I was blessed to have friends give me one compost tumbler. My husband picked up another for $20 and fixed the hole in it. However, I never got the original manuals with either tumbler.
So, what are you all doing with your tumblers? How long is it taking you to turn out good compost?
I throw in kitchen scraps (no meat), leaves, old potting soil, leaves, grass and weeds. One of my questions is how long does it take it to heat up and kill seeds?
I almost missed this thread,I have the compost tumbler,but also have 6 worm beds,that make "black gold".Of coarse I was asked why buy a tumbler,with all those worm bins,and I had intention of making top dressing,for the beds,but I am as happy as I can be with the tumbler.I will take leaves from the leaf mold,(I gather all the leaves I can),and run them through the mulcher,and cut the lawn,using the bagger,and fill the tumbler over half full with both.I buy a bag of "black cow" from w-mart,and add that to the mix,and turn.With the composter in the sun,as long as posible,give it 3 turns every day,you will need to turn the new batch about 5 turnes,to get it all mixed up.You will find that this is as good as it gets. Mike Oh,depending on how hot the weather gets,it can be done in 2 weeks in Ga.
Wow, thanks for the good info. I will look for 'Black Cow' at our local Wal*Mart. Do you know if having the stuff in the tumbler destroys the seeds? The picture below is of some of the compost I've produced.
I'm starting to experiment with different manures and mushroom compost.
How did you get into worms? I was looking at a worm condo for about $149. It was black plastic I think. It had several trays, but I have a hard time thinking about spending that kind of money for
a place for worms to live. Hubby is very handy and I'm sure he could build something for them to live in with all the tools he has at his disposal.
We have five acres and I have often thought I might make a good worm rancher.
Do you just do your worms for your own gardening or do you sell worms too.
Thanks,
Deborah
Good compost. The time to make it is dependent on the temps in your area. You also have the problem of not having the bacteria precursers in your tumbler. I would grab a quart of soil (or old compost on the ground) and add it to every new mix you have. Then you would have the goodies to speed it up.
To answer your question as to how I got into vericompost,is I was recovering from knee replacement,and my wife was trying to do my outside stuff,including compoist turning.What I did,at the time was cut the grass,take leaves from the leaf mold,and mix them separte from the main bin,add all the kitchen scrapes to the heating pile,then add it to the pile.My wife was NOT going to do all that,and take care of me,so she would take the kitchen scraps to the pile,and burry it to keep vermin down,and by the time I recovered enough to check on things,I found out that worms had gone after those scrapes,and was working the pile better than I could,so I fixed it where the worms could winter there,and now I have 6 bins3'x8'x2'tall,allworking,and producing all the "black gold" I need.Our children(all grown) come over to get compost,and our oldest dau.told me that she put flower fert.on some of her plants,andthe same kind of plant she used the comp,and told me the comp makes more differance,I knew that.Mike
Darlindeb --- go to the websites of the manufacturers of your compost tumblers. Maybe the sites will have manuals and other helpful info that you can download into your computer or simply print a copy of the info you want.
Thanks all! The name of the manufacturer must be on there somewhere, huh?
My tumber is from an Australian manufacturer called Tumbleweed.
I have not had the best results using it, probably because I usually end up ignoring their recommendation to limit wet materials to 10% of the total, and I have a terrible habit of putting pretty thick stalks in all of my compost piles. Right now mine is about 1/2 full of very hot rotting dehydrated chopped alfala hay (original weight 14 lbs.) with a very small garnish of kitchen scraps and dead daffodils. Large osage-orange-sized hay/fungus balls have formed. Depending on the temps over the next week or 2, I think it's going to be quite useful eventually.
Gosh, I've never seen a fungus ball. How often do you turn yours?
I've got to say I prefer my green tumbler with the side crank handle to the black one that you have to pull hand over hand in front.
I'm going to really work on my compost the next couple of weeks and see if I can get the end result particles even finer then what I have produced currently.
Does any one screen their compost or are you using it as it comes out?
I've seen some pretty fluffy looking compost from out people and I'm wondering how they do that?
Thanks for all your input,
Deb
Most compost that you see is from a shredder that has chopped up the plant material. I don't always chop mine so the soil has good consistancy with long "freeways" for the worms to travel through. This is what mine looks like ready to be spread.
Thanks for the photo. We may have to try a setup like that too.
We have another giant pile my husband just turns with his front end loader on the tractor.
we got a compost tumbler last fall and have been composting through the winter and of course now in the spring.
my question is (and it is a rudimentary one) how do you know when to use the compost? we finely chop/ process kitchen scraps to go into the composter to speed things up, and the dried leaves are chopped up by the mower too, so the copmost looks pretty much like the "black gold" i see in "finished compost" pics. however, since our ingredients are so finely chopped, how do you know it's ready to use? seems like screening the compost doesn't help to know in this instance. i'm afraid of burning my plants by using it now.
thanks!
joy
Its never too early to use. The compost if not finished will finish in the garden. Only would it be a little bad if you used wood chips, sawdust etc. But even that is friendly in my garden.
Chapter 9 in the helpful book, "Let it Rot" begins,
"All right, the inevitable question, 'How do we know when compost is done.....?"
According to the author, the criteria for "finished" compost are:
1. free of pathogens and viable weed seeds (i.e., it's been HOT long enough to kill them)
2. contains adequate supply of at least some major nutrients
3. crumbly
4. dark in color
5. smells sweet and earthy
6. temperature has dropped from a high of about 150 degrees down to ambient temperature
7. carbon to nitrogen ratio (if you can actually test this) near 14 to 20
8. at least 25% to 50% organic matter
