Back in January. Taoist Farmer said: I've been doing hot composting, 2 1/2 weeks done.Hot Compost – Composting in 18 Days So following his advice and the article he shared. My first pile took about 4 weeks. I may have had my carbon/nitrogen off some. I think high in carbon. That is the back pile in this picture. The front pile is on day 5. I just turned it for the first time is was hovering at 150-151 degrees fahrenheit. Or about 66c. I added some carbon, as this time I know I had a little to much nitrogen in the form of grass clippings. This is in fact,much faster than cold composting. Edit: These are my second pile in the back and third pile in the front. My first pile this year has already been used.
I've been hot composting for a few years. I'm usually at about 4 weeks for it to heat up fully, and cool down fully. Then I sift through 1/2" wire mesh. And, all chunks go back in for next batch. Beautiful stuff. ☮️
I hadn't fed my worms in over a month until last weekend. I did my usual layering of coffee grounds, fix it mix and compost. I also added some layer's crumble since Mrs. Chunk's chickens like pellets lol. I used a cu/ft bag of some locally bagged organic compost and when I dumped it out, it was loaded with actinomycetes. I also spread out some spent Lion's Mane mushroom logs I got from Coot. The goal is to convert my bacterial dominant vermicompost to a more fungi dominant vermicompost. First 2 pics are from last Saturday and you can see the actinomycetes in the compost. Actinomycetes function in at least 3 different ways: In a symbiotic relationship as nitrogen fixers in non legume plants. As decomposers digesting plant tissues like cellulose and lignin in bark, stems and paper as well as the chitin (exoskeletons) of insects. Lastly, many important antibiotics used in medicine come from actinomycetes The following pics are from today and you can see the vast amount of mycelium forming in the bin. The orange areas are the spent mushroom substrate. I'll keep updating here as I go to let y'all know how things are coming along. Sent from here to there.
My winter worm wrangling thread just doesn’t seem appropriate anymore. Lol. Here’s some pics of that mess getting cleaned up and of my lil helpers. RD
Rancho the bunny killer. That’s got a nice ring to it. Lol. I don’t want to buy compost anymore! It’s lame. Hoping to setup a 4 pallet wide compost system in the garage. In the meantime I moved a bunch to 5g static buckets. Hopefully the worms will come to the top and I can feed the chickens from these. Deep litter bedding the chicken coop and they have their own compost bin that I add 5g buckets of worms/compost daily. Plus I can feed the chickens/rabbits the stuff in my garden. Who the heck eats lettuce, kale, radishes anyways? RD
Yeah, commercial compost.... you’ll be happier with your own for sure! Sounds like a good set up, those chickens look pretty happy
Here is what will be my part of my next 2-30 gallon pots. 1/2" screened leaf mold 1/4" screened compost Chipped Ash bark screened worm castings I'll still be adding 20% perlite and some of the regular amendments.
Looking good timj! It's like a compost candy store! im still filling hugels , garden next year, I did build a garden wall, no garden tho, at least not outside
Thank you Green Dragging. That's a beautiful looking wall you've built. You must still have a good back. I screened all my leaf mold today and ended up with over 30 cubic feet. I'll have enough for a while.
Once you start using leaf mold, you will be hooked and become a leaf hoarder! As soon as you hold it in your hands and make vermi bedding or a soil mix, you will be hooked. The way it holds water and is so springy and spongy is second to none. Cheers Os
Organic sinse, I agree about leaf mold being the gold standard. Jerry had me convinced last fall to try it. I used a mix of compost and fresh fallen leaves for my last run in my worm bins. That batch was a little less muddy than my usual of all compost. I've also used leaf mold for my mulch layer on my 30 gallon pots I grow my tomatoes in. I'm loving it...
Thnx timj, I'm using all the pallets that came with stone to make some more leaf bins. Wow! You got alot of leaf. Do you think I should put a bin close to these evergreens? They seem to be dieing from thebott
I can't see why that spot wouldn't work. I believe some pine self shed to focus the trees energy at the canopy. I planted about 50 on my folks property around 40 years ago and they all did that. I have about 3 acres of lawn I mow and use a lawn sweep to gather leaves in the fall. I filled two wire fence bins one 2' in diameter and one 4' in diameter. I packed them tight. I was surprised how much they compacted by the spring and again after I shredded them. But, they fluffed back up after screening them.That's a 6'x9' tarp and the pile is about 3' high. My lawn tractor trailer is 10 cu.ft. It was 3-1/2 loads.