Composting

“oh
duh
hahahaha”

““cookiemonster.... unlike you... I seem to have a life. I would suggest you might check into thiat... It can be surpriaingly rewarding.”
ramblinrev
11:32:42 AM
8/17/08”

“pepperdog and rev I got a compost bin a few years ago. nothing fancy, but it works.



ps, IGNORE it!”

“Good advice. I'll try real hard to ignore his insults from now on. Thanks.”

“Duchess... if you are adding worms for the first time then you are really mssing with the established order and you are going to want to check things carefully until you set up on a new process. Temperature becomes more important than a no worm system. Also you need to keep the bedding from drying out cause worms need the moisture. But if you don't keep a handle on the "tea" (read worm pee) you can burn their tender little skins or drown them. Ain't it grand.”

“I don't want to kill them :(

geez, never mind. seems not worth it.

if it aint broke, leave it alone I guess.

Thanks everyone!”

“Yup. No problem.”

“Duchess... that's why I did not get back involved in vermiculture. It was not worth it in my opinion. I grew up with an out door compost pile. Recapturing my youth was not gonna happen.”

“nothing like the smell of rotting food to bring back found thoughts, ah rev :)

mine never smells. not sure why but hey thats a good thing to my neighbors”

“a well maintained compost pile is essentially odorless. Keep the meat and bones out of it and that takes care of most of the odor. If your container is in the shade move it to the sun. The extra heat from the sun will warm up the process even in the winter. You can also buy enzymes to add to the compost which will speed up the process without the need for worms.”

“plenty of sun and I never ever put bones onions meat in it. all organic!
I wonder if i pulled it apart, I might find worms...I do find spiders once in a while”

“what about getting/making one of those "spinning" compost bins. you turn it every time you add stuff and it is nicely mixed up. the are supposed to work a lot faster than the regular style of bin or heap.”

“My grandpa had one of those he bought at an auction. The sucker was about 15' long and 8' high. You could put the waste from a small city in that sucker. The biggest problem was when it was loaded even his big Massey Ferguson tractor power takeoff did not have the power to turn it. hehehehehe”

“15x8 feet?!
damn that's big.

i was reading a book that mentioned composting dead bodies...what's the access door on that thing like?”

“This particular model was a layer or two of fairly high mesh fencing type stuff slung over a cylyndrical frame. The whole shooting match was tilt mounted on a wagon trailer. (Caveat... I was kid... the measurements are subject to the Darby Ram syndrome.) So the whole thing reclined at maybe 15 - 20 degrees. one end was open so the stuff just got dropped in from a front loader or similar equipment.”

“Do you put lime in the bin?”

“I bought a small container of the red worms and started a worm farm for my kids as a project of growing worms for the garden. They loved setting it up and then it became my job so I dumped them in the garden.

I don't put worms in my compost pile. I live up north and it takes a while for it to compost. I'm wondering if I should till it into the soil this fall or if I should put my compost bin in the garage during the winter and use it in the spring. My compost bin is a wood crate with a pallet bottom. Any ideas?”

“i use a garbage disposal. what worms would work best in that system?”

“Is it considered OK to mix in straw into your compost bins?”

“nigal, if your compost is too green (too much ammonia production) or too wet, adding some straw can help by adding cellulose without much nitrogen and by absorbing water.”

“15x8 feet?!
damn that's big.

i was reading a book that mentioned composting dead bodies...what's the access door on that thing like?�
hel
2:53:04 PM
8/19/08


Note to self: if visiting Hel and she offers to show me her compost, run...run like like!!!”

“sunshine,
I think worms are better than a traditional compost pile for cooler climates because it is hard to keep a home compost pile hot enough to do it's thing. Just so they don't freeze.”

“What is the "Darby Ram syndrome"?”

“Darby Ram syndrome... It gets bigger each time the story is told.... Derived from an old Irish Folk song about a ram in Darby that reaches phenomenal size by the end of the song.
last edited: 8/21/08 11:22:02 AM”