That's a lot of MBP. That's also a lot more N. Just give it lots of cycle time to cool down, before going in the bin. The goal, was to pre compost things, high N coffee meets high C peat. It should still work, there isn't really a wrong. What you should do is keep an eye on the temp and see what happens. You want a loose cover that allows air flow, but keeps thing damp. You will use the mixture as food by top feeding the bin. Even if things get 'hot', as long as its on the top surface, there isn't much to go wrong. None of this stuff really requires precision amounts. I feel that I may have given that impression, when I gave precise amounts in recipes. It will all turn out fine. The pitfalls are pretty minimal. If you feed to much you will get flying pests, same goes for keeping too wet of a bin. The only real problems happen when you let the bin dry out, worms die. The other issue can be feeding buried food that results in hot composting in the bin. Usually with a tray system, the worms just migrate to another tray that is more hospitable. hth cheers os
I still have plenty of used grounds on hand if needed,and remember this bucket was layered about 9X. The mixed grounds/MBP was 3 TBS (so 1.5TBS each)on each of the 9 layers of peat. It’s been uncovered inside at 70° for several days now. I just IR temped the top and deep probe temped the bucket and it’s all the same 70° at the moment.
It’s 3/4 cup MBP in 3.5 gallons of mostly peat but some compost too. So about double the amount in the NT recipe.
It should work fine, there is no wrong. I was originally thinking along the lines of this for a 5 gallon bucket. Like 2" of peat, the 1/2" of grounds, then sprinkle 1 or 2 tablespoons of mbp. Let that grow santa's beard (takes a couple days, then start over on top of the mbp. It will work any old way, remember, we are just trying to get a jump start on breaking down those coffee grounds. Here is how it kind of goes in real life. You empty grounds on top of the peat for a couple days or a week (depending on how much coffee you drink). Sprinkle a Tablespoon of mbp after a couple days, and then again a couple days after that. So now we have been adding grounds for 3-7 days. Add another layer of peat and start again with the coffee grounds. Thats kind of how I have it going with my neighbors set up. If you are playing catch up, cause you have a bunch of extra grounds, you can do it exactly how you did it. It also won't hurt to drop a couple worms in the coffee/ peat bins. It also won't hurt to sprinkle a little bit of castings in here and there. This will help 'innoculate' your food stock with bacteria and fungus. For my personal tray units. I load up a big tote with a mix of leaf mold and bark, this will have worms in it. I mulch it well and keep it moist. If I so choose, I add amendments or layer crumbles. If I had coffee grounds,I would layer them on top. The contents of the big tote, are further mixed/ amended when I fill a tray. Works slick. hth cheers os
I smoked one and got off on a tangent... After your bucket is composted for a bit (like a month, the longer the better), You can bulk that up with rice hulls or bark and run it as bedding. Just be sure its moist. cheers os
Ok now I’m getting it! So since I have the 5 gallon bucket already layered and since it only has a total of 3/4 cup of grounds(3.5 gallons of media) should I just use that and start layering a fresh 5 gallon using the 2” peat mix/1/2” of grounds deal? If this bucket seems to look dryer should I add mists of water or 1949 sprays(like a full cup or two) to keep it moist?
You got it. Use what ya have done, and start layering a new one. Definitely keep everything moist. Everything needs moisture to cycle, whether it is being cycled by microbes or worms. cheers os
Thought I would see a lil more activity. Still not too shabby under and inside that watermelon. Sent from my XT1609 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Excuse the smoke in the air LOL since reading this thread my compost bin is thriving. Had to take a short break from gardening due to moving. But started to grow some veggies in between time. My bin I’m super stoked on. My little earth worm buddies are thriving. Thank. You to everyone who contributed information on this thread. ️ Sent from Here’s a day pic A potato I threw in rooted and now is a plant lol my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
View attachment 2570891 I had some extra HD buckets with holes on the bottom so I made some nice sifters.
That first 1/4” sifter works good and fast for course stuff including worms but it would seem a 1/8” would be best to fine sift mostly castings and catch hulls. I know leaving the WF with enough worms,food and moisture long enough would prolly alow me to harvest the lowest tray but I need some castings for some seeds now. I’m just going to finish the 1/8” sifter but does anyone else use a 1/8”?
I can report that an outdoor static bin full of African Nightcrawlers can survive temps that have been in the high 30s/low 40s at night. From what I've read they'd be dead. I do have a little structure of sorts to insulate them. Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
After my second 1/8” screening to get some castings for a new seedling mix I’m looking very closely at what’s left in the screened material to find what looks like tiny RW’s and a large quantity of eggs? They look like small seeds but yellowish in color,never seen this before,so I added it all back into my WF under about an inch of what’s there. The fine sifted castings has some of the hulls which I added not long ago which have not broken down yet and I’m sure a good portion of the fine peat as well. For a good seed starter mix would this be good mixed with 20% fresh hulls,maybe a small amount of BU’s?
Did they look like this? My seedling mix is two parts peat moss, two parts perlite and 1 part VC or compost. 1tbs per gallon of OSF. RD Sent from my XT1609 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
That’s it! Like yellow bird shot. This sifted material was my original 4 month VC which I mixed with OS’s bedding a week or so ago so it’s prolly a 1/1/1 hulls/peat/casting plus OSF and lime with 10% BU. Was thinking if it is this to add 20-50% more rice hulls which would be close to what your suggesting?
Would there be any need to put laying mash into a vita mix for a finer more available meal or is this topper misted which makes it more available?
Sometimes I put the 'crumbles' size into the coffee grinder to make it powder. I always mist it. If its dry, it gets ignored and doesn't grow any santa's beard. cheers os
Sorta. Mash is a size designation as are crumbles. Mash was the smallest size, but seems to be discontiued and now, crumbles are made slightly smaller are the new smallest size. IIRC, there were 4 sizes and now cut down to 3. I haven't seen mash for about 2 years now. Wet
I do remember after asking for mash the name on that bin was different,just didn’t pay much atttention to it,was .40 lb and $10 for 25lbs bags,$17 for 50 lbs,seems cheap enough so I got 4.5 lbs which will prolly last my bins a year.