I have a 2 gallon bucket on the kitchen counter top next to the sink. I put things in there like watermelon rine, cantaloupe, tomato, potato, carrot, banana, orange peal, stale bread, coffee, you get the idea organic stuff from the kitchen. Pour some sugar, water, pack of yeast in the bucket and all the watermelon is composted away in a week and a half.
I have 10 fruit trees that are growing very slow so I started dumping the compost on 1 tree. Now the tree is 3 times bigger than the other trees and very green.
Now I have a 30 gallon trash can with 5 lbs of sugar, 10 gallons of water, pack of yeast, corn stalks, bean plants, squash plants, grass clipping, lots of plants after it composted 10 days I dumped it on the other trees. The other trees have turned super green color like I put fertilizer on them. Trees are looking much better and starting to grow.
5 lbs of sugar in 5 gallons of water works good. This makes the liquid about 4% alcohol, no problem for the plants. Alcohol evaporates quick. The alcohol might make your plants smile. LOL
-
Northernfox
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 870
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:07 am
- Location: Fort Saskatchewan Alberta
-
toxcrusadr
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 970
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 4:50 pm
- Location: MO
Fairly expensive way to fertilize considering the price of sugar, but if it works for you, more power to ya! I'm not sure why it works because if you're using baker's yeast, most of the sugar is coming off as CO2 after it ferments.
Just take care you don't overload them with nitrogen. It produces a lot of green growth, but fruit trees don't fruit as well with high nitrogen. Phosphorus makes them bloom and fruit, but when N is high they just think times are real good and there's no great incentive to reproduce.
Just take care you don't overload them with nitrogen. It produces a lot of green growth, but fruit trees don't fruit as well with high nitrogen. Phosphorus makes them bloom and fruit, but when N is high they just think times are real good and there's no great incentive to reproduce.
-
Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7427
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
You don't need to buy much sugar. Any time you throw out old soft drink pour it in the bucket soft drink is full of sugar. Melon left overs, glass if ice tea, left over jello, apple core, apple peal, lots of things contain natural sugar. You can get free sugar at Mc Donalds, Wendys, Hardys, Carl Jr, Burger King, in the tiny coffee packs. I always have 1 or 2 packs of sugar left over if I eat breakfast there which is not often. You can grow sugar beets and have all the free sugar you want.
My compost bucket is full. Been busy in the kitchen it filled up in 2 days.
My compost bucket is full. Been busy in the kitchen it filled up in 2 days.
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30550
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
This is an interesting idea to have the yeast pre-digest the kitchen scraps. Do they successfully outcompete vs. mold since they get a head start? Does doing it this way help keep down the smell?
What is an economical way to supply the yeast? Can you use sourdough starter?
You don't add these yeast digested buckts of kitchen scraps to regular compost pile, right, Gary? What would be the outcome if you did that? Would the concentration of 2 gal of actively proliferating yeast be too much depending on the current size of the pile?
What is an economical way to supply the yeast? Can you use sourdough starter?
You don't add these yeast digested buckts of kitchen scraps to regular compost pile, right, Gary? What would be the outcome if you did that? Would the concentration of 2 gal of actively proliferating yeast be too much depending on the current size of the pile?
-
Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7427
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
I never have a mold problem with yeast. It never smells bad either. I make wine so I dump the wine sediment in the compost bucket it is loaded with wine yeast. Bakers yeast works too. I have a compost pile under each fruit tree I dump the bucket right into my compost piles outside. When the yeast uses up all the sugar the yeast goes dormant. If you put sugar on the compost yeast comes back to life. I don't have enough sugar to completely compost every thing I have corn stalks, corn cobs, bean plants, grass clippings, etc. in the compost. I am going to grow sugar beats to get free sugar for the yeast. If I had a good supply of sugar I can digest all my compost. The best part is the kitchen bucket stays mold and bad smell free.applestar wrote:This is an interesting idea to have the yeast per-digest the kitchen scraps. Do they successfully outcompete the mold since they get a head start? Does doing it this way help keep down the smell?
What is an economical way to supply the yeast? Can you use sourdough starter?
You don't add these yeast digested buckts of kitchen scraps to regular compost pile, right, Gary? What would be the outcome if you did that? Would the concentration of 2 gal of actively proliferating yeast be too much depending on the current size of the pile?