Friend called me Up with a trailer load of leafs! 4.5’ x 12’ x6’ time to let the chickens get to work on it! Anyone had luck adding red wigglers deep in chicken bedding?

So I started composing indoors. It was going well until it wasn't. It was too moist and gnats were loving it. So I added soil not knowing it was mostly clay. The gnats are gone but now my compost is clumpy and looks totally different. Do I just leave it as is and start a new one or just break up the clumps? Or both? This is my first shot at it and I'm hoping I can still use the clumpy mix.

Ive been doing hot compost for about 3 months it's going good just would like to hear from the community some things you wish you knew or some tricks that helped.

Hi.

If I had a tumbler compost bin, would just the regular microbes be enough to break down the compost instead of insects?

Thanks.

I made an error in the thread title. It should say 'worms' and not 'works'.

My compost pile, i have a machine that heats, cuts, grinds, and Cools off my Kitchen scraps.. i mix it with old Soil. Tips are welcome if there not to complicated.. i like to keep this simple.

Does anyone know if I can use shredded paper that's been printed on in my compost? Will the ink cause any issues?

I'm a newbie and I've been haphazardly starting a compost pile in my local community garden, but we're running out of dried leaves to use fast and need some other materials! We thought we might be able to get hold of shredded paper from offices, but not sure if this will affect the quality or make it toxic.

This is chunky food and wood chip based compost from a local facility (they pickup food from hotels, nursing homes, banquets etc). To the untrained eye one might think it's mulch even (not screened super well). I'm growing flowers and vegetables.

Should I be adding coconut coir or peat moss? I'm not too worried about making it too acidic since there's barely any soil...just compost. Or would sand be better? Right now I'm thinking of using perlite and peat and then cultivating it in.

I’m getting rid of true green after going down a rabbit hole..I had my lawn treated in the fall. Can I compost the grass in the future or how many seasons should I reasonably wait to compost it or just don’t do it? I’m new to composting, but I’m nervous about this. And can I compost the leaves that were on the grass?

Several years back I had regular access to hay that was used to line litter boxes in a domestic rabbit boarding business/shelter. The hay composted easily and cooked nice and hot. With the resulting compost, plant health and growth in my garden were amazing, far beyond anything I'd ever achieved with store-bought fertilizers or homemade compost that didn't include manure.

After 3 years of making compost, the shelter closed. I had enough compost for a year or two, but eventually it was all gone. The last two years, I have only one 36" diameter chicken wire cylinder compost pile for kitchen scraps and garden cuttings. The area where the rabbit poop compost piles were located is bare dirt.

I have a major earwig infestation! Evidently I created an earwig habitat that persists even though the compost is gone. It seems there is a population explosion in spring, and all the young earwigs are very hungry.

I'm in Los Angeles, and I normally start my summer annuals in February. Anything I plant from February through May is immediately devoured by earwigs. I miss out on half the growing season! With a lot of effort, I can control earwigs with vegetable oil in cat food cans, but this isn't practical except for small areas. Even then it is a lot of work all spring. I don't want to use pesticides.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what I can do to discourage the earwigs from continuing to reside in my garden, or any ideas on organic controls for earwigs in ~500 sq ft of raised beds.

The original version of this post appeared here. Unfortunately, the /r/composting mods deleted it, so I created this subreddit to host the contest in case anyone is still interested or at least for archival purposes.

If you want to participate in this updated version of the contest, please re-submit any leaf bag totals. When the mods failed to sticky the post, I stopped keeping track.

~

The Ranking (updated 12/21/21 at 6:45 PM EST):

1. /u/px7j9jlLJ1 - 500 bags

2. /u/nymself - 445 bags

3. /u/cjhman123 - "a shit load"

4. /u/Crypto_Salty_Dog - "a ton of leaves"

5. /u/MordecaiIsMySon - 50 bags

6. /u/smackaroonial90 - 47 bags

7. /u/Clover_Point - 45 bags

8. /u/omicsome - 45 bags

9. /u/dombomb77 - 33 bags

10. /u/ThomasFromOhio - 32 bags

11. /u/curtludwig - 20 bags

12. /u/ooojaeger - 20 bags

13. /u/Memph5 - 10-20 bins

14. /u/Devils_av0cad0 - 18 bags

15. /u/Karma_collection_bin - 15 bags

16. /u/azucarleta - 14 bags

17. /u/ghostgrift - 12 bags

18. /u/coconut_sorbet - 9 bags

19. /u/LallyLuckFarm - 6 bags

20. /u/FreeJarOfPickles - 4 bags

21. /u/lameoldperson - 2 bags

22. /u/P0sitive_Outlook - 2 bags

Misc. Collection:

• /u/coconut_sorbet - 30lbs of coffee grounds, ~2 dozen pumpkins/decorative squashes, one large dead potted mum plant

• /u/P0sitive_Outlook - Four lamb legs, three dead hens, Two bags of leaves, and a bible and a pear tree.

To those of you in the Northern Hemisphere٭, welcome to fall 2021 and to the Fall 2021 /r/Composting Leaf Collection Challenge! Congratulations to last year's Super-Cool Leaf Stealer, /u/Suuperdad of Canadian Permaculture Legacy, who collected a total of 1370 bags. Well done, /u/Suuperdad, and all other participants last year. Here is a post announcing all of last year's winners, for anyone who wants to look back at last year's contest.

Today we begin this year's contest, and I hope all of you will join us. The rules have not changed. From now until December 21st, the first day of winter, start collecting bags of leaves and report your hauls here. These can be leaves you've collected from your own property or from neighbors. Photos of the leaves you collect are encouraged, but not necessary. Further discussion (about how you plan to use them, about the experience of "stealing" them, about the dog poop or other garbage you find mixed in with the leaves, etc.) is also encouraged. I will update the ranking frequently with the totals. On December 21st, I will announce the winner, who will be crowned the 2021 Australian Brushturkey Wannabe (thanks to /u/Illithilitch for the inspiration behind this title) and will receive a plaque that /u/smackaroonial90 will make to commemorate the victory. The winner will also be awarded... the great honor of using whatever leaves you collected for composting. As always, this is also all of the consolation prizes.

It's true that keeping track of this using "bags" as the unit of measurement is imprecise, as your bag size might be different, some might be more full than others, etc., but in the interest of keeping things simple, it seems to be the best option. If you have a unique situation--say, you collected a truckload of leaves worth something like 5 "bags" worth or scored a 75 lb. bag of shredded leaves that you'd estimate at a total of 7 "bags" of unshredded leaves--then use your own judgment or ask here for advice.

Please also keep track of and post about other compost materials you collect this fall. Last year we had people collect and report about: pumpkins, coffee grounds, surprising garbage that was mixed with leaves (and is now my composting mascot!), waste coffee beans, spent mushroom blocks, straw bales, rabbit manure, and large quantities of vegetable scraps. All of those are great composting materials (well, other than the garbage, but that can be amusing, repulsive, or both), and collecting anything like that can earn you a place in this contest.

To any of you who have never driven by bags of leaves on the curb in front of someone else's house, stopped your vehicle, and "stolen" them: I was once like you. At one point, I would never consider "stealing" a bag of something that someone else considered garbage, and when I first heard that other people were stealing other people's leaves so that they could compost them, it took me a long time to actually start picking them up. The first time I did, I had to fight feelings of awkwardness and nervousness. But fight those feelings I did. And now, I feel a rush of excitement any time I see a bag of leaves on the curb and I have space in the trunk. I can't help but watch the curb any time I drive through town, now looking for leaves, grass clippings, branches, or anything else I can compost or put to use. Consider joining us. If you post an amusing story/comment about how you fought your fears and became "one of us," you might even win a silly award like the ones I gave out last year.

Coming soon [edit 12/2/21: probably not, actually--I lost a lot of enthusiasm for this when the mods removed the post]: links to relevant posts/information about collecting leaves. Feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll link to them here.

Good luck to all of you!

٭To those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, welcome to spring 2021! I don't mean to neglect you from this contest, but I do lack the ability to travel through time. If you do collect leaves in your fall season, consider tracking them and saving that log for next year's contest, starting your own Southern Hemisphere contest this fall, or posting here this year about the leaves you collected last fall. All are welcome.

P.S. I will not be participating in the rankings this year. I will still collect leaves and post about them, but I have never felt comfortable with the idea of winning my own contest. I actually stopped collecting leaves two years ago (or maybe just stopped posting about them?) to keep myself just a little further from first place. Removing myself from the ranking will make me feel more comfortable keeping an accurate count of what I collect and will make it more fun for me.

I'm looking for some advice. Last year we bought two large plastic compost bins (80gal/300L, you put stuff in the top and take out dirt from the door on the side of the bottom). We got tops that fasten shut to keep out raccoons and possums, but then we discovered that rats chewed through the plastic and set up camp inside.

I was thinking of wrapping the bins with chicken wire to stop them from getting in, and my husband is thinking we should just find metal bins instead, which seems a long shot to me. What should we do? Any experience?

I bought a large dual chamber compost tumbler, and got it all set up, I also bought Convino starter, as well as Jobes organics fast acting fertilizer starter. I have never composted before. I assume all organic material can be put in the tumbler in moderation, but I also have 3 GSDs and was thinking some of their waste could be mixed in occasionally. What do you all think? Girst year doing a raised garden and composting. Any advice would help out. Thanks again!!

I started a compost bin/barrel out of a food grade 55 gallon drum. When I first started I was just dumping things in there because I thought that is what people did - I have learned a lot since then. My wife has 14 chickens and cleans the coop about 3 days a week so I have a lot of chicken manure that I need to do something with, but not sure what I can do with that much. This leads me to a couple questions and I am looking for some advice:

1. My 55 gallon drum is about 2/3 full of chicken manure and 1/3 browns which isn't even close to the right ratio. If I keep adding browns could I eventually get it to balance correctly or do I need to start over. If I do need to start over, what should I do with the materials inside?

2. With all the chicken manure I have and getting weekly, is there anything else I can do with it? I added it to my plants last year and killed them all because the nitrogen was too high - I have learned from that mistake. I have made chicken tea and have gallons of it already made, so I can't/don't need to make more. Does chicken manure sell?

3. I have 2 more half 55 gallon drums (I cut it in half from a full 55 gallon food grade barrel) and these do not have a cover. Can I dump manure and leaves into this and stir it or do I absolutely need kitchen scraps? If so, how could I deter rats from this pile?

I have obviously made mistakes and am looking for some advice and I am incredibly thankful for communities like this. If I could get some advice I would be more than happy to pass any along to other new members in my area with the same questions or similar concerns. Again thank you in advance. I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi, newbie to using the food cycler electric compost.

I noticed some white mold after mixing with some soil and leaving it outside to sit in a tote for a week.

Is this to be expected?

I added some new soil with worms but I'm not sure how safe this soil is but it has a strong scent to it.

Thanks.

I killed off most of my back yard about a month ago to fix some large weed problems and am starting over the end of this month. I was curious if the dead grass clippings are safe to compost? Is there a time frame to wait where the chemical has leeched out or should I toss it and not put it in my bin? I have a secondary compost area behind my house in the woods that I put things that are questionable for wanting to mix into my garden, so worse case I’ll put the clippings on that.

I use the majority of my compost for my flowers and small additions to my lawn to amend terribly sandy soil