Has anybody played around with adding lacto b, to their compost piles? I have some made up for another little project I am doing. I am mostly curious if there is a downside. My goal or hope is to help jumpstart my piles this spring, that I built last fall. cheers os
I never have used it for composting myself. From what I've read it's more abundant in the early stages of composting while it's still mesophilic. RD
I had a huge batch of LABS and other KNF inputs, i set up my (small) compost pile (about 3foot by 3 foot) and instead of using water i used pure labs and some diluted KNF inputs to bring the moisture up. (now that i think of it i also added about a kilo of IMO2) Not sure what i achieved but I really liked the whole thing. Did not seem to hurt one bit.
I like the look of this set up! Seems like it will help me out with my dry windy md summer conditions !
I have done this, minus the landscape fabric it helps up here in the cool environment a lot. I just set the perf pipe in, and filled around it, I didn't cut hole in the pallet. Where this system really shines is not so much making compost, but in the spring when its a frozen lump, the perf pipe thaws the pile really fast! cheers os
Yesterday I talked to a friend of mine who owns a gorgeous piece of property nearby. It a sweet spot, it’s heavily wooded with large cottonwoods, aspens and willow trees and has a great creek running through it. We’ve had some really bad ice storms in the last couple of years that wrecked a lot of the smaller trees and even brought down some of the larger, more established cottonwoods. Anyway, I’m on a mission this spring. I plan on expanding the organic, regenerative , controlled ag environment growing area that I am currently running over the next couple of years. I’m not sure whether it will end up a cannabis or vegetable operation or a combo of the two, but one thing is for sure, I need to get a MOUNTAIN of compost going asap. So last fall my buddy had a tree company come in and clean up his lot for him and they left behind two massive plies of chipped materials. I’ve had my eye on them and finally asked him what he had planned for them. His wife wants a bit of it but the bulk of it is mine for the hauling! This guy has not sprayed anything around the treed areas ever. In fact he also has a leaf pile going that is separated from his lawn clippings that I can grab as well, it’s been sitting there for a couple of years. In addition to that....and maybe the most exciting aspect of all is the ancient layers of decaying leaves and small branches that cover the ground on this property. 4-6” of beautifully decomposed matter, and hopefully a great source of humus and black leaf mold. There is more there than I could use right away but he said I’m welcome to come take all I can get. Besides, I’ll be raking his place for free! This spring he’s breaking ground on a new garage and will have the tree guys back to clear the lot again. Im planning on leaving my trailer there so they can chip right into it!
so when I decided to switch my grow to organic and was learning about building my soil I realized how important the compost is so figured I might as well start composting. Started over the winter saving food scraps but since it was winter, it didn't have a lot of scraps yet so i figure I'll just dump them all in a 5-gasl bucket for the moment and in the spring deal with it. the cold would keep it from rotting and smelling i figure. that was actually true. no real composting, i never added stuff to equal the mixture, or water, nothing, basically just a dump bucket for the kitchen counter scrap bowl; about a month ago when the weather starting warming up for Spring I dumped the now filled 5-gal bucket in a 18-gal tote i drilled holes in. layered the 5-gal bucket contents in 3rds as i put it in the tote devided up with old leaves, shredded newspapers, and some of my outside soil I just mixed for my deck veggie pots. I have about 120 gal of soil sitting there so everytime i add to the tote I sprinkle a handful of my soil mix, or leaves, or newspaper or whatever. after only a month the whole tote is filled to the brim! time to expand already after only a month. thinking of those metal compost "bins" and set it out by the trees off the deck. i think they are about 3'x3' unless you have better suggestions? or just let this one sit and start another tote? Btw, i was shocked when i emptied the 5-gal bucket initially the bottom 1/3 had already started cooking good. it was dark black mess and steaming it was cold and below freezing a lot of the winter! hoping for good compost for next years soil
FULLY COMPOSTED SAWDUST ! I have access to 15+ years old composted sawdust from a logging sawmill. I had a soil test done. I wanted a complete analysis including micro and minerals, I ended up with a BASIC soil test for vegetable garden. RESULTS : phosphorus- 147 lbs/a = very high ,potassium- 1343 lbs/a = excessive, calcium -8646 lbs/a = very high ,magnesium -356 lbs/a = medium, organic matter 3.3 %, Neutr.acidity -0.0 meq , CEC-24.8 meq . PH- 7.7 RECOMMENDATIONS : (lbs/1000 sq ft) N=0.5 ,P=0.0,K=0.0,Sulfur=22.0, Add organic matter. This is all that the test had. Now, I am asking for advice on how to utilize this resource by not all that sulfur amendment. Stinging nettle? Alfalfa?Horse manure ? Compost with what? It was 100% sawdust now it is only 3.3% OM. Thank you in advance for any advice. Sent from my SM-J100VPP using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I just wanted to share a little trick I have been using this year. Its always cool here and is really challenging to get good thermal composting temps. This year I put just a layer of leaves down in the bottom of a bin, and piled all greens with a some dirt stuck to roots in my bin (The dirt on the roots is my 'token' browns or carbon). So 6" of leaves and 3 1/2 feet of horsetail and dandelions on top, in a 4' square bin, heaped over the top. I haven't gotten the standard 140'F in the middle, but I get 130'F, and am able to reach that temp really easily every time I turn it. I have left the bottom leaves intact, they are there to just kind of keep the black goo from all leaching away. In my book, this is pretty good for a spot that hasn't seen 60'F yet this year. Eventually when its mostly broken down I will add something to bulk it up, probably small bark nuggets and of course bio char (aka cowboy lump charcoal, crushed via F-350). I do have another pile built with more conventional C:N ratios, also horsetail and dandelions for greens. I will be curious to see how they compare at the end of the summer. I hate to be the one to say, screw the C:N ratios, but sometimes you gotta throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. cheers os
All sticks and branches annoy the hell out of me when I am forking a pile to turn it, and all other associated jobs. Therefore, I try and remove them. They get tossed under one of my trees and feed the tree in the long term. cheers os
Yea, I meant to put in my OP that they aggravate me as you mentioned. I was just thinking that if they were of any benefit then I could put up with them.
Would be a long term source of carbon and worm food. Check out hugelkulture. Uses tons of wood in the garden beds to collect and hold water, then when the soil starts to dry, the logs release the water and plants drink it up.
My twist on Hugelculture for containers is using bark nuggets in the mix. Same principal, just nugget sized instead of logs. ( I have been using this in my flower beds and really like that application as well. cheers os