I need composting help!

[gtaus]

Hello all! I’m needing some composting help. I’ve been “composting” for 2 years and still can’t seem to get the hang of it. I really don’t know what I’m doing even though I’ve bought and read a book on it.

Today I got out to start cleaning up the garden. As you can see in my pic of I have 2 piles of leaves and then a pile of old tomato and pepper plants (I still have corn stalks I need to rip out). I also have probably 3 huge wagon fulls of duck bedding (pine shavings). I have those 2 composting bins to use that you can see in the pic. What can I do with all this?? I need green stuff in it right? What would be good to add? I need all the help and advice I can get!

I turned my chicken run into a chicken run composting system. All my leaves, weeds, dead plants, and just about anything organic gets tossed into my chicken run. Grass clippings are great for the chickens to eat and also add the greens to the compost mix to help heat it up. The chickens will scratch, peck, eat, and poo outside all day in that compost in process. They do all the laborious turning and mixing of the material.

Composting in place in the chicken run is not a hot compost, but in about 6 months, where I live, the chicken run compost is ready to harvest. It did not take very long for me to build up an excess of ready to harvest compost in the chicken run. In fact, I have so much ready to harvest compost that I converted a cement mixer into a compost sifter, with removable screens of various sizes depending on what I will be using the compost for, such as mulch, mixing into the soil, or for seed starting.

If you don't have composting chickens, then I would suggest mixing in green grass and other nitrogen sources to your carbon rich piles in the picture. If you have a lawn mower with a bagger, then run over all that brown stuff and chop it up into little pieces that will compost much faster. Wet it down to get the wrung out sponge stage, and then pile it up in something like a pallet compost bin where air can get to it and help the composting process.

Given time, just about everything will eventually compost. For me, it's just a matter of what works best for me where I live. I have had my best success with letting the chickens make my compost.

Rabbit poop, may be safe but if you are shoveling from under a hut, it's probably piss laden too, and THAT will burn your stuff up, all that urine /ammonia. Poo ok, mix, too hot.

Exactly what I was thinking. I used to have rabbits, and dried rabbit poo should be good for immediate use in the garden. However, if the poo is urine soaked, then you have to put it somewhere where it can dry out. I remember our neighbor having a dog that would come and urinate on my lawn, leaving a burned out patch of grass in a few days. Urine is high in nitrogen and can burn the plants. IMHO, dried rabbit poo should be good no matter the quantity.

 

[Noreaster Egger]

I urinate in the compost pile all of the time. Obviously you don’t want to be using that pile fresh on your plants. I fertilize my fruit trees organically with my own diluted urine...10:1 with a little ash added in from my wood stove. I wouldn’t use it on my garden veggies, but many do.

 

[gtaus]

I urinate in the compost pile all of the time. Obviously you don’t want to be using that pile fresh on your plants. I fertilize my fruit trees organically with my own diluted urine...10:1 with a little ash added in from my wood stove. I wouldn’t use it on my garden veggies, but many do.

Human urine in the compost pile should be OK. Just want to mention that human urine is not sterile, as some people think, as it actually contains small amounts of live bacteria.

When I was in the Navy, we would visit third world countries that used humanure to fertilizer their vegetable plants. It was a common practice in some parts of the world. When we bought fresh fruits and vegetables from those countries, we would have to soak and wash off the produce in a bleach wash before they could be used.

Humanure can be used in a compost, but it should be hot composted and allowed to sit for 6-12 months to kill off any pathogens that might be in the waste.

I have a septic system with holding tanks. Last time I had the tanks pumped out, I asked the service guy what happens to all that sludge. He said that they take it out to a farmers field where they spray it out on the ground. By law, the land has to sit unused without any crops planted or cattle grazing for a few years, then it can be used to grow pasture grass for cattle, and then a few years after that can be used to grow people food again. Supposedly, it's a good fertilizer if given the proper time for safety concerns.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

The fancy term for septic and sewer solids is “municipal biosolids” and they’ve been used on non food crops for years.

A great use would be replanting an area where wildfire destroyed trees…the biosolids can help jump start new growth and seedlings.

 

[gtaus]

The fancy term for septic and sewer solids is “municipal biosolids” and they’ve been used on non food crops for years.

Correct, The "municipal biosoldis" are septic and sewer solids may contain anything flushed down the toilet. So they may contain all kinds of stuff you would not want to put on your food crops.

Humanure (human manure) is human fecal material and urine recycled for agricultural purposes via thermophilic composting. That typically takes 6-12 months to process. But, like I said, in the third world countries we visited they would dump fresh humanure out on their food crops as fertilizer. That's why we would have to use a bleach bath on all that food.

Why does it happen that so many composting threads eventually discuss this topic? I don't think many people use human waste as fertilizer, but I'm sure some do.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

Why does it happen that so many composting threads eventually discuss this topic? I don't think many people use human waste as fertilizer, but I'm sure some do.

Yes this took a wild turn for me

 

[gtaus]

Yes this took a wild turn for me

Well, I love reading the composting threads. Lots of different ways to compost. I hope some of the posts were of help to you.

I have used many methods of composting but have had the best success with letting the chickens make compost for me in the chicken run. Almost all systems work, so there is no right way to do it. You just need to find what works best for you where you live.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

Well, I love reading the composting threads. Lots of different ways to compost. I hope some of the posts were of help to you.

I have used many methods of composting but have had the best success with letting the chickens make compost for me in the chicken run. Almost all systems work, so there is no right way to do it. You just need to find what works best for you where you live.

It was all very interesting! I didn’t even know humanure (is that what you called it?) was a thing!

I do like the idea of the chicken run composting. I only have ducks and I’m not sure they’d turn it up enough?

 

[gtaus]

I do like the idea of the chicken run composting. I only have ducks and I’m not sure they’d turn it up enough?

I have raised ducks and geese in the past. I don't think they would turn up the compost material nearly as well as the chickens.

Having said that, I live on a lake and just let my ducks and geese "free range" on the lake all summer long. They never spent much time in the duck/goose run. I am just thinking that their feet are really not made for scratching and pecking like a chicken. So I don't think they would make good composting animals. If I'm wrong, I would love to hear about it.

 

[Ascholten]

Urine is a great source of nitrogen, and if you catch the 'morning pee' after your body spent the night repairing itself etc etc, has a bunch of other trace minerals too.

One thing to remember also is, KNOW YOUR PEE !! YOU peeing on your plants is one thing, your wife, your kids, because you know where it came from, what they may potentially be using etc. but strangers, Id have to strongly recommend against.

Urine is mostly sterile UNLESS the individual whizzing has an infection, then all bets are off. ALSO know that many medicines will make it thru the digestive system intact, Hormones come to mind. If you wife is taking hormone treatment for 'girl issues', those hormones can and WILL make their way to your compost bin if that urine gets in there. No, the heat of compost will not destroy them either. ... You ARE what you eat.

Don't use Pee straight, it's too strong and will burn your plants, it should always be mixed with water and diluted, or preferably dumped onto a compost or processed other ways.

I have two 330 gallon totes, which I collect my compost tea that's been stewing over the summer etc, and add it all in there. It all gets mixed up, then when I water, I drain a gallon or three of this into a 55 gallon drum filled with rainwater and that is what I water my plants with.

When it comes to crap, it has to sit a minimum of a YEAR to process properly, otherwise you are taking a huge risk of many maladies. Salmonella, Listeria being just two of them. This goes for animal crap too. Yes, even the pet dog, remember, rover will dig up and eat dead things in a heartbeat, and thinks the cats litterbox is a snack bar. It's best to mix manure with regular compost in small quantities IMO rather than using it straight up.

As for crap for non food items, check with your municipality, many will give you a load of dried /semi processed for free or very cheap. Basically they digested it, then let it stew in the sun to dry out. VERY HOT, so use very sparingly but it will bring back a dead lawn or trees quickly if there is any saving to them. Id recommend NOT using for any food items, but then have heard others say, if it's a fruit tree, since the crap is not actually touching the fruit, like say, a carrot would, it's safe. I guess you could look at this like, the maggot your chicken pulled out of the manure pile and ate, did not actually touch the egg it laid so the eggs are safe to eat.

Personally though, I just think there are much other sources of bio solids for composting, that I don't need to take your crap !!

With the coming shortage on fertilizer, people are going to need to get over the stigma of urine very quickly if they want to keep their gardens lush and productive.

Aaron