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Can I Compost Nettles?

(From the Garden waste category | 5 comments - join the conversation)

nettlesYes, you can compost nettles.

Nettles are considered a natural composting accelerator, especially if you’ve got a “brown“-heavy heap.

You can also use nettles to make a liquid fertiliser for the garden – ferment them in rainwater at a ratio of 10:1 for a few weeks, either in a covered bucket or an old fizzy pop bottle. The result is an iron rich solution that’s great for promoting the growth of green leaves and for building up humus in the soil.

If you are worried about them regrowing or creating a nettle jungle in your garden when you finally use your compost (or using the liquid fertiliser), chop up the plants and avoid composting the roots to get the maximum nettle benefit for the minimum risk.

Away from composting etc, don’t forget that you can also harvest young nettles for use in the kitchen: they can be wilted like spinach or used to make a herbal tea.


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5 Comments

  1. Nettles are the best accelerator in your compost you can ever have .I make two compost pits , between pallets each year ,I mix plenty of nettles through this ( n0 roots ) annd I get what you dream of just great stuff.

  2. Is it simply the leaves that are composted or is there an element of stem that may be used. Noted -NO roots

  3. You say to use a 10:1 ratio to make the liquid fertilizer, but which is which? Do you only need a little nettle to make a lot of fertilizer or do you need a lot of nettle just to get enough nutrition from it to count?

  4. We are strong believers in nettle compost tee,.But we have quite a quantity They are in seed now already and I think of composting them in a compost bin.Is that a bad idea because of the seed ? Seed and plants are still juicy green.And I would cover them with soil. I am concerned of spreading the seed all over the garden.

  5. To shorten my question if that is what you want :Can green stinging nettles with seed be composted without me spreading the seed all over the garden ?

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