Composting

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Can cooked seeds sprout? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My city collects waste food for composting. There is /no seeds/ rule, likely because whoever uses the compost wants to control what they grow.

I make veg. broth by boiling veg. scraps for ~30—60 min., some of which are loaded with seeds. I’m wondering if the boiling kills the seed, in which case I wouldn’t likely cause problems by tossing the boiled scraps into the city’s compost.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Proper composting not only destroys seeds, it also kills pathogens like e. coli and salmonella while even breaking down things like diesel and TNT.

There's a ton of misinformation about composting and I think the central cause is that multiple decomposition methods that produce different results are all lazily called composting by lay people.

As an example, composting uses biological heat produced by thermophilic microorganisms (mostly bacteria) to destroy pathogens etc. and which eat the material to produce compost. Worms, used in vermiculture, do not raise the temperature, have much less success destroying pathogens, and produce worm castings, which are physically distinct from compost and typically sell for around 10x the price.

I've even seen discussions where people think that fire, which produces ash, is compost. Like... you can see a pile of compost, and a pile of ash, and literally can't tell the difference? Add water (and oxygen) to compost and you'll get compost tea for plants and trees. Add water to ash and you'll get lye used in drain cleaner products. They are not the same.