DIY Compost: Techniques For Supercharging Your Garden's Nutrient Power! 

Christopher Smith Nice, thanks for the comment.. interesting stuff

Excellent idea! I'm using sawdust and grass clippings but I like the idea of mixing in water.

@@npecom Wow, sawdust. Great idea. I've been wondering how I'd take cheap wood chips from the dump and convert them to a small enough aggregate to compost well in this system. But if I contact a sawmill or wood shop....

I keep hearing that sawdust is too fine and doesnt allow for enough air flow for compost. I'd love to be convinced to use it because there are several boat builders locally and I could get all the free sawdust I wanted, but I keep reading and hearing negative things about it.

I have actually had pretty good luck just letting the compost hold the pipes in place as you fill. Lots of adjusting at first but eventually the compost holds them in place. I'm definitely going to make one of those jigs, though!

Your method is simple, but pales in comparison regarding nitrogen fixation and about ten other factors. See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XlB4QSEMzdg.html . This compost is not so much compost as it is an inoculant that can radically change soil biology and longterm output upon application of as little as one pound per acre.

yeah, didn't get when the pipes are removed and everything, how is that 14 inches between every holes..

This video by Dr David Johnson himself will help I think: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MuW42tFC4Ss.html

cheers mate

Pipes go through fabric to let air in, removed after ONE day (at which point holes/columns are self-supporting), cover by poking or cutting holes for the pipes through the cloth, just like the bottom. regenerationinternational.org/bioreactor/

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DxUGk161Ly8.html is Dr. Johnson's instruction video

I understand you. I want to make a bed with it and take a nap. Lol!

I'm not sure about the nitrogen. Maybe he meant C:N ratio 1:10? About the fungal mix I think the cheapest way is to go somewhere is a really well growing forest with lots of plants and live and take a small amount of soil from there. That should give you the right fungi. You can also watch talks from Elaine Ingham she's a soil microbiologist.

@@tim1tim2tim3tim4 wow! Thank you so muuuuch!!! 🙌

Ya I looked around the web & this is what Im guessing he was talking about [] 1-10% [Phosphorus and Potassium?] Green 10-30% any green material Carbon 30%+ brown material, consists of items such as leaves, bark, wood chips, twigs, and paper *everyone else says green is nitrogen Alot of communication is lost through normal talking, love the video watched it a couple times as month preping for next year!

@@tim1tim2tim3tim4 That's what I do when I go hiking. Mainly after a rain. Grab some soil, leaves, material from dead rotting logs, and worms to add to 2 5-gallon buckets w/ holes at the bottom/bottom sides and a 1/4# or less fashioned hardware cloth pipe held together with zip ties. There is a lid with a hole cut in the top for the pipe. I plunk them on top of 2 10-gallon grow bags with old soil on my apt. balconyand fill / cycle them out. I'm kind of lazy, so just chucking stuff in there & adding an outdoors soil layer or 2, then letting it sit, works for me. During winter I wrap the set up in 3 mil contractor bags with clips (I don't open them so it's more like 6mil. I try to score fresh chicken poop (ppl on CL will sell It to you or ask you to shovel It out yourself for free) in late fall since it's more 'hot'. The contents do eventually freeze by mid-winter since it's not a giant pile, but it's somewhere to put my compost scraps all year long & get kicked up easy again once things thaw out. I garden certain easy/sturdy greens like rainbow Swiss chard & arugula indoors under grow lights and on a window sill during the winter so compost is always available in some form or fashion. Arugula kinda stinks to me, but I tolerate it to put on homemade pizza. The Chard is so sturdy. I use it in soups/general cooking,, smoothies + salads. The Parris Island lettuce is the only one I've been successful with inside. Strongly suggest baking the soil 1st to minimize the bugs.

He died doing what he loved

Paul Robinson ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DxUGk161Ly8.html

It’s made in one go but you can make a smaller scale version of it

?

worms are free food for chickens ! open up the pile and let the chickens have a go. Free proteins from trash ! of course you can save a few earthworms for next batch

Ok great. Thank you once again. 😎🇨🇦

@@davelawson2564 so to ask the stoopid question .... do the worms breed in there ..... ie ... how many would you need to keep back for starting the next batch??

They breed, lay eggs , it hatches when condition is right. If starting fresh batch 5-10 is enough for a 27 cu.ft pile. mix compost pile with 20% soil at the top and make sure to water it to keep it moist. cover the top with plastic or hay .

So Red Wigglers live near the surface only whereas native earthworms will tunnel throughout. However, Red Wigglers do better in a confined area and are easier to purchase. If you decide to use native earthworms, the bioreactor will need to rest on the ground vs. a pallet. Hope that helps.

Thanks. I was thinking along those lines. The red wigglers would have to be used only in the summer here in MN. It is too cold here in the winter for them, but we do have busy earthworms and night crawlers that seem not to mind and like to be cooler in general. :)

@@michaelmclane3803 Red wigglers probably won't survive cold winters.

There's someone doing it that suggested using heat tape, the kind you use to wrap water pipes to keep them from freezing. I don't think they've had a winter to test that method though. The downside is it uses electricity and you'd need to store the bins in a barn or something, not sure how much power, if it's significant. I'm searching for answers on this too!

@@daringerin We just went for it and built four reactors out in the open. With their mass I'm hoping they can get through the thermal phase before real winter comes. We also capped them with a kiddy pool to help keep snow off the top to control moisture better. Heat tape would be neat! I know resistance heating elements consume quite a lot of power though so I'm not sure if that would be worth it. I think out here an ideal situation would be in an insulated barn. We've got the barn but it's just not insulated.

It'd definately be a neat project to test the feasibility ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MuW42tFC4Ss.html

Brandon Keating It’s already proven... no need to reinvent the wheel.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DxUGk161Ly8.html Thatʻs David Johnsonʻs whole setup video.

Joy Padayhag look for Johnson su bio reactor google on his website he has pdf of how to set it

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DxUGk161Ly8.html

For complete details including experiments and biological/chemical results see ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XlB4QSEMzdg.html

Look up hot compost and morningchores.com/compost-calculator/

I believe that the Europeans have a term for this product. (without the addition of worms)They call it leaf mold.They too take 9 months to 1 year to get leaf mold. Their green waste goes to worm composting.

update us please. Thanks. I haven't built my reactor yet, but plan to. Microbiology rules!

You remove the air tubes the day after filling the entire unit. What happens is that fungae stabilize the material near the holes that fast, so you can just pull the tubes up. See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DxUGk161Ly8.html for Dr. Johnson's demo.

Yes, in his PDF Dr. Johnson says it can be scaled down successfully as long as all of the feedstock material is no farther than 12" away from air.

Johnson recommends red wigglers

On a pallet so that it has air beneath and it is landscape fabric not plastic

See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DxUGk161Ly8.html

F

I run over my woody plant waste with my lawnmower that has a bagger on it so I can easily collect it and add it to the compost pile. Do the same for bags of leaves a scarf from the curb.

nmsbalint shrinkage depends on the feedstock

TheJunkyardgenius no not really but once the compost is on the ground it will have access to worms

Gary Gorman shrinkage depends on the feed stock

zack reindl it does not fall out it’s like sand castle it retains its shape

Why would the worms want to escape? They are in an environment with lots to eat, its dark, its moist, it has plenty of oxygen and they can retreat to the middle if the outside gets to cold or too warm or too dry... I build my own Johnson-Su bioreactor, but I decided to change the design and have the aeration pipes horizontal instead of vertical and place the whole thing directly onto soil. I did not add any worms, but worms found it all by themselfs and decided to call it home. I have no idea how many worms are in there now but just in a handfull of material there are dozens. Large and small. Red wriggler, European nightcrawlers and normal earthworms deeper down...

Do it!

See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XlB4QSEMzdg.html

Dr Johnson recomends a full year

I'm not a fan of horse manure. Too many weed seeds and there's no point to fertilize in the winter unless you're doing crops in the greenhouse.

@@offgridcurtisstone Thanks, I never thought of the seeds I was more worried about medications given to the horses etc. Anyways, I wanted to throw some soil amendments in prior to tarping like Jean Martin Fortier does in one of his videos so I had less work to do in the spring. We are using heated greenhouses and still delivering but the window is definitely closing. Thanks for taking the time.

Gabriel Despres apparently if you use 2 carbons to 1 nitrogen it doesn’t loose that much but I have not tried it myself

Blonding worms will leave when there is no food for them

Scotty Konovalov approx 6-9 months depends on climate and mix of what goes in some things take longer to brew

after the initial composting cools down to around 80 degrees.

I should should also mention that a ton of flies enter from the top too. I leave it wide open. I can easily add 10 inches of material and within a few days max it will be down to its original layer. I have also removed the bottom of the can and place them next to fruit trees. I believe the water from the must heads washes down the good stuff and the trees are absorbing it. I cant come up with angry other idea as to how it disappears so fast

So this systems main goal is not the compost per say but enockulation of specific microbiology and fugal hyphae

If you want easy compost go dig it up next to a windrow like a fence line that catches leaves

Or just plant there even easier

Swells are another good place to find natural composting

The farm is in Kelowna BC

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