Composting

[Eeilee]

We built a large compost bin this weekend using pallets and chicken wire.
In the past I had been just using old storage bins with holes drilled on the sides for air flow.
One side of the bin is just for old leaves to make leaf mould and the other side for garden waste and kitchen waste.
The plan is to layer carbon materials with nitrogen materials and turn it once a week.

That being said, I’ve read that some of you on here compost your kitchen waste separately.
Is there a reason for that?
Should I not toss kitchen waste in with garden waste?
We don’t compost meat or dairy or anything like that, just things like veggie peelings and banana peels.

 

[YumYum]

I just throw my stuff out on the ground in a pile and turn it with a shovel sometimes. Leaves, grass clippings, culled chickens, leftover vegetables, leftovers from cleaned fish. Meat has nitrogen. If I put meat in the pile, I bury it in the pile just because predators will dig it up if they sense it. Meat and dairy take longer to break down it seems like. Must be the fat content.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Rats; my kitchen waste goes in a black plastic compost bin and stands on aviary wire that rats can't get through, they have no interest in the garden waste. I thought at first they would go through the plastic, but it is smooth and rounded and they can't get a purchase. I do empty an occasional compost bin from the kitchen into the garden waste if I have a load of weeds to put on top of it, it speeds up the rotting down process, but we are veggie, so no meat or bones, can't say dairy makes waste really.
I used to chuck everything in together and had a lot of long grass on the top layer. I had been repairing the aviary roof and jumped down on to the grass for a soft landing and heard a squeak, found the rat's skeleton in a flattened nest when I dug the heap out some months later. That's when I changed, don't want to encourage them in any way.
Moss that I rake out of the lawn is the stuff I have most trouble with, it simply does not seem to break down. I have taken to lining pots with it as it does hold water well and keeps them moist.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Compost timing and consistency for me as leaf mold is ready at a different speed than kitchen, wood, greenery etc. As long as a pile gets big enough since production of waste material is directly related to the pile type and size. Sometimes I need to layer food C with sugar and moisture N if I run across something like sawdust that "wood" take forever to break down by itself. E coli and stench are problems with meat but are kept to the small kitchen pile used on ornamentals here. We produce far more leaf and lawn debris than kitchen scrap. Lots of N after a storm cleanup goes on the dead leaf an C from dried twig twigs etc.

 

[Eeilee]

I also have far more leaf and lawn than kitchen scraps. Where we live there are a ton of trees so the vast majority of it is leaves, layered with lawn clippings, deadheads and other misc. garden material.
We eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruits so I mix it in with potato peels, banana peels, carrot tops etc.
I've been avoiding onion and garlic peelings and citrus as I read it interferes with the piles PH and drives away worms.
I think my pile so far has more C than N but that should change once we start mowing the grass and deadheading and pruning again.

 

[Meadowlark]

Mainly for convenience, but I have separate piles for kitchen/garden and cow/hay waste. The kitchen/garden pile doesn't get turned often and I'm pretty careful about selective garden waste, i.e. absolutely no sick plants.

My cow compost gets turned frequently, like every couple of days, until it becomes black and friable when it is usable. It gets very hot during the process and quickly breaks down into black gold. This year I have three large cow/hay waste piles in progress. This one will soon be nothing but black compost and will go on the garden soon.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I also have far more leaf and lawn than kitchen scraps. Where we live there are a ton of trees so the vast majority of it is leaves, layered with lawn clippings, deadheads and other misc. garden material.
We eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruits so I mix it in with potato peels, banana peels, carrot tops etc.
I've been avoiding onion and garlic peelings and citrus as I read it interferes with the piles PH and drives away worms.
I think my pile so far has more C than N but that should change once we start mowing the grass and deadheading and pruning again.

There are 3 nutrients more important than NPK. Do you know them? How do they relate to the C in compost literature?

 

[Susan BBPM]

We have big 1m square compost heaps for the bulk of our garden waste but we tend to put kitchen scraps and weeds into our hotbin. I think this is mainly because we got fed up of potatoes growing in the compost heap! Also we had some scab on potatoes last year and I figured the hotbin might kill it off. Rather than pick out potato peelings we just put all kitchen scraps in the hotbin. I know you can put meat, bones etc in too but we don't.

 

[DirtMechanic]

We have big 1m square compost heaps for the bulk of our garden waste but we tend to put kitchen scraps and weeds into our hotbin. I think this is mainly because we got fed up of potatoes growing in the compost heap! Also we had some scab on potatoes last year and I figured the hotbin might kill it off. Rather than pick out potato peelings we just put all kitchen scraps in the hotbin. I know you can put meat, bones etc in too but we don't.

The meat conversation is the surface talk about proteins which inevitably breaks down into the amino acids that plants need but that also make up the protein molecules. Fancy a forest recycling the dead fauna and it becomes more clear.

 

[Eeilee]

There are 3 nutrients more important than NPK. Do you know them? How do they relate to the C in compost literature?

I do not know them but I’m very much interested!
I love learning new things pertaining to gardening. We can never know enough.
All that I know about composting thus far is 3x the carbon to 1x the nitrogen.

 

[Eeilee]

Another question too…shall I have someone with the proper equipment pee on the pile? I’ve heard this is good for speeding up the process.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Another question too…shall I have someone with the proper equipment pee on the pile? I’ve heard this is good for speeding up the process.

Hahaha this is an inevitable part of any proper compost thread. And yes it works. But if you research the ammonia that farmers use you can soon find it is mixed with water and sold as household ammonia. Not that I would ever be one to suggest staying home in the face of adventure, it is equally true that volumetric realities can arise that require more effort than some people are capable of producing.

 

[YumYum]

There are 3 nutrients more important than NPK. Do you know them? How do they relate to the C in compost literature?

What are they? Oxygen, hydrogen, ?

Hahaha this is an inevitable part of any proper compost thread. And yes it works. But if you research the ammonia that farmers use you can soon find it is mixed with water and sold as household ammonia. Not that I would ever be one to suggest staying home in the face of adventure, it is equally true that volumetric realities can arise that require more effort than some people are capable of producing.

I would like to run some ammonia through my driplines only for N since I have plenty of P & K and micros. I can't find a bottle that says how much is in there so I can reliable calculate how much to use.

 

[DirtMechanic]

What are they? Oxygen, hydrogen, ?


I would like to run some ammonia through my driplines only for N since I have plenty of P & K and micros. I can't find a bottle that says how much is in there so I can reliable calculate how much to use.

COH same as in sugar, but available for use. Carbon dioxide and water are 2 examples.

I use 5% But generally active contents are stated here. I have seen 4%. A US gallon is 8.34 lbs. You would be pushing up to .417 lbs at 5%. That is enough to cover 417 square feet at the rate of 1 lb N per 1000 square feet so yes you best cut it down for a smaller area. I mix mine in a 5 gallon bucket for a cold pile of compost. It will heat up pretty quick.

 

[Eeilee]

What are they? Oxygen, hydrogen, ?


I would like to run some ammonia through my driplines only for N since I have plenty of P & K and micros. I can't find a bottle that says how much is in there so I can reliable calculate how much to use.

Yeah dirt don’t leave us hangin!
Should I tell it’s pretty each day I pass it by?!