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Im glad this thread got a bump. My composting this summer went pretty well. I turbocharged it by adding a lot of grass clippings, but I would caution folks on this because it ended up too gloppy and stinky. The bokashi bucket looks interesting, I have to start my compost over due to some yard rearrangements, so I was going to maybe try that. Definitely let us know how that goes.
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Oct 4, 2022 14:08
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I turbocharged my compost heaps by adding miniature donkey poops to them. I don't have any kind of fancy setup - just pallet walls holding heaps together which I occasionally turn.
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Oct 4, 2022 14:57
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The bokashi is going well! It’s about half full and I want to give it a couple of weeks before I toss it into the tumbler. I’m only one person filling it so it’s slow but that’s ok. I wanted to have a good base in the tumbler first before I added in the bokashi food waste. It’s mostly been weeds, grass clippings, and shredded newspaper, then some compost starter. It dries out pretty fast so I need to keep it watered. It seems to be working? The tumbler is only about a quarter full so I wonder if I need to add in more stuff, or I just need to be patient! The matter in there is definitely smaller than when I first started it. As always, advice is welcome 
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Oct 5, 2022 16:52
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At the start of the year I invested in an underground warm farm for the backyard - the worm buffet by an Australian company called Tumbleweed. The instructions told me it would take time to build up a worm population, but like, I had tons of veggie scraps in the fridge and the one worm farm wasn’t cutting it! So I bought another. And another. And one for the front yard. And a few more. And some extra worms. Now my first few worm farms are absolutely TEEMING with worms and I cannot keep up with them! The amazing thing is that there are openings in the farm that allow the worms to travel throughout the soil and improve the health of the garden. My plan is to buy a juicer and add the veggie pulp to the fortnightly feed, along with the usual coffee grinds, veggie scraps and random fruit I pick up off the street (lol). I have piles and piles of cardboard to feed them also.. I mix approximately half and half browns / greens and the worms are loving it. Plus, there is no need to harvest the castings; the worms do it all by themselves! adeadcrab fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Aug 7, 2023 |
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Aug 6, 2023 21:43
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That rocks. I have a 15 gallon fabric pot of worms in the corner of my kitchen that I feed vegetable scraps and leaves from my garden. I also feed kelp, neem and ground eggshells from my friend’s chickens along with other amendments (crab meal, insect frass, basalt rock dust, alfalfa meal, coffee grounds, banana peels and mangoes). I use lobster and mushroom compost and shredded brown paper bags for bedding. Half a cup of ice cubes every other morning and they shred through everything. I think I need a bigger fabric pot, and I daydream about building a vertical flow-through bin in my garage. I believe worm castings with elevated nutrients from weirdo amendments could sell like hot cakes at the farmers market. My neighbors are blown away that I have cantaloupes the size of softballs growing out of a 5 gallon fabric pot on a north facing porch.
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Aug 6, 2023 22:38
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I am in the PNW so I typically have waaaay more greens than browns, but I bought a crosscut shredder and feed all of our Cardboard boxes through it, compost has never been happier. Now it can actually take all my grass clippings too without turning into a ball of goo or a block of dried grass.
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Aug 7, 2023 00:31
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Szechwan posted:I am in the PNW so I typically have waaaay more greens than browns, but I bought a crosscut shredder and feed all of our Cardboard boxes through it, compost has never been happier. What shredder did you get, out of curiosity? I’ve been looking into this as well as we have WAAAAAY too many greens in our compost and I don’t have a good way to introduce small cardboard aside from going after it with some scissors.
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Aug 7, 2023 13:54
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I've got a metric fuckton of overgrown lawn clippings that's probably about 50% wild morning glory. There's nothing to do with that besides burn it or scatter it on my enemies' lawns, right?
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Aug 7, 2023 16:36
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Harvest the seeds and trip balls
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Aug 7, 2023 16:52
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Is outdoor vermicomposting a lost cause in hot climates? Everything I've read about it makes it sound like a full-time job keeping worms alive once temps in the shade cross 90ish. Which is, uhh, June through September inclusive here (we've been hanging out at 100+ since mid-June with nighttime lows in the 80s, it sucks).
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Aug 7, 2023 17:33
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kedo posted:What shredder did you get, out of curiosity? I’ve been looking into this as well as we have WAAAAAY too many greens in our compost and I don’t have a good way to introduce small cardboard aside from going after it with some scissors. Amazon Basics 12 sheet crosscut shredder. It's around $100 CAD but you can probably get it on sale at some point like I did.
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Aug 7, 2023 17:59
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Discussion Quorum posted:Is outdoor vermicomposting a lost cause in hot climates? Everything I've read about it makes it sound like a full-time job keeping worms alive once temps in the shade cross 90ish. Which is, uhh, June through September inclusive here (we've been hanging out at 100+ since mid-June with nighttime lows in the 80s, it sucks). You’re a hit hotter than my area—during summer we hit triple digits not infrequently but usually for a few days at a time, then back to 90s. But, my worms have been fine for a couple years in their shaded spot. They never get direct sun but air temperature certainly gets to 100. My worm bin is a large rubbermaid tub with drainage holes in the bottom and more holes in the lid, nothing too fancy.
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Aug 7, 2023 22:28
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That's closer to normal for us. This year has been noticeably worse than usual in terms of heat and drought. Is your bin open to the soil at the bottom (e.g. can your worms leave the bin)? I know about buried bins, but I don't really want to do a bunch of digging in a rental. I wonder if simply being able to escape into the soil during the day is what makes the difference. I guess as long as there's food most of them will come back.
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Aug 8, 2023 00:39
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My bins sit on bricks above the ground, with a pan underneath to catch liquid which I distribute to plants. So no, not in contact with the ground.
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Aug 8, 2023 03:26
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Organic Lube User posted:I've got a metric fuckton of overgrown lawn clippings that's probably about 50% wild morning glory. There's nothing to do with that besides burn it or scatter it on my enemies' lawns, right? I'm in the "throw everything in a heap, run it hot, and don't worry about it" camp. If your heap has a good mix of green and brown it will run at pasteurization temperatures and the weeds won't survive. Having said that, I only deal with things like thistle, bindweed, buttercup, and blackberry. Morning glory might be an exception to the rule.
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Aug 10, 2023 23:16
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Hexigrammus posted:I'm in the "throw everything in a heap, run it hot, and don't worry about it" camp. If your heap has a good mix of green and brown it will run at pasteurization temperatures and the weeds won't survive. Afaik wild morning glory is also called bindweed. I may try this because otherwise I'm cut off from any viable compost sources of any quantity. Should I try burning some of it to make biochar?
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Aug 11, 2023 00:27
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So for brown material I found a place about 25 miles away, two towns over, that has free bark mulch. It's a lumber yard and they'll load up as much as you want want for free. I could only handle a half of a pickup truck load in my Tacoma before I was worried about the suspension. It's basically just dirt and tree bark, but so far it's been working nicely and if I run out I can just go back and get more. What I'm getting at is there maybe a place like that around you too. Maybe even try and arborist, they sometimes will give away free wood chips, which can be used also, if not ideal it should still suffice. Also, I'm no expert, just a novice at this still. So take my advice with a grain of salt I suppose.
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Aug 11, 2023 01:16
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Hexigrammus posted:I'm in the "throw everything in a heap, run it hot, and don't worry about it" camp. If your heap has a good mix of green and brown it will run at pasteurization temperatures and the weeds won't survive. Wait, I'm not supposed to have tomato plants growing out of my compost?
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Aug 11, 2023 01:36
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Does anyone have any experience using chicken droppings/bedding as the basis for their compost?
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Aug 11, 2023 15:44
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I use the soiled bedding from my quail, seems to work fine. My compost is mostly yardwaste and quail bedding (leaves, weeds, sometimes woodchips) and it does its thing, turns into very nice dark crumbly stuff. My veggies seem to like it.
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Aug 11, 2023 21:19
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Organic Lube User posted:Afaik wild morning glory is also called bindweed. Not sure if it's the same bindweed we have here but ours doesn't show up in our finished compost. It just keeps pushing in at the fenceline along with the couchgrass, buttercups, bears, and European garden slugs. It's a jungle outside the wire. I think it would be too fine for biochar but it's always fun to light things on fire. devicenull posted:Wait, I'm not supposed to have tomato plants growing out of my compost? Whoops, should have qualified my original statement. You just increase the resolve of domestics like tomatoes, squash, and wonderberries if you try to pasteurize their seeds. Maybe if you carefully bury them in the centre and immediately erect a pyre of fresh grass and horse manure over them? Other than that a trip through the oven at 250o or dump the seeds outside somewhere where the deer can browse the plants when the regular browse is drying up. I hate wonderberries so very, very much.
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Aug 12, 2023 02:15
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:Does anyone have any experience using chicken droppings/bedding as the basis for their compost? Yes. It's really good. I just throw it on the pile with the rest. Shitloads of nitrogen. What are you wondering?
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Aug 12, 2023 03:06
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just recently started to get into gardening like only just tilled the soil for preparation just yesterday. was wondering since i still had some remainder soil left over in those big bags you purchase from gardening stores, would it be fine to at the very least start a compost heap in said bag? or is there an ultra cheap method i can use instead?
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Aug 12, 2023 10:16
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The ultra cheap way is some stakes hammered into the ground and wrapped with a couple layers of chicken wire. It is of course extremely ugly.
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Aug 12, 2023 18:39
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i don't have a yard so that's not an option. i read through the thread and saw that someone made one out of like a walmart bin which i have a couple of so I'll try that out
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Aug 12, 2023 19:03
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Aragosta posted:… Maybe even try and arborist, they sometimes will give away free wood chips, which can be used also, if not ideal it should still suffice. Wood chips are quite good as browns; especially if you have a worm bin. The wood chips allow for more air circulation and microbiome activity.
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Aug 13, 2023 20:03
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Idk if this is everywhere but at least here in seattle there's a service called chip drop and it hooks you up with a tree cutting service that has chips or whole logs - your choice - and theyll just dump that poo poo on your driveway or in front of your house on the curb. there's an app and you just request what you want and sometime in the future it appears. its also a good way to grief someone.
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Aug 13, 2023 21:59
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They have they here in Arizona too. I think the biggest caveat is that you have to take at least 18 cubic yards iirc. I looked in to them earlier this year when I was searching for wood chips.
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Aug 13, 2023 23:35
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They also will not promise a delivery time, so you may get them weeks after you need them.
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Aug 14, 2023 23:55
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I have had good luck just emailing a local arborist and asking—they keep a list of interested folks in town and will call if they have a full truck in the area. It’s smaller loads than the biggest chip drops (though still multiple yards) and they call ahead. But if you have a need for tons and a space it could show up anytime without bekng a nuisance, chipdrop should work fine.
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Aug 15, 2023 03:43
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CommonShore posted:Yes. It's really good. I just throw it on the pile with the rest. Shitloads of nitrogen. What are you wondering? I guess I was kind of wondering... everything. I only started composting when I also built a chicken coop. The compost was basically entirely made up of the used chicken bedding/manure. It didn't really compost much. We use a couple of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P8TPBQC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 We've tossed some scraps (though most go to the chickens), some grass clippings, egg shells... It's been 3 years and I think the bottom 25% or so has started to compost. Does that sound about right, or should it be much higher? I did notice some worms in one of them for the first time this year.
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Aug 15, 2023 21:41
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:I guess I was kind of wondering... everything. I only started composting when I also built a chicken coop. The compost was basically entirely made up of the used chicken bedding/manure. So my compost is a mix of large amounts of coffee grounds, household food scraps, yard waste, and chicken bedding. I occasionally get other animal bedding too, such as donkey. I find that to really get it fired up that water is usually the missing factor. Sometimes the straw is too intact as-is, and too dry, and it needs a bit of something finer and damper mixed in around it really to get going. Get some moisture down in the middle of it and compress it some maybe? E. Just looked at your link. I also am working with a heap that's probably 10x as big as those bins. It could just be volume that's the problem. I don't have much experience with smaller composter bins: big piles are where the magic happens ime. CommonShore fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Aug 15, 2023 |
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Aug 15, 2023 23:24
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I also have to water my piles to get stuff to happen. The material I add isn’t wet enough to keel going on its own so if I don’t water it, stuff looks exactly the same a year later.
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Aug 16, 2023 04:34
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I found that if I water as I layer into each layer, that's really the magic touch as well. I've read about piles that are too moist and im left wondering how on earth that happens because i can never keep mine watered enough.
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Aug 16, 2023 06:26
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I tapped into the drip irrigation system and put a couple of microsprayers on the bins this summer. It definitely makes a difference. I'm waiting for one of the neighbours to yell at me for wasting water during the drought. I might have to walk back my position to "compost everything, don't worry about weed seeds" position. I've been building a new flowerbed using composted manure and as soon as the water hit it it grew a green fuzz. It's almost as bad as the time I used "straw" for mulch. Haven't seen that before and we've used a lot of well-composted horse manure over the years. As soon as you finish writing your book about Mother Nature she changes the script.  I highly recommend this soil screener if you're somewhere between a couple of Dalek bins for kitchen scraps and needing a front end loader for your compost. I bought one on sale a month ago because doing the Charles Dowding thing of adding 2" of compost to your bed each season was getting a bit tedious with a 3x3 riddle made of 2x4s and hardware cloth. Princess Auto (Harbor Freight for  ) has them on sale for $240 cdn, down from $500. I guess they weren't a big seller.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLcUppT0BY&t=182s
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Sep 20, 2023 17:31
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Hello, I have a 30 gallon vermicompost air pot in my living room. it’s super easy, they shred through all my vegetable scraps. I alternate mushroom and lobster compost mixed with shredded brown cardboard for bedding. I also feed neem seed meal, kelp, rock dust, and ground eggshells as supplements for feeding my potted plants. I also have a couple of gold panning screens for screening out the castings every month. There’s a lot of farms around me that would love a worm casting source, I think I could build a flow-through bin to up my production. If you want to get into it it’s fairly easy, just have to avoid overfeeding, overwatering, and always add bedding. https://youtu.be/JhAAW2tXU84?si=nlznahHXHKi0GpAA
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Oct 31, 2023 00:43
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red19fire posted:Hello, I have a 30 gallon vermicompost air pot in my living room. it’s super easy, they shred through all my vegetable scraps. I alternate mushroom and lobster compost mixed with shredded brown cardboard for bedding. I also feed neem seed meal, kelp, rock dust, and ground eggshells as supplements for feeding my potted plants. What temperature range can they survive
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Oct 31, 2023 04:26
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CommonShore posted:What temperature range can they survive ~50F-90F, for red wrigglers. You can keep them in a garage in the winter (they just slow down and go dormant so don’t overfeed) and outside in the shade in summer.
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Oct 31, 2023 12:56
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red19fire posted:~50F-90F, for red wrigglers. You can keep them in a garage in the winter (they just slow down and go dormant so don’t overfeed) and outside in the shade in summer. If I had a red wiggler setup would they go dormant and survive a Proper Hard Winter outside if I say... covered it with a foot of straw and a tarp?
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Oct 31, 2023 14:12
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CommonShore posted:If I had a red wiggler setup would they go dormant and survive a Proper Hard Winter outside if I say... covered it with a foot of straw and a tarp? I have heard of people wrapping their containers with furniture moving blankets for the winter. A tarp alone would be too thin.
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Nov 4, 2023 17:12
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