Do pumpkins (rotten or not) make good compost? After Halloween I plan to "collect" the neighbors pumpkins and use them as compost ONLY if they are a really good source. If not, I won't even bother...

They would make very good greens!!

Most excellant compost, forrrrrrr~surrrre!!!

**Maybe just watch the candle reminance
or paintings on them**

Good question - I was wondering that myself! Should I smash them/cut them up before adding or just throw them in the compost bin that will be outside all winter until next spring?

Remember anything you put into the compost,
composts' up faster when there is more
"Exposed Edges"...
the more there is,
the faster it decomposes....

So let my boys have fun and make a catapult and smash them for fun?

Oh - I'm so glad to hear this....my mother-in-law makes me feel bad that I just use pumpkins for decoration and not for making pumpkin pie.

Thanks for the info!

(Now I just have to go ask the neighbors for their rotten pumpkins...I wonder what they will think I'm up to...? )

My sister~in~law makes pies out of the innerds',
I never learned the trick of it...
But hey, you're still utilizing it,
just in another way sorta..
*(maybe like it's just not being wasted altogether like)*

Several years my compost bin put out some really nice flowers and it finally dawned on me they were pumpkin blooms from gutted jack-o-lanterns. It's a chicken-wiry circular bin with a snug matching lid, and I don't imagine anything's eating the contents 'cept the subterranian critters.

Oh well, another one of life's mysteries.

So Mark and Patty M, go do your best Gallagher impressions and start Smashing Pumpkins (heheh, two celebrity references in one post, is that a record here?).

Compost does shrink considerably. And maybe some runs off with the rain.

Here's what I did. I noticed I didn't have enough greens (I like veggies but just 2 of us at home)I started collecting coffee grinds from a local coffee shop then realized that, that plus the leaves make up too many browns. So how to get more greens? I may have started too late as many people had probably thrown out their Pumpkins, but I posted on freecycle in Calgary (thru yahoo groups)"Wanted - Leftover Halloween Pumpkins". I got quite a few e-mails back and now have around 20 - 30 pumpkins. I had to pick them up but it was ok because I live on one end of the city and work at the other. TADA!!!
Problem solved, now I'll have enough green material for the winter to layer between the browns.

Veryyyy good..
I love your ingenious...

And to put to use something that most
would have just thrown away...

(don't forget you can throw on some old pepsi, beer or wine too, to get your browns moving a bit.. the sugar content in those products get browns going... beer does the best with the yeasts in them..)

Annnnnnnd for you thinking you have too many browns, you can give your pile a boost *and extra help with too many browns*, you can use the finished compost. A layer of the stuff layered in between each layer of leaves, will "inoculate" it with all kinds of beneficial soil fungi and bacteria stuff that's already in the finished compost...

Thanks Weezie. I hadn't even thought of that. But will remember for future reference. There's always beer at home, funny how beer is good for everything. Now there's going to be a third drinker .

They make great compost material , just make sure there is no seeds left in them . LOL .