can you compost rhododendrons

Are you planning on eating your compost?

You can compost any plant. Whether or not it is wise to do so is another question.

Use as a mulch around acid lovers.

There are dozens of poisonous plants, many quite common in the garden - buttercups, helebores, marsh marigold, bracken, rhubarb(leaves) larkspur, most varieties of poppy, celandine, lupin - just to name a few, all can be composted without any problem.

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Are you planning on eating your compost? zazen999


No but planning to eat what grows in it

So...not quite sure what your point is if you aren't planning to eat it then what's the issue with composting it?

Good question, Iam, but as Alex-Adam says, yes, you can. Plenty of plants are poisonous to eat, but they will all break down to make luvverly compost.

Either stick the shreddings in your compost bin, or shred and use as a mulch - this will be a acidic so will benefit acid lovers (as Snadger says).

I have been told that rhododendrons leach a substance into the soil to kill off any other plants competing for the ground that they are growing in. Also if a dog chews on a rhododendron stick it can make them very ill or even kill them ie by poisoning them. Therefore the question is, is it safe to compost rhododendrons not to eat the compost but to use it on the vegetable garden as a mulch or to dig it into the garden as humus.
so from what information I had I thought it a reasonable question to ask.

thanks very much for your answer

I have not heard this, I googled it for you and wiki says this 'Some species of rhododendron are poisonous to grazing animals because of a toxin called grayanotoxin in their pollen and nectar. People have been known to become ill from eating honey made by bees feeding on rhododendron and azalea flowers. Xenophon described the odd behavior of Greek soldiers after having consumed honey in a village surrounded by Rhododendron ponticum during the march of the Ten Thousand in 401 BC. Pompey's soldiers reportedly suffered lethal casualties following the consumption of honey made from Rhododendron deliberately left behind by Pontic forces in 67 BC during the Third Mithridatic War. Later, it was recognized that honey resulting from these plants has a slightly hallucinogenic and laxative effect.[27] The suspect rhododendrons are Rhododendron ponticum and Rhododendron luteum (formerly Azalea pontica), both found in northern Asia Minor. Eleven similar cases have been documented in Istanbul, Turkey during the 1980s.[28] Rhododendron is extremely toxic to horses, with some animals dying within a few hours of ingesting the plant, although most horses tend to avoid it if they have access to good forage. The effects of R. ponticum was mentioned in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes as a proposed way to arrange a fake execution.[29] It was also mentioned in the third episode of Season 2 of BBC's Sherlock (TV series), and has been speculated to have been a part of Sherlock's fake death scheme.'

We're did you hear the information about them being poisonous?

We're did you hear the information about them being poisonous? From zazen999

When you have been around as long as I have you hear a lot of things some true some false. The one about killing things below them if I remember right came from talking to someone in the Isle of Arran when the park rangers were trying to eradicate acres of them as when they were removed the ground was completely barren, and yes I know plants need light to grow, but I thought I would check just in case it was right. The one about it being poisonous to dogs was due to a friend losing his dog and the vet recon`d it was from throwing sticks of rhododendron for the dog to fetch. Again reason to question the safety of composting them.

By the way don`t believe everything that you read on wiki

And don't believe everything you hear....full stop. Remember it was you asking the question, perhaps you could have researched all the things you have heard yourself?

Rhododendrons are poisonous. Surly asking a question of people with a lot of knowledge is all part of research.

I take it that's why they made the thread then.