Can you put avocado peels in compost?

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You can put avocado peels in compost. Avocado peels need to be chopped as finely as possible to allow them to mix in with everything else in the compost. It may take a longer time for avocado peels to fully break down in compost. This won’t be a problem if they are fine-chopped.

The compost bin is the best place for avocado peels. The only problem is that avocado peels are tough and hard. You mustn’t expect them to break down quickly. It’s quite likely that you will find fragments of avocado peels show up in the finished compost.

So, what can you do to make the best of avocado peels in compost and let’s not forget the pit.

1.Cut the peel into small pieces

Yes, you can put avocado peels in compost but to prepare it for the compost heap you need to pulverize it completely. Avocado peels seem to take a long time to break down due to its tough and woody structure. If you don’t want to do that, then the second best thing is to cut it into small pieces using a sharp knife.

When we normally make compost, we have to think about what needs to be added to get the right balance. We need to add enough ‘browns’ to balance the ‘greens’ for the compost to form as we wish.

Can you put avocado peels in compost? Yes but chop them up first.

The avocado peel will be partly ‘green’ but ‘mainly ‘brown’. When we put this into compost, we don’t need to add anything specifically to balance it. With the avocado peel being so tough, it won’t go through the normal process that happens in a compost bin where everything decomposes together. It will hang around in the compost as hard peel.

This isn’t a problem. Having hard, woody ingredients in the compost will help to open up the structure of the compost and allow more air to get into the compost mass.

2. Mix it in

If you find that you have a significant amount of avocado peels to dispose of, remember to mix it into the compost. If you cut it into small pieces, this should be easy to do. Just make a layer of it over the top of the compost heap and stir it into the surface. This will mean that when you come to take it out, there won’t be a layer that hasn’t broken down.

This won’t be a problem if you put it into a compost tumbler. Here it will become mixed thoroughly whatever you do. Feeding chopped avocado peels to the Rolypig composter would be the same as feeding any other kitchen-waste. By the time it reaches the door at the rear, you probably won’t find it.

3. Make use of the pit

I’ve been looking around and it appears that there are some interesting things that you can do with the ‘pit’ or ‘seed’, the big stone in the middle. Some say that you can eat it others say you shouldn’t. Is it safe to eat? At the time of putting this post together, there isn’t enough evidence to say one way or the other. Proceed with caution if you are tempted to give it a try.

There are plenty of people who are ready to explain their experience of consuming the avocado pit, one way or another. On investigation, the pit has turned out to be more interesting than the rest of the fruit.

There are people claiming that you can make tea with it, turn it into a cream that you rub on your face and mix up a shampoo. Maybe this needs further investigation.

The avocado pit has a bitter taste if chewed. Before using it to garnish anything, consumed or otherwise, you need to remove the skin and grate it or grind it down in a high powered processor. When you do this you will notice that it will change colour to a red/orange.

The avocado pit can be dried, then cut up and ground into powder which some people add to salads, smoothies or sprinkled over soup. It’s known to contain calcium, magnesium and potassium.

The avocado pit is one of many plant-sourced items that contains phytochemicals. This makes up part of the plants own defense mechanism that plays a part in helping the plant to compete with other plants around it to enable it to survive. Is this essential to the human diet? No, but there are a number of claims being made about possible health benefits.

Stop the guacamole from going brown

Haven’t tried this yet but apparently it works. Your guacamole will start off green but it tends to turn brown after a while. I’m not sure how this works but if you bury an avocado pit in the guacamole, this will apparently delay any colour deterioration.

Make tea from the pit

Making tea from the pit of an avocado appears to be simple enough. First, you need to dry the pit. If you live in a dry environment, it should dry enough in 2 to 3 days. To speed the drying process you can dry pits in an oven at a temperature of 250°F (120°C) for about 2 hours.

When it’s dry, you need to peel off the hard outer skin and cut the remaining pit into slices then cut the slices into smaller pieces. This can then go into a blender to be ground down to, almost, a powder. You now have what you need to make the tea. There are other ingredients that some people like to add. These include slices of root ginger and turmeric but these aren’t essential.

To make the tea from the ground-down pit, boil the grindings from one pit in about two pints of water. When the tea has reached boiling point it’s ready to be strained into cups for drinking. You may find that the addition of honey will help to sweeten the tea as it can taste rather bitter on its own.

Dye fabric pink

Anyone who has dried and ground-down an avocado pit, will have noticed that when placed in water, or allowed to become moist, it displays a magnificent reddish colour. This makes it ideal for use as a dye. I haven’t tried this but, by all accounts, if you want to dye any fabric pink, then a solution containing avocado pit grindings will deliver.

Wash your hair with it and rub it on your face

Some people appear to get some benefit from grinding down avocado pits to the finest powder that can be achieved, then mixing it in with a base skin-cream. This is then used on the skin to benefit from the natural ingredients that the avocado pit contains.

You can enhance your shampoo with a boiled solution from ground avocado. Here’s a recipe that’s going around.