DCgarden
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Wet Muck in Envirocycle Composter

We have been feeding food scraps into a tumbling Envirocycle composter for about 5 months and have created a horrible monster. For the first few months we were clearly putting in far too many food scraps and not nearly enough brown mater/leaves. We have turned up the volume on the leaves and started putting in pieces of paper towel but it remains a fetid mass of goop swirling with flies and other bugs--really a disaster.

We have no actual composting going, we have rot....we are making great compost tea but no real usable compost.

Is it so far gone that we should dump out the whole mess and start over or can it be saved?

The envirocycle is great because its neat and clean in our urban backyard but I worry the pile is not getting enough air to become productive and ever really dry out.

Look forward to your thoughts on our compost fail.

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah those tumblers are difficult and a lot of people don't get good results with them. It would likely help if you drilled a bunch more drainage/ aeration holes, then add a bunch more brown stuff.

But you might want to start by dumping everything out from it into a regular compost pile. Add a bunch of browns to that, stir it around, and then let it sit. Eventually it WILL become good usable compost.

Then you can wash out the tumbler to get rid of fly larvae and start over with a fresh batch of compostables. You probably want a little bit more browns than greens by volume. The tumblers do batch composting, so once you load it up (not too full, leave room for tumbling), you don't want to keep adding stuff unless necessary for balance.

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klevelyn
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Location: Utah, USA

I think not getting enough air is a problem with the tumblers. My moms was the same. You opened it and it was pretty nasty. Some wood shavings or straw can help keep the balance. More air holes for drainage as well.

tomc
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Tumblers don't take incrimental additions of compostables as well as tower composters do. Or at least they did not for me.

I found drilling extra holes, using the opening port in the down position when at rest, and a colander to drain kitchen scraps, not quite adaquate to my needs.

I suspect the numbers and availability of used or orphan tumblers, speaks to their overall effectiveness.

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applestar
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@DCgarden -- So what did you do with your tumbler? My thought was to empty it and remix with significantly more dry BROWNS. Don't forget to check the GREENS and BROWNS stickie at the top of this forum for ingredient ideas.

When I had them, I soon realized I needed at least two tumbling composers. One that is full and "cooking" and the other BEING filled with new ingredients. Once you have a full scale garden going though, the tumblers -- at least the ones I had -- don't hold enough for both garden refuse and household compostables, and some kind of open/surrounded piles work better. But same strategy -- at least two, three is better. :wink:

Ksk
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What I do to minimize slime is to shred a few brown paper bags that say " compostable" and add them. It fixes the smell/slime problem quickly. I have ants but they don't seem to hurt anything.

baldylocks
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Location: Texas

I have two Envirocycle composter, I am new at this, but I am getting amazing results. It may be beginners luck. I don't overly wet my compost, if you can smell it , add more straw and spin it few times every day. You see like fruit flys, that indicating to wet, spin it more, I do visual and put on exam gloves feel the compost after few weeks.
I glad I bough this type composter as it ez to turn, compared to many, it give both type compost and ez to use with great results especially in urban area. Be sure drain the tea bin as this make lots compost tea fast and if bin full it won't let drain out composter, spin it lots to air it.
Do not ley someone talk you in drilling more holes, lol. That void warranty and alter a fantastic design.
All I say is I love two I purchased and so glad I did

wisconsindead
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Location: Zone 5b

Oops. 5 year old post...

ButterflyLady29
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The post may be 5 years old but the info is still good. If the stuff inside the composter is too wet you can add newspaper and shredded cardboard.



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