Composters?

[3forks]

Can any of you guys advise me on composters?

More specifically, can anyone talk me out of dumping nearly $500 bucks on one?

My wife and I like to garden, but composting is something I have dragged my feet on. I contend we can buy a lot of compost for the cost of a tumbler to make it ourselves.

I like the idea of being able to break down kitchen scraps and yard waste to into compost, but again - is it worth the hassle?

I do know that the better composters are metal, elevated, rotate, and have two bins.

In an effort to avoid encouraging critters, I don’t want to use open boxes and turn/stir the compost.

So, if anyone has any advice - thanks in advance!

 

[MTPipeliner]

Not sure what your climate is like, but I’ve had poor luck with a drum type composter where I am. It doesn’t break down at all during winter, and is really slow during spring and fall.

The other thing about a drum I didn’t like was the limited volume, even a big drum doesn’t net you very much end product.

I’ve had better luck with a on the ground pile held together with a ring of wire fencing. It will hold lots of leaves and grass and I just threw kitchen scraps in there also. I have a big yard so it is probably 45-50 yards from the house and further to the nearest neighbor house but it usually didn’t stink at all. Never had a problem with anything other than mice, which I have out there anyway.

I did quit doing kitchen scraps a few years ago when I got a new dog. Somehow she was able to get over a 6’ wire fence to get in there to eat stuff so I just gave up on trying to keep her out and stopped doing it.

 

[3forks]

Not sure what your climate is like, but I’ve had poor luck with a drum type composter where I am. It doesn’t break down at all during winter, and is really slow during spring and fall.

The other thing about a drum I didn’t like was the limited volume, even a big drum doesn’t net you very much end product.

I’ve had better luck with a on the ground pile held together with a ring of wire fencing. It will hold lots of leaves and grass and I just threw kitchen scraps in there also. I have a big yard so it is probably 45-50 yards from the house and further to the nearest neighbor house but it usually didn’t stink at all. Never had a problem with anything other than mice, which I have out there anyway.

I did quit doing kitchen scraps a few years ago when I got a new dog. Somehow she was able to get over a 6’ wire fence to get in there to eat stuff so I just gave up on trying to keep her out and stopped doing it.

Thanks for the info.

We’re in Colorado, and I wondered about the capacity of those bin composters.

I think you may have just convinced me not to go this route.

 

[bsnedeker]

I bought my wife a really great composter a number of years ago. She used it one year. It was smelly. It is now a lawn decoration.

 

[awasome]

Store bought composter that tumble have crappy capacity. Depending on how much kitchen scrap you compost you can probably get away with worm buckets in different areas of the garden.

You can use 5 gallon buckets and drill a bunch of holes on the side and bottom. Bury it in the garden up to the neck. Put whatever you want to compost in that bucket and closed the top. Worms will work their way into the bucket and eat the stuff in there move about the garden. You get a bunch of worm castings you can harvest and lots of worms in your garden.

DIY-In Ground Worm Bin - Carmel Mountain Preschool

With all the extra time spent at home, might as well spend it improving your garden soil, decreasing your waste, and giving your kids some fun new pets right?

carmelmountainpreschool.com

 

[zacattack]

Drum or tumble composters can be really finicky. You really need to have your compost “recipe” dialed in for them to work. Composting on the ground is much easier.

I work with commercial composters and large animal farms who have huge composts. Feel free to ask me anything you want.

 

[PVHunter]

Agree that the tumblers aren't worth the hassle (I've never had much luck with them).

I built a pair of wood & chicken wire bins side by side. It makes the job of turning the compost easy - whenever I'm ready to turn I just shovel from Bin A -> Bin B. I've had good luck. It chews up all of our kitchen compostables and a fair amount of what comes out of the yard, too. Something that looks a bit like this save for the fact that I'm running two instead of three.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

I walled off a 4'x4' area with 2 courses of concrete blocks and toss fruit/vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and sometimes grass clippings in it and call it a compost bin. Once a year in the spring I dig to the bottom of the pile and shovel the compost into an old mineral tub with chicken wire stretched over the top to screen out the stuff that hasn't yet broken down. The screened compost always comes out dark and crumbly with lots of earthworms in it and no foul smell. I haven't had problems with critters getting in the bin, but I live out on the prairie in Oklahoma with the nearest appreciable patch of timber a quarter mile from my house, so I don't generally see many of the critters that might try to raid my compost. I did make sure to locate the compost bin in a place that my dog can't get to it though.

 

[3forks]

Thanks for all the advice and ideas, guys!

 

[DenverCountryBoy]

Make sure you have the right balance of carbon to nitrogen. Smelly compost is usually due to too little carbon. 20:1 is a good target.

 

[magtech]

Composting is as simple as Might mouse said. Throw all your crap in a pile and mix it once in a while. If you want to be serious about it look at ratios of things to add with kitchen scraps ( yard clippings, leaves, newspaper, sawdust, etc)

I just shovel mix, hit it with the tiller or use the loader to flip it, every once in a while. Its the opposite if rocket science trying to make it such is a waste of effort.

 

[DenverCountryBoy]

One of the founders of Earth Day was also an early practioneer of indoor composting.

Earth Day co-founder killed, composted girlfriend

Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the "composted" body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Elk97]

We only use our rotating composter to mix up our own potting soils for the greenhouse now. Didn't work for us. Built two 4X4X4' bins that we throw all the weedings, garden scrap, kitchen scraps, etc. Works great, by the time one is full the other is usually fully composted. Had to build a couple of screened tops to keep the ravens, raccoons and eagles out of it.