Peanuts in compost??

[gssgarden]

Late last year I bought a gallon bag of fresh peanuts for something my daughter wanted to do. I didn't get done! lol

Should I put the peanuts in the compost bin? I read somewhere that you shouldn't put the nut in because of the fat content??, or just the shells.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Greg

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by gssgarden

Late last year I bought a gallon bag of fresh peanuts for something my daughter wanted to do. I didn't get done! lol

Should I put the peanuts in the compost bin? I read somewhere that you shouldn't put the nut in because of the fat content??, or just the shells.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Greg

Greg.. I have a friend who grows huge tomato and pepper plants. He goes around to all these places and gets bags and bags of the peanut shells. He throws them out in his compost pile and lets them break down. They aren't fully decomposed when he mixes them in with his regular potting soil.

I have bought several containers of plants from him. The problem I had with those pots that had the peanut shells in them, was the pots weighed a ton. A 3 gallon pot felt like a 50 lb bag of soil. I could barely lift it. The other problem I had was the peanut shell pieces dried out fast and dried out the soil fast. I was having to water those huge pots twice a day.

The other thing too that always crossed my mind with the peanut shells was the fact that most of the peanuts grown today have been treated and I don't know even after some composting, how much of the residue still stays on the shell and gets into your soil. It's a whole different discussion, but for me personally, I think that is why so many children have peanut allergies now a days. I don't know if residue from the peanut shells could cause somebody to develop a tomato allergy if grown in them.

[KarenO]

the birds would like them

KarenO

[Redbaron]

The question is can you compost them? And the answer is yes, you can.

[gssgarden]

Thanks guys!

What about the nuts themselves? Is it ok for them too?

Thanks!

Greg

[Starlight]

Greg... If you plant the nuts, you are going to have peanut plants popping up in your compost pile. When you plant peanuts, we take them out of the shells and just plant the nut. They will germinate on their own.

So unless you possibly want peanut plants growing, you might just want to make peanut butter or crushed peanuts for toppings with them.

[Stvrob]

Germinate them first, then compost them

[Tracydr]

I thought you were going to say they were growing in the compost.

[gssgarden]

We were going to try and plant them but we thought they were old.

Same reason we didn't make peanut butter.

Thanks for your help guys and gals!

Greg

[bughunter99]

Shells yes. Nuts will attract rodents to your compost pile.