# How's this compost look?



## next (Aug 19, 2015)

Hey guys n gals,

I started this compost last winter in my basement in a large plastic garbage bin. It ate alot of potato's, cereals, pasta's, crackers, fruits n veggies.. I added a little bone meal to it as well. When it was warm enough I moved it outside, rolled it around on the lawn for a few weeks. Then I dumped it out on the ground, it was now spring time.. lots of grass, weeds and leaves around so I built the pile up and kept it nice and hot. Temps were 150+ for a good week or two. When the temp died down the pile was pretty dense, and I recently acquired a large round bale of wheat straw. I tore the pile apart, and layered it with wheat straw. That was 2 months ago.. I've turned the pile every week or two and this is the end result. Do you think its ready to use?

My great plan was to use bacteria to do all the work, then once they had finished their job I added the wheat straw. The pile remained barely warm from that point on hopefully allowing the fungi to dominate. 

If it's not quite ready to use on plants, how about adding it into the worm bin, maybe mix it with their food and let it pre-compost for a few days?

Whatcha people think? This is the first time i've made compost, i'm very proud, but nervous at the same time.

View attachment 20150818_215246.jpg


View attachment 20150818_215226.jpg


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## Droopy Dog (Aug 19, 2015)

No, it's not done. When you can't recognize anything that went in there, then it's done. To be realistic, figure about a year to complete. Longer if you keep adding stuff. I mainly do leaves which can take several years, bbut start a new pile every year rather than adding to an existing pile.

I would also NOT add that to the worm bin. Let them get established before you start experimenting, or better yet keep one of the totes going as like a "mother" bin. Saves money and time for when a bin gets wiped out from a *good idea*.

What I would suggest is adding some worms to the compost pile and let them work it there.

You are really going to have to work on your mind set for time in organics. Like thinking in terms of months or even years, not days or weeks. This is, by far, the hardest thing to wrap your head around. Took me about 3 years to "sorta" get into the long term rythym of how it works.

Wet


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## next (Aug 19, 2015)

Gotcha, i think it woulda been done had I not added the large volume of wheat straw. Then there wasn't enough greens to heat it back up so it has been a slow process breaking that straw down.

I thought it would be perfect to add to the worm bin -.-

Picture was about a month ago
View attachment 20150729_104827.jpg

The closest side is all the bedding from the chicken coop. My wife was changing it out very frequently so once again there was alot of carbon added to the pile. I got things straightened out by adding a whole bunch of the "not quite finished compost" thats the stuff on the far side of the bin, into the chicken coop. Now the chicken coop isn't dusty, doesn't stink, and doesn't have to be cleaned.  Deep litter compost is what they call it, and the best part is the chickens do all the mixing for me. Now the chicken coop "is" a compost bin. By doing that I reduced the large amount of carbon going into the bin, and things heated up nicely. It's amazing watching compost happen. My 3yrd old is very involved and he helps me out all the time. As do the 3 dogs.. they were sleeping in there!! krazie pooches


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## Droopy Dog (Aug 19, 2015)

Add some worms to the compost and see how they do. IF, in a couple of months, they are still alive and have multiplied .......

Wet


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## next (Aug 19, 2015)

I must confess before the worms got here I took a tote, filled it with shredded newspaper / cardboard sprinkled it with the unfinished compost added a little veggie scraps mostly tomato's and juices. It sat for about 3 days and when I opened it up she was full scale alive. It didn't stink but there was white fungi everywhere, the corrugated cardboard had separated, it looked like it was already beginning to break down.

What i'm saying is the deed has already been done because I used this stuff on the first bedding / food scraps the worms seen.:bongin:

I don't know if the worms would last very long outside, its already getting down to 50' at night, "winter is coming" as they say. It's not unusual for it to get -40 here. Some of us still live in igloo's eh.. :grinch:

I have to distribute my veggie scraps 3 ways now, the chickens, the compost, and the worms. I was interested to see if the compost pile would stay active during the winter but I don't think it will get too much attention when there is 4 feet of snow, much easier to feed it to the worms in the basement.


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