# Nubie looking to start composting



## 7UP guy

Hello newbie Peter T here from beautiful downtown Burbank. I live in the city and am working on learning how to grow my own. I've been going through different categories here for a couple of weeks and am planning to start with simple small growing beds and before that composting. What I don't understand is the "ratio", nitrogen to carbon. Different web sites have different #'s. ie 10:1...? does that mean (in lbs) 10 lbs browns to 1 lb green? and how does one figure out whats the right ratio for fruits n vegies? 🤠


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## Alice In TX/MO

It's not as critical at they say. If you have access to brown (leaves, hay, straw, bedding chips, etc), use that (about 2" deep" over each layer of kitchen scraps (green). You'll learn how much you need to keep it from getting stinky.


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## doc-

Just run your table scraps thru a couple backyard chickens first and they'll do all the math for you...and you can enjoy fresh eggs in the meantime.too.


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## Danaus29

I don't know if chickens are allowed in the city of Burbank.

There are several methods of composting where ratio of brown to green doesn't matter. Vermicomposting and pit composting are probably the most popular methods.


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## 7UP guy

Alice In TX/MO said:


> It's not as critical at they say. If you have access to brown (leaves, hay, straw, bedding chips, etc), use that (about 2" deep" over each layer of kitchen scraps (green). You'll learn how much you need to keep it from getting stinky.


Kitchen scraps along with green lawn clippings ?


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## 7UP guy

WOW, thank you everyone for the replies and advice. Chickens in Burbank....my lot is too small for chickens however one day I'll name my farm "Down Town Burbank" haha. With a statu of Johnny Carson. This composting project is the beginning of my exodus from California.


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## 7UP guy

Danaus29 said:


> I don't know if chickens are allowed in the city of Burbank.
> 
> There are several methods of composting where ratio of brown to green doesn't matter. Vermicomposting and pit composting are probably the most popular methods.


thank you, 
regarding the Vermicomposting....does one purchase the worms or do they inhabit the pile on their own...🤠


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## Danaus29

Peter T said:


> thank you,
> regarding the Vermicomposting....does one purchase the worms or do they inhabit the pile on their own...🤠


Most vermicomposting is done with purchased worms. But you can use native worms if you create a pit or pile in your garden. If you set up an indoor or enclosed vermicomposting system you have to bring the worms to your pile. In that case you can use native worms you find while digging in your yard or you can buy worms. The most common compost worms are red wrigglers, which are quite commonly used as fish bait.

A word of caution, citrus scraps and mosquito donuts contain compounds that are fatal to earthworms. I killed more than one thriving worm colony out of ignorance.


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## NRA_guy

I composted tree leaves (mostly oak leaves) that I bagged with my riding mower in the fall for several years. I built 3 large bins, stirred the contents every few months, and moved the contents from one to the next after a several months.

The end result was great compost which I used in my raised bed garden.

But after a few years my vegetables started looking bad. I checked the soil in my beds and the nitrogen content was 0.

I think composting only dead tree leaves depletes the nitrogen.


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## po boy

NRA_guy said:


> I composted tree leaves (mostly oak leaves) that I bagged with my riding mower in the fall for several years. I built 3 large bins, stirred the contents every few months, and moved the contents from one to the next after a several months.
> 
> The end result was great compost which I used in my raised bed garden.
> 
> But after a few years my vegetables started looking bad. I checked the soil in my beds and the nitrogen content was 0.
> 
> I think composting only dead tree leaves depletes the nitrogen.


I bagged leaves after I had run over them several times with a mulching blade but I bagged my grass clippings with a snapper high vac and added them to the garden as they were cut and added a fair amount to the compost pile.

I didn't have a problem with nitrogen. My soil test suggested I add gypsum only.


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## Alice In TX/MO

Oak leaves compost more easily if ground up.


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## doc-

NRA_guy said:


> I think composting only dead tree leaves depletes the nitrogen.


No, the problem is two-fold-- N is contained mostly in protein, and there's very little protein in plant material, and any N present is quickly turned to ammonia (NH3) which is very volatile, so it out-gasses even more quickly.

One uses compost & manure to supplement soil mineral conent, and even more importantly, for its fiber. That helps aerate the soil-- the opposite of compaction.


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## po boy

I put a thin layer of green grass clippings in the walking path between the rows and they are walked into the ground and some are pushed up to the plants when they are dry. I have a large worm army.


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## Danaus29

NRA_guy said:


> I composted tree leaves (mostly oak leaves) that I bagged with my riding mower in the fall for several years. I built 3 large bins, stirred the contents every few months, and moved the contents from one to the next after a several months.
> 
> The end result was great compost which I used in my raised bed garden.
> 
> But after a few years my vegetables started looking bad. I checked the soil in my beds and the nitrogen content was 0.
> 
> I think composting only dead tree leaves depletes the nitrogen.


Growing peas or beans that first year after adding the leaves would have helped add nitrogen to the soil.


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## Lisa in WA

Am I the only one who keeps seeing “nudie” instead of “nubie“?


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## Danaus29

Yes, yes you are.


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## GTX63

My wife used to watch this channel. I believe the woman lives in California (LA?) and gardens from her condo patio? She has a disability and has new episodes infrequently but we found her interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAbledGardener/featured
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="



" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


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## po boy

Well, his name is Peter


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## Lisa in WA

Danaus29 said:


> Yes, yes you are.


It’s like this.


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## 7UP guy

NRA_guy said:


> I composted tree leaves (mostly oak leaves) that I bagged with my riding mower in the fall for several years. I built 3 large bins, stirred the contents every few months, and moved the contents from one to the next after a several months.
> 
> The end result was great compost which I used in my raised bed garden.
> 
> But after a few years my vegetables started looking bad. I checked the soil in my beds and the nitrogen content was 0.
> 
> I think composting only dead tree leaves depletes the nitrogen.


Hoe do you check the nitrogen content?


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## Danaus29

You can get the cheap testers at any garden store. There are 2 kinds, the kind that has a meter on a metal rod that you stick into the soil and the test that has the little tubes with a color chart. I can't verify the accuracy of either but those don't cost much and you get instant results. Then there is the option of sending a soil sample to a lab to get a complex soil diagnosis including several elements and minerals and a chart of how much and what to add to make your soil more productive. Those are expensive and some places are rip-offs. You find soil diagnostic test services through your county extension agent or a google search.

About the rip-off services, my mom used a testing service that she found through the extension agent. The service charged her a couple hundred dollars and her results said she didn't have enough sodium chloride in her soil. I read it and saw they suggested she apply SALT to her soil! There were several other values that they gave that didn't match what she was seeing regarding plant growth issues.


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## 7UP guy

How about flys?


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## Clem

Start here Extreme Composting | Homesteading Forum (homesteadingtoday.com)


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## 7UP guy

I have been through that one and nothing on Flys. Unless I missed something.


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## Danaus29

@Peter T, do you mean flies in the compost? You won't have the big bottle flies (shiny blue or green, sometimes red) flies if you don't put meat or animal carcasses in your compost. You will have little fruit flies if you leave vegetable or fruit waste uncovered. If you cover your produce waste with soil or paper or leaf material you won't see very many fruit flies either.


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## 7UP guy

Danaus29 said:


> @Peter T, do you mean flies in the compost? You won't have the big bottle flies (shiny blue or green, sometimes red) flies if you don't put meat or animal carcasses in your compost. You will have little fruit flies if you leave vegetable or fruit waste uncovered. If you cover your produce waste with soil or paper or leaf material you won't see very many fruit flies either.


Thank you, yes flies in the compost. I will definitely use your advise.


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## 7UP guy

Re; Vermicomposting, does the bin need to be completely enclosed? I was considering building 1 with wood slats on the sides with slotted openings and having the open ground being the bottom. The top completely open as we don't much rain (and no snow) in CA.


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## Alice In TX/MO

Worm Composting: A Beginner's Guide | Planet Natural


Composting with worms (a.k.a. vermicomposting) is the proverbial win-win situation. It gives you a convenient way to dispose of organic waste, such as vegetable peelings. It saves space in the county landfill, which is good for the environment.



www.planetnatural.com


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## Alice In TX/MO




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## Danaus29

Peter T said:


> Re; Vermicomposting, does the bin need to be completely enclosed? I was considering building 1 with wood slats on the sides with slotted openings and having the open ground being the bottom. The top completely open as we don't much rain (and no snow) in CA.


Are you talking about having a bin on open ground outside? Yes, that can be done but it should have at least a hardware cloth bottom to keep worm predators from digging in and a cover to keep worm predators and compost raiders out.


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## Danaus29

This is how I did one last year. It filled up very quickly. I had planned on making a couple more but life got in the way. I haven't even checked it this year.


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## 7UP guy

WOW!


Danaus29 said:


> Are you talking about having a bin on open ground outside? Yes, that can be done but it should have at least a hardware cloth bottom to keep worm predators from digging in and a cover to keep worm predators and compost raiders out.


Yes it was to be outside and after the reading and video I have to rethink the placement. Was going to use space between some fruit trees but too much sun and consistently over 90 in the summer. Looks like I'll have to go inside and the DYI video was perfect for constructing 1 for inside.


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## 7UP guy

Danaus29 said:


> This is how I did one last year. It filled up very quickly. I had planned on making a couple more but life got in the way. I haven't even checked it this year.


Now thats creative. Her composting bucket right in the bed.


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## 7UP guy

Points? I have points in my profile. Would anyone tell me what the points are for.


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## Danaus29

Peter T said:


> Points? I have points in my profile. Would anyone tell me what the points are for.


If they meant anything then someone could tell you what they mean. I have no idea and I never paid attention to it. I didn't know they were there.


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## Pony

I no longer compost oak leaves. They do better as leaf mold. 

As @Alice In TX/MO said, get those leaves chopped up. You can do that through a shredder, or just put the bagger on your lawn mower and suck them up.

We also use the leaves as mulch. They work incredibly well, and make weeding much easier.


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## 7UP guy

Free Compost bin. Found out today the city of Burbank gives out FREE composting bins. I'm picking 1 up this Friday and I'll post a pic then.


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## Danaus29

Sycamore leaves don't compost well either. They are large enough to smother Canada thistle patches and take years to break down, even after being shredded. I have found a solution to that issue but it takes quite a bit of work. As the leaves fall I gather them and shred them using the bagger on the mower. The leaves and grass get dumped in a wire collection bin and left for a year. Through the spring and summer some pulled weeds and dirt get added to the bin. I was going to plant melons in the bin this year but didn't get around to it. You have to make pockets in the leaf pile to hold potting soil so the melons can get a good start before sending their roots into the leaf pile. If you plant a crop in the pile you need to add a balanced fertilizer or the plants suffer from nutritional deficiencies. After the crop dies back from frost you pull the plants, move the old leaves into the garden and fill the wire bin with new leaves.

Even though I didn't plant melons or pumpkins in my leaf pile this year, it will still be moved to the main garden in a few weeks.

My bin is made from some heavy duty wire fencing with, I think, 1 inch square spacing. This stuff is very sturdy, almost like cage wire. I'm not sure what it really is, it was given to me. It's about 4 feet tall and the piece makes about a 3 foot diameter circle. I'll have to check the dimensions tomorrow.


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## 7UP guy

Ok, so here it is. My free composting bin from the City of Burbank Ca. It took a couple of wks to get to it and I got it....don't laugh just because I don't need an excavator to fill it. I will get there 1 day as I'm "working on a better way of living". In a few months it should be ready to extract some good stuff. Can hardly wait.


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## GTX63

Just getting started is a good thing, and we all start somewhere.


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## wdcutrsdaughter

I had a bin like that when I lived in the city. It is pure magic. I just kept a bag of maple leaves nearby and everytime I added food scraps, I added leaves. Sometimes I added water. It broke down well on it's own, never turned it.
Didn't have lawn clippings then because, get this, we had a landscaper hahahahahahah makes me laugh so hard.
It was just because we didn't own a lawn mower at the time. 

Anyway here I just have a pile and never measure a thing and it breaks down well too. Well, what the animals don't pick through. Sometimes at night raccoons get in it, but they haven't been around lately for some reason.

Have fun!


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## 7UP guy

Where do the coffee grinds fit in? and egg shells?


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## Danaus29

7UP guy said:


> Where do the coffee grinds fit in? and egg shells?


Had to google it, I just dump mine in the pile.

Both are considered to be high in nitrogen, so greens. Unless you are getting the free waste coffee grounds from a coffee house (the only reason I regularly visit Starbucks) the small amount you are adding doesn't really make a difference.


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## 7UP guy

I've been saving up the coffee grinds and have about 2 lbs. I'll try adding them to the kitchen scraps.


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## 7UP guy

Update...just about full...for a "city" composter. Fresh cut grass, food scraps, used coffee grinds n dry leaves.


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## Clem

Lisa in WA said:


> Am I the only one who keeps seeing “nudie” instead of “nubie“?


I saw it as "nubile" and nearly broke my finger clicking on it so fast....


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## Pony

7UP guy said:


> I've been saving up the coffee grinds and have about 2 lbs. I'll try adding them to the kitchen scraps.


If you make friends with the folks at your local coffee shop, you can get loads of free coffee grounds.


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## Danaus29

I have one Starbucks store that saves coffee grounds in the winter. Corporate told them to stop saving them one winter but the very sweet and wonderful employees saved them anyway. I picked up enough grounds over the past 2 weeks to fill that bin. 

If you want 5 gallons of coffee grounds every other day you can ask your local Starbucks about saving them for you. Be polite and say "please" and "thank you". I thank the Starbucks people each time I pick up grounds.

I have lots of places to spread that many coffee grounds. I rarely get them in the spring and summer because there is a high demand for them. But through the winter I am usually the only one that picks them up.


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## 7UP guy

Good idea I will, I have a Starbucks around the corner from me( of corse I do I live in the city).


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## 7UP guy

Finally full.....yaaahoooo!.


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## Danaus29

Toss in some kitchen scraps and a few shovels of soil and a bag of coffee grounds if you can get them. Water it and close it up. The leaves will start breaking down and will settle a bit. In a couple days your pile will start heating up. It won't get hot but it will get warm. The heat means your pile is decomposing.


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## 7UP guy

Another question, those of you that do what looks to me like a mountain of compost. With everything completely exposed. What do you do in the winter with rain and snow.


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## Danaus29

The piles get wet and often frozen. I thought I had pictures of the leaf bin but I was wrong. I had just spread ashes and coffee grounds on the top a few days ago.


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## 7UP guy

Thank you, I like learning something new every day.


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## 7UP guy

Composting question, I received several lg bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks with paper filters included. I removed the paper filters and added the grounds to my composting ben. Question is........does it matter paper or no paper?


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## Danaus29

I leave the filters in, unless they are going to get blown away by the wind. The filters decompose pretty fast when they are covered. 

A couple years ago we pulled all the filters just so they wouldn't blow around in the yard. I put them in a compost bin with some dirt and kitchen scraps. By the end of that summer everything was broken down. When it is mowing season I spread grass clippings over the grounds and filters. The paper decomposes very quickly when covered with grass clippings.

I haven't been able to get to my garden for a couple months. I have a pile of bags of coffee grounds. I'll be dumping those in the garden with shredded leaves over the next few days. I don't want to admit how many bags of grounds are in the trunk of my car. Those coffee grounds are hard to get during the gardening season but very few people pick them up over the winter. I have only one store that saves them for me in the winter. Most of the other stores dump them.


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## 7UP guy




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## 7UP guy

While composting, can anyone tell me what this is? My guess is it's onions...but what type? Using the scraps from the kitchen and adding some to odd ball soil pots...this grew.


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## Danaus29

Yes, onion. It's hard to tell what type without pulling it out. Most likely the root part of one you cleaned ended up in your pot.


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## Danaus29

I'm glad you brought this thread back up. I took some pictures of my leaf bin but couldn't find this thread to post them in.

















It's about 4 1/2 feet tall, about 4 feet across.


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## 7UP guy

Nice pictures, one day my simple city composter will be a 4' thing of beauty and I'm happy someone's interested enough to reply, thank you. A few questions, do I pull the onion to see what type it is? Do I let it grow longer? How can you tell when it's ready to pull?When reply to the last post on a given thread does it post to all who are on the thread or only the last person?


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## 7UP guy

And 1 more, what are the white things hanging on top of the post's? Looks like a bag?


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## Danaus29

The onion, I would plant it and let it grow. You will get another bulb from the roots. You can wait and see if it flowers (which it might, but onion flowers are really neat) or let it grow to be big enough to eat. I don't know if it is the kind that people grow for green onions, very small with no bulb, or if it's the kind that grows a big bulb. Either way, I would let it grow just to find out. One onion doesn't take up that much room.

With each post, the thread gets put at the top of the list in that forum. It gets knocked lower as newer threads get added. I usually just hit the "new" bubble at the top right of the page. That way I don't see posts I have already read.


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## Danaus29

Do you mean this white bag thing?


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## 7UP guy

Looks like 2 bags on top of the posts


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## Danaus29

Oh, DUH! Wrong posts!

Those are the bags that Starbucks saves their used coffee grounds in. I hang them up until they dry out and the last of the grounds fall out.

At one time I thought the mylar bags reflecting in the sun and hitting the posts would keep deer and groundhogs away from the garden. It doesn't work.


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## 7UP guy

Haha it took me awhile to figure out your snapshot of the "post". Great idea on drying the bags for the last coffee ground/grind/ not sure what word works there. So I'll transplant the onion into a larger space and wait a while.


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## 7UP guy

7UP guy said:


> Nice pictures, one day my simple city composter will be a 4' thing of beauty and I'm happy someone's interested enough to reply, thank you. A few questions, do I pull the onion to see what type it is? Do I let it grow longer? How can you tell when it's ready to pull?When reply to the last post on a given thread does it post to all who are on the thread or only the last person?


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## 7UP guy

7UP guy said:


> Cleaning up around my composting ben today. I came across this little guy.


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## Danaus29

It's a bit too early for them here.


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## 7UP guy

So what do the dry leaves mean....too much...or too little....water..oh Avocado 🥑. I'm having better luck with Avocado then apple....haha.


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## Danaus29

Is the soil wet? You have to go by how it feels about an inch below the surface. If the soil is damp your avocado is okay. The brown, curled leaves look sunburned to me. Did you recently set the pot outside after having the plant inside?


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## 7UP guy

Yes, the soil is wet and I think it could be sunburn. I just moved 3 pots of Avocado plants into a more sunny area. I will move them back. Thank you!.


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