Composting black walnut?

[RoyalChick]

Black Walnuts secrete Juglone which inhibits growth of many (not all) other plants. My guess is if you have enough of it in your compost heap then it might inhibit growth.
However, I looked at State University Extension services and they all said it was fine. The Juglone breaks down in compost and in any case it is the roots that have the highest concentration of Juglone.
The advice is not to locate your veggie garden under a Black Walnut tree but otherwise fine to use it in compost.
I have several large Black Walnut trees and my compost heap is right under two of them.
I think it will be fine for you to use your compost.

 

[TerryBowleg]

I'm no expert so take what i say with a grain of salt and do what you think is best but I think it'll fine. It's really use of the shavings sanding down and planing walnut wood planks where I get concerned. I haven't thought much about directly under a walnut tree and leave degradation so I'm no expert here. Options if really concerned would be to test the soil at a local agriculature school (UC Davis for example allows soil to be tested for small fees for different toxins--lead, etc, they may have test for juglone) but for me that would be overkill. To be clear--only my opinion, not advice

Thanks! Your opinion is how I was leaning…I actually used this same compost this spring in the garden and my garden is growing so surely it’s not too polluted

 

[Sammster]

Mine is very close to under a walnut tree, as well. Just beyond the fence at the back of my yard. I'm always picking up and chucking the walnuts back over the fence. The land behind us is a little community park/woods. I can tell you that the weeds, vines, junk shrubs have absolutely no trouble growing under that tree

 

[TerryBowleg]

@Sammster @RoyalChick now I’m wondering if it’s even worth moving my pile. I planned on moving it somewhere else in the yard away from the trees but not sure if it’s worth the hassle.

 

[RoyalChick]

@Sammster @RoyalChick now I’m wondering if it’s even worth moving my pile. I planned on moving it somewhere else in the yard away from the trees but not sure if it’s worth the hassle.

I wouldn't bother. Honestly I put mine there in part because I thought not much else would grow so I thought of it as dead space.
Actually weeds and berries seem to thrive in that general area under the walnuts.
Definitely not worth the bother in my book (but I should warn you I am quite lazy!).

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Not sure if the black walnut is a good enough reason to move the compost, but I will say that nothing "turns" compost like moving the pile entirely.

 

[nao57]

OK... here's the reason they said that in that article... but its probably not stated in the article itself.

The reason people say to not compost black walnut actually is because its a super tough hardwood. Its very firm and solid, one of the most solid woods you can find. So if you try to put any sizeable amount of it in any heap, if its a thicker bit of wood its just not going to go anywhere.

I don't think it will matter that much for you to have accidentally put your compost pile by one of those trees. But maybe it would be better to move it, because walnut is a food. So you don't want your compost pile right on top of a food source. Probably it would be best to move the compost pile right away and then hope you have enough time for the bacteria to slowly melt off. If you give it a few months between the exposure to the tree then it should just naturally get to where the stuff has burned itself out. Like they typically give 3 or 4 months for a manure pile to burn out all the bacteria, etc.

Now technically the tree can filter itself already with the stuff in its roots but you don't really want to push or test that.