Gray Fuzzies! Oh No!

by Sharon
(West Fork, Arkansas)

I bought a kitchen counter compost bin and began using it right away. It came a week before my tumbler arrived.

To make a long story short, gray fuzzie stuff is growing on the garbage in the kitchen counter bin, and I want to know if this is OK to put in the composter, or, is it too spoiled?

Your Answer

Hi Sharon and thank you for your question.

Don't worry about this at all. It's just a nice fuzzy mold and it is one of hundreds of species of living things that will get to work breaking down your food waste.

The only time you need worry - and even then don't fret too much - is when using Bokashi. With Bokashi you are hoping for a nice growth of white mold. The fix for gray mold in Bokashi would be sending it into the composter a week or two early.

That said the thing you need to watch with a tumbler is making sure things don't get too wet. A good fix is adding a few wood pellets, the kind used for wood stoves. When I say a few I mean a handful at a time. They are super dry and soak up moisture.

Wood pellets are also a good source of carbon. Most food waste is kind of high in nitrogen so this will balance things out.

Best of Luck going forward...
Leslie