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Aurora, IL

I was wondering if I could compost my pumpkin by tilling it into the soil in my existing patch/garden once I chop it up.

10/19/2010 11:42:19 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

That would be sheet or cold composting. That happens all the time

10/20/2010 1:31:15 PM

Aurora, IL

Ok, that saves me some stress regarding disposing a 600+ pumpkin.

10/20/2010 5:31:19 PM

Upa Creek, MO

That is what I did with field pumpkins in the past. I have heard never to compost the plant though due to possible spreading of diseases.

10/20/2010 5:38:09 PM

Bloomington, IN

Think of it this way. The nutrients contained in the plant and pumpkin are exactly the nutrients in exactly the right proportions that future plants will need. This year for the first time I started to compost 100% of the refuse generated in my garden, including my A.G. plant. I figure when it comes to disease, any disease going into the pile is a disease I'm likely to have trouble with in the future anyways regardless of what I do with the plant, might as well reclaim those nutrients.

A chopped up A.G. plant is an extremely coarse material. Mixed with manure and leaves, so that the pile reaches temperatures over 130 degrees, the compost pile won't have to be turned because plenty of air will have been trapped in the pile by the A.G. plant. A thick layer of leaves over the newly built pile will trap heat and insure that the plant material on the outer layers is subject to high temperatures.

This is what I did. Once the pile got cooking I couldn't stick my hand under the outer layer of leaves without getting burned. I'm completely confident the resulting compost will be just as safe as any other compost. Brian

10/20/2010 8:36:45 PM

Bloomington, IN

P.S. Don't forget to thoroughly moisten all materials as you build the pile. This is critical!

10/20/2010 8:40:52 PM

Aurora, IL

If I am understanding you correctly, heap the chopped up pumpkin and add manure and leaves and let sit over winter? I thought I needed to till the chopped up pumpkin into the soil, which is currently grass that I grew the pumpkins on. I will either use Roundup this fall and till in spring or just till in the grass and weeds and hope they die over the winter.

10/20/2010 10:35:56 PM

Bloomington, IN

The pumpkin itself can be tilled in raw, worms love it. The compost pile would be the best place for the plant material though. But I guess I got a bit off topic with my above post since you didn't ask about the plant, lol. Sorry if I confused you.

10/20/2010 11:48:08 PM

Aurora, IL

Actually I don't compost anything from the pumpkins plants or garden with the exception of the veggies/fruits themselves. I figure there was too much disease to compost. I also learned the hard way about composting tomatoes. They don't go in the compost pile anymore since the last time I used compost containing them I had hundreds of tiny tomato plants growing. My compost pile isn't big enough to supply very much area and I have not ever added manure, etc.

10/21/2010 9:07:59 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

yorunk...last year I chopped up 1400 lbs of pumpkins a put them in my wifes small vegetable garden, since they are mostly water anyways, they melted right into the garden and were gone by spring....yup the worms love them!!

10/21/2010 12:05:31 PM