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Plants which generate large volumes of green matter for compost?

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Location: Yorksire - North England

posted 10 years ago

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Hi,

I have a lump of space in my garden which this year I have no significant need for. However - my compost heap can take as much green matter as I can throw at it.

What would be some good plants to grow where my focus is on generating the maximum amount of green matter for the compost heap?

The "soil" is pretty rich - it's two year old wood chip.

Tyler Ludens

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posted 10 years ago

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I'm really loving Cardoon, which is also edible. Mine are growing huge - it looks like I'll need to continually cut them back to keep them within bounds in my small kitchen garden.

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D Nikolls

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posted 10 years ago

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Borage and Comfrey are the first couple that come to mind for me. Careful with the comfrey, it can get outa control. The 'bocking 14' cultivar is sterile, but still spreads readily by roots cuttings, purposeful and otherwise.

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Lou Schultz

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Location: Zone 5a Upstate NY

posted 10 years ago

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Burdock will throw up some big leaves, and has an edible root (known as gobo root in Japanese cuisine) and stem. As a biennial, you can get of it, should you ever decide to, by cutting back before it goes to seed, and by not rototilling the substantial taproot - the pieces will regrow.

Jessica Padgham

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Location: Denver, Co 6000ft bentonite clay soil

posted 10 years ago

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What about big annual grasses? I'm thinking thing like rye and sorghum and corn. Probably many things that are traditionally cover crops would work.

Also, I would vote borage over comfrey since it's an annual.

Keith Odell

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Location: Indiana

posted 10 years ago

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Sweet potatoes?

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D Nikolls

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Also, I would vote borage over comfrey since it's an annual.

Fair enough, comfrey is definitely something of a once-only choice! Despite this, it's so useful that I wouldn't want to do without it; I consider the very... persistent... nature of it to be a feature not a bug.

Conveniently, though borage is an annual, it readily self-seeds, so you have it as long as you want it, at least around here.

S Bengi

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posted 10 years ago

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I would vote for legumes. unless you are using fertilizer in which case a grass family plant.

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Mike Cantrell

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Location: Southern Michigan, USA

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posted 10 years ago

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Second vote for burdock.

But, now that I think about it, if the soil is great, then maybe squashes/pumpkins/melons? They may try to escape their bounds, sending vines around, but you just chop off the strays. And they'll definitely make lots of leaves. But the clincher is, if they set fruit, they'll make many POUNDS of compost. Much more weight, I expect, than anything that will be making only leaves.

Nico Neubauer

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posted 10 years ago

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In the tropical zone on the tongan islands i use Now the leafs and stems of outsorted papaya trees for compost. Will See how it works.

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Todd Parr

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Location: Wisconsin, zone 4

posted 10 years ago

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Definitely Comfrey for me. My favorite plant.

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Nancy Reading

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posted 2 weeks ago

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2 for one idea - rhubarb produces large (inedible) leaves. Some varieties you can harvest most of the year - eat the stems, compost the leaves

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posted 2 weeks ago

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In a similar vein to Nancy's thought, how about horseradish?

This is my first year growing it, and boy is it a vigorous plant! Maybe too vigorous for some people? I am not sure how resilient the plant is to trimming greenery but it produces a TON.

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Pete Grego

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posted 2 weeks ago

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i believe the fastest growing plant is kan kong or some similar water lilly type plant. i believe any kind of fast growing water planet will also add to the nutrient density of your compost, considering that algaes like spirulina/chlorella are most nutrient dense foods on planet. perhaps even someone could experiment w throwing different algaes on a compost if its sturdy enough?

Anne Miller

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posted 2 weeks ago

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as others have said: Comfrey, sweet potato, ...

Buckwheat, clover

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Joao Winckler

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posted 2 weeks ago

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Surprised nettles haven't come up yet. Mine produce a huge amount of material through the season and I just cut them back before they flower. High nitrogen so they help get the heap going, and they regrow fast enough to cut a few times a year.

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Mark Wyborny

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posted 2 weeks ago

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In my experience trust the natural flora of your region if you dont need that part of your garden. Organically fertilize it well and harvest the weeds that volunteer there. If you're wanting suggestions on food crops that add biomass you need to research what grows best in your garden there and accept a lot less biomass. Nothing beats the natural weeds in a temporary garden location. They are the best cover crops but they will be more labor to harvest and keep from volunteering again. Weeds are adapted to thrive in your location on total neglect. How can anything beat that?

Jay Angler

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posted 1 week ago

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OK, I use this more for mulching than for compost, but I think it's work mentioning here. Wisteria! In my ecosystem, it grows like a weed! I have to prune it multiple times a year to stop it from taking over the house.

For several years, I've chopped it into ~6 inch bits into a bucket, then put it around various plants, but in particular my rhubarb. That, coupled with a little fertilizer P, has really helped the rhubarb, because I admit the soil in that area is really poor.

Some years I've used it over a garden bed that I didn't manage to get a cover crop growing on. It is slow to decompose compared to many leaves, but I can always pull it off in the spring when I need to plant. In the meantime, it has protected the soil from our winter rains.

I do find that in my ecosystem, "chop and drop" sometimes has to be "chop into a bucket and them put it where it's really needed."

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Yeardly Arthur

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Location: Half acre on a hill in Central Alabama, Zone 8a and 8b

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posted 1 week ago

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This topic is speaking directly to me just now, since the Missus gave me permission to add a second-hand wood chipper to my arsenal of (now three) outdoor power tools. I plan to use it to clear old deadwood, turn new saplings into RCW, and process larger "weeds" for mulch and compost. (I'm liable to use it to pulverize charcoal as well.)

Living in the southeastern U.S., one of my favorite overgrowth mulch sources are Elderberry Bushes. One plant can reach 8 feet in every dimension in a single season, and send runners to all points in the garden. The starfish of the garden, they will also (Not Can. *Will*.) re-root if you try to chop-and-drop, so I'm hoping that the shredder will render small enough pieces to prevent a total garden takeover from ramial chips. If that doesn't work, I'll compost the chips and stir them until the roots cook away.

Two other sources for mulch in my garden are Sweet Potato vines (mentioned above), and Lamb's Quarters. This time of year (late August), both are reaching their full potential, the latter bushing out to 6 ft in height. After harvesting the leaves, the woody branches offer a satisfying crunch slipping through the shredder.

Finally, we live in a rural neighborhood, and our yard is fronted by a long row of Boxwood Shrubs. I actually enjoy trimming these back every year, since I know they will add a couple of truckloads of biomass to the garden spaces. This will be an even better source of mulch now, since I can chip them down to a more useful size.

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Dennis Barrow

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posted 1 week ago

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I purchased 6 comfrey plants a few years ago and now have a couple dozen. Lots of green for the compost. Also have native grass that grows over my drain field I cut that goes into the compost pile 3 or 4 times a year.

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Catrina Liesch

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We live in a subtropical climate. Our sewage water goes in a three chamber system and afterwards in this pond. The water hyacinths (Eichhornia) grow very abundantly and we can harvest every month green material for our compost.

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Peter George

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Location: Heart of the Great Lakes in Southern Ontario

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Curious if any Permie has used Cup Plant as a compost-generator. We have a bunch which the pollinators love. Sometimes we feed a few to sheep which is a nice bonus. I've thought about hacking more for compost biomass but you'd have to break the stems a bit (easy to do).

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Annette Jones

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Pete Grego wrote:i believe the fastest growing plant is kan kong or some similar water lilly type plant. i believe any kind of fast growing water planet will also add to the nutrient density of your compost, considering that algaes like spirulina/chlorella are most nutrient dense foods on planet. perhaps even someone could experiment w throwing different algaes on a compost if its sturdy enough?

This is true. I have been growing kangkong for over 20 years at the side of one of my backyard ponds, you can sit out by it and almost watch it grow.

Downside is it needs a very warm climate to thrive but you get tons of it for great crunchy salads, stir fries, stews or as mulch/chop and drop.

My compost heap gets barrow loads, I love it.

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