Ahhh another grown man enjoying composting as much as I do 😆. Nice work dude! I just made some mini bins just like yours w/black perforated drainage tubes down the middle. I foraged a bunch of fairly broken down wood chips and filled them with those. One bin is woodchip + Alaska Fish Fert/water. Second is woodchip + coffee grounds/water and the last is woodchip + jms/water (jadam microbial solution).
Great! Sounds epic! I'm keen on trying out the JADAM recipes! Just got the book. Are you a believer? Oh yeah! I enjoy composting and I'm just getting started with soil amendments. Hooked for sure. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I recently wound up with what I can only describe as a reverse compost heap. I spent a weekend cleaning out the garden of all of last year's growth. The following weekend I built up a heap along with the contents of my kitchen straps tumbler and some leaves. Problem was, it was actually below freezing out at the time. The weather warmed up significantly over the next two weeks, but I was reminded that soil is in fact a terrific insulator. My thermometer reported the core of the heap was consistently 30°F *colder* than the surrounding air. It finally thawed enough to start heating up on its own, and is up to 110 now. 😂
I use main wet grass but work on volume. My reduction down to a quarter then use, also leave coarse material in for microbial action. If you don't turn you get major mushroom development. Enoki is my favourite
I have two 8-foot x 8-foot bins made of wood. I pile my waste materials in the first bin, in layers. I use fine wood chips to mix with any "green" materials. If I have food scraps, I dig a hole in the center of the pile, mix the food with wood chips, and it cooks nicely. After a month or two, I cover that pile and start a new one in the other bin. After another month, the first pile is ready to be screened and used in the garden or orchard, freeing up the first bin for a new pile. This system works without the bins in free piles, but it's less tidy.
Sounds like you have it going on! Great system. So after a few months you take the cover off and it´s composted all the way through? Does it get cold during the winter months where you are? Thanks for watching and commenting K.
@@BriansGreenGarden It takes a few months to fill up the bin and then I leave it covered for a few more months to let it finish and cure (the worms help with that). It's totally finished at that point, with screening required for chunks. Piles will heat up to 140 F at times, but mostly they are warm or cool piles. I'm at 45 degrees N, so we have a 4-month winter. I can usually only fill one bin during the winter.
@kelliott7864 140F! I think that's the sweet spot. You could probably turn it once it cooled down a little and bring it back up to temperature if you wanted a work out and potential neck and or back injuries. Have you ever tried a static aerated pile? I'm thinking of trying it out. Looks good. Much less work. Accompanying video, of course. I guess a big part of gardening is using your time wisely and compost can take up a lot of your time if you let it. Slow and steady wins the race.
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching! It was a great time making it! A bit of work but we'll worth it especially if you are in a hurry. Just made a static pile with some friends. Great when you have a bunch of friends available and enough material. Garden on!
Really good! Thanks for that superb infos! I also use primary rock dust, some earth from an old flower or vegetable bed, got some chicken shyt from friends mixed in with the straw they use for the chickens, and added some breathable but not too breathable covers to have the process going closer to the edge of the pile... Keep doin what your doin! Save the planet, grow your own
For fast compost turn the pile often, about once a week, chop up the raw ingredients ( I run a lawn mower over them a few times) and get the right amount of water in it.
@@BriansGreenGarden My pile is about 1 cubic meter. I've posted a time lapse video of me flipping it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XZF4ukp9B7A.htmlsi=cZ6OVK0XQetnbmy5 By turning it about every week or two and chopping up the raw materials I've got it taking about 6 weeks to finish the job. I'll take the bottom half out for use and then keep the top half running as part of the next batch, so it's really about 12 weeks. We have cold winters, so the pile stops about the end of October and will start up again some time in April (it's frozen solid right now). I also get some mushroom compost from a local mushroom grower which I add to accelerate the pile.
Flipping compost is good for the soul. I think your approach is fantastic. If it’s not getting hot do something to make it hotter flip it again set it on fire.
Awesome compost video I think inoculating charcoal with compost is an excellent idea. Interested in seeing your garden produce with your living super soil
Thanks Dan. I think it was the "inoculated" biochar that was in the worm bin thatput the temperature over the top. I'm looking forward to the veggies too! Stay tuned. Thanks for watching and commenting.
You could give that a try. The idea behind the wire is to increase oxygen though. Experimenting is always a good idea. Thanks for watching and commenting D.I.Y.G.
If you had access to any wood chip mulch, that probably would have kept it from getting so hot. Probably a little high in nitrogen. I moved away from hot composting and towards chop and drop. And chicken compost.
@@BriansGreenGardenI tossed all food scraps and a lot of yard waste in the chicken coop. They brake it down and turn it scratching threw it. Great material for the garden. I mostly have perennial fruit trees and shrubs and chop and drop mulching seems the best for that
If it heats up like that again, water it down good first and watch it for a couple days. If it's still too hot then turn. This little trick will save your back. I've had this problem a few times in the past. 😉
Are those white things not anaerobe bacterias? They are always kind of like a very fine mold/network. And they do form very fast as well. I don't see it clear/near enough here though. Maybe I am wrong. I don't want to say sth. which is untrue. But great work bro 👍🏻
Hey there. Not entirely sure to be honest. Could it be Actinomycetota? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinomycetota It apperared right in the centre of the pile beside the aeration tube so I´d be surprised if they were anaerobic. Check out what this page says about white mold. www.treehugger.com/mold-in-compost-5194701. Thanks for the view and the great question.
Great job! I'm wondering how different it would be if you just made pile with no pallet or wire cylinder? I'm guessing more mess, slower conversion, not as hot, but how much less work and how much easier on the back?
Yeah, good question. The ideas is more access to oxygen throughout the entire pile..bottom included. What was your experience? Thanks for watching and commenting. 🙂🌱
@@BriansGreenGarden yeah that work- great if you want a process that takes years to complete. 😅 I sift my finished compost and kick back the woodchips that remain (like 90%...) to the next compost stack. Dont really know how many years it takes to break down the chips, but it sure is not a quick process 😀 Leaves is a better source for carbon, that is a bit easier to break down.
@@BriansGreenGarden make a bigger pile, just flip one or two times, keep wet and put a tarp over it....just wait 6 months or so, better a year...less work better product
