The Compost Tumbler thread

[HighonPottery]

I'll see ya on getting more info in this compost thread!

So personally, i have kinda stopped using my tumbler. It's got a couple issues with my design--i should have used a metal rod through the center because the wood dowel is warped; i should have also ABS glued my center air pipe to the bottom of the barrel because after time, the weight of all that heavy wet material popped the tube out from the socket. those are all relatively EASY fixes but i'm lazy once i get home. i plan on getting it back and running this summer and will use it primarily for storing recycled soil.

i've been doing most of my composting in my big compost bin (which i'll have to get some pics of). i've been playing with the design of it over the past year, but basically started out its life as a 3-sided bin made from some wood pallets. a few months ago i "upgraded" it with some chicken wire all the way around and added a 'center' divider out of another pallet to give me 2 sides that are roughly 4' tall X 4' deep X 2.5-3'wide. one side is for all the fresh, big chunks of stuff. the other side gets sieved once through chicken wire and sits there for further decomp. a final sieving is through a 1/2" screen into the wheel barrel.

i've also been getting some awesome compost from the local waste facility. it's all the green waste collected from residential that gets ground up and composted in these HUGE rows. the stuff that comes out is GREAT! i have been ammending my whole yard with this stuff, but lately have been getting the stuff that gets taken off in the 1st screening---they sell it as "walk-on bark" and it's pretty much all the chunkers and is actually quite a nice product. the most finely sieved compost (1/4") is the most expensive at $35/yard which is pretty cheap if you ask me. they come load you up with a huge ass tractor and the scoop is obviously more than a yard...

sieve:

 

[JackTheGrower]

Outstanding HighonPottery! People should know compost is big business!

 

[HighonPottery]

Nice to see ya.. How is it going My RastaBall Brutha!

I wanted an antenna ball when I went there and thought of your Jack. LOL I wonder how many think of us Jacks when they get fast food?

haha, glad you enjoyed the "rasta jack". i don't even know if they still make jack balls. i try not to eat fast food anymore. he's the 3rd one i've made after having the first two get jacked in parking lots. now he stays on my dashboard instead.

 

[HighonPottery]

^^yes it is big business. a couple times i've been there there have been open-top semi's getting filled up, so someone's buying it in bulk. personally, i've probably bought 10yds from them over the past few years.

i know that a local company, VermiCrop, takes the 1/4 mesh stuff and innoculates it with their dank worm casting tea...now THAT stuff is gotta be good! i saw it at a local landscape supply place when i was landscaping my front yard and it's actually not that much more $, i think it was $38/yd, but their scoop isn't as big decided to get a yard of it anyways when i started my front yard veggie garden because i added about 15yds of dirt to my yard that someone excavated from somewhere else; so it didn't have any good stuff in it. i might go get some more of it soon to top dress all my garden plants.

 

[JackTheGrower]

Creating new soil block soil.

Creating new soil block soil.

And So starts my processing of materials the tumbler has collected over the winter.
All the coffee grounds, banana peals, yard weeds and now the exhausted soil that held clones.

I have broken up the soil from the one gallon containers and spread it out over the surface of the half full tumbler.
On that I have spread out Mung Beans. Mung Beans are basically the bean sprouts we would eat in our meals.

The goal of this is to generate some green manure.
Green manure is a fresh source of nitrogen. The N of our C to N ratio. The Green to our Brown.


It will be advisable to add more nitrogen sources when I am ready to fire this batch up.



So far I have collected all the household organic materials from the fall/winter

 

[EatMoGrass]

The county I live in also has large scale composting sites and they sell a pickup truck bed full for $15 of the screened product. Its even cheaper for the unfinished stuff. My grandfather swore by the stuff.
I'm a little Leary though as this stuff is made from residential yard waste that is likely from homeowners that apply chemical pesticides to their property. It does look/smell good though and the price sure beats the $14cuft the grow shop charges for another counties municipal compost.
I'll definitely buy a couple cu yds next season to fill some raised beds. Anyone wanna let me borrow their truck?

 

[JackTheGrower]

haha, glad you enjoyed the "rasta jack". i don't even know if they still make jack balls. i try not to eat fast food anymore. he's the 3rd one i've made after having the first two get jacked in parking lots. now he stays on my dashboard instead.

Perhaps we should manufacture them?

 

[HighonPottery]

mmmm...i love mung beans! i grew up eating them at my Grandparents' house in one of my favorite dishes. i've never thought of adding them to my compost, but i guess that would work like a charm for adding fresh N source. yes, they are the bean sprouts that are most common in asian foods.

here's a recipe for you--
Mungo Beans w/Chicken (don't ask about ratios, my Filipino great grandma's measurements were by how many fingers you use to grab it):
Whole mung beans, 2-3 handfuls, and soak them in water for a while.
Cut up some onions, garlic, and ginger.
Cut up some chicken. Whole chicken or chicken w/bones gives better flavor. One crucial chicken ingredient would have to be wings (w/the fatty wing end still attached!) and maybe some gizzards if you're into it.
Greens

Saute up your onions, garlic, and ginger. When that's ready, toss in your chicken parts and season it up w/S+P. Let the meat get a little color and put the lid on to help the chicken juices come out and get the goodness it needs. Add in a couple pints of water to the chicken and throw in your soaked mung beans. let everything cook all the way through (30-45min?) and then add in some type of tasty greens. We always switch it up but some really good ones are spinach and chards. My grandma would sometimes put in different greens like: ampalaya/bitter melon leaves (the tender tips), chinese spinach, kangkong, camote tops (potato leaves?), new zealand spinach, and the tender tips of chayote plant.

serve over white rice.

 

[JackTheGrower]

Now I want to eat.

Hopefully the Mung Beans should grow fast. Hopefully the fresh green will offer a biological boost.

I will probably use up some of the reserve top dressing materials on hand too as an excuse to order more.

All in all it should be a rich mix. I will be making soil blocks for clones. I'm making feminized seeds this summer. My first try.

 

[HighonPottery]

i had to look up the soil blocks thing. looks very interesting. might have to try it sometime myself.

 

[JackTheGrower]

i had to look up the soil blocks thing. looks very interesting. might have to try it sometime myself.

Yeah.. I am practising cloning in blocks. I think I will do a humidity tent approach this time in this Thread

There is a thread in our forum on soil blocks. The history is interesting.

I have to do this composting with an eye towards the soil blocks.

There isn't much to soil blocks themselves but the soil mix is a point of debate. Most age any mix to avoid chemical interactions if any, I will be composting the mix so the chemical reactions will occur there if any. Reminds me to pick up some oyster shell when I get the alfalfa.

It's easy. Blocks are an extension of Organic Soil.

 

[growclean]

i had to look up the soil blocks thing. looks very interesting. might have to try it sometime myself.

Yeah, I just looked it up to.

Thanks Jack!

 

[JackTheGrower]

The county I live in also has large scale composting sites and they sell a pickup truck bed full for $15 of the screened product. Its even cheaper for the unfinished stuff. My grandfather swore by the stuff.
I'm a little Leary though as this stuff is made from residential yard waste that is likely from home owners that apply chemical pesticides to their property. It does look/smell good though and the price sure beats the $14cuft the grow shop charges for another counties municipal compost.
I'll definitely buy a couple cu yds next season to fill some raised beds. Anyone wanna let me borrow their truck?

Well we have the option to make our own premium compost for our cannabis. That's my small nook in the gardening realm here.

By including materials with nutrients we want such as oyster shell for calcium or pine shavings for iron we can mix and cook a batch of soil that has Zing power. That an provide a bed where the micro-biology can thrive when we top dress and liquid feed.

For our inhaled cannabis we can pay more for our soil mixes and try to keep it on the clean side.

But yeah a couple truck loads for a veggie garden sounds excellent.

 

[EatMoGrass]

Been making my own worm compost for my indoor garden for 3+ years now.

If I needed to fill a few 200gal Smart Pots or a couple 4'x8' raised beds then I would definitely consider the counties compost for $15cu yd. I would rather use municipal compost than the bales of Pro Mix so many use to fill beds outside.

Oh yeah, some of my store bought soil amendments to go along with my small kitchen worm compost. Will this create soil with zing?

 

[JackTheGrower]

Been making my own worm compost for my indoor garden for 3+ years now.

If I needed to fill a few 200gal Smart Pots or a couple 4'x8' raised beds then I would definitely consider the counties compost for $15cu yd. I would rather use municipal compost than the bales of Pro Mix so many use to fill beds outside.

Oh yeah, some of my store bought soil amendments to go along with my small kitchen worm compost. Will this create soil with zing?

I'd think so.. I didn't know that company was selling oyster shell. LOL Not long ago I was the only one i knew using it and getting it from a feed store.

Yeah.. CC turned me on to Kelp meal and I also use ground coffee Foldgers classic roast to be exact. I like it for the soil not to drink unless I am out of fresh roasted beans.


News: I have sprouts on the Mung beans already.. like 24 hours.

 

[EatMoGrass]

I've been using the Down to Earth brand oyster shell for over three years now although it is definitely way overpriced at $20/7lbs.

My worms eat my organic Fair Trade coffee grounds mixed with the oyster shell and organic egg shells to buffer the low ph of the grounds. Also allot of green tea. And greensand for some grit for their gizzard. And they love organic banana peels. They also eat my cannabis root balls, stems, and leaves as they need some weed to go with their morning coffee.

I'm trying to get my father to buy a compost tumbler or two to take the place of his pile of rotting crap he calls a compost.

The Smart Pot company also has a 110gal fabric "Compost Sac" that measures 30"x38"tall.
I'm looking into a couple of those for my father as well as they go for only $40 ea. Even cheaper that the $60 tumblers that were on sale here a couple weeks ago.

Any thoughts on the Smart Pot brand "Compost Sac"?

 

[JackTheGrower]

Yeah on that cost. See if you can find a feed store. crushed oyster shell is sold from bulk.
I get 5lb for less than $3.

Nice that it is sold in that box and all over tho. I mean if you can't find a feed store.

I didn't find a link for that "Sac"


@everyone I dusted the surface of the compost and the mung beans that are sprouting with the last of the soil to be processed in this composting.
There are many sprouts but they need to root and push up. So nothing to report today.

 

[JackTheGrower]

Update:

did you know that Mung Bean Sprouts will grow without light? Indeed.

So I have watched the height of that cover soil I put in there rise up until I watered it.

So there is a crop coming up in there and the temperature is at 80 which suggests two things. 1. the warm weather has arrived and 2. bio-activity has started.

I say this because in the cool of the morning the mix could easy be lower than 80. I believe the introduction of the plants has stimulated the microorganisms to vie for the roots.
There is a relationship of micro-organisms and the plants. There is a symbiotic relationship. So my guess it the 80 degree look is the sign that the living soil process is successful.

It's the beginning of a healthy relationship we will exploit with a full blown composting!

I will not be adding nitrogen or other materials for a while since i will also get an idea of the levels in the mix by how these mung bean plants grow.

Well it won't be long here.. Mung beans grow fast and our goal it to have some fresh green when the rest of the area has turned brown already.

 

[HighonPottery]

^yeah, mung beans will sprout w/o light. that's how they do them for food production i believe. if you want to make sprouts for you and your family, take a 1 gallon glass jar, put some beans inside, rinse and drain, then set it inverted in a dark spot. rinse the beans every day and you should have consumable bean sprouts in less than a week. you can do this with just about any seeds you wish to consume the sprouts of.

i need to get a thermometer for my compost pile.

as for the compost from the city, i don't use that for my cannabis. that stuff is for the yard only. i just use it to help make the soil happy. sure there might be some chems from whatever people put on their yard, but i think a lot of that stuff would break down in the composting process? i mean, those piles they've got are definitely steaming pretty good and i've never been able to get my home compost to break down the material as well as they do but maybe it has to do with them sieving it and re-composting several times.

 

[JackTheGrower]

^yeah, mung beans will sprout w/o light. that's how they do them for food production i believe. if you want to make sprouts for you and your family, take a 1 gallon glass jar, put some beans inside, rinse and drain, then set it inverted in a dark spot. rinse the beans every day and you should have consumable bean sprouts in less than a week. you can do this with just about any seeds you wish to consume the sprouts of.

i need to get a thermometer for my compost pile.

On Compost Thermometers, It was one of the purchases where I wasn't sure I would get my monies worth. You know what I mean. It's somewhat expensive and ya use it for a moment to find out the pile is hot and that could be done with a finger stuck in the pile.
Well now that I have had it a few years I found it to be a useful tool. In that I may want to know just how hot it is when considering things like turning a pile:
For example: Once I had a pile that had a lot of nitrogen material in it. I turned it and all was good except it took only one day for the temperatures to reach the way upper range and that is bad.
If I had not had the 22 inch probe I might have left that pile three days before I came to check since logically I had just turned it.
Too hot of a pile kills microbiology and slowed the composting down while converting the nitrogen to gas thus wasting it.
So if a person is fairly certain they will be composting in the future then a compost thermometer is a wise investment.
I also use it just to check soil temperatures and again the 22 inch length is useful .
I often want to know how long it takes for a pile to heat up after turning as that tells me how the nitrogen aspect is doing.

With any hobby-interest there are toys. The proper compost thermometer is more a tool than a toy even on the scale of this hobby.

But don't go get anything just because it looks cool. I have a Brix meter here too.. I don't use it as a tool. It's a toy for my situation. Just a show-N-tell toy.

as for the compost from the city, i don't use that for my cannabis. that stuff is for the yard only. i just use it to help make the soil happy. sure there might be some chems from whatever people put on their yard, but i think a lot of that stuff would break down in the composting process? i mean, those piles they've got are definitely steaming pretty good and i've never been able to get my home compost to break down the material as well as they do but maybe it has to do with them sieving it and re-composting several times.

With my set-up I am almost spiritual with maintaining the soil. I mean I smoke the weed and dream the dreams so the garden is a sacred place here.. Has to do with the 1960's-1970's hippy culture too.
To that add my Eastern religion philosophy interests and you see my heart in what I do. AND why not?

So i would agree with using the city compost in general situations but for me I respect the cultural beliefs of the locals here (lol).

I'd be comfortable using that city compost in the yard or the general garden but anyone would trust the compost they made more for their inhaled produce I am sure.

It's a crap shoot any-who.. We take chances on raw materials that they are not radioactive... That reminds me I want a Geiger counter.. Why is it none of us tests for radioactive materials?? I mean it occurs in natural materials and especially some metals based fertilizers.

I figure personal cannabis growing is an event that we can take great care with. Then we have a point of gardeners pride when we offer cannabis to our friends ( medical friends in the State of California(tm)(R) )


Just for you my friend. A snap of today's green.
I wrote that I tossed the mung beans in with the tumbler half full of materials and we know the beans grow in the dark. Have a look at how the mung plants have pushed the material up to the top of the tumbler.
I hope watering them will separate the materials from the plants so they can grow in the light.