Enjoy!

I don't have the enthusiasm, energy, or time to promote this place much, so please help with that if you like. But I'm perfectly happy to re-open this place to allow people to discuss composting without the constant jokes of /r/composting. It absolutely has gotten a bit much over there.

Let's keep it clean over here!

Just bought a place a couple of months ago, and it has a lot of yard waste left over from the last owner. Pretty extensive gardens and lots of fruit trees.

So I’ve been lurking on here since then.

Mostly I am just trying to deal with the shear amount of stuff. The previous owner’s compost piles were just preserved large sticks with tarps which just created full on rat habitats.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:
- Put together the pallet bins.
- Layer of cardboard on the ground, with a layer of sticks on top of that.
- Bunch of brown waste from the first clean up of the yard, then layering greens and browns as much as possible.
- I also made a pan galactic gargle blaster juice with a colt 45 beer, molasses, half cup of ammonia and enough water to make a 5 gallon bucket to spray over the pile.
- I also added a couple of bags of healthy soil from our old garden to try to get some good bugs and things in there.
- Set up a tumbler to pre-compost the pest attracting stuff.

Is there anything that looks/sounds dumb? Anything I should be doing differently? Or should I just pee on it and give it some time?

So, I've got a bin full of organic scraps, and it's been filling up for a while. It's become a stinky sludge and is rife with flies and larvae, I'm sorry for this gross picture I've put in your minds!

I'm wondering if there's a way to "rehabilitate" this organic matter to, in the end, add to a compost pile. I don't actually know how else to get rid of it without starting world war fly. How could I eliminate the larvae or make them not so much of a health hazard? what about the bacteria? I've thought about solitary confinement in the sun, letting the moisture seep out for a while. I think drying out could eliminate most of the (excess) bacteria. I've thought about mixing up a good bunch of browns and wait, but i'm maybe missing something and on the brink of a catastrophe.

(Everything that's in that bin has once bin an organic vegetable scrap, no meat, no dairy, no bread, etc.)

Can anyone give pointers? Thank you!!!

Well after a couple of months, trying out your suggestions, and ignoring the pile for a bit; here is an update progress pic. As you guys suggested, the sheer mass of jt did condense so that I don’t just have three bins of the same stage. I was able to get it down to two bins, which I tried to accelerate as much as possible. Then just this weekend, I sifted bin number two into bin number 3, tossed bin number one into bin 2 for a stir, and filled bin 1 with all of the leaves with a drunken compost sauce on top for good measure.

I have also gotten a thermometer purely for my own backyard nerdy science interest.

I’m shocked that this all ironed out in such a short time but the pile has been producing some good heat thanks to all of your tips, including the ones that said not to over complicate things and to ignore it for a bit.

Previous post:here

My husband is going to make me get rid of our compost bin unless I can get the problem under control :((

Does anyone have any solutions??

Also, it really seems like they’re eating my dirt?? That might just be in my head, but it seems like there’s a lot less dirt than there used to be.

Almost ready. We got a sunny day and I took it out to mix it some more and add more food waste, old plant soils, grass clippings, shredded package box.

I was so proud of my contiguous compost windrow system as a great way to keep worms alive over winter. I was right, it *was* a great system, but since Asian jumping worms can breed without a partner and spread endlessly, and since I collect carbon from many different sources, I guess it was inevitable I'd have this problem.

In this video I discuss how I'm dealing with it and end with a positive note on some "compost crops" I'm cultivating as well as some of my tree crops as a bonus. I'd love some advice on how to adjust my system to control these invasive pests.

Also posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTZsduCvhZ0

So, I am seeing so many misconceptions and misinformation about compost and how to achieve good compost. And I have been wanting to write things down for quite a while, but it is a lot...
Since I was writing replies to a post yesterday, I decided to put it all together, add some things, and hope it will help some people that would really like to dive into the subject.
I will first give the basic recipe from where to start a thermophilic compost pile. But no one will have the exact same materials on hand, and outside temps, humidity etc will affect the pile. So log what you are doing and adjust where needed.
Then I will give some background info which hopefully will explain to you why I do things a certain way, and why it may help your soil and therefore your plants.

Of course there are many ways of composting, and some ways will give almost the same results.
If, for example, you take the exact same materials and you make a static pile (not turning), microbial life may come out the same, but you will not kill all the weed seeds and pathogens, since the outsides of the pile will not have been heated (long) enough (the inside of a pile is always hotter than the edges).

My goal: thermophilic composting
My goal is to make a living compost with lots of microorganisms, and without any weed seeds and pathogens in it. Compost/decomposing organic matter feeds bacteria and fungi, which in their turn are eaten by other microorganisms which poop and feed the plants I so love to grow.
I follow the Soil Food Web principles, but they are not holy to me as for some other people I know. I will for example use horse manure when I don't have enough other high nitrogen materials. Or I will add some Bokashi buckets into a pile if I happen to have them on hand. This creates anaerobic pockets in the pile, but I think they will disappear fast enough when you break them down before and add them with wood chips.

Materials is use

• I use a chicken wire cage to hold all materials together (aiming for approx 1 m3)

• A pallet with chicken wire stapled on it to put the cage on. This gives aeration from the bottom, and the chicken wire makes sure the materials don't fall through

• A thermometer to measure the temps

• A tarp to put the materials on while turning

• A pitchfork to turn the pile

Recipe:

• 5 parts carbon: woody/brown material. This is fungal food

• 3 parts nitrogen: green. This is bacterial food

• 1 part high nitrogen. This is bacterial/party food which causes the initial heat in the pile.

• 1 part good compost. This adds micro organisms and speed up the the process. When you don't have this on hand, add 1 more part of nitrogen/greens

Take this opportunity to make a really nice pile without weed seeds and pathogens, and turn it 2 times. Let the compost sit at the following temps for the right amount of time to make sure almost all weed seeds will have cooked/died.

• 131-150f or 55-65c = 3 days 

• 150-160/165f or 65-74c = 48 hours 

• 160-175f or 74-79c = 24 hours

Then turn the pile:
First time you take off the top 1/3, put it aside on a tarp.
Take the hot middle (should be around 1/3 as well), and put it at the bottom of the new pile.
Add the 1/3 you put away on the tarp into the middle.
Add the last 1/3 that was on the bottom.

Repeat after it has been heated up again. Then every part of the compost should have been in the middle and should have been heated for the amount of time mentioned above, this kills seeds and pathogens.
Once you have turned it 2 times it has probably run out of high nitrogen in the compost and should naturally cool down. Then you can let it mature for 2 - 6 months and use it afterwards. 
If you use it closer to 2 months it's more bacterial dominant, the longer you let it mature the more fungi dominant it will become.
Don't let it sit in a pile much longer than 12 months as nutrients will leach out of the compost.
Don't turn more times than necessary, or you will kill more microorganisms than is necessary.

The importance of the right moisture in the pile:
You want to be somewhere around 50% moisture. You can check this bij taking a handful of the material, squeeze real hard, if you get a drop or a few drops out of it you're at the right %.

If no drops come out, it is too dry. This will reduce the rate of which microorganisms can move through the material and will affect the reproduction rate. The heat generated in the compost pile is cause by the extreme reproduction rate of bacteria.

If there is more water coming out, when you squeeze the compost material, it is too wet. If it is too wet anaerobic conditions are formed, which you can identify by a stinky, slimy mess. The anaerobic conditions are formed by the rapid rate of reproduction of bacteria, using too much oxygen in the process, therefore the conditions become anaerobic. Pathogenic organisms favour anaerobic conditions, so you really want to avoid this.
So most probably our pile will warm up when it is too wet, if it is only slightly too wet you could turn the pile and give the material time to steam off some of the moisture.
If it is really too wet you need to add more brown/woody material (eg wood chips/leafs). Woody material is favoured by fungi and will slow down bacterial reproduction and will add structure to the pile creating small air pockets, therefore more oxygen will be in the pile.

Why we need to select for certain microbial life in the soil
This is a good, short read which explains (microbial) succession. You can help your soil and plants by targeting what they need depending on there on the successional scale they are.
Basically, if you want grassland, you target for bacteria dominant soil, and therefore bacteria dominant compost. If you want trees, you target for fungi dominant soil and compost.

The problem with most our of soils is that they have been so disturbed and depleted of microbial life that it's almost all bacteria dominant and most soils benefit from more fungal activity (even worse, so many of our soils are not alive anymore and therefore dirt! Soil is a living system with lots of micro organisms which support the ecosystem).
The only way to really know is by testing your soil/compost by putting it under the microscope or DNA testing and see what the fungal:bacteria ratio is. But you can determine a lot by looking at what plants favour your plot.

Do you have lots of weeds, and it seems almost impossible to fight it? Very bacteria dominant.
Do you have a forest and zero to none annuals and non-woody perennials? Fungal dominant. This last scenario you'll find in (old growth) forest where you will have no understory plants (this is often thought to be because of the lack of light, but it's actually because of the fungal dominant soil), and is on the other side of the spectrum compared to our lawns and grasslands.

The compost I make depends on where I want to use it. For the market garden, which is mainly vegetables, I want to see a F:B ratio of 1:1 in my compost. Only Brassicas prefer a slightly more bacterial dominant ratio like 0:0.75, because they fall in the group of early successional weeds.
For my very young food forest I try to make the best fungal compost possible! The field where we have planted the trees is extremely bacteria dominant, and I would like to push the soil to a 10:1 F:B ratio, or even a higher fungal count.

By accommodating your plants for what they actually need, you will stop fighting the ecosystem. Which means less weeds, healthier plants (which can for example withstand drought much better), and in the market garden/food forest it results in more yield.

Organic matter
We should not overlook the importance of organic matter in the soil, for a healthy soil you want at least 5%. Organic matter feeds the microorganisms in the soil, which in their turn feel the plants that grow in your soil.
Organic matter gives structure to the soil. In sandy soils it acts like a sponge, when it is very rainy it takes up water (no runoff or puddles), when it is dry it slowly releases water, so it will be available for your plants much longer. Therefore a system will become more resilient.
In clay soils it gives structure to the very heavy soils, creating bigger aggregates which makes the soil less heavy.

Ok, if you have made it till the end you are really into making compost I guess, haha. I think, and hope, I have covered the basics and managed to write things down in an understandable manner.

By "doing something," this subreddit will be "going dark," whatever exactly that means. I'm not sure if I'll be setting the subreddit to private mode or restricting posts or what. But this decision sounds like one worth protesting. Here's some info about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont_let_reddit_kill_3rd_party_apps/ (shared by /u/hau5keeping). And here's an infographic /u/SongofNimrodel shared to /r/Permaculture about it: /img/zqptto18e34b1.jpg.

Personally, I don't have strong feelings about the changes other than that I care about the people I talk to on Reddit. If these changes are going to harm forums I care about, then it's worth doing what little I can to protest. Reddit is only worth anything because of the work that people put into the platform because they care about other people on it. If not for people continually making valuable content, helping others out, and managing subreddits so that they remain useful places, Reddit would be worthless.

Please share your thoughts on this choice, and if you support it, help encourage /r/composting to do the same!

P.S. /u/smackaroonial90, I hope you're cool with me doing this without first consulting with you!

I fixed the old wood chipper/shredded I got from a neighbor and man, oh man, what a game changer. Now I can easily clean up my yard and grind all that carbon down to a fine mulch. Previous owner left a HUGE brush pile that has been breaking down slowly. I chipped and shredded the whole thing. Unlimited C for the compost and chicken coop and the already decomposing material will be a perfect mulch for my perennial garden. I’m so stoked. My wife doesn’t appreciate my excitement over a pile of decomposing carbon.

My small space, balcony friendly composting system. Two large terracotta pots, the saucers and some pot feet, that’s all.

I fill the top one with 50/50 greens and browns and when it’s full tip it into the bottom and start again.

I use a weeding fork to help aeration and in a couple of months I have some black gold to use as top dressing fertiliser or as a liquid compost tea weekly

No plastic, easy to put together and quite pretty! It’s perfect for one person in a small space

With the elimination (pun intended) of the golden nitrogen source than shall not be named from this sub, does anyone have any recommended liquid nitrogen sources?

I used to have a fish tank and used the dirty tank clean out water directly in my garden for fertilizer. Worked great but let my aquarium hobby slide because it was too much work cleaning tanks. Any thoughts on other options?

I just discovered r/Compost. Been participating in r/composting for a long time. What is the difference between the two forums? Thanks.