A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Compost Situation (bad)

How bad is it????

Here is what happened:
After deep frying some hushpuppies and fish for my son, he dumped the hot Peanut oil on my compost pile. There was about a quart of oil used and it has been on there 4 days (just saw it).

This can't be good for the micro-organism in there. Do I have to remove part of the pile saturated with the oil and discard it.

What do you recommend?

Well it may draw critters that you don't want and for that reason I'd be tempted to remove it. But I don't really know enough about compost to know if it would hurt that or not.

I wouldn't worry about it too much mator. It should have hardened into a solid right? Kinda? Oils are organic. Worst case scenario is it may smell a bit and attract unwanted pests, but it will still break down and compost eventually.

If it hardened I might think it would depend on
what kind of "oil" it was to start with..
Lard might reharded, but if you used a corn or peanut oil, I don't think that ever hardens....


I would say also that the oil is organic..
*if it were peanut or corn* *not 100% sure about lard to be honest*....

If it happened to me, I would maybe turn it a bit, and re~load with some serious browns and greens really mixed, dump in a good amount of beer or "Ringer Plus" to jump start the pile and keep turning and working it like a freshly started pile... but I would make sure the bottom was incorporated with the new top to get it moving..

and then let it sit and let mother nature do the rest and start a new pile....

Tammy, my dog was really sniffing around the pile. He loves the fish frying nights.


John, It was 100% peanut oil so it will not harden (this time of year).
Sometimes I can't see the forest from all the trees. It would be organic! I was focusing on the oil being over 200 degrees when he poured it on and killing all the micro-organisms.


Weezie, I just sent my son out to mow the lawn to get some fresh greens.

Mator

Forget the compost pile!! Where are the new mater pics?!

I'll post in veggies in a few.