Compost question ????

Question

i left my compost getting "cooked" 2 months ago and now i see that the little twigs are still there while the rest of my compost looks ready... what do i do???

Answer 1

Things like leaves, grass anything you might call "soft" material, will compost quite quickly and as you know. Yours took a couple of months.

Anything twiggy, woody however small will take much longer to compost down and it is usually best not to put those into the compost bin but keep them covered with some plastic to keep them dry and burn them. You can use the ashes on your soil.

I would use the compost now and leave any small twiggy bits on the soil as well. They will eventually rot down. Any large twiggy bits I would take out and use them to start the pile for burning.

If you have thick twiggy bits you could always use one of those machines you feed woody material in at the top and it spits it out as wood chippings. Unless you have a lot it isn't really viable although you could always hire one for 1/2 day.

Best of Luck.

Answer 2

As long as all the weeds which may be in there have decomposed you can use it.  The twigs will just rot down over time.

Answer 3

You can use it with the little twigs in it; they'll just continue to break down or if they really bother you, you can pull them out and put back in the compost pile for the next trip.  Somethings do take longer to break down than others!

Answer 4

The little twigs will eventually rot into the soil if you put your compost on your garden they are after all timber and  in a natural situation this is what occurrs.

If it bothers you in future mulch it down some before it goes into the compost heap or bin - either with a mulcher machine or if they are not too large - you can run the lawn mower over them first with the catcher on and then put into the compost bin - a bit of lime would help them to rot down too.  

Answer 5

The twigs won't hurt a thing but if you want to, as you use the compost, you can screen the large particles out and return them to the pile to compost some more.  Eventually they will be gone.    

Answer 6

The little twigs provide humorus and ventilation in the soil so just dig it in