composting help?

i would like to start making my own compost/soil but i am not sure what to use and what not to use as i have chucked a few scraps and skins(banana,orange,apples,potatoes) in some soil befor thinking it will decompose and the potatoe skins grew back to potatoes.

no meat or eggs, though you can use shells, nothing cooked, put all of your coffee grounds into it, coffee composted is awesome. turn it over every couple of weeks, you will have wonderful results

haha the potatoes...haa sounds good to me..

just kidding...

i just put together a list last night on this

COMPOST DO
garden debris
vegetable / fruit scraps
coffee grounds, coffee filters
tea bags
stale bread
paper towels
napkins
egg shells
wood ash

DONT:
animal products: fat meat bones, pet droppings
thorny, diseased / infested plants
charcoal ash



I just started collecting a compostable container full of compostable items. Between that and recycling, i dont really have any trash! I hear its good to piss on your compost too! I am going to compost my weed ashes too since it says wood ash OK.

I am doing it this way, on top of old wood pallets just to make shoveling easy and keep weeds from growing thru it, and cuz I already have the fence wire stuff.

[youtube]a-JqApyMaP4[/youtube]

i think you need to edit your post dtp

i think the first list is supposed to be composts do's

made a little "NT" typo. thanks lol was pretty obvious. fixed now tho

Also, I will be building my compost wire thing today

you can skin the potatoes ( potassium, aka bloom booster ), or cut them into little bits...but gotta make sure the pile gets active enough to kill the potato. put in two huge garbage cans of leaves in there and its only about half full..tons of compost soon

The trick is a proper ratio of brown and green materials.

1. A maximum of 35% of the carbon in fresh organic material will be converted into soil humus IF there is sufficient nitrogen present.
2. A minimum of 65% of the carbon in fresh organic material will be given off to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide due to microbial respiration. (Uh-oh! An argument could be made that composting contributes to greenhouse gases and warming of the Earth's atmosphere. However, consider this, nature is always decomposing everywhere; so, what you are doing in your little compost bin is a mere iota of carbon release compared to nature's vast compost bin in forests, rangeland, etc.)
3. The humus formed from the decomposition of fresh organic material will contain approximately 50% carbon and 5% nitrogen. In other words, the C:N ratio of the humus is 10:1.
4. Most fresh plant material contains 40% carbon. The C:N ratio varies because of differences in nitrogen content, not carbon content. (Note: Dry materials are generally in the range of 40 to 50 percent carbon, and sloppy, wet materials are generally 10 to 20 percent carbon. Therefore, the most important factor in estimating the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of plant or food waste is how much water is present).

I live in the desert with very little bio matter in my yard so i was running around trying to get the necessary materials. It became more hassle that it was worth so I go to the dirt store and buy it for next to nothing. No muss no fuss if you enjoy the work and have the materials from your yard more power to you.

It was not worth my time to do it when it is so cheap and I can pick and choose the mix I want.
http://www.acmesand.com/compost/

lol....

so i actually put my first pile together today in a wire circular cage. Two big garbage cans of leaves and stuff ( the kind that the truck takes ), some green material, and about a 3 quarts of food scraps ( a rotting orange, onions, carrots, eggshells, etc ), some paper bags n napkins, etc. and my container is only half full.

I think this is perfect! I actually don't have enough food scraps I think ( can get as much fresh green cuttings as possible).

It was so strange dumping food scraps and old veggies in a pile of leaves in my yard. But, after I covered it with leaves, the idea seemed to be panning out.

So, I think over time it becomes a knack to maintain the pile's humidity and size, fresh/dry waste ratio, and food scraps ratio.

Regarding the co2, it seems like the perfect way, just like burning propane or natural gas in a generator or heater, to warm a greenhouse......i wonder about pests....maybe just vent it..hmm i hope i dont get rats...it should be 140deg in the middle tho, and emitting co2 and methane

any progress munk?

"Regarding the co2, it seems like the perfect way, just like burning propane or natural gas in a generator or heater, to warm a greenhouse......i wonder about pests....maybe just vent it..hmm i hope i dont get rats...it should be 140deg in the middle tho, and emitting co2 and methane"

Yes it can heat a green house and it is safe if the pile is getting hot enough. If you capture the gas it can be used as a fuel soruce although you will need a big pile.

You have a better chance of something that uses the radiant heat like this compost heap
http://youtu.be/ILzxOH6n7-c

If you want to run an engine here is a suggestion. Biogas from wood or other bio matters. This method does not complelty burn the wood or biomatter it heats it to the point that releases hydrogen. The bio matter waste can be used as nitrogen to grow more biomass. They did this in Europe during WW2 and continue to do so in rural villages.

Here are a couple videos
http://youtu.be/zBsG32n_8oc

Here is a village ran by straw power of 200 kW
http://youtu.be/0P7zFw_xff0
It is not in english but you can see it is the towns power source.

We have the technology to be off oil and eco-freindly they just do not want it.
Just like MJ is the answer they choose to ignore.

Its an interesting proposition. I also would be concerned about the bugs, but I looking forward to hearing how it goes for YOU.

It took me a little extra effort to find this video of Will Allen he is know for his growing with aquaponics.
He shows in this video how he does exactly what your asking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozvrp_uTH98

He has achived 1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost.

I am doing aquaponics and it works. I just took some bag weed seeds and threw them in I am curious to see if it will work.

personified said:

It took me a little extra effort to find this video of Will Allen he is know for his growing with aquaponics.
He shows in this video how he does exactly what your asking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozvrp_uTH98

He has achived 1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost.

I am doing aquaponics and it works. I just took some bag weed seeds and threw them in I am curious to see if it will work.

Click to expand...

Thats great stuff. Fascinating real. I would love to see an operation like that.

How does the EWC work into the system? I would think that would be hell for the fish.

I love that video I think Ive seen it before. It is a true inspiration.

I wanna build a 3 tier bat house, directly over the compost heap

Here is a simple explination of aquaponics. There is no earth in it nor ewc all nutriens come from the process of turnuing nitrites into ntrates. http://youtu.be/FwMEulvJ2Ps

Here is Will Allen http://youtu.be/jV9CCxdkOng
1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost.