to 'clocks' to seed.

But many people believe that they will still change to seed even when
chopped off the plant.

I thought I had observed this occurring myself - tho' of course I didn't
take steps to test the viability of the seed.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

Phil L wrote:


Also, does anyone have any experience of composting inside a binbag? - if
I seal lawncuttings and a little soil (and some pee!) inside a black bag,
will it compost any quicker than on my heap,

No, you'll get some fairly unpleasant silage. Sealing grass clippings on
their own inside plastic bags is one way to make silage on a small scale.
For compost, you mustn't exclude air.

If you find you are a bit overburdened with grass clippings that don't
compost well on their own, you could do what I do. Before mowing, I scatter
all my prunings and clippings on the lawn. You don't need very much at all
to make a difference. This mixture composts very quickly indeed and will
get very hot, even on a small scale. If you can get your fork in every few
days and give it a good stir, it will compost even faster.

Binbags are not really big enough to compost in effectively, but if you do
use them, keep the tops open and put them somewhere where they won't fill
up with rain.

Lastly, if your compost is mainly grass clippings, don't pee on it! Grass
clippings are already high in nitrogen, and don't need any extra.

which is now just a foot of
grass clipings, with some partially decayed caedboard underneath...I want
to use some in the hanging baskets next month (late May - we get frost in
early - mid May up here)

TIA


--
While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining position.

Mike Lyle wrote:
: wrote:
: Yellow heads are flowers only and therefore will not grow. Need to
: change to 'clocks' to seed.

: But, by heaven, they're determined to! A chopped-off flower will turn
: itself into a clock overnight. The female dandelion is a fine warning
: to all males with a proper sense of self-preservation not to offer
: our feeble resistance.

Except, having both male and female parts present on the same individual,
male and female as used above has no meaning. I believe I recall reading
that the Dandelion seed is parthengentically produced and doesn't need
fertilising, so being able to go from flower head to seed may produce
viable seed. I've certainly noticed that weeded flowering dandelions
left in a pile turn to "clocks" over a few days.

J Jackson wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
wrote:
Yellow heads are flowers only and therefore will not grow. Need
to
change to 'clocks' to seed.

But, by heaven, they're determined to! A chopped-off flower will
turn
itself into a clock overnight. The female dandelion is a fine
warning
to all males with a proper sense of self-preservation not to offer
our feeble resistance.

Except, having both male and female parts present on the same
individual, male and female as used above has no meaning. [...]

Well, I like to think of them that way!

--
Mike.