Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

Temperature was still 31C in the box, the pile had gone down almost 5 inches again. It's also pushing out a humongous amount of ammonia, I had trouble breathing above it and had to hold my breath while stirring. At the moment, it takes about a day for straw to turn brownish black in there.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

Temperature was still 31C in the box, the pile had gone down almost 5 inches again. It's also pushing out a humongous amount of ammonia, I had trouble breathing above it and had to hold my breath while stirring. At the moment, it takes about a day for straw to turn brownish black in there.

All I can say is "wow!".

 

[hennible]

X2
Those peppers will enjoy some of that compost later this year.

 

[vehve]

They sure will. I'm kinda thinking of not giving them any fertilizer until they reach their final pot. In that one I thought I'd put a thick layer of compost on the bottom and let it build it's roots into the rich soil. But we'll see. Maybe I'll just experiment with them a bit, using different fertilizer regimens.

 

[hennible]

I killed some very young peppers once with organic fertilizer... I think I just fed them to early. Compost for them to grow into sounds like a great idea.
I'm going to water my starts with the drainage liquid from the worm bin, see what happens... Still haven't tried putting chicken poop in there... I'll go do that now.

 

[vehve]

Sam, I'm afraid it might not be good for them... I don't know why.

 

[aart]

I killed some very young peppers once with organic fertilizer... I think I just fed them to early. Compost for them to grow into sounds like a great idea.
I'm going to water my starts with the drainage liquid from the worm bin, see what happens... Still haven't tried putting chicken poop in there... I'll go do that now.

<thumbsup>

Sam, I'm afraid it might not be good for them... I don't know why.

If you just put a turd or two in the corner of the bin, just barely under the surface....you'll be able to check and see if they go for it or not.
Don't think it's too risky. If they can't tolerate it they'll leave it alone, but I don't think it will 'poison' the whole bin.

 

[hennible]

Yup that's what I did, with the same idea in mind.
I mulch my greenhouse with bedding straight out of the chicken coop, and just underneath that bedding is the richest worm population in my yard... I think it will be fine.

 

[aart]

Yup that's what I did, with the same idea in mind.
I mulch my greenhouse with bedding straight out of the chicken coop, and just underneath that bedding is the richest worm population in my yard... I think it will be fine.

Cool....so you already pretty much know they can tolerate the high nitrogen environment...looking forward to hearing if they chow down on that turd..LOL

 

[hennible]

Well, I know the garden worms tolerate it, my bin worms are tiger worms or maybe red wrigglers ( I think ) the varieties in the greenhouse don't look like these guys... We will see soon.