Composting!!

Hey guys, I just recently started a venture of composting for medium instead of buying that nutrient rich miracle grow or fox farms soil. I had a thought that if i were to make my own compost/medium i would have nutrient rich medium without all the chemicals....ALL ORGANIC

i started my compost bin by going to the dump and getting some pallets and a few disgaurde bails of hay.

they say for a perfect compost you need a 30:1 ratio of carbon based material and nitrogen based material.

let me explain the difference (to the best of my knowledge)

a nitrogen rich item is pretty much anything green, still alive. grass clippings are the most common but you can use baisicly anything that is GREEN (organic matter)

a carbon rich substance is dead, like fall leaves on the lawn (most desireable) but DEAD sticks and pine needles also can work as long as its DEAD.

the idea is to layer you compost bin, no matter how big or small, you need to set up layers that consist of more carbon based matter than nitrogen base. this ensures good decomposition. think of it logicaly if you put a ton of lawn clippings (grass) in a bin, what will you end up with? SLUDGE its digusting. so you want a good ratiop of dead matter to live matter but the live matter is important as it provides microorginisms that help in the decomposition process.


you can add any food matter to the bin. it is not suggested to add stinky shit (meat, bones, dairy) as local animals will be attracted to it.

bananna peels, apple cores, coffee groud (the best shit) VEGATARIAN ANIMAL MANURE.

you can go as small or as large as you want with the compost bin, if you have alot of space you can make one out of pallets as i did, if you have limited space make it out of a rubbermaid container, everyone has the potential to make thier own medium. wich i bet is far better than any store bought shit you will find.


anyways im pretty buzzed up sorry for the terrible spelling, just want to put this idea out there for people and by all means do more research before you start but dont let your small place or lack of motivation get in the way as composting can be so easy and the benifits are well worth it!!

oh by the way, i am no expert on composting, i have just been reading about it and learning myself so ALL posotive info anyone has on the subject would be great!!

through some nitrogen in there to get things rolling good and turn it frequently... Maybe once a week or so. If it gets warm and if you find worms in it you are doing good. Avoid animal scraps and keep it close so small animals cant get in... It will take a while but the goodies you will get from it are worth it.....

Hay is slow to compost. Do you have a source for horse poo? Excellent "green" additive, and it sure does light up a compost pile. cn

I been thinkin about this allot myself. So you are making a "box? out of the pallets right? That's been what I been thinking.
My idea was to use this to recycle my soil and add to it as I go. I have ample access to maple leaves and grass hay which I would layer into the box between soil dumps. I would then inoculate it with beneficial mycrozia and buffer it for ph from time to time.

I don't like putting out 100's of $ for soil every couple months and it seems like a waste to just dump it out and let it become a litter box for the critters.

Is there a composting/recycling thread on here?

Composting "flesh" and bone should not be done in a compost bin not only for critters but for the fact that carnivorous bacteria are usually pathogenic as well as the threat of parasitic organisms.
That stuff needs buried for a couple years till it don't stink no more. In general only fungi feed on decaying flesh.
plants eat what the fungi leave behind. So it takes a while for flesh to return to the dust.

Composting is definitely where it's at though, just look at the amazon jungle's, that's some good shit.

XRagnorX said:

I been thinkin about this allot myself. So you are making a "box? out of the pallets right? That's been what I been thinking.
My idea was to use this to recycle my soil and add to it as I go. I have ample access to maple leaves and grass hay which I would layer into the box between soil dumps. I would then inoculate it with beneficial mycrozia and buffer it for ph from time to time.

I don't like putting out 100's of $ for soil every couple months and it seems like a waste to just dump it out and let it become a litter box for the critters.

Is there a composting/recycling thread on here?

Composting "flesh" and bone should not be done in a compost bin not only for critters but for the fact that carnivorous bacteria are usually pathogenic as well as the threat of parasitic organisms.
That stuff needs buried for a couple years till it don't stink no more. In general only fungi feed on decaying flesh.
plants eat what the fungi leave behind. So it takes a while for flesh to return to the dust.

Composting is definitely where it's at though, just look at the amazon jungle's, that's some good shit.

Click to expand...

Imo animal remains are just fine so long as the meat/compost ratio is low enough. I had a large (approx. 2 cubic yards) pile that happily absorbed over 60 pounds of dead fish at one go. The earthworms went happy nutso. cn

XRagnorX said:

I been thinkin about this allot myself. So you are making a "box? out of the pallets right? That's been what I been thinking.
My idea was to use this to recycle my soil and add to it as I go. I have ample access to maple leaves and grass hay which I would layer into the box between soil dumps. I would then inoculate it with beneficial mycrozia and buffer it for ph from time to time.

I don't like putting out 100's of $ for soil every couple months and it seems like a waste to just dump it out and let it become a litter box for the critters.

Is there a composting/recycling thread on here?

Composting "flesh" and bone should not be done in a compost bin not only for critters but for the fact that carnivorous bacteria are usually pathogenic as well as the threat of parasitic organisms.
That stuff needs buried for a couple years till it don't stink no more. In general only fungi feed on decaying flesh.
plants eat what the fungi leave behind. So it takes a while for flesh to return to the dust.

Composting is definitely where it's at though, just look at the amazon jungle's, that's some good shit.

Click to expand...

It just has to be done the right way, it's actually faster than regular composting.~~~> https://www.rollitup.org/organics/375646-meat-mix.html

The issue with meats, at least one of them, is it attracts animals into your pile.

Look into bokashi composting, problem solved. Also they say it helps break things down into fully composted soil even faster.

cannabineer said:

Hay is slow to compost. Do you have a source for horse poo? Excellent "green" additive, and it sure does light up a compost pile. cn

Click to expand...

im sure i could find soem horse or cow shit somewhere maybe that will be my adventure today, theres a small farm up the road

i think the only "meat" i would use would be fish. but not sure if im going to bother with meat for now as im a beginer and i just want to be sucessfull.

so here is my compost bin, like i said before i got the pallets form the dump, they arent prisine but they work. i did have to rip down a piece of 12/ inch OSB plywood for the gaps in the plywood. took me about 45 min to build once i got the materials home

Chicken manure is really strong and great for a compost pile if you can get a hold of any, egg shells also help balance the ph.

i have a container on my kitchen counter for coffe grounds and eggshells, bananna peels apple cores. baisicly anything that is fiberous material

quick update on my compost. went to local boat launch and raked some leaves for a bit, now i have about 4 layers of "brown" matter and 4 layers of "green" material. all the "Brown" material is dead leaves while the "green" consists of a couple of 1/2 decayed pumpkins from halloween some coffe grounds, banannas that went bad apple cores and rabbit manure. i still have about 2-3 layers of leaves to add wich i have already gathered. sent my friend a e mail that owns a few horses and cows about some manure, hopefully she gets back to me and i can go get a nice full barrel of manure to add to the heap.

i still need to water the pile but its about 20F out right now and dont want my pile to freeze so im going to wait till wednesday morning when its supposed to get into the high 30's hopefully by then i have all my layers done and i can just add the water and hope it starts heating up.

anyone have any suiggestions on how to get this pile to get avtive quick i would love to hear them

im thinking if the frost leaves the ground sometime today i will bust out the lawnmower wich has a bagger and collect some nice fresh grass clippings.

Your friend with the horses should have manure for you. Most barns give it away. At least every barn I've ever ridden at did.

"It's ok to eat fish, because they don't have any feelings......." -Kurt Cobain.
Now I would disagree with that statement. I have poled (pun intended) a fair number of steelhead returning to the local river and they say getting a #2 gamakatsu sunk into they're esophagus hurts and they don't like it a damn bit.

Meso-American cultures added small fish to they're corn plots on a yearly basis. School taught that they did this as a gift to the "Gods" for a bountiful harvest. It also taught that they just happened to toss some fish in the ground and saw that the corn got bigger.... Now it just so happens that fish fertilizer is nearly perfect for corn after it ages for a year (composting) If you want the real truth on that read the "Book of Enoch". They may have forgotten, but they where taught to do that.

Hmm what the hell does all this nonsense have to do with this post?

I'm getting to that.

Fish break down much more quickly than flesh and bone animals. I would also expect that the nutrients combined to make a fish are considerably different than those comprising a rotting horse.

Fish especially, salmonoids are comprised of 90% lean white muscle covered in a layer of nutrient rich oils. Fish break down in the environment in a matter of a couple months. Try throwing a 1000 dead horses in the river and see where that gets you next summer.

Point is fish are quick to dissolve into nutrient solution, mammals not so much.

Yep , there's a valid point to all my crazy Bulzhitalkin.

well i put a dead fish in one of my 5 gal pots i grew in this summer and it didnt hurt, not sure how much it helped but it definatly didnt hurt anything

i found that a cheap bag of corn meal and some molasses helps jump start the comp. process
here is the latest addition to my yard , two bins so i can turn it and add from the yard or more
of leaf and lawn clippings i have saved up

the worm ranch. i compost in piles and a couple of trash cans with holes in them, and then feed the red wrigglers the compost. i get free compostables on Craigslist. i just found a guy for chicken shit.....$20 a loader scoop. i'm so excited....lol. a compost nerd.....wtf?