Building a compost pile!

[greasemonkeymann]

It is a slow start on the shingles so far, but it will get done.

I had to do the bottom floor @ true 8' studs so that the PowerRack would fit. Between that and the floor studs, there was a 12'' gap between the levels. Next is the rabbit cage!

damn dude...
I wanna move in with you..
I lift weights outside under a tarp, got a preacher setup and an olympic bench, and I gotta sandblast and repaint my shit every two yrs or so to keep em from rusting

 

[Don Geno]

I just got a garbage bin i wanna do something similiar could i add like two bags of soil add a bunch of additives throw worms in there poke holes in the trash so they can breath and start throwing in fruit cores peels and eggshells ? Will this work or can someone send me to the right direction?

 

[MustangStudFarm]

damn dude...
I wanna move in with you..
I lift weights outside under a tarp, got a preacher setup and an olympic bench, and I gotta sandblast and repaint my shit every two yrs or so to keep em from rusting

If we were not 1,500 miles apart, we might be friends lol! I need a spotter, I am trying to get back to 350lb bench, but I dont have the means to get there yet...Equipment

The PowerRack has a safety strap or spotter arms, I could not imagine doing heavy weight w/o a safety of some kind

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I just got a garbage bin i wanna do something similiar could i add like two bags of soil add a bunch of additives throw worms in there poke holes in the trash so they can breath and start throwing in fruit cores peels and eggshells ? Will this work or can someone send me to the right direction?

I heard that composted leaves are a better bedding than coco coir, cheaper too... Bedding is important, that is how I messed up my first couple of times. Cant use dirt only! That is exactly what I did wrong, so dont feel bad!

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Compost takes a while. Coco bricks are only $15, cheaper than soil, and it is what most people use that dont compost.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I just got a garbage bin i wanna do something similiar could i add like two bags of soil add a bunch of additives throw worms in there poke holes in the trash so they can breath and start throwing in fruit cores peels and eggshells ? Will this work or can someone send me to the right direction?

I know that there are better people to ask, but I can usually get the basics right. I notice that most people in the organic section are on during the day, probably working lol.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

they are at home depot or lowes at $5 a bag
or goto a home brewery and pic up some rice hulls....
better imo... no sharp edges like lava.
but i use both. but mainly rice

Can you use rice hulls in a recycled soil? I planned on recycling mine. There are more feed stores in my area than supermarkets!

 

[Beemo]

Can you use rice hulls in a recycled soil? I planned on recycling mine. There are more feed stores in my area than supermarkets!

yes, and they hold microbes....

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Here is an update on my compost pile. I started by gathering everything, except amendments, and I started running it through the chipper. I had trouble with my chipper the last couple of days because it had ice frozen in the bottom and the blades were stuck, couldnt pull the string at all. This mix is coming out looking like dirt, and it constantly clogs the chute. I think that I have it figured out now and it might really be worth running this through the chipper. Also, the feed store had alfalfa hay finally. They are usually sold out! So, I bought 2 bales.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

you guys are too kind, i'm just a hippy pot-grower
like to keep it as simple as I can, and i'll be damned if, for once, the simplest actually is the best way also.
Or at least for my preferences
compost piles create the most insane results..
I'm going to replace my digi camera and get some pics for you guys

Any idea of how long this should take to compost? It seems to get frozen every night

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I have AACT ready right now, should I use some? I have a small bottle of compost activator, would that be different than brewing with EWC? I used EWC this time for the brew.
I have a few containers of baby oatmeal and it is almost powder. I started putting it in my worm bin, then I heard that oatmeal is used to substitute molasses.

 

[greasemonkeymann]

Any idea of how long this should take to compost? It seems to get frozen every night

After the thermophilic portion of the composting it probably will freeze each night depending on the temps.
You could always kick up the heat by racking up about a third of the compost, add fresh alfalfa meal, then recover with the remaining compost, and tarp it.
It'll steam within a day or so.
Or you could use grass clippings, almost anything high in nitrogen will work, but "greens" tend to do it faster
Nothing wrong with a "cold" compost though man. Just takes longer.
Make sure it's tightly tarped too

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I have AACT ready right now, should I use some? I have a small bottle of compost activator, would that be different than brewing with EWC? I used EWC this time for the brew.
I have a few containers of baby oatmeal and it is almost powder. I started putting it in my worm bin, then I heard that oatmeal is used to substitute molasses.

you could, but that's not going to probably make it for long, gotta remember those microbes you are making will probably die or at the very least be minimized when it gets cold, but your pile is going to be crawling with "cold-weather" microbes anyways, it's not gonna be sterile, but I would guess that it wouldn't help much, but it's just an educated guess.
That baby oatmeal could be used mixed with the alfalfa and you'd get all sorts of stuff going on with that, i'd layer that in there and see what happens..

 

[MustangStudFarm]

you could, but that's not going to probably make it for long, gotta remember those microbes you are making will probably die or at the very least be minimized when it gets cold, but your pile is going to be crawling with "cold-weather" microbes anyways, it's not gonna be sterile, but I would guess that it wouldn't help much, but it's just an educated guess.
That baby oatmeal could be used mixed with the alfalfa and you'd get all sorts of stuff going on with that, i'd layer that in there and see what happens..

I looks like a 12yr old built my fence! I am not sure about how big this is going to turn out, so I have not added any dry amendments yet, I will have to mail order anything good. I dont know if I am messing up, but I really wanted to see if I could get this turned into a mountain!!! I imagine that it is time to start adding to it now and mixing it. It does not look like I have added much to it today, but the chipper really breaks it down!

I am going to have to stop by your compost page again and see how you did it!!!

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I looks like a 12yr old built my fence! I am not sure about how big this is going to turn out, so I have not added any dry amendments yet, I will have to mail order anything good. I dont know if I am messing up, but I really wanted to see if I could get this turned into a mountain!!! I imagine that it is time to start adding to it now and mixing it. It does not look like I have added much to it today, but the chipper really breaks it down!View attachment 3585895 View attachment 3585906

I am going to have to stop by your compost page again and see how you did it!!!

if you haven't added amendments it's just "cold" composting..
and make that sucker into a mountain... it shrinks like a mofo man.
And ya wanna tarp it too.
but layering it will accelerate it a lot

 

[MustangStudFarm]

if you haven't added amendments it's just "cold" composting..
and make that sucker into a mountain... it shrinks like a mofo man.
And ya wanna tarp it too.
but layering it will accelerate it a lot

I got everything from your list except: Alfalfa meal, Oyster flour, shrimp meal, and comfrey. There were a couple of things different, like the fish meal/fish bone meal was together and was called fish powder? That is what they told me anyways. For aeration, I found expanded shale. It was that or perlite.
Last year, this store didnt have the stuff to make TGA's SuperSoil but now they have a decent selection. I grabbed a small bag of basalt, I thought it was on your list but wasnt. I am getting excited about this now! It was a nightmare trying to shop on Ebay for all of this stuff, because it usually has a hefty shipping charge!

 

[greasemonkeymann]

I got everything from your list except: Alfalfa meal, Oyster flour, shrimp meal, and comfrey. There were a couple of things different, like the fish meal/fish bone meal was together and was called fish powder? That is what they told me anyways. For aeration, I found expanded shale. It was that or perlite.
Last year, this store didnt have the stuff to make TGA's SuperSoil but now they have a decent selection. I grabbed a small bag of basalt, I thought it was on your list but wasnt. I am getting excited about this now! It was a nightmare trying to shop on Ebay for all of this stuff, because it usually has a hefty shipping charge!

basalt is good shit man, you can go without a lot of the things I use
Not crucial
the comfrey you can get alive shipped from a couple places, if you wanted to grow it, maybe not this time of yr, but who knows, comfrey is resilient

 

[greasemonkeymann]

If we were not 1,500 miles apart, we might be friends lol! I need a spotter, I am trying to get back to 350lb bench, but I dont have the means to get there yet...Equipment

The PowerRack has a safety strap or spotter arms, I could not imagine doing heavy weight w/o a safety of some kind

we're friends anyways man, juuuust far away.
Theres a handful of "fox-hole" guys that I know of on this site, and you are one of them.
You know what a "fox-hole" guy is, right?
A dude you'd happily have in your fox-hole with ya if the shit hit the fan

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I like the idea of growing comfrey. I could start it indoors and transplant when the the weather allows... I ordered the last couple of things on Ebay, oyster flour and crustacean meal. It was difficult finding 10lb bags of shrimp meal, but 25lb crustacean was easy to find.

basalt is good shit man, you can go without a lot of the things I use
Not crucial
the comfrey you can get alive shipped from a couple places, if you wanted to grow it, maybe not this time of yr, but who knows, comfrey is resilient

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I have been saving the bio-char from my fireplace ashes, I have a nice bunch collected. It is probably enough to start doing something with them. You were talking about making a tea from my rabbit bedding for a N source, I am sure that it would work to charge this also. From what I can tell, if you have enough compost, you would rather have this charged with N rather than microbes???