Putting newspaper in compost heaps

[Primrose]

How many of you put newspaper (but obviously not the glossy magazines) in your compost heaps? I've just started a new compost cage and although I've occasionally composted loo roll and kitchen roll cardboard rolls in the past I've never really got rid of my newspaper in this way. As we usually get the thick wadge of Saturday & Sunday papers I'm wondeirng whether this amount of paper would not be good for the overall quality of the compost when it rots down. I never seem to be able to make as much compost as I would like and if lots of newspaper will increase the quantity I'll try it but not if it runs the risk of ruining the quality of end product.

[Geoff]

I use lots of shredded paper mixed with grass clippings, includes newspaper and glossy mailshots / magazine inclusions. Some scrunched up newspaper as well. When I clean out the wood burner I wrap the ashes in newspaper and they go in too.

[Bren]

Primrose
I wrap all the veg. and fruit peelings, tea bags and egg shells in newspaper and add it to the compost heap, also I put a lot of paper and cardboard in the bottom of the bean trench.

bren

[Elaine]

Hi Primrose. I have always added newspaper, torn into strips, to my compost heaps and I think it is an important part of the process. My shredded mail goes in there too, in layers with the green material. I'm always pleased with the end result, a lovely rich brown crumbly compost, which I've sieved and used as potting compost in the past.

I also add it to my runner bean rows and a good helping of it for the courgette plants too. It gets dug into the greenhouse borders as well and all the plants thrive and produce well.
Cheers.

[Nature's Babe]

I do the same as Elaine, and provided you have a good mix of wet and dry it works well. In autumn I also use cardboard as mulch, to get rid of any weedy patches, just cut weeds down, cover with cardboard leaving no gaps, then mulch with compost on top, overwinter everything dies off underneath and the cardboard has disintegrated enough to plant through next spring.

[Mike Vogel]

I use newspaper to "earth up" my potatoes and to provide mulch around brassicas etc. Of course, I use quite thick wadges of the stuff and so they take time to get fully soaked and start disintegrating. When i need to clear the bed, e.g. for garlic, I then put the newspaper into the compost bin, as it is already half decomposed, and I have read that good compost should be 3:1 carbon to nitrogen. Sometimes I leave the newspaper on the soil and slit it for sowing carrots the next year. The soil under the paper is very crumbly.

[Monika]

I use the newspapers in both compost heap and to mulch, as described above, but have found that it is really important not to add it to the compost heap in more than two or three pages thickness because otherwise it just stays as a thick wet wodge and doesn't rot down. When used as a mulch in thicker layers, it's not so important because it goes brittle and soft over winter and THEN goes onto the compost heap to rot down successfully.

I used to worry about the chemicals in the print but I understand (from this forum?) that modern ink is quite innocuous and breaks down when the paper rots.

[Johnboy]

Hi Monika,
You will find that all the inks used in the newspaper industry are now vegetable based. As a matter of safety they were introduced many years ago.
I shred the newspaper I compost and this counts as dry matter and I also use plenty of either pulverized or chopped straw. They all soak-up excess moisture whilst still keeping it in the heap. I only have the Saturday Telegraph and keep some for lighting the log burner and the rest goes to compost. Without the Kate Mepham general knowledge crossword on Saturdays I wouldn't bother to have a newspaper! My weekly luxury.
JB.

[Monika]

And do you always solve it, Johnboy? I try it every Saturday but it is rare for me to finish it, at least without help of books and internet!

We do the Daily Telegraph dummy's crossword every day: Mo, Wed and Fri for me, Tues, Thu and Sat for my OH and the Observer one on Sunday. Can't do the cryptic one at all, but I do the codeword puzzle every day. Well, I suppose one has to keep the grey cells working.

Sorry, folks, for moving from the "newspapers in compost heaps" subject!

[Johnboy]

Hi Monika,
I cannot remember when I last didn't finish The Kate Mepham crossword.
I have the Sunday and Daily Telegraph Codewords passed on to me by a friend. It certainly is a "Grey Cells Affair" but even these seem to be faltering now.
I have only to solve 4 more clues and I am finished the crossword this week. I have a great many reference books and generally read my way out of trouble. Sad though I may seem the Kate Mepham crossword is the highlight of my week! I do not entertain Cryptic Crosswords I only like true
general knowledge questions. Pragmatism rules in all things it seems!!
JB.

[Monika]

Thank you for your detailed reply, Johnboy! Yes, I think, to solve cryptic crosswords, you need to have a certain (convoluted?) mind which I just don't possess.

And I am afraid I have not even attempted this week's Kate Mepham crossword because we have had some of the family staying with us all week, so have been occupied with other things. But well done you!

[Nature's Babe]

Monika, for keeping the mind active, increasing your own word power, and at the same time helping world hunger I like the free rice game. You can enter at any level and graduate up the scale. Off subject again I know

http://www.freerice.com/

[thetangoman]

What a briliant thread !!! Just to recap though ..are we saying yea or ney to newspaers on the compost heap, or we saying only if the crossword has been completed !!!.. :l

[Johnboy]

Hi Tango,
The answer is yea. Not too much at any given time but if you shred it and you lay in about 6 inches in the run of things it would represent only about an eighth of an inch. If your compost has become saturated you car help cure the problem by mixing some well int the top layer it will help and keep mixing it a little at a time until it has dried a bit then carry on as normal.
Of course this is much better if the Kate Mepham crossword has been completed!
JB.

[Mike Vogel]

But is the ink in the ballpoint you use to fill in the crossword vegetable based?