New to Composting and tips would help please

[Ridgerunner]

It's not the heat of the sun that cooks it, the microbes generate their own heat. Outside temperature probably can have an effect, mine tends to break down faster in summer than winter, but moisture might be the main cause of that. Not sure.

The microbes that break it down need moisture. You don't want it so wet that the water totally blocks air movement, then the process goes anaerobic. The bugs that can live without air take over. The process becomes stinky and slimy. It will still break down but the quality of the compost isn't as good. Supposedly the right amount of moisture is like a sponge that you wet and then wring out all the moisture you can by hand. I'm not nearly that precise about it. Unless you use one of those barrel tumblers or work really hard I don't think you have that much control over it. If it rains it is going to get wet. If it keeps raining it will stay wet. I have not seen that to be a big problem even when it keeps raining for a week or more at a time.

When I first pile mine up if it stays dry it pretty much just sits there. If I water it down, usually with a hose, the pile can shrink to 2/3 or even half its size in a few days. I compost in a bin. Sometimes I top it off two or three times when I start it before I just leave it alone and let it work to increase the final volume. I think it was @digitS' that had a thread a few years back talking about how much compost piles can shrink.

I use a lot of rough garden waste in mine, like corn stalks. I find mine works better if I spread a fairly fine layer on top to help hold moisture in. That's usually grass clippings for me. If you turn it regularly that's probably not an issue but I'm lucky if I turn mine once.

The microbes need to be there so they can multiply and break it down. Even if you don't do anything they will eventually show up, nature is good about that. But it can help if you take a few shovelsful of topsoil or garden soil and toss it on top of mix it in a bit. Those microbes are working in that topsoil. Turning it like you do those microbes are probably already there.

I think you should pile that up higher like someone above mentioned. That will help hold in heat and moisture.

From your mix I'm not sure you are getting enough greens (nitrogen) in there. That's where animal manure can really help. It looks like you may be trying to go organic. I'm not sure what an inexpensive organic source for nitrogen in volume might be. If organic does not bother you you can toss in some high nitrogen fertilizer but I would not use weed and feed. It can be a real challenge to find a high nitrogen fertilizer that does not have herbicides in it. Those are pretty much intended for lawns.

For most of us if we put stuff on the garden in the fall it will break down by planting time, especially if we till it in so the soil holds in moisture and provides the bugs. As early as your planting season is in Florida I'm not sure you have that much time. The microbes can tie up available nitrogen while they are breaking that stuff down. That might depend some on what crops you plant, I don't know.

So my suggestions are to rake it into a big pile instead of leaving it spread out, probably add moisture unless it is raining fairly regularly, and consider adding nitrogen. Whatever you do or don't do in time it will break down.

 

[henless]

I use to have chickens but a pack of dogs and foxes took out my flock sadly and that was the last straw out here so my mother and I called it quits on raising chickens because so many people out here let their dogs run wild.

I have to keep my chickens up for this reason. Plus, my own dogs would get them if I let them out. They are great at keeping away predators (coons, possums, skunks), but they would be a predator if they had the chance.

You can also add your own urine to the pile. That will really get it to cooking. I've never done it, but I've heard it really works.

 

[ducks4you]

I hear you. I paid for the 12 x 12 dog fencing and we built a top for it with chicken wire and 2 x 4's. If I hadn't gotten the 12 x 30 dog fencing free, it would have been pricey, plus the bird netting wasn't cheap, a little over $100.00, but I won't have to replace it for a few years. I think @Ridgerunner is right about not enough greens. Honestly I never bother to wet my piles down. It's more work than I have time for and most people live in town where there gardens have to contend with tree cover and that keeps the yard more wet than dry.
You really cannot hurry along the decomposition process of your compost. FORtunately, mulch becomes compost in time, like pine bark and straw isn't expensive if you want something that will break down quickly.
Really the easiest way to make your own compost is to rake up your leaves in the Fall and pile THEM up. Some folks here have also had great success with worm composting, which isn't pricey, just a little bit time consuming, but you will notice a BIG difference in your trash every week.
The largest amount of everybody's trash is paper and cardboard bc we buy online and it is shipped in cardboard. That cardboard makes great browns for your pile and it will disintegrate quicker if you get it wet.
Just some thoughts.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm pretty much contrary to the convention wisdom.

i don't want all that energy going to waste and into the air.

i want to feed the soil microbes/fungi/etc.

i bury things and let nature sort it out. once in a while i dig it back
up to use it closer to the surface.

i don't till an entire garden very often (i dig everything by hand
shovel) it is very time/labor efficient (has to be, we have a lot of
gardens).

 

[Just-Moxie]

The only water mine gets that is added...is what I add to the compost bucket from the kitchen. I use a plastic tub from the laundry room, with a lid... OxiClean container.

The rest of the time...rain.

 

[baymule]

I'm a lazy composter. I throw it in the coop, dig it out later. I toss hay in the sheep lot, dig it out later. We have mounds of wood chip mulch that went through heat, it is now compost quality. We dump tractor loads in the horse barn, dig it out later and repeat.

You might want to rethink chickens. build a better coop, use hardware cloth, not chicken wire. Lay a wire skirt on the ground all the way around your coop, attach it to the bottom of the coop. It will keep predators from digging in. Pile the coop and run 3-4 feet in leaves, the chickens will reduce to about 8 inches. Dig it out and spread on the garden. Black Garden Gold!

 

[Beekissed]

i'm pretty much contrary to the convention wisdom.

That's me too. I don't buy that whole "don't use dog or cat manure" or you'll get bacteria and parasites. I'm here to tell you that ALL manure has the same bacteria and parasites to be found in dog and cat manure...yep, even salmonella. It's a naturally occurring bacteria to be found in most bowels of most creatures, just in higher numbers in some.

Cats have been using garden soil for a toilet since time began and it's okay. Chickens are meat eaters and so are hogs, but folks will use those manures like they are garden gold. To get right down to it, even cows and deer will eat meat when given the chance, though it's not a staple of their diet. Don't believe me just do a search on YT and watch cows and deer crunching down baby birds they've found on the ground.

Poop is poop and when added to a compost pile, it will get broken down and bonded with the carbon there, producing a neutral pH compost that can be used anywhere. Unless one is licking the soils directly, they are unlikely to get any death dealing bacteria from fully composted material.

Humanure is a common gardening practice for composting as well, though many will tell you it's not safe and you shouldn't do it. Many do it all over the world in all safety.

I use chickens and time. I don't turn compost piles and I don't add water(except for in my coop where I am setting up a system to pipe in the rain water...until then I just add buckets of water to the mass) just pile it deep, keep adding to it and let nature happen.

Today is a water adding day...will have added 12 gal to the mass under the roost before I'm through.

 

[flowerbug]

That's me too. I don't buy that whole "don't use dog or cat manure" or you'll get bacteria and parasites. I'm here to tell you that ALL manure has the same bacteria and parasites to be found in dog and cat manure...yep, even salmonella. It's a naturally occurring bacteria to be found in most bowels of most creatures, just in higher numbers in some.

Cats have been using garden soil for a toilet since time began and it's okay. Chickens are meat eaters and so are hogs, but folks will use those manures like they are garden gold. To get right down to it, even cows and deer will eat meat when given the chance, though it's not a staple of their diet. Don't believe me just do a search on YT and watch cows and deer crunching down baby birds they've found on the ground.

Poop is poop and when added to a compost pile, it will get broken down and bonded with the carbon there, producing a neutral pH compost that can be used anywhere. Unless one is licking the soils directly, they are unlikely to get any death dealing bacteria from fully composted material.

Humanure is a common gardening practice for composting as well, though many will tell you it's not safe and you shouldn't do it. Many do it all over the world in all safety.

I use chickens and time. I don't turn compost piles and I don't add water(except for in my coop where I am setting up a system to pipe in the rain water...until then I just add buckets of water to the mass) just pile it deep, keep adding to it and let nature happen.

Today is a water adding day...will have added 12 gal to the mass under the roost before I'm through.

it is usually only certain strains of the various bacteria/viruses/fungi/etc which are trouble makers if spread around.

so if you don't have those strains in your own system and they aren't easily mutated into then you should mostly be safe.

but with nature, it is always experimenting with mutations and selections. which is why i would not want to use cat or dog poo in compost in general and am aware of the issues of why. don't mind so much pimarily herbivore poo.

people poo, composted, sure, would use it eventually, but after understanding the risks there and using it within reasonable guidelines. pretty much not possible on this property without significant changes.

_the humanure handbook_ is a good starting point for reading up, but there are many other things out there to understand too (like a general college level microbiology text), also groundwater issues and nutrient flows within a system.

note, i don't really think modern septic systems are all that great either, but until change is better understood and how to do it, it is what we have... for those in arid climates dry compost method and bury for several years and should be mostly safe as long as they don't have infections of the mean kinds running around.

 

[flowerbug]

...
The largest amount of everybody's trash is paper and cardboard bc we buy online and it is shipped in cardboard. That cardboard makes great browns for your pile and it will disintegrate quicker if you get it wet.
Just some thoughts.

every bit of organic material i can scrounge for free is used here. the modern problem is that a lot of boxes and packaging has plastic layers and inks which may not be the best for the gardens. after having to pick shredded plastic out of the worm bins a few times i've just ended up putting most packaging into the recycle bins for the garbage company to take away. otherwise, all cardboard, cardstock, newspapers, tissue paper, paper, food scraps all go through the worm farm and they turn it into plant food in the end (or out their ends ).

the shredded paper stuffs either work as garden mulch or go through the worm farm. cardboard and newspapers work as smothering layers under wood chips for taking out weedy areas if needed. much faster than trying to till/dig/remove by hand. don't need poisons this way. if something doesn't get taken out by one attempt at smothering usually a second try will do it (smothering usually takes a year or two before the roots are finally done trying).

 

[ducks4you]

I have noticed that Amazon ships in cardboard that uses black ink only. It is the colored and shiny ink that you need to worry about. I can see that your worms discard the plastics, basically spit them out, blech! Other good cardboard boxes are found at the liquor stores bc they put them out as grocery bags of sort for customers to help get rid of them since glass bottles are shipped in them. They don't need any more labels that the distillery/winery and product name, no flashy and shiny inks.
I have been pulling off the tape that keeps the boxes together that I am using under my fencelines. I try to prep the next area before I am ready to dump there, although where I just dumped soiled bedding last year almost no burdock came up.
I HIGHLY recommend cardboard for smothering. Found some 2nd year burdock coming up and now smothered. They look innocuous, kinda like kale:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...08041206661841152&selectedIndex=29&ajaxhist=0
but they die down after the first year and still can have 12 inch roots, so you cannot pull them out like chickweed.
Didn't mean to highjack the thread.