Can I Compost Citrus Fruit And Peel?

Can I Compost Citrus Fruit And Peel?

Unlike wormeries you can add all citrus fruits (Oranges, Lemons, Clementines, Satsumas, Limes, etc), their peels and pulp (from juicing) into your HOTBIN.

These waste types are high in acidity and shouldn’t be added into a wormery due to worms having a high sensitivity to acidic materials. Bacteria on the other hand are not nearly as fussy and just gobble the lot.

Fruit Peel – Chop, Chop, Chop!

All fruit peel/skins are designed by nature to protect the seeds inside from bacteria and fungi - ie limit decomposition. So if an orange goes off and you need to throw it out, this is where chopping can help as it will take far less time for bacteria to eat an orange from the inside than from the outside!

Orange Peel

Fruit and Pulp Water Content

Fruits like oranges are full of water so if you like making fresh juice at home you will have a lot of leftover pulp. Pulp in itself is very wet and mushy to compost so it’s important if adding to the HOTBIN that plenty of shredded paper is added to reduce the moisture levels in the HOTBIN and bulking agent for sufficient aeration.

If you create pulp every day, you might need to experiment with your mix a little to find the best balance – remember that this is extremely wet waste so we wouldn’t recommend adding a large amount into the unit.

The same principal applies with adding lots of mouldy fruit, again as this is very wet waste it’s essential to add the right amount of paper and woodchip and to chop waste where possible to increase the surface area available to bacteria and speed up the decomposition process.

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