TBDonnelly
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2005
- Messages
- 1,402
- Tractor
- Kioti CK30HST, KL130 FEL, turf tires
compost pile
- Thread starter DannyD
- Start date
- Views: 2601
PineRidge
Super Member
Don't think I would recommend smoking during this exercise, some methane gas may be present.
We have been small scale composting for years. It is our main means of getting rid of kitchen waste. To get a good hot pile you need a ratio of 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Translated that means 30 parts "browns" such as leaves to each 1 part of "greens" such as fresh grass or animal waste. This will give you the "hot" pile mentioned above. My wife thought I was nuts the first time I came in, all excited, to tell her the compost was steaming.
But you can make compost in a "cold" pile. The mix is not balanced enough to get it cooking but it will eventually become compost. The only caveat is that you can not be weed seeds or diseased plants in a cold pile. You will spread both along with compost in your garden.
I used to have pet rabbits. There waste is one of the best "greens" you can have. Only chicken manure rates higher in nitrogen content. So I had really hot piles. Now I live in NH. Lots of leaves, a little grass and no rabbits. My piles are always cold - but I still get compost.
I use pallets wired together. I can use the BX FEL to turn it when needed. I had to wrap pallet bin with chicken wire to keep my dogs out.
Phil
But you can make compost in a "cold" pile. The mix is not balanced enough to get it cooking but it will eventually become compost. The only caveat is that you can not be weed seeds or diseased plants in a cold pile. You will spread both along with compost in your garden.
I used to have pet rabbits. There waste is one of the best "greens" you can have. Only chicken manure rates higher in nitrogen content. So I had really hot piles. Now I live in NH. Lots of leaves, a little grass and no rabbits. My piles are always cold - but I still get compost.
I use pallets wired together. I can use the BX FEL to turn it when needed. I had to wrap pallet bin with chicken wire to keep my dogs out.
Phil
One other thought. If you intend to add kitchen waste you need to have the pile close enough to the house so that you will actually use it. Other wise it is to much of a chore and you delay taking out the compost. Then you get a fruit fly problem and even worse an angry wife.
Phil
Phil
oliver28472
Veteran Member
Amen to that and have a couple 5 gallon buckets ready this week. Quit using that gargage disposal.
mwood
Silver Member
Around here, I give all the kitchen scraps to the chickens. I get eggs, lower feed costs, and nice manure to put in the pile. Seems to work out quite nicely for me!
Mark /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Mark /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
RalphVa
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2003
- Messages
- 7,885
- Location
- Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Tractor
- JD 2025R, previously Gravely 5650 & JD 4010 & JD 1025R
I just make a pile. Needs to be at least 4' tall for it not to lose too much heat to allow it to "cook". Attached is a look at my pile behind my new MacKissic shredder/chipper.
I get a lot of sawdust from my cabinet man. For each 2 barrels of sawdust, a bag of 10-10-10 is needed to bring the C:N ratio down to around 30. I just sprinkle it around over the sawdust once I've dumped it, spread a soaker hose over it and let it run for about 30 minutes. You could use some organic sources of N, but obtaining their N content is not always easy, particularly for correcting from about 300-500 down to 30 like for sawdust.
I use the MacKissic to shred up prunings and to grind up leaves that the town folks just give away. They're so kind to bag them up and leave them at the curb. Have gotten about 6-10 pickup loads (15 bags/load) so far.
A fellow master gardener also does theirs as a pile. Think he has a JD 4300 to toss his. I've a little JD 4010.
I don't really care if mine composts. Even if it doesn't, I spread the mulch around my veggies for weed and moisture control. It turns to dirt for the next season. Been doing this for nearly 30 years. Main benefit of composting is it'll kill weed seeds.
You just need to get your C:N ratio to around 25-30, a little bit of brown, a little bit of green, some moisture and some enzymes (available in a little bit of dirt). There are some good articles to be found by searching on the internet.
Ralph
I get a lot of sawdust from my cabinet man. For each 2 barrels of sawdust, a bag of 10-10-10 is needed to bring the C:N ratio down to around 30. I just sprinkle it around over the sawdust once I've dumped it, spread a soaker hose over it and let it run for about 30 minutes. You could use some organic sources of N, but obtaining their N content is not always easy, particularly for correcting from about 300-500 down to 30 like for sawdust.
I use the MacKissic to shred up prunings and to grind up leaves that the town folks just give away. They're so kind to bag them up and leave them at the curb. Have gotten about 6-10 pickup loads (15 bags/load) so far.
A fellow master gardener also does theirs as a pile. Think he has a JD 4300 to toss his. I've a little JD 4010.
I don't really care if mine composts. Even if it doesn't, I spread the mulch around my veggies for weed and moisture control. It turns to dirt for the next season. Been doing this for nearly 30 years. Main benefit of composting is it'll kill weed seeds.
You just need to get your C:N ratio to around 25-30, a little bit of brown, a little bit of green, some moisture and some enzymes (available in a little bit of dirt). There are some good articles to be found by searching on the internet.
Ralph
Attachments
theboman
Veteran Member
My pile is not a scientific pile, not even color coded but seems to work for my needs.
When I sweep the lawn after mowing I pile the clippings in a pile. It's pretty good sized most the time. The next time I sweep I start a new pile and put the old pile on top.
As the leaves start falling I'll start a new pile and get the old pile and put it on top.
Many times I get piles of weeds, former garden plants etc and add to the mix.
I may turn the pile a time or two between adding stuff and water is supplied by rain.
I've used the compost on low spots around the yard etc and it works great.
BTW, my compost piles are right on the ground, and from time to time when mixing (or turning) I get a nice gob of mother earth that mixes thru... Ain't nothin' finer smelling than a compost pile in the middle of a hot summer day!
When I sweep the lawn after mowing I pile the clippings in a pile. It's pretty good sized most the time. The next time I sweep I start a new pile and put the old pile on top.
As the leaves start falling I'll start a new pile and get the old pile and put it on top.
Many times I get piles of weeds, former garden plants etc and add to the mix.
I may turn the pile a time or two between adding stuff and water is supplied by rain.
I've used the compost on low spots around the yard etc and it works great.
BTW, my compost piles are right on the ground, and from time to time when mixing (or turning) I get a nice gob of mother earth that mixes thru... Ain't nothin' finer smelling than a compost pile in the middle of a hot summer day!
MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 58,104
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
Our garden is pretty small. I take four old skids, stand them on end and make a box. I use 4" screws and just screw the tops together, one screw in each corner.
I start filling the first box with scraps, alternating green and brown material, with some occasional chips, etc... pretty much anything that was once plant matter. Coffee grounds and egg shells, too.
After a few weeks of this, the box gets full. Then I take three more skids and make a second box off one side of the first box. I remove the front skid off the full box and fork the material over into the second box. This effectively turns the pile and only takes about 5-10 minutes of much needed excercise.
Then I replace the skid and start filling the first box again. After it fills up, I take three more skids and make a third box off the side of the second box, remove the front skid off box #2 and fork it into box #3. Then I fork box #1 into box #2 and start filling it again.
When box #1 is full for the third time, I fork the stuff out of box #3 and run it over a frame that has 1/4" hardware cloth in it. This sifts if pretty nice. Anything left in the screen gets dumped into box #1 for a trip through the process again.
When #3 is empty, I fork everything in from #2, then fork #1 into #2. Box #1 is usually pretty rotted out by three months, so I smash up the skid and put it in a brush pile and build another box out of fresh skids.
This system has worked well for many years. I get so much dirt and compost out of this system that I cannot use it all in my garden, so I just pile it up in the back yard. We've lived in the house for 10 years. Last year I spread out the pile into a berm along the back of our property. It ended up being 4 feet wide at the bottom, two feet high at the top, and 110' long. That's alot of dirt from primarily kitchen scraps, bush trimmings, leaves and garden waste! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I also have a few piles that I just dump stuff on and let rot for a year without doing anything to them except for the occasional turning with the forks. That works too, but the three bin system is much more efficient and productive and only takes about 10-20 minutes once a month.
I start filling the first box with scraps, alternating green and brown material, with some occasional chips, etc... pretty much anything that was once plant matter. Coffee grounds and egg shells, too.
After a few weeks of this, the box gets full. Then I take three more skids and make a second box off one side of the first box. I remove the front skid off the full box and fork the material over into the second box. This effectively turns the pile and only takes about 5-10 minutes of much needed excercise.
Then I replace the skid and start filling the first box again. After it fills up, I take three more skids and make a third box off the side of the second box, remove the front skid off box #2 and fork it into box #3. Then I fork box #1 into box #2 and start filling it again.
When box #1 is full for the third time, I fork the stuff out of box #3 and run it over a frame that has 1/4" hardware cloth in it. This sifts if pretty nice. Anything left in the screen gets dumped into box #1 for a trip through the process again.
When #3 is empty, I fork everything in from #2, then fork #1 into #2. Box #1 is usually pretty rotted out by three months, so I smash up the skid and put it in a brush pile and build another box out of fresh skids.
This system has worked well for many years. I get so much dirt and compost out of this system that I cannot use it all in my garden, so I just pile it up in the back yard. We've lived in the house for 10 years. Last year I spread out the pile into a berm along the back of our property. It ended up being 4 feet wide at the bottom, two feet high at the top, and 110' long. That's alot of dirt from primarily kitchen scraps, bush trimmings, leaves and garden waste! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I also have a few piles that I just dump stuff on and let rot for a year without doing anything to them except for the occasional turning with the forks. That works too, but the three bin system is much more efficient and productive and only takes about 10-20 minutes once a month.
Volfandt
Veteran Member
I don't use bins either. I just make a pile and add to it over the course of the season. For me it makes turning w/the FEL easier. I turn the older over the newer to get the fresh cuts into the middle. The pictured compost is all thats left over from last years grass & leaf clippings and it was gone shortly later. It was my 1st batch /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
All the Mrs's plants got side dressed with it this year.
It was dark brown, moist and with a somewhat pleasent aroma, just like I'd heard it would be. This years pile is about double last years.
Volfandt
All the Mrs's plants got side dressed with it this year.
It was dark brown, moist and with a somewhat pleasent aroma, just like I'd heard it would be. This years pile is about double last years.
Volfandt
