Composting Invasive Weeds

Read an article yesterday in which a guy claims to have found a way to compost aggressive invasive weeds such as Creeping Charlie and Bindweed.  I never add those to the compost bin because I don't want them to spread throughout the gardens, but this guy claims his technique makes them compostable without them being able to spread.

He collects the weeds into an old tub and then covers them with water and lets them soak for a week or so until all of the weeds have died. He then removes the weeds from the water and throws them in the compost bin where they quickly break down since they are already partially decomposed.

I am tempted to try this since we have so much of the Creeping Charlie and Bindweed everywhere, but I wonder if anyone has ever heard of this or tried such a thing?  What he is doing is similar to what I do when I make Comfrey Tea fertilizer, so it would seem to work. But, Bindweed is so tenacious that it will send roots all the way under a sidewalk to come up on the other side of the concrete, so not sure if water will kill it.

Really interesting. Anaerobic decomposition first, followed by normal aerobic decomposition. Are you going to try a small test?

sanderson wrote:Really interesting.  Anaerobic decomposition first, followed by normal aerobic decomposition.  Are you going to try a small test?

Yes, I am going to do a couple 5-gallon bucket tests on the noxious Nut Grass that has invaded my BTE garden.  That stuff really spreads, so I am going to pull a couple buckets full and soak them in water to see what happens.  I'm going to try to record a time lapse of the process to document if it works well, or not.

I will be interested to hear how or if this works!

Last year my lawn and garden was severely neglected and i have been struggling to get things back in order. My entire yard was taken over by morning glories, wild blackberries, goose-foot ivy, southern creeper and a number of other weeds that i never learned the name of. I am attempting anaerobic to aerobic composting of the nasty stuff.

I let my lawn grow a bit out of control so i can pull as many of the weeds as i can by the root. I then bag them into heavy duty black trash bags that i have been piling up in a sunny spot that has been covered in black plastic so everything underneath dies. Every time i cut the grass i bag the clippings and dump that into the compost pile.

The black bag method is supposed to be super fast and the bags i collected weeks ago bloated and then deflated at half the size they were. I am going to keep doing this until my before winter cleanup and then i will move them (still bagged) to a new compost pile until it warms back up again. After that i will be able to pull the bags out to dispose of them.

A word of warning, do not attempt to see if your bags are still fluffy and squishy by pressing your foot against one.  I did this on a really hot day thinking it wasn't working. The plastic was so hot and soft it took the impression of my shoe and split along the side. The gas that was released was horrible and lingered for the rest of the day. It smelled like a sewer. It was definitely working.

I also had a few plastic bins that i filled half way with ivy vines and other weeds and then covered with clean dirt i dug from the yard. After a couple of weeks the ivy worked its way to the surface and is growing again. That proves why didn't want to just throw it all in the compost pile.