Compost

[TeeDee]

Well my worms have arrive and been put into a hasty stay over box along with some food and soaked wet cardboard shreds. Which seems to be the fashion.


Just picked up some large bucket totes to make into three stackable wormeries with different layers.

I'll split the group into Four equal sized packs and see how they do and hopefully multiply.
Seems to very much be a game of 'leave them to it' which I absolutely will then have a poke and nosey around in the Xmas period.

 

[Moondog55]

Worms mate by accident so you don't want the worm population sparse. Don't split into 4 sets until the worm population at least doubles

 

[TeeDee]

Worms mate by accident so you don't want the worm population sparse. Don't split into 4 sets until the worm population at least doubles

Good call


I'll crush up some viagra and sprinkle it over their food also.

Should get them in the mood.


Or make them immobile. One or the other.

 

[Moondog55]

I was told by a local expert that worms can process food scraps faster and more easily if ground small, so I sometimes use the Magimix in the scraps bucket. Also worms love coffee grounds but only if not too acid some I sprinkle a little lime in the tub every now and then. Rats got into my worm farm over winter and ate a lot of them, it will take at least two years to recover. So make sure the bins are vermin proof

 

[Paul_B]

We got a few compost daleks when we bought the house. We never seem to get enough material in them to get good compost. However the time we had a large bulk carrier in the front garden with mostly green waste (grass cuttings from our only lawn, weeds pulled up from the lawn and borders plus other green waste). When we tried to move it to get rid after realising it was too full we had to take stuff out by hand into the green bins. We got down a layer and it was very nearly composted from the last lawn mowing (about a month or so ago) and then the layer underneath looked like good compost and the lowest layers were like a wet peat type of compost all friable and probably quite good for plants.

So I have learnt that the best compost we can make is when we have been lazy and not emptied a bulk carrier bag of garden waste. The daleks for us are absolutely useless no matter how much care I take and how much of the various compost additives from the garden centre we get to spinkle into each layer.

Mind you they are at the top of the garden and most waste seems to be from below them and easier to take down to the green bins. I think we need a better location for them in order to give composting a better try.

Does anyone have a better composting container than daleks? Do you think those rubble sacks we accidentally get half decent compost are better? Anything else that is good for a composter? Why did those rubble sacks work for us and the daleks didn't? The daleks were the only ones I tried to get a mix of green and brown waste in (mostly wood chippings and green weeds / old vegetation in the daleks and all grass clippings and green weeds/garden waste in the rubble sacks). The daleks should have given better compost surely?

 

[slowworm]

To make compost quickly you not only need a mix of woody and green material but also air and it needs moisture. The plastic bins may not always provide an ideal environment but they are fairly cheap to get hold of and easy to use.

To improve things you can build up a pile of suitable material and then load a bin. Emptying them out and turning the pile before reloading also helps. Or get several and be patient.

Urine can also help add moisture, nitrogen and other nutrients - use a step ladder if you're short!

 

[Pattree]

Urine can also help add moisture, nitrogen and other nutrients

In order to maintain equal opportunities:
- No Hands!

 

[TeeDee]

Going back to more the Wormery aspect.

Is worm cast to be seen a pure soil enhancement / additive or ideally what the main bulk of what you ideally want to be planting into?

So i've just picked up some 60lt plastic barrels with sealable top. £5 a pop and no shortage of them.

Could you ,create a wormery environment in a barrel , ( Air holes , tap off for fluid ) load it with bedding and enough food stuff scraps - stick some Worms to do their thing , every week top up the food scraps and let that cycle go for 6 months until spring /summer.

Could you then - sift out the worms ( restart them in a new wormery environment) and plant straight into the barrel of worm waste? or like chicken manure is it considered too much / too strong and needs to be mixed/diluted down??

I guess I'm just thinking how to create a system where I have multiple wormeries ( fortunately I have the space ) that I can then immediately ( once the warmer months arrive ) move over to a planter for runner beans , squashes , courgettes etc


Thoughts and feedback appreciated.

 

[Pattree]

Wormeries make liquid fertiliser. There are dilution tables somewhere on the internet but it’s not very strong. (Not like hen muck tea that requires very high dilutions.)

The solid residue is compost but that’s only when you are clearing down and refreshing your wormery. It’s a good soil texture improver in heavy soil. It would be great for a mulch or for potting on. I’m not sure I’d use it for seed trays, mainly because it will be variable, depending on what it’s come from.

I’ve only seen a factory made wormery. It looked like a small wheelie bin. There was a perforated drop in shelf about nine inches from the bottom. This supported the textile filter that stopped the compost falling through the holes.

The tap drained this lower reservoir when you wanted liquid fertiliser. I think there was an overflow too.

I’m not sure how you’d arrange this in your barrels but I’m sure it’s possible and without too much expense.

This might help.

 

[Moondog55]

I've read an internet description of a largish worm farm made from an IBC container and plastic crates.
The top was cut from the IBC giving a container of a thousand litres. The plastic crates were placed on the base and covered with fine mesh and Geocloth and more crates stacked inside and on top of that Geocloth layer. I assume the plastic crates were used so the weight of the fill didn't compress the added vegetation and to allow the worms to move freely though the bin. A fully laded IBC will weigh well over a tonne so the base it sits on will need to be substantial but my reading seems to indicate that with worm farms bigger is better. I dilute my worm juice 10:1 and I have those black plastic stacker units but I do have an IBC and have plans to utilise it soon. I have made a worm composter from an old bath and that hasn't worked well at all, it is being turned into a raised garden bed very soon

 

[TeeDee]

And ... back once more to composting....

So if the Four requirements for optimal Composting are

Green Waste ( 1 part )
Brown Waste ( 2 parts )
Water ( but free draining )
Oxygen


Then the modern day ubiquitous plastic Daleks all seem to come with Tops lids and sides that are not aerated - creating a sealed vessel in some ways.


Does this mean the best thing one can do is take a hole saw to a modern Plastic dalek and leave the top of it off??

 

[Moondog55]

I've been using them for over 40 years [ they are after all an Aussie development] and the trick is to use at least 4 of them, fill as quickly as possible and turn one into the other quite quickly but to start the pile off with rough twigs and small branches and use a short length of PVC sewer pipe with holes in the middle, I tried a screw aerator and they work OK but the change from one bin to the next seems to work best for me. No shortage of paper and cardboard in the area and I use that roughly torn as the "brown" part, I'm not afraid of chucking in the dead cats and other road kill either and I do add in the wood ash and charcoal from the BBQ as and when the firepit fills up

 

[TeeDee]

I've been using them for over 40 years [ they are after all an Aussie development] and the trick is to use at least 4 of them, fill as quickly as possible and turn one into the other quite quickly but to start the pile off with rough twigs and small branches and use a short length of PVC sewer pipe with holes in the middle, I tried a screw aerator and they work OK but the change from one bin to the next seems to work best for me. No shortage of paper and cardboard in the area and I use that roughly torn as the "brown" part, I'm not afraid of chucking in the dead cats and other road kill either and I do add in the wood ash and charcoal from the BBQ as and when the firepit fills up

I had to do a quick location check when you mentioned 'Dead Cats' but I guess thats a thing out there and us Brits are a soppy lot.

I shall carry on providing the bins with the little vermin sacrifices my own cats leave out for me in replacement of.

Good tip on the sewer pipe - I shall see what I can do.

 

[Stew]

And ... back once more to composting....

So if the Four requirements for optimal Composting are

Green Waste
Brown Waste
Water
Oxygen


Then the modern day ubiquitous plastic Daleks all seem to come with Tops lids and sides that are not aerated - creating a sealed vessel in some ways.


Does this mean the best thing one can do is take a hole saw to a modern Plastic dalek and leave the top of it off??

I have two daleks at the house. One has small holes drilled all ove the sides in a grid pattern. I don't notice much difference in output. Bigger holes would possibly be better but it does also help to contain the waste - mostly veg cooking waste by not having them.

To be honest, I have the removal of compost from the daleks. The port hole is quite innefficient for digging out.

Have you seen the johnson-su bioreactor? That has the central pipe to allow air in.

 

[Pattree]

My daleks have no holes and no bottom hatch. They are just tapering dustbins.

I’m mainly making mulch so I don’t overthink it. Food waste including chicken carcass and egg shells go into it. I make a very speckled compost. I do need to use a riddle when I’ve tipped one out but I just remove any plastic that shouldn’t have gone in then chuck the bigger stuff back into the bottom of an empty dalek.

I have too many memories of making proper compost for Forestry Commission and local government. A LOT of faf, a lot of shovelling and boring days working a steam steriliser. Perfect work to give the trainees!!!!!
Shortly after I moved on they abandoned all that and bought in truckloads of preprepared bales of the stuff.

 

[Moondog55]

Despite the thoughts of some people here the only good cat is a dead cat, unless they are neutered and totally confined at all times, free roaming cats are fair game. My previous post about using an IBC has prompted me to start work on one now that Spring has arrived

 

[TeeDee]

Despite the thoughts of some people here the only good cat is a dead cat, unless they are neutered and totally confined at all times, free roaming cats are fair game. My previous post about using an IBC has prompted me to start work on one now that Spring has arrived

With an assumed small amount of respect I offer most people out of social civility - I don't believe that thinking or statement and rhetoric will find friends or favour here. I get it you are in Oz and potentially Cats can be seen more as a pest than here as far more active and predatory.. thats a cultural difference if widely shared.

But this is a UK based forum. Most of the cultural feeling , thinking and civility will be UK orientated ( rightly or wrongly ) - The UK is a nature of Animal lovers including Cats.

I thank you for your input so far but would suggest you rethink the application and suitability of your comments ref the audience you are choosing to integrate with.

 

[Moondog55]

By "Here" I was referring to Oz.
Cats are a feral pest here in Australia, but I would point out that it's only a century since cats were mainly bred in the UK to make fur coats and blankets from, they've not always been viewed with affection, despite their usefulness on board ships for keeping the rats and mice under some sort of control.
Being a Bushcraft forum I thought the members would take a more realistic approach to the topic of wildlife Vs Feral animals. Things must have changed a bit since I lived in the UK; back in a 70's I saw very little evidence of the country being a nation of animal lovers

 

[Chris]

I've always been told that putting carcasses and animal products in a compost bin will encourage rodents into my garden - is this the case? I only have a small garden so would prefer to keep them out of my shed.

 

[Pattree]

I can’t see it making any difference if your dalek is lidded. Mine are on slabs. I suppose they could burrow in if they were on soil but no more than they would for food waste generally.