Does anyone make their own compost?

[GoldiNugs]

Been looking into "hot composting" a bit recently. Anyone do this? Any tips? It sounds like a great method if growing organic, gets a ton of beneficial microbial life going which ends up with wicked plant growth.

 

[LittleDabbie]

I vermicompost but thats just my latest hobby .. I find it relaxing to dig around in the dirt and play with worms like im a kid again...

But its also fun to feed them and watch food dissipate over time :D

 

[GoldiNugs]

Yeah, I vermicompost too, but it's small scale.

Hot composting you can make a large amount relatively easily and quickly from what I've read, like 30+ cubic feet in a go.

 

[Ambre]

Yes, I definitely do! I have a ranch, so I have lots of hay, livestock bedding, cow manure, goat manure, poultry manure, etc. My compost heap is so large we have to use the tractor to turn it, LOL

 

[Seamaiden]

We don't generate enough waste for much of a compost heap. My chickens eat a lot of our scraps, other scraps go to the mealworms and the rest finally goes into the compost. It's pretty small, so I'm letting it cold compost.

Yes, I definitely do! I have a ranch, so I have lots of hay, livestock bedding, cow manure, goat manure, poultry manure, etc. My compost heap is so large we have to use the tractor to turn it, LOL

Color me jelly!

 

[str8smokn]

Yeah kitchen scraps ,grass clipping,& of course leafs, collect chicken & peacock shit from parents every month or so. Still only slow cooks though, need to turn more often I guess.But works pretty good.

 

[Supercharge]

To get a hot heap going, you need mass. Finding some stables and collecting their sweepings is a good start. You an usually mix up a trailer load with no notice as they generate a lot. Already has a mix of C and N, the two most important elements of hot composting. But with all the urea from the horses' urine, it'll be very hot. So you then need to balance it with penty of high-C containing material. Hitting up your local sawmill or woodturner is a good place to start. Just make sure they don't use treated wood. There are a few calculators online to help you gauge the ideal ratios of various materials that you may have on hand / have access to.

Invest in a good thermometer. It'll be your most important tool.

 

[DragonKilla]

One of my friends is right into this. Done well, you have compost ready to go in 3 weeks! I have to say, his plants love it.

 

[Plasma]

Permies are strong advocates of this. I looked into it and even gave it a go once. Too muc effort for the likes of me. Collecting all the shit that goes in the heap, turning massive piles of compost, checking the temps, turning it again and on and on...yeah nah couldn't be assed lol

 

[waayne]

I've recently started using this insulated tumbler,it definitely makes it an easier task
I have quite a bit of organic waste from my veggie,and herb gardens,so I have no shortage
of compostable materials....
This insulated tumbler definitely speeds up the process

 

[monkeymun]

If you've got the time, you should defintely give it a go and see how you like it. I know folks who are so crazy about it they even check samples under microscopes to get a rough idea of the ratio of fungi to bacteria present.

 

[organicpanic]

Good thread! I'm about to dive in to composting myself. I've done cold comp in the past. I've got a couple cover crop blends and borage I'll grow out to compost. Plenty of oakleaf and turkey mullein around. Think I'll try a hot pile of mullein, oakleaf,kitchen scraps and bailed alfalfa watered down with microbes and LAB this fall. Literally gonna grow plants to feed my plants and I'm getting excited!

 

[fishwhistle]

I have a composter similar to waaynes(not as Gucci:D) but i need to hone my skills,i want that rich black dirt,mine never seems to get to that point.I need a small chipper too,that would help alot.
Dragonkilla,How are your friends doing it in just 3 weeks?Shit i take 3 months and its still not ready or what i would call done.

 

[geologic]

I keep some plants in the compost pile--
they cultivate mycorrhizae fungi on their roots...

 

[Seamaiden]

Permies are strong advocates of this. I looked into it and even gave it a go once. Too muc effort for the likes of me. Collecting all the shit that goes in the heap, turning massive piles of compost, checking the temps, turning it again and on and on...yeah nah couldn't be assed lol

There are others who are into cold composting, too. :)

 

[GoldiNugs]

I have a composter similar to waaynes(not as Gucci:D) but i need to hone my skills,i want that rich black dirt,mine never seems to get to that point.I need a small chipper too,that would help alot.
Dragonkilla,How are your friends doing it in just 3 weeks?Shit i take 3 months and its still not ready or what i would call done.

From what I undertand, black soil is not ideal. What you actually want is chocolate brown soil. I forget the exact reasoning, I think it was something to do with humic acid content.

 

[Kitty]

A few years back, my boyfriend and I moved into a new place. We converted a bunch of the yard space to raised vegetable beds. But because we were eager to get some veggies growing asap we just bought 100 cubic feet of soil from a landscaping place and used that. One of our friends had just moved too. He decided to make his own soil by hot composting, using fruit and veggie waste from cafes, stable sweepings and wood chips. A few weeks later, he made his beds out of that. The woodchips hadn't even broken down...yet his garden went crazy. Ours pottered along, doing ok, but not great. The difference was crazy.

 

[YarraSparra]

There's some interesting research being done on this topic, particularly temperature-dependent succession of microbial communities during the composting process. With an optimum C:N ratio, temps increase an average of 70F within the first 3 days, and significant changes in pH, O2 and CO2 concentrations also occur. Obviously, this has a significant effect on which microbes are able to survive and thrive. Shifts occur between bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi, with bacteria dominating the early stages and fungi dominating the later stages. Even archaea have been found!

Here's a link to one full paper on the topic.

Good thread.

YS

 

[kolah]

I don't get too fancy and have been making my own compost for years...horse manure, chicken poop, my own urine, charred wood, egg shells, etc. I am super stoked this year as my new job gets me tons of kitchen scraps from 3 gambling casino restaurants. The prep cooks give me various fruits and veggie trimmings by the box- loads which I take home, dump into my compost piles which are loaded with worms. By next year I will have pure black gold organic soil which cost me nothing,

 

[Seamaiden]

Damn! I would love all of that for my chickenbirds.