Is a Composter Starter Kit really necessary?

I'm going to take the big step of getting a barrel composter. I need to keep it small and neat because my yard is very small and everything is visible from my patio. Just glancing through gardening websites and catalogues, they all seem to market a Composter Starter kit of some sort to put into the composter bin to get things going. Are these really necessary? The barrels are already expensive enough already. Can't I just get things going by throwing in some good soil that already contains earthworms?

Nope, airborne and plant-borne microscopic beasties will do the trick just fine, long as you enable an aerobic (presence of oxygen) process and not let the stuff composting get too wet or compacted and start to decompose anaerobically. The barrel and its instructions should do that for you very well.

"The barrel and its instructions should do that for you very well"

Ditto. O-farm, what you'll be most interested in will be a proper mixing of greens and browns, the book will tell you that hopefully. (As for earthworms, they'd never live in a properly operating barrel composter.)

Also, don't fall for the "finished compost in 10 days" spiel. At best, IF you chop/grind/shred your ingredients you might get good results in a month or so, again depending on the ingredients.

Shoe

My problem with my compost bucket is that I fill it with brown,green, & compost, add water & it starts to smell. I know this is wrong. What does this mixture contain which kills my plants, some sort of poison gas?

I have a little cylinder of chicken wire in my yard, Its help up with some stakes and the compost gets plenty of air, it's kind of hard to turn but it definately gets the job done, its always full of big black beetles.

"My problem with my compost bucket is that I fill it with brown,green, & compost, add water & it starts to smell."

Behillman, you're creating an anaerobic situation with the water and that is a guaranteed situation for stinkiness. If you want to make a compost leach (the true term for what you are doing vs "tea") then use manure or finished compost only and add that to your garden/plants. You'd be best off using your greens/browns/etc in a compost bin, letting it age and break down.

As for the poison gas, no it won't make that. I think you'll have to be more specific with your ingredients for someone to help you along those lines. My first thought is your ingredients may be starting to cook and then you put them in your garden or something allowing them to cook your plants or the like. Can you elaborate more?

Shoe

There had been several thread about composting and your questions will be answered after you read the tread. i had been composting for 25+ years with great success. i hope you look and read the thread. Belle