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blood4blood
Calmer Than You Are


Registered: 04/25/07
Posts: 6,029
Loc: The Valley
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a couple composting questions
#9154286 - 10/29/08 01:50 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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i just recently picked up a couple 55 gallon plastic barrels with lids that i want to use for making compost from my garden and house scraps.
do any of you guys have any expierence with using barrels as compost bins?
should i drill any holes in the barrels for air to get in?
i know it needs to be turned every so often, what's a good time frame to turn the compost?
thanks guys..
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niteowl
GrandPaw



Registered: 07/01/03
Posts: 16,291
Loc:
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: blood4blood]
#9154476 - 10/29/08 02:38 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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-------------------- Live for the moment you are in nowDon't be bogged down by your pastDon't be afraid of what lies in your future
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Brainiac
Rogue Scientist



Registered: 04/29/06
Posts: 13,259
Loc: 與您的女朋
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: blood4blood]
#9154554 - 10/29/08 02:59 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Look up Bokashi
Green Gardening: Try bokashi for quicker composting
By ANN LOVEJOY SPECIAL TO THE P-I
A reader wants to recycle kitchen waste into the compost. She has a garbage disposal in her sink but prefers to use the food scraps rather than waste them. Can she rescue the food scraps and mix them into the planted pots on her tiny patio?
Gardeners in this situation have few good options. Sadly, using the garbage disposal to recycle food waste is probably not among them. While it is technically possible to replumb an in-sink garbage disposal to deliver ground-up kitchen scraps into a holding bin, it is a very expensive retrofit.
Composting food scraps in a small space is not easy, but it can be done. Rather than try to tuck food scraps into soil where potted plants already are growing, you might puree scraps in a food processor daily. The resulting slurry can be composted without attracting pests, or can be buried in soil, though it will take months to break down.
Over the years, I have tried many kinds of composting devices made for home gardeners. In my experience, indoor composting buckets don't really work. Indoor or outdoor worm bin systems can work, but only for plant-based waste. And in small spaces, the bins are pretty hard to hide.
Happily, a simple composting system developed in Japan allows you to recycle all non-liquid food scraps, including dairy and meat. Called bokashi -- the Japanese word for fermented organic material -- the system relies on efficient microbes (EM) to transform leftovers into finished compost in four to six weeks.
EM bokashi is a lot faster than traditional composting and works in an entirely different way. Instead of rotting, bokashi ferments food waste, then breaks it down into enzymes and amino acids directly usable by plant roots. The fermentation stage takes about two weeks, and the composting phase takes between two to four weeks.
To use bokashi, you put all non-liquid food scraps into an airtight bucket with some bokashi starter, usually wheat or rice bran inoculated with beneficial microbes. When the first bucket is full, set it aside to ferment and begin filling a second bucket.
When the first one is ready -- usually about two weeks -- it will smell a bit like fresh pickles. The fermented mass is then buried in a garden bed or in a large (10-gallon-plus) container of soil. After two to four weeks, the mass has been converted to compost and is almost undetectable. You might find a bit of bone or an avocado rind, but everything else is simply gone and you can plant it into the soil immediately.
The beneficial microbes in the EM starter solution promote healthy plants and soil and have some unusual additional uses, from cleaning and deodorizing to purifying ponds or aquariums and keeping cut flowers fresh longer. Some folks put a drop of the juice in pet water to improve digestion and reduce the odor of droppings. Others use it as a natural probiotic deodorizing cleanser (unlike many house cleaners, it does windows).
Bokashi buckets have a spigot at the base to let you remove "garbage juice" every few days. This liquid also can be used as fertilizer for plants, indoors and out. Master Gardener Kathy Morse, who helps Bainbridge Island schoolchildren recycle lunch scraps with bokashi, says, "I pour the juice down the sink to keep our septic system healthy. When I put it in the toilet water tank, it removes all the ugly stains, too."
Bokashi food recycling is practiced in many schools around the country and in more than 80 countries around the world.
RESOURCE
To order bokashi supplies or a how-to video, visit the EM Web site at emamerica.com (click on the box for products, then on home and garden).
Ann Lovejoy is the author of several gardening books. She can be reached via mail at: 8959 Battlepoint Drive N.E., Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.
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Fair is Fair
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CptnGarden
fuck this site

Registered: 05/13/04
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Last seen: 14 years, 9 months
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: Brainiac]
#9155052 - 10/29/08 04:39 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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those plastic 55gal drums are awesome
you could fill one about half to three quarters full and just tip it on its side and roll it around, to mix. once it starts looking pretty good, dump it in the next bin for storage and aging and refill the first one.
go to your local coffee shops with 5gal buckets and ask if they would save their grounds for you, they are high nitrogen and provide a good pH to get things booming.
if you have access to animal poo, particularly bird/chicken, or access to fish parts on a regular basis, you could easily start a 5gal bucket of "sludge" by collecting chicken poo and fish heads/guts etc and adding a little water to get it going.
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika



Registered: 12/03/02
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: CptnGarden]
#9155242 - 10/29/08 05:11 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Captn - could you explain about the "sludge?"
I have chicken poo, fishheads + am intersted in making lots of compost!
-------------------- GO OUTSIDE.
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!


Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 193,665
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: blood4blood]
#9155523 - 10/29/08 06:05 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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demiu5
humans, lol


Registered: 08/18/05
Posts: 43,948
Loc: the popcorn stadium
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: PDU]
#9155531 - 10/29/08 06:07 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
PDU said: Captn - could you explain about the "sludge?"
I have chicken poo, fishheads + am intersted in making lots of compost!
don't use much chicken poop unless it's been sitting out for 3-6 months or is already composted
-------------------- channel your inner Larry David
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika



Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 10,675
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 8 years, 5 months
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: demiu5]
#9155888 - 10/29/08 07:16 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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i got 3 chickens, and i scoop up their poo into the compost. It's worked well in the past.
-------------------- GO OUTSIDE.
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blood4blood
Calmer Than You Are


Registered: 04/25/07
Posts: 6,029
Loc: The Valley
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: CptnGarden]
#9155988 - 10/29/08 07:36 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
CptnGarden said: those plastic 55gal drums are awesome
you could fill one about half to three quarters full and just tip it on its side and roll it around, to mix. once it starts looking pretty good, dump it in the next bin for storage and aging and refill the first one.
go to your local coffee shops with 5gal buckets and ask if they would save their grounds for you, they are high nitrogen and provide a good pH to get things booming.
if you have access to animal poo, particularly bird/chicken, or access to fish parts on a regular basis, you could easily start a 5gal bucket of "sludge" by collecting chicken poo and fish heads/guts etc and adding a little water to get it going.
awesome. yeAH i got two of them just for that purpose. so you dont think there needs to be holes drilled in the barrel anywhere? the rolling it around will provide enough aeriation?
thanks for the info guys.
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CptnGarden
fuck this site

Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 11,945
Last seen: 14 years, 9 months
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Re: a couple composting questions [Re: PDU]
#9156097 - 10/29/08 07:55 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
PDU said: Captn - could you explain about the "sludge?"
I have chicken poo, fishheads + am intersted in making lots of compost!
if you put chicken shit and fish parts in a 5gal bucket, and seal it up for a few months, opening to air it out and stir every week or two, you end up with this thick skunky mud that produces some INSANE amounts of flowering growth.
you can even keep adding stuff as your chickens produce it til its full, and then wait a few months and use.
the goal here is things that are HIGH in nutrients, which both fish and chicken shit are, and with a little water, they ferment down into the sludge.
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