Have you ever been called nuts? And have you taken offense to that? Well, you no longer need to feel bad when you are called nuts because they have essential nutrients that are amazing for your heart, weight loss as well as gut health. Many cultures around the world add nuts to their regular diet that include hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia, cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and our start pistachio.
Pistachios are tasty to eat and great fun too, they are also very healthy. They have healthy fats along with antioxidants, fiber, and protein. It’s sweet and nutty from the inside however the exterior shells are also of great value. Of course, you cannot consume them, and households discard them. Recently my children had a project in the school of wealth out of waste. It was indeed an exciting project where we collected these pistachio shells and made beautiful decorations. So, if you’re into that sort of thing then yes you can recycle the shells and make some amazing DIY articles for your home. But this article is not a DIY article, keep reading if you want to learn more about if you can compost pistachio shells.
Composting pistachio shells
The good news is that pistachio shells are 100% compostable! In fact, I must add that when you add pistachio shells to your compost, it will nourish your garden in the best possible way.
These shells enrich the soil allowing it to retain plenty of moisture and also fight plant diseases and insects. The compost that includes pistachio shells is way better in comparison to commercial fertilizers.
These shells take a couple of years to completely break down and decompose making the compost light. Since the compost that contains pistachio shells has a better ability to retain the water you can utilize this compost for potting baby plants that are delicate or even tiny seeds. This compost is also cleaned for your flower beds and vegetable patches.
Adding pistachio shells to your pile requires certain considerations. Make sure you do not add them whole. Suppose you add them in such a manner it would take years for them to break down and fully decompose. I always recommend crushing the shells before adding them, when broken into small pieces or even fine powder the shells will decompose quickly.
The shells that you add to your pile should be unsalted. If the shells are salted, they are not very good in a compost pile that has a small number of materials or in an extremely large pile. Adding excess salt to the compost pile will only end up contaminating the soil. Salt also destroys microorganisms as well as natural bacteria that are present in your compost, this can delay the decomposing process.
So just to be safe try and avoid pistachio shells that are salted to the compost. All you need to do is soak the shells in water overnight, this will dissolve the salt from the shells. Once that’s done the shells also become a tad soft making it easy for you to crush or powder them.
In addition, before we leave, I would also like to tell you that other nutshells, as well as nuts, can be utilized in your composting pile, however, as a thumb rule, I always recommend avoiding salted nutshells and salted nuts. All the best!