Lemon Merengue Compost Pie

[HigherDrifter]

I've got a humungous and very fruit-bearing Lemon tree in my front yard. Every year it drops hundreds, if not thousands, of Lemons that just sit on the ground and rot because I just can't use the Lemons fast enough (for Lemon-ade, hand cleaner/conditioner, body cleaner/conditioner, hair cleaner/conditioner, etc.,).

About 3~4 years ago I started throwing a good gob of these rotting Lemons into my compost/mulch pit along with other green plant matter, then covering it up with simple "white" mulch (freshly shredded branches, twigs, dried leaves, etc.,), and splashing it with water to keep it moist.

After no more than 2 weeks, when I give the compost/mulch pit a good tossing with a pitchfork, most (at least 80%) of the the green plant matter, Lemons (peels and all), even all the woody stems, twigs and shredded branches not far below the surface, have turned dark-brown/black and very disintegrated.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on but, it's like all these Lemons are acting like an compost "accelerator", much like blood and bone meals do when added to compost/mulch heaps.

 

[lil stinker 420]

does the lemons make the compost a little on the acidic side or have you checked it.

 

[HigherDrifter]

does the lemons make the compost a little on the acidic side...?

I don't know.

...have you checked it?

No.

Been using the Lemons like this for a while and have been tilling the resulting compost/mulch into the soil. Been growing gobs of stuff - fruits, veggies, herbs (Cannabis included ) and everything grows really well...no remarkable problems so far.

The base soil around around here is alkaline anyways...

 

[HigherDrifter]

Forgot to mention:

I also make my own germinating/potting soil (I've got a good sized barbeque on the back porch for baking the soil...you know, to sterilize any "weed" seeds) with the same stuff and never had any problems with it either. Every seed I sowed germinates (well, more or less).