Leverage permaculture stacking and learn what crops are most advantageous for healthy, sustainable compost with these compost crops!
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In this post, we use permaculture stacking where plants have more than one purpose in the garden to find 6 compost crops that perform other functions in the garden too! Join over 30,000 homesteaders and gardeners and tune into the popular Gardening & Homesteading In The Suburbs podcast or read on to learn more!
What is a compost crop?
A compost crop is one that grows quickly, creates biomass or lots of material. They accumulate nutrients from the soil that, then they decompose in the compost, release nutrients that other plants can use when the compost is applied to the garden bed. Compost is a big part of intensive gardening and one way that our organic garden can become self-reliant.
But can’t most plants be added to the compost bin?
Yes, most plants can be added to a compost bin. The more diverse the plant materials in the compost pile, the more diverse the nutrients and micro-organisms that work to break everything down. But some crops, are better than others at accumulating nutrients or producing lots of growth and locking up more carbon and nitrogen.
Read more about composting in this related post: How Do I Start Composting In A Small Garden?
6 compost crops to grow
These 6 crops provide not only valuable carbon, nitrogen, and other minerals and elements to the compost but many of them are edible or provide habitat to beneficial insects. This stacking of functions is one of the key pieces in permaculture design!
Broomcorn and Sorghum
Crop number 1 for the compost crops is sorghum or broom corn. It is an interesting plant that produces tasty seeds and in some varieties, the canes can be pressed to make a sweet syrup. Some varieties are very productive in the syrup department yielding a gallon of syrup from 100 sq ft of planting! The broom corn varieties are traditionally used to make brooms although now, you might find their colored seed heads in flower arrangements in late summer or early fall. Sorghum grows tall and produces a lot of biomass that is ideal as a carbon source if you are pressing the canes then the crushed canes can still go into the compost pile.
Looking for varieties to try in your garden?
- Syrup varieties include Mennonite that is ready in about 105 days and Iowa Sweet that is ready in 110 days both available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange,
- Sugar drip is a popular variety as is Black Amber Cane, both available at Amkha Seeds.
- An early variety ideal for grain is Ba Ye Qi available at Adaptive Seeds.
- Broom corn varieties include Texas Black available from Amkha Seeds.
- Red Broomseed Corn was a traditional hearth broom variety that is available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange or if you want different colors to try Mixed Colors Broomcorn from Seed Savers Exchange.
Amaranth
Amaranth is up next for compost crop number 2! Grain amaranth looks stunning in a garden. Plants grow tall, at 4 – 6 feet but the colors of the seed heads range from fiery orange, bright reds, and pinks to dusky sunset hues that are striking against a backdrop of green in the garden!
Amaranth leaves can be eaten much like spinach; raw when young and small and cooked when more mature plus the seed grains are edible! If you are really wanting a bang for your buck on space in the garden if you cut amaranth for the grain at the base of the plant, new leaves often sprout giving you another round of baby leaves for salads!
After harvesting the seeds, the seed heads and stalks make a great addition to the compost heap for both carbon and minerals like calcium. Some nice varieties to try are Sunset Goldilocks available at Adaptive Seeds, Red Giant, and Mayo Indian both available at Restoration Seeds, or the beautiful Coral Fountains available at Uprising Seeds.
Broad Beans
My third crop is fava beans or broad beans. I love broad beans and my favorite so far in the garden is Aprovecho Select from Adaptive Seeds. The beans are freaking huge! But there are other great varieties like Winsor or Sweet Lorane at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and the interesting dark purple seeds of Frog Island Nation from Uprising Seeds.
Since Fava beans are part of the legume family, they fix nitrogen in the soil providing a source of nutrients for the next crop. They are a perfect compost crop because of their nitrogen-fixing ability!
How to use favas as a compost crop
I cut the plants at ground level after harvesting seeds so the roots will decompose in the soil releasing the nitrogen but you could pull them up and pop them into the compost pile, just make sure to add more compost to the garden bed before your next crop is planted to replace the nutrients.
If you are not a fan of favas and I know many of you aren’t, then cut the plants for their peak biomass and nutrients for the compost heap when they are at 50% flowering before the seeds are produced.
Sunflowers
Compost crop number 4 is sunflowers. Yep, sunflowers produce a lot of carbon biomass, especially tall varieties like Grey Mammoth, Mongolian or Transylvanian Giant. The stalks are great for the compost pile and the flowers are a magnificent magnet to pollinators for your yard.
I think sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers. It’s hard not to smile when I see them. I love to see people stopping to look at the sunflowers growing in the garden and their amazement at how tall they grow above the 6 ft fence! I have an amazing friend in Texas who grew some sunflowers in her garden that we seed swapped and they looked truly stunning mixed in with other flowers.
You can also grow climbing beans or pole beans among your sunflowers too if you are short on space and want to maximize food and compost crop production! Top tip though if you are seed saving, the seeds around the center are the ones with seed in them, the outer seeds although bigger are often empty.
Lentils
My 5th compost crop is lentils and I’m thrilled to be growing them this year! They are another legume so fix nitrogen in the soil making them a wonderful soil-building crop.
We eat the seeds like beans, but lentils pack a lot of calcium, calories, and protein in a small package! The seeds are not very easy to get hold of, Uprising Seeds have Black and Le Puy lentils available, Amkha Seeds offers French Green and Native Seeds SEARCH has Vadito a variety of lentils perfect for the Southwest and those who live at altitude.
Lentils are incredibly versatile in the kitchen, lentil and bacon soup is one of my family’s favorites and it can be made in a crockpot or slow cooker ideal for a busy weeknight meal. We also love lentils with sweet potato, butter beans, or lima beans in a tomatoey stew that is another slow cooker special for the week and good for cooking in a batch if you are busy.
Corn
My last compost crop is corn, in particular flint, dent, or flour corn. These are commonly known as field corn. These grow tall and produce a lot of carbon biomass in the stalks. These are great for producing compost whilst the kernels are a good source of calories.
Field corns are not for eating fresh as I once made the mistake of eating Painted Mountain corn fresh. Dent, flint, and flour corns are for other uses in the kitchen. Flint corn is good for boiled recipes like polenta, dent corns are good for turning into cornbread, hominy and even animal feeds and flour corn is the easiest to turn into cornmeal. I’ve got a little obsessed with cornmeal since I discovered I can make decent cornbread and cornmeal and wholewheat flour waffles. So far, my family hasn’t noticed that they are eating healthier waffles for a special breakfast!
Looking for varieties to try in your garden?
Corn has so many varieties available but here are some that you might want to try to grow; Mandan Bride flour corn available at Seed Savers Exchange, the beautiful Earth Tones dent corn from Restoration Seeds, Bloody Butcher, and Cherokee White Eagle Dent corn from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Floriani Red and Lancaster Sure Crop flint corn from Amkha Seeds.
Let me know in the Facebook group what compost crop you are growing this year! I love to see your garden pictures and hear from you about what you are growing!
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