Backyard compost makers unite!!

[C21H30O2]

so i could use a little help from all of you backyard composters, any input is welcome. I recently built my first compost bin made of wood and chicken wire. Its a little larger than 3 cubic feet and is slightly elevated off of the ground to increase areation.

question:

ive seen ratios of 25:1 or 30:1 for determining the amount of carbon to nitrogen. but if im working with leaves and grass clippings how much grass do I need in relation to the leaves? I am also open to using other materials such as alfalfa (because its cheap) and anything else I may have (blood meal, bone meal, dolomite, oyster shell, rock dust etc).

I plan to turn almost daily (atleast in the begining) hoping to have finished cured compost in 6 - 8 weeks. any advise and input would help thx guys.

 

[jaykush]

first off i recommend you find more materials than just grass and leaves(which will make compost) but not high quality compost. do not put things like blood, bone, guano in compost piles unless you like wasting money, at that rate you might as well burn your cash and enjoy the warmth it provides.

you want organic matter, pretty much anything plant origin. leaves, sticks, stems, flowers, all from different plants/trees/shrubs. the only thing worth adding is rock powders and charcoal.

as for ratios, you want lots of green. put it this way, if you have a pile with too little nitrogen and a lot of carbon it will pretty much just sit there decomposing very slowly. now if you have a pile with too much greens, the extra N will most likely evaporate as ammonia gas, in turn the pile will eventually reach its potential decomposition ratio and gets cooking fast. so be generous with the greens of all different sources.

you can easily have compost in 6-8 weeks if you put your mind to it.

 

[C21H30O2]

thnx 4 the input jk,

all the material will becoming from my yard there are a variety of srubs so their leaves and some stems. Ive also got a very large trash can full of leaves. I was planning on spreading the leaves and other waste over the lawn and mowing, then emptying into the bin. I can add some alfalfa as well because thats cheap.

can I use natural bagged charcoal for biochar?

ill take your advice and add plenty of N and monitor the temp.

after this is done, itll be time to work on the wormbin.

 

[jaykush]

yea its not a must to get as many materials as you can, it just helps. shrubs, leaf litter, alfalfa, whatever you got. the point of composting is to recycle waste and turn it into black gold not buy things to make compost.

yea you can buy 100% natural hardwood lump charcoal. but ya gotta smash it yourself, check out the terra preta thread sticky.

you can use the finished uncured compost as excellent worm bedding when the compost is done.

 

[DARC MIND]

A simple way i like to get a good C/N ratio for proper decomposition is to layer material proportions of one third green(N) to two thirds browns(C).
to every bucket of green i add to pile, i toss in twice as much brown.
so any organic matter that has a C:N ratio smaller than 30:1 is considered a green & above 30:1 is a brown.

heres a good list of C/N ratio's of common organic matter used for composting
http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/carbonnitrogenratio.html
and heres a handy compost calculator ,CT guys's link
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/Soli...ected=993887739&fCategoryIdSelected=948111261

as for blood, bone and other meals; i think ther a good add but only like a handful a layer here & ther, to help heat up the pile & diversify things a little. adding a whole bunch is pretty much like how jay explained it.
hth

 

[organicterra]

My Adventures in Composting

My Adventures in Composting

Hello,
I currently have my first compost pile finishing up and am working on building up material for my second go at it.
I built a containment area in my backyard out of some misc. stuff I had laying around.
The first pile was built up gradually out of yard clippings. I also ran three or four bokashi buckets through it.
I am starting to screen out some of the bigger pieces and adding them to the second pile.
As soon as I have enough material saved up I will remove the finished compost and start the new one.
I have been adding some amendments such as crab meal, alfalfa meal, wood ash and rock dusts to the first pile as well.
Here are some pics:

 

[nameth2004]

i recently joined the compost club a couple weeks ago

right now its consists of a little FFOF soil,some soil that i used last grow its fox farm too it still had some roots in it,banana peels,egg shells,coffee grounds and some neighbors bag of leaves.

i been having some problems getting it to heat up though thinking about getting some alfalfa meal

 

[xmobotx]

i recently joined the compost club a couple weeks ago

right now its consists of a little FFOF soil,some soil that i used last grow its fox farm too it still had some roots in it,banana peels,egg shells,coffee grounds and some neighbors bag of leaves.

i been having some problems getting it to heat up though thinking about getting some alfalfa meal

check out the links and advice in darc's post above; there are people who measure everything and compost to a certain temperature then let it cure

it can be fairly simple; like a pile of random organic stuff will eventually break down; but you can really get technical w/ it too

 

[nameth2004]

check out the links and advice in darc's post above; there are people who measure everything and compost to a certain temperature then let it cure

it can be fairly simple; like a pile of random organic stuff will eventually break down; but you can really get technical w/ it too

thanks for the info im still trying to get the ration down been putting a lot of banana peels,egg shells,coffee grounds,apple cores and peels

im having a huge problem with uploading some pics so i gave up.it was a picture of my compost bin

 

[h.h.]

Alfalfa will heat up the pile. A cheap bag of cornmeal makes a good starter as well.
Grass clippings, while they don't make good compost themselves, will serve to heat up a pile.
None of the three are generally organically grown. People use a lot of junk on their lawns to keep them clean. I use them sparingly. More so for mulch around ornamentals and some citrus.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Compost-Gardening-Guide-techniques/dp/1580177026

 

[nameth2004]

Alfalfa will heat up the pile. A cheap bag of cornmeal makes a good starter as well.
Grass clippings, while they don't make good compost themselves, will serve to heat up a pile.
None of the three are generally organically grown. People use a lot of junk on their lawns to keep them clean. I use them sparingly. More so for mulch around ornamentals and some citrus.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Compost-Gardening-Guide-techniques/dp/1580177026

that books look amazing i need to get one when i get some funds

really cornmeal? im going to have to try it,originally i was thinking of get a bag of alfalfa meal to get things warm.Right now the temps are 66 in the middle of December -_- one day it be hot then tomorrow it be right back down to 40-50,gotta love Texas.

i read something on this forum about raw oatmeal any exp on that?i will be picking up some molasses to,i want to start a wormbin to while i have this compost going

 

[MrSterling]

Hey all! I made some additions to my compost heap in an attempt to "speed things up" and help enrich the microbial and fungal life and am hoping you guys can give some feedback on whether I'm going in the right direction. I've a fairly big heap that tends to be straw bedding heavy but filled with cow, chicken, horse, rabbit, guinea pig, and poultry poop. It also gets my family's compost scraps.

I did the dirty today and spread the heap out, so I currently have a heap about 3 feet tall, 4 feet wide by 20 feet long. It turned out a bunch of the straw in the middle was dry as could be so I mixed in all the pulled weeds from the garden and a lot of clover for added green materials - the partial reason I pulled the heap out in length was to make sure rain can get through and wet the heap.

I also added in 20 lbs of mushroom compost in the hope that it can introduce some fungal variety, a bit of oats to feed the fungi, about 10lbs of alfalfa pellets, kelp meal, 50lbs of finished Black Kow manure(I figure it's probably full of microbes, might help the heap), a couple pounds of mealworm frass, and then I drizzled about half a bottle of blackstrap molasses over the heap. All this has been mixed thoroughly and is enjoying the rain. Anything I've done drastically wrong here? Anything I could add to increase the health of the pile?

Peace,
Mr. S

 

[medmaker420]

I finally got my compost rolling today woohoo lol. Its great to look for as many ways NOT to throw anything away. The less stuff I put in the city trash the better off my footprint will be on this earth.

I think the cost is also a big deal because this shit is GOLD compared to any store bought nute bottle ever AND every grower should really be going this route once they get over the "get the best nutes possible" kick.

I ran advanced, gh, coco, ffof, various hydro and aeros and in the end just making some solid compost, ewc and a few other things like molasses and other stuff who needs bottles that cost $100+ per cycle anymore.

Organic is the way to grow and composting really should be a step one for anyone moving towards the more natural style of growing.

 

[MrSterling]

I fear I may have put too much green material in. Turned in some new material today and the distinct smell of ammonia wafted up at me. I don't think things have gone anaerobic, there's a lot of straw and bedding in the pile. It was running *incredibly* hot though; so too much N seems the likely culprit.

 

[h.h.]

While 70/30 is idea, we usually end up with a lot more green material. It's good to stockpile brown material when you get it. Green material can be spread out in the sun a few days before using. You can also speed a pile up by using more green material. Up to 165*( Google it)`I'm not sure exactly. Turn it more often with higher heat.
Water can cool off too hot a pile while it can help heat up dry pile.
Ammonia smell, it needs to be turned. It's nitrogen gassing off. Not a big deal. We're making compost not fertilizer. Make a water extract for the plants to give them a boost, just use sparingly. Probably not good advice though maybe with potential problems. My roses and strawberries love it at that point.
If the pile is too dense, mix in some sticks. While they don't readily decompose, they help keep the pile loose.

 

[MrSterling]

I just remembered I have a giant pile of half a year old cut grass piled up. It's nice and browned. I'll try turning that in tomorrow to slow it down. It's a nice airy pile thanks to straw.

 

[DamnUglyDogE]

Yep good reading...Smell... not so good..

 

[h.h.]

Jf it don't smell good, it needs loosening up.

 

[medmaker420]

I am just building up two piles next to each other. There are so many different types of grass, weeds, clovers, flowers and tree leaves on my property so its great to have so many different types of greens as well as all my fan leaves from my med and veggie gardens.

I am putting together a chicken and rabbit coop and will be putting their poop in the compost piles as well. Once I get the tilapia 55 gallon drums going then I will be able to add fish water and poo as well.

I am happy to have gotten away from bottled nutes finally, damn did that take a long ass time.

 

[h.h.]

Feed the rabbit poo to the chickens. Compost the chicken manure separately and add it sparingly. use it mainly as fertilizer.