Hot take: my community garden's compost pile failed hard and wasted 6 months of food scraps

Found out last week the pile never got hot enough because we were adding too many citrus peels and not enough browns, has anyone else dealt with a compost bin that just turned into a moldy mess?

3 comments

3 Comments

finley_smith2d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, I read that citrus peels can actually kill the good bacteria in a compost pile.

milesbarnes1d ago

The 2:1 brown to green ratio is a myth if you ask me lol. I run a three-bin system in my backyard and found that you need at least 3 parts browns to 1 part greens to actually generate consistent heat, especially if you're tossing in citrus peels like we do. @finley_smith is right that citrus can mess with the bacteria, but it's more about the moisture content than killing them outright - I bet your pile went anaerobic from the extra water in those peels. Dumping in a bale of straw or shredded cardboard every other week fixed that problem for me, and the pile hit 140 degrees within 4 days. Six months of scraps isn't wasted if you just mix in some dry leaves and let it cook again, the decomp process just slows down not stops.

dianawilson2d ago

I mean, 'wasted 6 months of food scraps' feels a little dramatic, it's basically just dirt that didn't work out. Compost fails happen all the time, it's not like you can't just dump the whole mess in a new pile and start over. Maybe it's just me but six months isn't that long in the grand scheme of things.

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