My neighbor swore by putting citrus peels in the compost... not what I expected

I live in a 2nd floor walkup in Portland and started composting about 6 months ago. My downstairs neighbor, who has a bin on her balcony, told me to toss orange and lemon peels in no problem. Said they break down fine. Well after 3 weeks my bin started smelling super weird and had these white fuzzy patches. I looked it up and apparently citrus can throw off the pH balance if you add too much at once. I had like 6 peels in there from juicing. Had to dump the whole thing and start over. Anyone else get bad advice from well meaning neighbors?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_anderson1mo ago

My friend tried that and her compost turned into a science experiment too.

davis.emma1mo ago

honestly though, is a "science experiment" really the worst thing that can happen? like food scraps break down weird sometimes, it's not a big deal. i've had batches get a little funky and they still turned into usable dirt eventually. people act like compost is supposed to be this perfect controlled thing but it's literally rotting plant matter. your mileage may vary but i think some folks get way too dramatic about a few moldy banana peels.

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