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DTOM’s Composting Project(s)

PaulieWaulie

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
You should read up on C:N ratio, it is the basic concept when composting. It is the N that heats up your pile, so if your getting no heat that maybe means its mainly carbon. The other main aspect to conisder is moisture and air. Also if you want to be exact, get a thermometer that is a foot long and then you can get actual temps. If you want to go down that road. Ive made every mistake possible so far with this hobby, only thing that seemed to work without any effort was composting. I just kept throwing everything I had on the pile and turned it over into a new pile once or twice a year. Altought I did make a mistake early on in the first pile adding a tonne of fireplace ashes, little did I know it is like 40% calcium carbonate and raises ph drastically. so my compost ph was 8.5. Since then I have not added ashes into the new pile, and its coming in around 7 to 7.5.
 
7thson

7thson

Member
Teddybrae said:
So what are your leaves? Join in more! Help lift this thread out of the doldrums!

and also is that Cactus avatar Lophophora Williamsonii?
Click to expand...

The leaves are from a Ficus Nitida tree and I can't remember the name of the cactus,but it's not that.

PS, I tried finding the cactus but couldn't find it.
 
PaulieWaulie

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
It seems like your going for quantity over quality. I appreciate the size and all but you only have like 2-3 things in there. Variety is the spice of life. Where are all your kitchen scraps? I produce around 1 gallon a week of them, its the main ingredient in my compost.
 
P

P-NUT

Well-known member
Veteran
Unless your eating your weed raw or juicing leaves how would you even get sick. Burning kills bacteria as does cooking. I've used cowshit in my gardens since my first garden and never got sick from it. I like mixing it with magnolia and oak leaves.
 
PaulieWaulie

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
I think most things are mostly water no? like around 80% more or less. Thats why I layer my kitchen scraps with drier carbon layers like pine needles/leaves/hay/straw/ bedding wood shavings, manure etc. but other than that, I just keep piling on 100% kitchen scraps for 6 months in the winter, and then I flip it in spring and add those carbon layers. I have 3 bins in rotation all at different stages, so I always have compost onhand that is 2-3 years old already.
 
T

Teddybrae

I had a hay pile that composted ... partially. once it had stopped ... lost it's heat ... I could not get it going again. so ... mulch.

Chicken shit has lots more Nitrogen than Cow shit.

I have found Kitchen scraps can be the Nitrogen fuse that starts the brown pile decomposing.
 
T

Teddybrae

Fungus in pile cowshit, soil, eucalyptus leaves

Fungus in pile cowshit, soil, eucalyptus leaves

Posted in wrong thread.


picture.php
 
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S

St. Phatty

Active member
GMT said:
If you knew anything about me at all, you'd know the lengths I go to to ensure I only eat clean food. I don't eat anyones shit nor their animals.
Click to expand...

Don't look too deeply then.

Plants & animals on Planet Earth are uniquely evolved to live on each other's excretions.

It's not some hippie dream, it's the way it is.

I could elaborate but I'm not sure you want to hear it.

Most of the time we can hold excrement at arm's length, by composting it. After 6 months, composted steer manure smells only like fresh soil.

Health-wise, the main thing to be aware of is, not to work on compost with an open cut or something. The bacteria that break down manure, rotten fruit etc., are happy to go to work on people flesh. Some of those useful bacteria are in the category of flesh eating bacteria.
 
antheis

antheis

Active member
Veteran
blue bruising would show up within a minute. if you pinch them and they just turn brownish they aren't what you want.
 
P

P-NUT

Well-known member
Veteran
Something to be aware of using cow or horse manure is herbicide poisoning. There is a product called graze on that is sprayed on many pastures and hayfields. If your rancher buddy buys hay and you live in the southeast you gotta be real careful. Google graze on and compost and you'll see horror stories of it ruining people veggie gardens. It stays around for years too. It's why I have to bale my own hay because almost all the commercially available hay is sprayed especially if it's Bermuda grass.
 
DTOM420

DTOM420

Member
St. Phatty said:
Don't look too deeply then.

Plants & animals on Planet Earth are uniquely evolved to live on each other's excretions.

It's not some hippie dream, it's the way it is.

I could elaborate but I'm not sure you want to hear it.

Most of the time we can hold excrement at arm's length, by composting it. After 6 months, composted steer manure smells only like fresh soil.

Health-wise, the main thing to be aware of is, not to work on compost with an open cut or something. The bacteria that break down manure, rotten fruit etc., are happy to go to work on people flesh. Some of those useful bacteria are in the category of flesh eating bacteria.
Click to expand...

Goddess St. Phatty, don’t get him started again!! It’s been nice and quiet for the last 48hrs!! Lol!
 
DTOM420

DTOM420

Member
P-NUT said:
Something to be aware of using cow or horse manure is herbicide poisoning. There is a product called graze on that is sprayed on many pastures and hayfields. If your rancher buddy buys hay and you live in the southeast you gotta be real careful. Google graze on and compost and you'll see horror stories of it ruining people veggie gardens. It stays around for years too. It's why I have to bale my own hay because almost all the commercially available hay is sprayed especially if it's Bermuda grass.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the warning! Luckily, that’s not an issue here that I’m aware of. These cattle (mostly wild) graze on native brush and grasses and are only fed hay in late winter. I’ll ask about the spraying but we’re a long way from the south east and while we do have some types of Bermuda around here, I don’t think that it’s what they bale up for the cattle. Pretty sure it’s a milo sorghum x Sudan cross. Since I hope to have all I’m going to collect gathered up before the end of the year, I should be good. I’m also trying to get access to a high-end horse training facility, to get some of their stall clean-out materials. A buddy of mine swears by his use of horse manure. I have a small source of horse manure already but those horses are fed like professional athletes which will make their manure far more nutrient rich than what I’m getting now, that’s just fed hay.
 
brendon420

brendon420

Member
Teddybrae said:
So you get off on the feeling of Disgust, eh? Please tell us about your childhood ...
Click to expand...

I logged on to give you rep. LOLOLOLOLOLOL

that is was and will be the funniest thing ive read in the context for while...


also, this thread is so cool,

only the internet could produce a hater to a life sustaining process....


!!!!!LO!L!O!L!O!L!O!L
 
Q

Qatman

New member
Microbeman said:
Is cypress a type of cedar? Maybe research potential anti-microbial properties.

If you put 2 stall type structures beside each other with air space in between and air all around (chicken wire or spaced wood) then when the pile heats enough forking it to the adjacent 'stall' mixes it perfectly; then it heats again, toss it back to the first stall.

This is a photo from the internet. I'll try to find our farm picture over the next couple of days.
View Image
Click to expand...

Screenshotted. Thanks microbeman!
 
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