I really hate buying materials for composting, BrodMan. Can you hit the woods and start collecting huge amounts of old autumn/deciduous tree leaves? Save your Pro Mix. Don't get me wrong, I've been known to buy a $14. sack of alfalfa pellets to help speed things up but if you don't need to, save your rice Hulls and pro mix for better things. Make your heap as big as you possibly can. Spend the time and collect as much materials as you possibly can. You cannot have too much and especially in the way of old leaves - remember - your heap will shrink to around a tenth of its original size once your compost is mature and ready to be use. Little heaps don't do anywhere near as big as large ones and take much longer to break down. Take the time and make the big effort to collect collect collect. J Edit: darn autocorrect
If you're referring to "spare" amendments and the like I'd wait until your main heap ingredients have done the bulk of the work and your heap has gone through it's thermophilic stage and has cooled down and at that point is simply maturing. I can't answer why lol - but stuff like kelp and Neem seem to do best to gen added later in the game. You don't have to worry about losing that good store bought nutrition due to washing out over time, etc. My opinion anyhow. J
I'll take this one J......................If you add it before the thermophilic phase, all of the secondary metabolites will be deconstructed by the heat. @BrodMan Organics If you haven't already read the Leubke Method of Composting, it's a good explanation of the inputs in relation to the different phases of composting and goes in to the science of maturing compost.
So much @Chunk, @jerry111165, and @Prepper420 That video was great chunk. I actually was noticing today that there are a ton of leaves starting to fall! Going to have to get on collecting. Like he said in that video, don't think I'd ever say I have too many leaves! That's where I was at Jerry, I really didn't want to have to buy anything extra. I do have extra alfalfa meal and was planning on using that...Competely understand about adding them later though. Good call on that one! I actually already have a cold compost set up in my three bin system.The right bin is cold compost, the middle is the biggest spot and for my pile, and the third bin is for leafs...I like where your heads at!
I stand corrected, Chunkmeister. Didn't read BrodMan's post that Mangul was responding to... C:N ratios are most certainly not "balanced". Seems predominately "green". I would propose that the pile isn't being turned frequently enough, and it's either suffering from lack of oxygen, and/or proper moisture levels.
I actually have two plants I planted last year and have two holes I prepped this year and am planning on expanding with root cuttings!
Had to kind of hurry and get my compost pile going...Have knee surgery on Monday and won't really be able to do much for a few weeks...A very big thank you to Chunk, Jerry1111165, and prepper420 for the guidance and ideas! Really didn't get a chance to get everything as much as I wanted, but was In a time crunch...It all started with a truck full of dairy cow manure...put in 4 wheelbarrows to start Followed by 6 wheelbarrows of greens and leaves from a tree lined field on the edge of my property... Added two wheelbarrows of chicken composting, some 5 gallon buckets of apples and some left over alfafta meal I had and mixed it all up and watered it throuroghly... This is definitely 3x the size of any pile I have every started. I totally forgot to add my 4 gallon ziplock bags of comfrey leaves that are in the freezer. I'm thinking I might add them when I turn for the first time on Sunday. Thank you again for all the help!
Did you soak heap thoroughly? Once soaked it should be fine without adding more water. I'd save the comfrey leaves for mulch! Remember, you can also take cuttings from the Comfrey flower stalks just like you would cannabis or any other soft leafy plant. I find it easier myself or at least for the few comfrey plants I need. If I wanted to make lots I'd go with the root pieces but for just a few here and there cuttings are the way to go imo. J
Thank you Jerry! I watered pretty thouroughly. I was planning on turning it sunday before my surgery to make sure. I won't be abe to turn it for about a month depending on how recovery goes. You're taking just making a clone correct? I'll have to give that a try but cloning isn't really my specialty...that's why I was going to go with the root cutting way. Got some research to do now. Thank you again!
It will definitely be in your best interest to get someone to turn the heap for you 2X a week if at all possible.
I have been stockpiling greens all summer. Mostly horsetail and dandelions. I just came home with 2 bales of alfalfa and 12 cu ft of chicken manure. Let the leaves fall. Last year I made an awesome leaf mold/ chick manure combo as well as traditional compost. The leaf mold/ chick manure combo is the best worm bedding to date. I plan to lawn mow/shred all the leaves on top of plywood before filling the bins. I did this last year without the plywood (its to darn wet to just lawn mow this year). I may also mow the alfalfa a bit, not sure if it works. OS likes itty bitty stuff in the piles! OS also likes any excuse to run stuff over with the lawn mower! (its an old guy thing I think). cheers os
For the record, alfalfa from bales turns into wonderful meal when ran over with the lawn mower. Mowing on sheets of plywood worked brilliant! I got a nice layer applied to the pile, and now it is sprinkling, can't wait to add more leaves tomorrow, after its thoroughly soaked. cheers os
I bumped into my next door neighbor yesterday and he told me a funny story related to the post above this one. After letting the rain soak my alfalfa mixture all night I went to work the next day, didn't look at the pile cause it was dark anyway. I came home real late and was disappointed because things were not warm as I had expected. I even checked with my thermal imaging camera, same temp as everything else, oh well no worries, I didn't pay it anymore thought. Yesterday I was shredding more leaves and alfalfa and my neighbor popped over to shoot the shit for a second. He told me that he ran over and pounded on my door the other morning because he thought my tool shed was on fire. I didn't answer so he ran back with a fire extinguisher to fight a fire. He didn't see a fire. Looked inside and didn't see a fire. Ran around the outside of the shed and discovered steam coming out of my compost bin, next to the shed, so prolific, it looked like fire. He was a forest service fire fighter for years and knows the difference. All of a sudden I was very proud of my pile, and my lawn mower. I graciously rewarded my neighbor with some veggies, and thanked him for keeping an eye out, as we all do here. This puts a whole new twist on "heating up a pile". My newest mower trick is to mow the leaves with the alfalfa and save a mixing step. cheers os
The hydro kids have ph pens and tds meters. I have a thermal imaging camera. mehehehehe Here is a pile in a cage cooking away. Front view. 002j by Organic sinse posted Sep 25, 2017 at 10:30 PM From the top. Its a round bin,you can see how cool everything around it is. Wish I could post better quality pics, but I had to dumb em down, to get it to upload. You can make out shapes of what is breaking down. The leaves that fell on the alfalfa make cool purple shades. Red is the hot stuff that's working. 003j by Organic sinse posted Sep 25, 2017 at 10:30 PM Thermal image compost porn cheers os
I turned my pile today. The same sheets of plywood that I shred leaves on, work great for forking out a pile onto. The center of the pile was steaming hot, but stank like a commercial piglet house, bad. I am surprised how much everything is broken down. I am sure I guessed my C:N ratio too far green. I underestimated the power of the shredded alfalfa. (My original input was 1 1/4 bales alfalfa + a cu ft of mowed clover + 2 cu ft of chick manure, the remaining amount being finely shredded leaves to make 36 cu ft). When I put the pile back together I put a thin layer of finely shredded leaves between the compost layers. I am now sold on using alfalfa and shredding everything. In 20 years living this far north, I have never been able to get a pile to heat up like this. I also started 16 cu ft of leaf mold/ chicken manure mix. Shredded leaves of course. 2 cu ft are chicken manure. I threw a couple shovels of finished normal compost full of worms in the center of this pile. I also added about 100 worms from a pile of finished compost. This will be for worm bedding exclusively (next years). My goal is to fill all 64 cu ft of this bin, a little at a time. cheers os
I learned something helpful today. I read in an article saying that when leaves first fall, they have a perfect C:N ratio of around 30:1. I have always went by the 60:1 number that I see in so many places. I kinda figured first fallen leaves were maybe 45:1, but not 30:1. That is how I built a stinky pile. (My previous post). I have been grabbing leaves as soon as they hit the ground and shredding them. I probably didn't need any alfalfa at all. The good news is I have been building my leaf mold/manure pile using the fresh fallen leaves too. There may be a fast turnaround on this batch if I can just keep getting leaves fast enough. I'm halfway to my goal of 64 cu ft of the leaf mold/ manure mix. I think I've got all 3 of the "fast tricks" on this one. Fresh fallen, shredded with the lawn mower, and everything is soaking wet (damn rain everyday). cheers os