Fine to use in a general compost heap. Don't use in a wormery though, makes the compost too acidic and the worms don't like it. (That's what they've told me).

I find citrus peel takes too long to break down in our compost so it goes into the brown bin and is composted by the council at a far higher temperature than we could ever produce.

The compost making purists say that some fruit and fruit peels should be composted separately because they ferment, particularly citrus peels and whole apples. Banana skins are fine on compost heaps though, quick to decompose. I've certainly added citrus peels to mine over the years - but not too much at once and not whole fruits, and I prefer to tear them into small pieces first because MG's right, they do take a while to break down.

I put whole oranges on mine the other day! think i'll go and fetch them out after reading this.

Oh dear - I hope the weather's not doing there what it's doing here - which is chucking it down...

We always put all types of citrus peel on ours. Seems to work, though we leave our pile a long time before using.

i always put all the peel in the compost bins. any whole fruit that have gone off gets quatered just to help speed up the process. they do take quiet a whike to break down but I have a few that are emptied on rotation so its not too much of a problem.

Bamboo it's been raining here all day too.

I put citrus peel in the composter, but there's not too much of it. I have a friend with a B&B whose husband put all the grapefruit skins in theirs over a period of months and killed the composter off. It totally stopped working.

Lots of guests having half a grapefruit each every morning = Too Much Citrus Peel.

We just throw everything like that on the heap, whole fruit and peelings alike. They rot down no trouble, faster than the top growth of perennial grasses that is for sure.

Lovely here today though, Popedot - good day for cutting grass, its been, the usual 'little window' in January that's suitable. Sat on the balcony in the sun to do my word puzzle, lovely...

Grass on your compost OwdB? Obviously a heap rather than the plastic compost bins... We produce great compost but it does not generate the heat that is required to break down anything citrus.

I empathise MG. No matter what I do to my compost - turning, watering, darkness, air etc etc it takes ages for things to rot down. A friend of mine however can rot down and re-use her grass cuttings within 6 weeks!! We have compared notes, and she is none the wiser to my composting disaster. My daughter, side by side with my mother, can produce a beautiful victoria sponge where my mother's is flat. Perhaps some of us have it and some of us don't?!

Our compost rots down fine so long as we don't add citrus or egg shells. We don't have grass but Bulba used to use a tumbler composter for a neighbour's clippings. Now a lot of them go in the brown bin and go to the local authorities huge composting set up.

Should say that our composting area has three areas In, Pending and Out. Each is about 6 feet by 6 feet and can hold up to 4 feet in depth of finished material. In is where fresh material goes. It is turned in to Pending which is then turned into Out from whence it goes on the garden. The only things we do not put on are diseased, perennial rooted, flower heads of weeds and woody stuff which won't shred. Some of those go on the Non-compost heap which is covered and left for 5 years.

Thank you for additional advice, Owd, but I do the same with three bins, and not composting twiggy stuff, perrenial weeds etc ... something must be wrong but guess I just have to wait!!