dotnik
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No turn composting

The easiest way to make compost is "pit composting." Merely dig a hole at least 2 ft. by 2 ft. by 2 ft. Put all of your compostable material in it, adding a shovelful of soil now and then and watering it occasionally. You can wait until it cools down and cart it around your garden or leave your effortless compost in the hole and plant on top of it. :D

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rainbowgardener
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Seems pretty anaerobic that way. JMO but it seems like more air circulation is better for the process. In fact in modern usage composting means aerobic. You can digest things anaerobically, but it isn't really called composting any more.

Anaerobic digestion can produce methane, ammonia, and it can be a breeding ground for some nasty anaerobic bacteria (like E coli).

It can be done right and not cause problems, but it is more tricky and you should know what you are doing, with the right layers, addition of air channels, probably innoculation with effective microbes or something similar....

Here's a thread where some of this was discussed

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=96222&highlight=anaerobic+composting#96222

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GardenMann
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I don't think we will be digging a big hole to compost in. The ground here is like concrete and I am sure I could build six compost bins in the time it would take me to dig a hole that big. :)

We have a compost bin we started using last year. I am curious to see what we have come spring this year.

Just digging up my new vegetable garden took all the energy I could come up with and it was only a few inches deep, we built it up with top soil and peatmoss. We will try to dig it a bit deeper this coming spring when I double the size of our garden.

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soil
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if you don't want to turn google the common sense compost making, or the quick return compost activator method. it works amazingly well for a no turn pile. in fact where I'm at, it makes better compost.

Toil
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soil, could you elaborate? Are you in a very "fungal" zone perhaps?


I am beginning to suspect that one size fits all is not the best approach. As much as I can understand the desire to narrow the definition of a word to help others avoid mistakes, is it perhaps a flawed approach, maybe even radically biased and parochial in the geographic and cultural sense?

tough call, IMO. but I can tell you this: I am way too lazy to describe bokashi or ensilage and what it does for gardeners in full every time I meet someone new. So I say "bokashi composting", and that gets my point across with less effort, albeit at the cost of semantic purity. Maybe I should start saying "compôte de bocachi?"

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soil
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soil, could you elaborate? Are you in a very "fungal" zone perhaps?
https://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/QR/QRToC.html

there you go, read that first.

and yes I am in a land plentiful with fungi.

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webmaster
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That is a great link, thanks for posting that.
:)

rot
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..

How long does it take when you compost in a hole? I've heard of a few folks doing that but I've been concerned about the lack of air.

My slow bins are no turn but really slow. I don't fill the bin all at once but as I go. The bin is just four pallets tied together with bailing wire on top of pavers. The pavers let the worms in and keep the burrowing rodents and tree roots out. The bins have a basic 3' x 3' foot print.

The bin starts out with about 5 inches of dry woody stuff as a biological sponge on the bottom. Every few weeks I add a foot and a half to two feet of stuff and cover it with leaves, sticks and grass clippings. I add water regularly. Somewhere along the line in the building it up over time, the volume reduction kicks in. I fed a short one for six months.

Currently I've been feeding my active bin for 12 months now. It's gone fungal and the volume reduction is considerable. I think I could go another 6 months easy. I think I've topped it twice now. It is reducing about as fast as I'm adding right now.

I will feed a bin anywhere from 6 to 12 months and let it sit for about 12 months or so only adding water. No turning. Comes out almost like a chocolate cake.

It takes a while. If it goes fungal you see considerable volume reduction. It works with all the kinds of stuff you can throw in there. Letting the worms in makes all the difference. I end up spreading worms all about as apply the end product. Early next year I hope to see how it did on the pair of jeans I threw in.

to sense

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