Hi AW -

Since your bin is full and your compost is almost done, I just don't see how you can get around screening to get the pits out. Are you going to be using the compost all at once like on a garden area or are you just going to be using it in dribs and drabs like in putting shovel fulls around plants or in containers?

Can you just pluck them out as you come to them and throw them into a new pile?

Val

Annpat is right. Compost doesn't have to be beautiful or "finished" or fine to be beneficial to the garden.

Stuff keeps right on composting even when spread in the garden so screening isn't required - it is purely optional. Pick them out if you wish or pitch them aside or smash them with a hammer. Plant them and grow another avacado tree. ;) Or just leave them. All will be well.

Dave

And if perchance you find a sprouting avocado in the garden, pull it out before it gets a good roothold.

Thanks Annpat, Dave, Jean and Val. Even chucking all hundred plus of them under a bush does sound easier than screening the compost. Due to lazy gardening (and good weather), I generally start all my seeds (or most of them at least) in the garden, but I'll just make sure I don't sow any of them under a pit and should be just fine. Thanks again for the suggestions.

I have two avocado "trees" growing on my counter in a big pot. They were in my chunky compost put into the garden in 2007. I pulled up one as a weed, saw the huge pit attached to it and with a little TLC managed to save it. As winter was closing in, I found another in the corn and dug it up purposefully and put it in the same pot.

The funny thing is that I'd tried three or four times to grow an avocado from seed in the house, putting toothpicks in them and suspending them in water. I don't know why I wanted one and now that I have a couple I'm not sure what to do with them. They won't survive the winter outdoors and they won't yield fruit unless they get big. They're not attractive as a house plant. But I'm sort of glad to have them. This summer I'll put them outside and divide them into their own pots. I need to cut them down again so they grow more side branches.

Some of the avocado pits that were in my compost were husks, but apparently a few were still good enough to sprout. I likely didn't turn my pile enough.

I live in Florida and have a huge avocado tree (a grafted Brogdon) tree that I planted in my front yard and it has been very prolific this summer (they alternate years). I was throwing the pits into the yard recycle bin picked up by the city, but it just dawned on me that I really should be composting as probably the tree puts the best nutrients into the pits. When I tried before, they all sprouted and pulling the little trees was a pain. I will now try cutting in quarters before adding to the pile to see if that is more successful.

How about whacking with a hammer to break them up a bit? Even a good crack or two will let microbes into the middle which should help them go faster. Watch your thumbs.

The pits that I come across in my bin seem don't seem to fall apart on there own... even after cooking in there for a while... but I have found that they have actually softened so much that I can either whack them once with a trowel or mash them in my hand.

We eat a lot of them too, and my garden is full of the pits. They never sprout in the compost or at least not as of yet. Its probably too cold here. I don't know how to mash them either they just eventually disappear. Have the same troubles with pinecones. I just toss back into pile of its close enough.

I have several volunteer avocado "trees" growing in my yard, thanks to sprouted seeds in the compost.

I really should pull them out, because they're in poor locations, but I'm oddly fond of them.

I'm such a compost weirdo.

I also have three avocados growing in my garden. I am just waiting to see how long they survive. We are going into year 4 now but they are still only about a foot tall because they only just get through the winter. All came from pits in the compost. I've had dates too but they've never got through a winter.

Hi Floral, any update on your avocado volunteer trees?

Three are dead, one is still no taller. There are two new ones which went through last winter which was very mild with very few frosts.

When I get larger objects in the finished compost, I just run it through the shredder. This takes care of peach pits, avocado pits, bones from leftover chicken, twigs, etc etc etc. It all comes out relatively uniform in size with few to any escapees. Then I add it to freshly tilled soil, and till it in.

YMMV

Chunky compost works fine in the garden

Some of my gardening friends are often surprised at how quickly I am able to produce compost. The big difference I bet is that they wait and wait and wait for that smooth, "dirt like" texture whereas I have no issue applying "chunky" compost to the garden. asap.