can you smash them or cut them into smaller pieces for faster decomposition. In a compost pile they would form part of the brown bits.

I've mixed stuff into soil but you'd have to make them smaller. Its worms and other creatures that help speed up decomposition. Whole cobs and stalks take longer to break down.

I'm on a mini campain to discourage excessive obsessing over soil amendments and more smelling the roses. Many sucessful gardeners just toss any and everthing organic into compost and let nature take it from there. If one only has small quanities of items high in N they can be buried near plants to maxamize limited nutrents available. Things you named shouldn't be buried near plants unless mixed with three times as much N rich material. Putting alot of carbon in root zone can temporarly deprive plant of neutrents,esp N. None of it is etched in granite,several ways of skinning cats.

Corn cobs are a very high Carbon, and dense, material and so they take quite some time for the digesters to digest. Corn cobs do not create air spaces since smaller material tends to filter around them, but they can, and should be added to the compost, or the garden soil, just as other forms of vegetative waste are.

As a general rule of thumb the smaller the material put in to be composted (digested) the sooner that material will be. Some people grind, or shred, things like corn cobs, corn stalks into smaller bits before adding them to the compost or soil, much smaller than the 2 to 3 inch lengths.

kimmq is kimmsr

Thanks very much for the explanations and recommendations.

Not that I didn't have anything better to do (actually I didn't!), I spent last night cutting those pieces of cobs into "smaller than bite-sized pieces". I was surprised at the sharpness of my old garden shears. Hopefully, they'll decompose much faster.

Didn't realize that the cobs are considered a 'brown' (carbon source). Am assuming that the stalk and leaves, however, are a 'green'.

Lest I mislead you, I'm digging my kitchen scraps into areas that I haven't planted in. It's only been supporting grass!! I've removed the grass and am trying to do what I can to improve the soil preparatory to planting next spring.

Given the above situation, what would you do: in the compost pile or into the ground?

(Sorry klem1, I guess I'm just a nitpicker. LOL)

"(Sorry klem1, I guess I'm just a nitpicker. LOL)"

Oh that's ok Mary,a single scolding is seldom enough to break such behavior. The stalk and leaf did indeed contain more N before they matured. Grass,leaves and other plants are the same. Try some both ways since neither is wrong. There's no harm in puttering,problems arise only if said puttering leads to exessive uneasyness and concurn. Working to speed compost production is some people's challange as surly as producing large abundant fruit or flowers is for others. Maybe you should buy a swimming pool or boat,guarinteed leave no spare time to hand chop compost material. A crop of invading Bermuda or Nut sage will usually do it as well. Happy gardening and injoy.

I have done both and while it may seem to be 6 of one and a half dozen of another there are distinct advantages to making compost that do not exist in burying organic material in the soil. Which to do can depend on the quality of your soil and a number of other factors we are not aware of.

kimmq is kimmsr