Alternative Compost Ingredients

Miss Garney, I love your use of light and shadow, the concentric circles contrasted by the vertical lines. Genius!
Dave

The proximate radial symetry is spectacular, it conveys a sensibility of self-sufficiency and rebellion, as well as a heir of playfulness.

3.2 thousand (cents.)

What are your (anyone's) experiences with the coffe filters in composting? Do they break down like leaf matter for you, or end up getting blown, intact, by the wind around the yard?

I feel like I'm in a state of self-delusion when it comes to the coffee filters. I mean, I just can't believe that they won't break down in my compost. However, I see them in there, intact, all the time. Is it just that I put so many in there that, at any one time, there's bound to be one that hasn't beent there long enough? OR, are they really NOT breaking down? I just don't know.

Let's do the math: I put in probably 4 or 5 a week...so if they're NOT breaking down, I should see, 3 months after a pile is started, about 50 filters! I just see a few as the pile is turned. So I guess they are breaking down...maybe.

I simply won't shred them. It's messy enough when they're full of soggy coffee grounds. If a wet little piece of paper full of coffee grounds won't compost, well then so be it. I'll have a little paper in the garden. I do buy the "earth friendly" kind.

When I have time I just rip them up...

Not that this has to do with composting, but we recently got a couple of free java logs for our fire pit. They are made from used coffee grinds and burn beautifully. What a clever way to recycle!

Edit: Typo corrected.

This message was edited Jun 19, 2006 2:12 PM

I agree with Miss Garney. They take forever to biodegrade and always fly around my yard.

I really feel as tho Dave & james just haven't composted quite enough beer, they are starting to see things in the coffee grounds!! I have been in the process of gathering up materials to do some serious composting, I am going to try the 14 day thing. still looking for some cheap way to shred stuff up, I have plenty of grass clippings from a friend who does lawns for a living, sawdust from my wood shop, and horse manaur for the hauling. Any coments on the 14 day thing?

Or have we have recycled too much beer?

I prefer the 2 week plan over the 14 day plan

Is seeing things in the coffee grounds like reading tea leaves? ;)

I think my compost/worm love may have pushed me over the edge. While shredding the remnants of a multi-year leaf pile I stopped, ran to the house, and enlisted my wife's help in catching and moving all the huge worms from the old pile, into the garden. Hey....why are those guys in white suites here............heeeellllllllllllppppppppppppppppp

Count yourself very lucky that your DW was willing to help you move big juicy worms...DH would have just given me The Look and gone back to his baseball game!

BTW I do the same thing...I've even been known to rescue worms from sidewalks and toss them back on the grass (where they probably drown anyway, but at least some kid won't squash them).

pam

OMG Pam! I do the same thing. I thought I was nuts. My love for worms has led to my nickname. Plus I have a worm farm now, so I am really wormboy! I love the little suckers. My current theory is that I was a worm in a past life. Thats why I love the soil, and don't like bright lights or loud sounds! I know, I'm nutso.

Yeah, I've been called Worm Girl before...didn't help matters that my Phud was on worms, either...ah well... :)

pam

Are you two a match made in heaven or what?!

Tee hee.... :)

Speaking of matches made in heaven, or whatever, the other day I saw two worms mating in the garden. I'd never seen that before and it was so cool I took a picture. I told the guys at work (they're all biologists) and they just looked at me and suddenly remembered they had to be somewhere else immediately. *sigh*

I'd post it but I'm not sure if it would violate the PG rating of DG. :)

pam

You took pictures?? Videos??

Well Dave, I'd like to say that I took a video and added a nice swanky 70s style soundtrack (BOOM chicka BOOM chicka BOOM), but actually I just took a digital photo. I did come back later to see if they were hanging out smoking little tiny cigarettes, but no such luck. :)

pam

OH, we just have to see that picture. Cough it up Pam!

OK, Worm Aficianados and otherwise, here it is...worm pornography...

You weren't kidding! There should have been some sort of disclaimer before that post. Please have all children leave the room...

Unbelievable! I am speachless (almost).

They are shameless unless it was dark outside then your a pervert.

ROTFLOL.

We were going to the dr a couple weeks ago and 2 starling were.....well...you know. Right on the curb. We don't need more birds
but I do vote for more earthworms.

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^

I was chasing Earwigs one night when I grabbed... er... disturbed a pair of Worms like that. I resisted the urge to photograph it thinking "give them some privacy, you dip."
Ah, the conception of better soil.

Interesting fact, though, they will both walk (er, wriggle?) away from the experience pregnant. That would really change our culture were that true of humans....

(nice to see you about, Sandy. I'd have driven over teh Starlings and thier copulae..)

Kenton

Thanks my friend.

Heck Kenton I was practically cheering them on. Yeah, make more baby worms! :) Actually it's such a nice illustrative example of worm sex I think I'll use this picture in my zoology lecture this fall. :)

Unrepentantly geeky,
pam

I compost all my coffee filters and they all are gone in the 3 months that I cook the pile. If I had to separate them I would not use them. Too messy. I use the filters that are triangular. Hey have you ever seen a slug making itself more slugs. It hangs a mucusy spiral off a plant and slithers up and down it depositing eggs that are a mucusy ooze and then drops off. I didn't see the construction of the spiral ooze. But what a concept!

What a bummer for both to get pg,but thats natures ways.I have been missing on this thread for a while,but sorry to ignore qustions.First of all DW ,insted of rolling the pile "hid "the kitchen scrapes,and that brought the worms,oh did it ever!!,yes it was a big blessing being in the hospital,kenton,and the wood ashes is for their little gizzards to aid in their digestion,or break down.Today I filled my 4'x6' celendercal old dryer drum,(thats a comercial one),with the finest finished compost I have ever made.Gardeners gold,thanks,Mike

Sorry, phuggins, but hermaphroditic hanky-panky just isn't my thing.

Remember the movie, "Microcosmos"? There was the scene between two snails...the music was some soaring aria from Italian opera. I didn't like that either, except for the music.

Pam, you're the expert. How would one refer to the dual sexuality of a worm? I don't think hermaphroditic quite covers it.

No matter how it sounds,thats the term.All worms contain both sexes,and it still takes two to complete the firtilization of both worms,I could stand corrected,but I don't think it is actually considered "sexual"reproduction,can't explane,but both worms are both male& femail,and that opens a new can of worms..Mike

When I told my DH about the picture he said he thought they were asexual. Can you imagine having 9 hearts and never loving anyone but yourself? Of course I have met a few people who thought more of themselves than anyone else.

How many watermelons can a small compost pile hold? We have ate 7 of them so far. After the first 3 I quit cutting them up. We just cut them lenghtwise and use them as bowls. DH gets one and I get one. It takes us about2 days to eat. I have never had such sweet watermelons as these. That is why we can't get enough of them. We have one more in the fridge and tomorrow we will pick up 2 more. They are full of seeds. I should save some. I will probably have a ton of watermelons growing out of there.

We had alot of rain and I was trying to turn it and only seen 2 worms. I hope that means It is going well.

How many ashes from the fireplace can I put in it? I don't want to OD it,

Also some of the bags of pine needle I poured in there from the winter had quite a few pieces of roof shingles and pieces of the black paper under the shingles. It won't hurt as long as I take it out before I use it will it? Or would it even hurt to leave it in?

Well I think that is all my questions for now.

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^

Yep, Folks. It is "sexual reproduction" and yep, a worm has both "sexes" (reproductive organs). And yes, they both do get 'pregnant', at least in a sense. (The offspring are eventually deposited but are considered cocoons and dwell outside the bodies of the parents, usually with at least two wormettes in the cocoon.)

Mike, I know they contain male & female organs. I just thought hermaphrodite was more about ambiguous sex than both sex. Turns out it is used to describe both.
You, and Miss Garney, are correct. This has got to be one of the stranger conversations that I've been a part of! But I have clarified my vocabulary! ;)

Sandy, I think the watermelons could keep coming. Not too much ash though. If the rest of your compost is acidic, if your garden soil is more acidic, you can put a little more but I shocked my extension service when I sent a soil sample from my garden that I add ash to. My very acidic soil was alkaline and that just doesn't happen around here. Someone who knows more than I, can explain how much a small amount is. I just know its a lot less than what my wood stove produced.

Dave

http://www.backyardnature.net/earthwrm.htm at the bottom tells how they reproduce. when it comes to reproduction It really is a whole new can of worms.

And they have 5 hearts not 9 and if they lose their brain nothing changes, of course I could the same about myself on any given day.

Really the whole article is facinating.

My soil I tested in one area last year was a 7. isn't that about where it should be?

And thanks I thought someone said not much so I want a good really great compost pile.

I read once that a worm in a "desperate" situation, (populationwise) that is, it is the only one around; can fertilize itself to reproduce. Same with a certain specis of sex-changeable skink (Lizard) that can store sperm from its male days until it uses it in its female days. Amazing and marvellous stuff.

Not much ash? Eh, no more than 5% of your pile, I think. That is just a complete guess on the conservative side. In my soil, I can't afford to apply it more than once. 7 is good; a most accomodating pH.

I usually use ash as a barrier for weeds by piling it on thick and letting it concrete over into a general plant no-man's land...
K

Wow!!,have I had a complete thaught change about the ever working earth worm !! I am one that believes that a wise man changes his mind ,and a fool nevers admits his mistakes.Thanks every one for the info, that was most informitive.I have learned all I know through experiance,its the best teacher you can have,it gives you the test first,then the lesson,and speaking of...I found out that instead of rolling the compost to generate heat,the worms break it down faster,and certinly better.I am so set in my ways that I had to have a hospital stay to learn this,now I'm a worm lover.While I was out,my DW hid the kitchen scrapes in the compost instead of manually taking the fork and turning the pile,this resulted in the worms comming,and doing a much better job of making much better finished compost,and more also.My plants show a differance,and the quanity shows a big differance.I also learned that things like onions and garlic is a no no for the worms,they isolate the rejectiable things with a sort of cacoone around the unwanted stuff,so no Oor G or limmon for the worms.Sorry for rambling,Mike

Can one buy the nightcrawlers aka earthworms and add them to your compost pile or is that a no no? Do you think they are territorial?

Sounds like blonde questions but I am asking anyway.

Night crawelers won't live in a compost situation,because the go deep in the earth and come out at night to surface feed,the red wigglers work compost the best,and I don't even have the hybrid,(eisenia fotedia) either,just local wigglers,that found food,and a warm place to live,I might add,winter too. Mike

Sandy, They sell red wigglers. Try organic gardening sites.