The answer to that depends largely on whether you want to keep your compost completely organic. If you do, you shouldn't add your FIL's fertilizer. If it doesn't matter so much, all of the fertilizers you've liberated would be very strong greens.

What are your choices here? Landfill? Not a good option. Compost? Somewhat better to use them to make something worthwhile than to just throw them away. Some care in mixing them with your compost will be needed, but this is the better choice.

I agree. A little at a time in the compost and in a couple decades it'll be all gone.

I'd dilute them - but make a stronger solution than that recommended for plants - and water the pile, if it can handle more moisture.
Tossing MG with leaves (a la salad) in a leaf bin would make an interesting experiment - see how fast they decompose.

I seem to have read that salt based chemical fertilizers will be harmful to the micro organisms. The question might be will a diluted amount be beneficial or will it be that the micro organisms just over come this addition? & will the organisms use this fertilizer as a food source, but then be desiccated by the salt?
If you subscribe to the idea of composting to inoculate your soil with beneficial bacteria and/or fungi then you might want to maximize the total population of these organisms.
These are "soil food web" topics.

I assume the 'quart' of nitrogen based fertilizer is in liquid form and is in concentrate form.....not diluted.
thirty-two ounces - depending on dilution, could be spread over a lawn much the same as the granular type. In this case, the lawn would be watered first before the application of the liquid fertilizer.

Such a nitrogen based fertilizer would be valuable for feeding evergreens. You have latched onto a valuable resource....used wisely, you wont have to buy for a couple seasons anyway.

The Miracle Gro..15/30/15.....is much better used for what it is proposed for....feeding of flowering plants.
The giving it to the compost would not be where its best use is for. Considering annuals should be fed weekly with such a fertizlier, it wouldn't take more than a usual time to go through a large amount.
The fertilizer, kept moisture free, would be viable for many years. Such a resource should be protected.

I don't think there is much point to putting Miracle Gro in the compost, a lot of it would probably just leach out to the surrounding area before the compost was done. If you don't want to use it yourself the regular way, why not freecycle it? Give it to somebody who wants it. Freecycle is the greatest. I give away plants there sometimes, and get pots from people.

Here is a link that might be useful: Freecycle's main page

It'll work great as an N source. Mix it into a moistened pile well, put a loose tarp or other covering over it- that will prevent rain from leaching it out.

I've done this to get rid of fertilizer before- put a half bag of lawn fert in a 2 yard pile of bark mulch once- worked out great.

Thanks for your perspectives. We freecycled a lot of things from my father-in-laws house, but did not think to do the Miracle Gro.

I find strong nitrogen solutions make much more effective compost via the lawn. Apply at the appropriate concentration during the growing season, mow the lawn, put the clippings on the pile. Applied directly, most will end up in the nearest watercourse, some may fuel a temporary microbe boom with consequent smelly emissions.

A 6 pack of Bud is less $$ for nitrogen in the compost pile

:-)

I have used some to kill some weed type plants

Really get your moneys worth, only apply used beer, soda, coffee etc. Relatively sterile, full of sugar, kidney filtered for clarity.

Laundry soap bottles good for collection, they have that nifty no drip lid.

Yours is full of sugar? Diabetic? Otherwise, it shouldn't be.

Karen

Beer and soda are full of sugar. If you drink a lot of sugar you are going to pee alot of sugar, diabetic or not, n'est ce pas? Isnt that why everyone needs to go after eating sugar, to rid the body of a surplus? I thought that was a universal.

"Beer and soda are full of sugar. If you drink a lot of sugar you are going to pee alot of sugar, diabetic or not, n'est ce pas?"

Umm- nope. Normal bodies store it away.

Happyday, j'ai pense la meme chose, mais apparently pas.
(insert accents and French for apparently)

Pee in the leaf bin makes a lot of sense, although it still doesn't necessarily lead to quick composting - depends on your climate.

"compost via the lawn" - why bring fossil fuels into the picture?

I was responding to Byrons post, "A 6 pack of Bud is less $$ for nitrogen in the compost pile" If you drink the bud first, then compost the pee, you get double use for your money, and still get nitrogen in the pile.

Pablo, I think that everyone, non-diabetics included, can excrete excess sugar in the urine after consuming a drink or food that has more sugar than the available insulin can convert. Diabetics are identified by having too much sugar in the blood that they cant convert, not by being the only people who can excrete excess sugar via the kidneys.

A very small amount of sugar is not abnormal (0.1% m/v), but if you consistently have detectable levels, or saying that urine is "full of sugar"... well- that's abnormal to be sure.

Anyway- there shouldn't be enough to help composting in any significant way.

:-) :-) :-)
Pablo, is 0.1% m/v the amount of sugar to be found after drinking a 6 pack of Bud? How did you determine that number?
:-) :-) :-)
How much Bud would a person need to drink before the urinary sugar was sufficient to help composting in a significant way? Wont the nitrogen still help signifiantly?
:-) :-) :-)
Also how did a joke about using second hand beer and pop for double value get turned into a serious discussion about diabetes? I had better make sure to type in plenty of smilies so everyone will know its a joke next time.
:-) :-) :-)

Life would be good if our kidneys eliminated excess sugar. We could eat pounds and pounds of candy and carbs daily and not gain weight. But unfortunately kidneys don't work that way. We store the extra energy (i.e. calories) as fat!

Karen

If you're drinking Bud- then you have a worse problem than slow compost (ha ha).

The N will help, the sugar won't. Nobody disputes that.

I'm a chemist. It's my job to ferret out scientific silliness :)

Karen, lots of people do eat pounds and pounds of candy, especially around Halloween, Valentines Day and Christmas. :-) But they can only put on as much weight as the body can convert to fat stores while the food is being digested. If the blood is overwhelmed with more sugar than the insulin can convert to glucose, the excess sugar spills over into the kidneys and is excreted. But only the excess sugar. The sugar that the body can convert to glucose becomes the bodys fuel, then the excess of that becomes weight gain .
You wouldn't want the kidneys to remove all the sugar in your blood, just so you could eat candy and not gain weight. If your kidneys threw out all the sugar and your body couldnt convert any of it to glucose...you would die. :-( Glucose is the bodys fuel.
Anyway, come on, it was a joke! :-) A beer/pee joke for frugal composters. :-)

Pablo, I dispute that even small amounts of sugar wont help composting. As if a little microbe is going to say, thats not enough for me! and turn up its little microbe nose at it. And I dont drink....vine, or Bud.
You must be very busy with all that ferreting. Anybody know who to make a ferrety emoticon?
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