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Composting Invasive Plants

Composting is a valuable technique that can turn dead leaves into black gold.  However, if composting is not properly done, invasive plant seeds can still be viable in compost, and spread to wherever the compost is laid down.

Invasive plants that have seeds or have the ability to resprout from pulled stems (like purple wintercreeper) can be composted in the compost pile reaches a temperature high enough to kill any invasive seeds in the compost (145 degrees for 30 days or more). If the compost pile won't meet that temperature requirement, rather than add invasive plants directly to compost, a safer method is to put invasive plants that have seeds on them or the ability to resprout  in black plastic garbage bags and let them sit in the sun for a year. After that time, check the plants and if there is no green on them, they can be added to the compost pile.


Invasive Plants with Fruits (Berries, Nuts, etc.) That Can Be Moved In Compost
Asian bush honeysuckle
Autumn olive
Winged burning Bush
Japanese barberry
Privet
Multiflora rose
Callery Pear
White mulberry
Amur corktree
Sawtooth oak
Wintercreeper
Japanese honeysuckle
Japanese stiltgrass
Miscanthus
Garlic mustard
Dames rocket
Beefsteak plant
Johnsongrass
Canada thistle
Crown vetch
Poison hemock
Wild parsnip
Teasel
Hedge parsely
Spotted knapweed
Sweet clover
Tree of Heaven
Norway maple
Siberian elm
Princess tree
Golden raintree
Sweet autumn clematis
Field bindweed
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