Nitrogen-rich ingredients for a compost pile include grass clippings, manure, cores, and of course also include, vegetables and fruit peels.
Composting Fruits
These are the best ingredients for compost making. Fruits are rich in nitrogen and can produce great compost.
Eat them and also, add them to your compost. Collect cores of apples, rinds of melons, papayas, and pineapples, and peels of oranges, bananas, etc and use them for your compost rather than throwing them away.
When using fruits for composting, use an open-air container. You can make use of raw or cooked fruits, as well as fruit pulp for your compost.
Chop bigger pieces into small pieces as big pieces take longer to decompose and also, prevents the compost to reach an optimal temperature.
When using fruits for compost, alternate them with a carbon-rich layer containing shredded paper, grass, dead leaves, etc.
If there is a rainfall and your compost has become soggy after a rainfall, and you’ve added fruit scraps in it, you can add more dry materials like leaves and grass.
Composting Vegetables
Rinse your leftover cooked vegetables before composting them.
You can collect vegetable refuse or scraps in a bucket when cooking. Large pieces of vegetable waste should be chopped or shredded before adding them to your compost pile.
For softer cooked leftover vegetables, chop or grind them in a food processor. Pull old vegetable plants and bring all vegetable scraps and pulled vegetable plants to your outdoor composting area.
Your vegetable plants should be combined with other nitrogen-rich materials to form a 3-inch layer. You can combine them with fruit peels and cores, grass clippings, and manure.
Your vegetables as well as other nitrogen materials should be covered with a 6-inch carbon layer of ingredients such as sawdust, hay, or shredded leaves. Water the layers.
Your compost pile should be turned frequently. When the compost breaks down into black, soil-like humus, till into the garden.
Read also: Can you Compost Potato Peelings?
Can all fruits and vegetables be composted?
The answer to this is ‘yes’. Vegetables and fruits can be composted in any form including scraps, peels, raw, cooked, and rotten.
How long does it take to compost fruits and vegetables?
Depending on the size of your compost pile, what is put inside, how it’s tended, composting fruits and vegetables can take between 3months to two years.
What happens if you don’t turn compost?
Not turning your compost can keep the heap cold and make the processes inside anaerobic. However, if the balance of brown vs green ingredients is correct, you can still obtain compost.
Conclusion
Composting fruits and vegetables is quite easy and your fruits and vegetables can be composted in any form whether they are cooked, uncooked, rotten, etc.
Composting of fruits and vegetables is a great way of utilizing your leftover or scraps fruits and vegetables while obtaining a good compost.
