Composting

[opabinia51]

Here is a link to an excellant basic composting article written by my organic gardening club's President:

https://www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath/Article_Listing/Composting.htm


Anyway, give it a read. And for goodness sake, if you haven't started a compost pile in your yard yet, start one! Compost is great stuff.

Keep in mind that it is not to late to start a sheet compost over your garden yet either. But, it is wise to get one going ASAP.

And as the article states, bury your kitchen wastes in your beds, that is what I have been doing for the past month and the soil will be that much better because of it.

Happy Gardening Everyone!

[JPIXI]

Hi guys,

Recently, I had added some sand to my compost bin to make the compost lighter and easier to apply to the plant. The compost was very heavy and dark due to excessive coffee ground, filter paper and kitchen wastes.

After adding the sand to my compost bin, immediately I wonder will the salt contant in the sand be distractive in some ways? If so, what are remedies that I should undertake?

I feel so silly to have added the sand. Now, hesitate whether to use the compost for compost tea, as I know salt in compost tea is deadly and can burn the fiollage easily. I wonder by adding brown sugar be helpful to neutralise the salt in the sand?

Please advise.

Amitié,
Pixi

[opabinia51]

Bonjour JPIXI,

Nice to see you in a forum other than Roses If you retrieved your sand from the beach and added it to the compost, it should be just fine. If you are so inclined, you can rinse the compost thoroughly with water. But, it isn't really that necessary.

And there is really no need to add sand to compost. If it is thick and what not, that is a good thing because it will increase the water holding capacity of any soil that it is added to.

The way to break up your compost is to turn it with a pitch fork regularly. If you are adding coffee filters et al as your browns, there isn't really a need to add leaves, but, they always help.

What you might want to do is cut up the filters with a pair of scissors and theat will speed the decomposition process thus, breaking up the compost.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Adding a touch of lime will help speed decomposition and neutralize salt to a degree...sweeten your soil as well. Your roses would appreciate it...

HG

[JPIXI]

Thanks a lot guys for all your comforts and advices.

The result for me to add sand to my compost is really out of desperate. The compost bin was really far too heavy and solid that it was not easy to used them.

My roses are growing very vigorously with average growth of 2cm per week with a lot new shoots. However, I have selected only 3 eyes in each sterm for the reason of stronger cane for the first year.

So excited to exchange more information when Spring approaches closer.

Cheers,
Pixi

[opabinia51]

Thanks JPIXI,


Happy to have you here and we welcome your questions and comments. Hey I don"t know if you grow any roses or other plants in containers but as of today we have a new container gardening forum.

[FairyDust]

Are those tumbler compost bins ok? We don't really have a place to put a compost bin where the smell might bother us or the neighbors. I also worry about mice and rats around here. We also have 6 dogs and so of course them getting into it is a concern as well.

But I don't want to waste my money on a tumbler bin to find out it doesn't make very good compost.

[opabinia51]

Actually Fairy,

if you do your compost correctly, the only smell that you should get is a nice earthy smell.

Have a good balance of greens and browns. In fact, you can overdue the browns a bit, just to be safe if you like.

I personally don't use a tumbler, because I don't have the need. Scott would be the person to talk to on this topic.

From what I've heard though, they work like a charm.

[Sengyan]

I have been offered a pick-up truck load of wood shavings which I would like to use as carbon material. I have a lot of green (lawn clippings, kitchen trims, etc.) but lack brown material. I understand wood decomposting uses up N but because of a lack of brown material I want to use the shavings. Please tell me the pros and cons of using the shavings.

Thank you.

Sengyan

[opabinia51]

Wood is mostly composed of a compound called lignin which is a highly branched polysaccheride with many other funcitonal groups. It is therefore very slow to break down but, because of the extra functional groups it does have a lot of nutrients in it. Just keep in mind that it will take a lot longer than say, leaves or newspaper to breakdown.

Leaves (when mulched) take the least time to break down and newspaper would take the second longest to break down.

I add some wood shavings to my compost piles but, I use leaves as the main brown.

[garden_mom]

Maybe the compost threads should be sticky; compost is the most important aspect of organic gardening.

[opabinia51]

I had thought about making a few of them sticky but, these threads are also very searchable. If I were to make one of them sticky then, I would want to take information from all of the compost threads and put it into one synthesized post in a sticky thread and I don't have the time to do that right now.

Good idea, thanks for the advice.

[Sengyan]

My welder son-in-law delivered the compost tumbler he built, today. I am using a 3-bin system but it is getting to be a chore to turn the stuff ( I am 71+) so the tumbler is a blessing. I would be grateful for any information anyone will give on how to use the tumbler.

Thank you all.

Sengyan

[decam0]

Hi all
When I weed the borders, I throw the them onto the lawn and leave them in the sun to dry and die (yes...it looks a bit messy for a while). When the lawn is mown a day or so later, the mess gets picked up by the rotary mower, gets chopped up and mixed with the lawn clippings, and goes in the compost bin, where it rots down really fast.