One guide to composting I learnt is " Too many Greens smells like latrine while Too many Browns slows it down". Moisture and air are very important as well. Life is a learning curve. Great video mate from Downunder.
Great video Josh! Very informative. I noticed the "dog" right away and then noticed it did not move...I was thinking good dog...lol....then realized a statue...lol.
You have your dog excellently trained to sit perfectly still in the background while you're filming. That's a sign of a great animal handler. * 😂😁 ** thanks for the vids
Great tutorial guys! We are a couple starting our homestead in NB and now we know how to make our own compost! We are in our first year and using the winter to renovate the farmhouse. The fun starts this spring. Also, great husband/wife team... complementary brains working together was very helpful. Thanks and God bless!
We had already seen this video. Definitely worth the "remembering" what we need to be doing. We really need to focus much better in getting some heat in our compost pile as well as turning it over. Thank You for another informative video!
We’ve really been enjoying watching Josh do a lot of homesteading videos lately! Love and appreciate how knowledgeable him and Carolyn are! Thanks y’all as always for all the educational content! God bless!
I added a bunch of fish guts to mine. As soon as it started to stink I turned it good. The smell went away quickly. I'm so looking forward to adding it to the garden.
I have a turn composting system and the family of ants that lives in there is doing well, although I feel bad as it's turned over weekly! Have been adding kitchen scraps every week and you'd think it'd be too much to process but with a little help from my "friends in low places" it's keeping pace. Look forward to seeing more video! *new subscriber* 👋
Hi. I subbed after the free classes on the school.thete is a lot of good info. My compost is ruined too much wet from hurricane Ian then Nicole..soo much wet lol...
Approximately three times I turn mine, I run it thru the chipper/shredder, as I do the turning. This seems to help break things down better. My biggest problem is keeping the moisture level where it should be. This next ten days of temperatures of 110 or better is going to not help that problem. Thanks for all the great information you folks put out. Everyone keep cool, know N. Idaho is going to be hot too. I am located in south central Washington state.
If you can simply get temperatures up to just under boiling water, you shouldn't have to run anything through a chipper/shredder. High temperatures will break down even branches up to a couple inches in diameter and anything smaller would disappear completely. Outside ambient temperatures should not be a big factor in achieving high temperatures (should be possible even in the dead of winter in a snowbank) but the hotter the air is, it can't hurt.
A reason why the pile isn't quite up to optimal temperatures is because it looks a tiny bit under-sized... my guess is the piles are about 30" in diameter by about a yard tall. If the pile was a full 36" minimum, that could be the small difference that enables a jump from 130-160 degrees F to just below boiling water (212 degrees F). Still, if the pile has been turned only once, the tan color of the compost indicates about what you should expect after turning only once or a couple times so there is good progress so far. I entirely agree about adding water, it's far easier to be too dry than too wet, and if you just let your wet pile sit a bit longer, excess water will probably drain by itself. Good video!
Awesome I've being waiting for this video lol . Thank you for sharing your knowledge.... The dog is a good idea kinda like a scare crow . My dogs are usually out but when there not this would be a great fill in lol .
On our wire bins, we run a scrap pipe or pole through each end of the wire. When making the bin form, one bottom pipe/pole end (bottom) is pushed down one weave of the wire, the top end we do a figure-8 loop that holds the top together. It saves a few minutes from not having to tie/untie. The seam.
What of you had some sort of rigid shell you could clamp around it with a top and bottom and then just flip it over and roll it to mix it? Then just remove the shell and let it breathe
You can also lift the cage off. Just go around it and lift a few inches each time. It will soon lift right off, ready for the next batch. I only use the cage for the initial setup, on the first flip I make a pile. Then tarp it.
Where we're at, we're surrounded by pine trees. Every spring we do a cleanup of all the limbs, cones, and needles that fell over winter. Can I use pine in my compost? I've had people tell me that I can't... but I'd like to know your thoughts since I see you also live amongst the pines!
In theory, could you put a perforated 3" pipe(s) in the long axis of the pile to add water and oxygen? Like having the top open to add water and having a cap with a fitting for an air compressor to attach to?
Do you leave the compost thermometer in the pile all the time, or would rain hurt it? And speaking of rain, do you tarp the pile, or do you keep it from getting over-wet some other way?
You can leave the thermometer in. Tarp your pile to prevent excessive inflow of water and excessive loss of moisture from wind and sun evaporation. Tarp helps maintain more even temperatures too,
Take it out, despite the mfr’s claim that it’s waterproof, mine got water inside after a slight rain. I put the dial part in a plastic bag with a silica pack to dry it.
Can you start the compost pile in the fall or should I wait until warmer weather? I would imagine that it would be better to compost in warmer weather.
Made a compost pile and within a day it was up over 130 so I turned it the next day it was up over 1:40 so I turned it again the next day it was up over 150 can your compost heat up too fast
The pile stands by itself due to the fungi, and they also are responsible for the clumping you describe. If you add any material after the process has begun, that is not getting composted to the same degree as the original material. To be thermophilic and effective to kill pathogens and seeds you need to be >130º for three days minimum. Excessive turning destroys the fungi. A well built and properly maintained pile really only needs to be turned twice, but there’s a roadmap to doing that. this info is available to Dr. Elaine Ingham’s students in the soil food web school. You certainly make a good point about keeping pile aerobic. If it smells bad, it ain’t compost, it’s just rotting organic matter that has gone anaerobic and produces disease organisms and lower ph that can actually kill your plants.
I've been watching your composting videos lately. I'm wondering what your pile looks like when your still adding whole materials to it (not broken down)? I have a small two-sided wooden frame composting area where I just dump my food scraps and other brown materials. This may be a silly question. Lol
Where can I get a thermometer like that please? My hubby and I are just getting started at our new to us homestead. The “soil” is all sand! We have no lawn but I’m getting greens from neighbors. I’ve never seen a thermometer like that-thank you!
Yeah, I tend to do that. I dont have time to turn it all the time..I wait about 6 months between turning instead, and have larger piles. Also I think he addrd to much brown/carbon.
If the pile stays aerobic, it is only losing mostly carbon because the bacteria have no way of holding on to it. If it goes anaerobic, your generating combustible gases, but in too small a quantity to economically collect. What is happening is that the gasses increase global warming… they are up to 250 worse than co2. Anaerobic compost can also kill your plants.
Extra stinky compost might mean you've got some anaerobic activity going on and it's producing methane. You might not be turning the compost often enough or not breaking up clumps thoroughly enough. Without oxygen being mixed into the compost, it basically does the exact same thing that happens inside a cows stomach and make a stinky goopy compost. It won't harm the compost but it will take longer and it will stink.
I have a tumbler composter and it's always too wet. What can I add to it? I have some ground up egg shells, would that help? I don't normally add leaves or grass to it.
Is your tumbler made of plastic with few or no holes? Since there is no way for excess moisture from draining away, the batch becomes too wet. Maybe you can drill some holes in non-structural locations around the circumference if the barrel.
I struggle to break down the wood chips in my compost pile. Do you know what that could be? The rabbit manure and the grass/greens break down easily, but not the wood chips. Any idea? :)
Wood chips breakdown much slower. Add urine or some cow/horse or sheep/goat manure to give more nitrogen. Rabbit manure has much lower nitrogen content. That’s why you can spread it directly into the garden.
Wood chips, shavings, & sawdust can take years to breakdown due to their extremely high c/n ratio. Adding more high nitrogen materials like fresh manure helps, but it will still take years. If it is not completely composted, adding it to your soil will deplete the soil of nitrogen. I keep wood chips, shavings, & sawdust in separate compost piles since it takes so long. And have other compost piles in which I use other browns which do not have such a high c/n ratio like hay, straw, dry grass clippings, tree leaves, and garden plants after they are done bearing.
Having trouble with this. Made compost piles according to the video, one was cranking along at 130 deg being turned regularly, then temp plummeted- turned again, it didn't come up. Turned again and added water as it seemed too dry. Temp hasn't moved. What do I do now? Add more nitrogen?
I am amazed you did not mention the absolute danger of inhaling this... Further frequent low exposure to cyanide leads to headache, dizziness, mild confusion, abdominal cramping, nausea, and vomiting... Food Grade has 10mg/kg cyanide. The internet varies on 'dangerous' exposure level(s) but so far this is certainly Not Advisable and safe
I bet the series will show you only the classic (commercial) weed seed and pathogen free compost aimed for max volume in minimum amount of time. Excellent stuff for starting seeds and mulching. But the last stage should be the natural migrating in of worms and other critters. These will turn your compost into garden gold. Some people try to create that by using special worm bins. So let your compost pile cool down and give the worms time to move in and digest. If they don't, you should worry about the quality of your subsoil below your compost pile. It may be too acidic or worse. Cleared my wife's garden of all unwanted stuff and only saw 3 worms. Started my slow compost bins on a paved area and out of the blue several types of worms appeared and started munching the goodies, after cooling down. Hope this helps.
I'm lazy I would just build two of the same kind of metal wire stations side by side and just move it from one station to the other rather than take one apart and put it back together in another spot.
Another major problem for most people living in urban areas that they don’t have access to unchlorinated water such as well or spring water! As the chlorine and other additives destroy the life of the microbes that create the compost!
