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Soil, Compost & Mulch

awesome plant growing in my compost pile

8 years ago

I have a gigantic, sprawling and climbing "bird's nest" gourd plant volunteering out of my compost pile. The pile is a 6ftx6ft cedar slat "box" from Lee Valley (online). I want the gourd plant to thrive but I also want to turn in my kitchen waste (that I continue to dump in there) to discourage the flies.

The way these squash vines (?) grow, even when they aren't in pure compost, is crazy fast and widespread. So you can imagine how the smallish box is being overtaken.

Any thoughts? Even if I started a secondary pile until the fall after I've harvested the gourds, I'd still need to turn the box pile.

Can I somehow transplant the thing with minimal shock?

Ideas?

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Comments (7)

ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado
8 years ago
No to transplanting, at that size, the root disturbance would quickly kill it. I would cover the kitchen waste with a heavy layer of straw or something similar if you want to keep the gourd.
tete_a_tete
8 years ago
I agree with the above. And the straw will bring in the worms and they will munch through the compost nicely.
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Yes, my kitchen garbage dug into the garden as compost grows also!! I have nice cucumbers growing from old cukes composted in last Fall & they taste great ... not bitter as I had expected! The potato peelings composted in the garden have produced a lot of good size 'taters but since they are growing everywhere (guess I miss some in the Fall when I dig them)I read that tomatoes & potatoes are NOT companion plants & it seems the tomatoe plants are not growing as tall for me as in the past. Think this Fall I will make sure NO potatoes are left in the ground where I grow the tomatoes again & see if it makes a difference. On the farm we had to cut potato 'eyes' to plant each Spring but guess the store bought potatoes have viable 'eyes' still in the peelings!
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There are people that will tell you that you cannot grow plants in a compost pile and yet they will tell you to make a Lasagna planting bed which is really a compost pile. I have had many different plants germinate and grow in my compost piles over the years, although I have not really let them get fully mature there since the compost was taken out, spread around, and those plants transplanted to continue growth in the new bed. Often the fruits were very good although sometimes they were not. Go ahead and plant in that cold compost.
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Potatoes are prone to many diseases and pests. If you aren't up for the work, I would just throw it out or put it somewhere where it is not in the way, just to see how it does in the wild. Or, You can try sweet potato. It is not a real 'potato', but it has eatable tubers just like potato plants, plus it is very disease and pest resistant. On top of all that, sweet potato plants are a type of Morning Glory, so you get the flowers and foliage as well! You can find sweet potatoes at nearly any grocery store, just make sure to buy the generic sweet potatoes to make sure they aren't patented or copyrighted.
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lazy_gardens
8 years ago
Cover the waste that is there and have a subsidiary compost pile for now.

I planted squash deliberately in my compost bins because I didn't need the compost yet. It makes a really great elevated planter.
rmontcal
Original Author
8 years ago
OK, got it! How about grass clippings instead of straw?
tete_a_tete
8 years ago
Why not?

But if you put a great huge pile of grass clippings on, it will sort of become yukky in the short term. So either spread the grass clippings to maybe no more than 4" thick, or look the other way for a while when walking past the compost heap.
Isabel Suárez
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I think that´s a bean plant, it looks a lot like mine, actually:

It does grow super fast.
toxcrusadr
8 years ago
Good advice above. Just cover the pile a bit, start a temporary pile somewhere and wait it out.

Post more pics when you have gourds! I do think it's a gourd plant despite the resemblance of the leaves to beans. The thick stems are easy to distinguish from bean vines, not to mention the flowers and fruit.

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