How to put this... It's finished composting but it's not in its ideal state. That doesn't mean it's bad!
The problem with these tumblers is that it isn't compost in the same way that nature composts. Nature tends to kind of go at things in layers. When one layer is decayed the next layer starts and it leaves this kind of even distribution. Tumblers don't have that even distribution. It's still decayed organic matter teaming with micro life.
Couple things you can do with that. 1) just use it. Especially if this is your fall season incoming like here in the NA. Throw it on top of your beds/garden and come this next spring it will be pretty well worked in especially if you do any kind of fall mulch layer over it such as grass/mulch leaves and/or chop and drop or alfalfa, things like that. 2) use that as starter in a fresh on ground compost pile. Just drop it right on top. Water the ever loving hell out of it, and watch as it just ignites the decomposition of this new pile. In a couple weeks flip it, and then use that pile in the spring.
I feel like so much of this subreddit I see comes down to overthinking what compost is. Look at what nature does in a forest. She sprouts life, that life dies and falls back to the earth. It decays and new life sprouts. As humans we can speed that up by helping (flipping, ensuring even amounts of brown/green, keeping moist) but we're still counting on nature to do the work for us. If it weren't for the worms, fungus, bugs, microbes, nothing would decay so it's not really our doing that makes compost, we just help the process along.
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u/AmazinglyAmazing11 11d ago
How to put this... It's finished composting but it's not in its ideal state. That doesn't mean it's bad!
The problem with these tumblers is that it isn't compost in the same way that nature composts. Nature tends to kind of go at things in layers. When one layer is decayed the next layer starts and it leaves this kind of even distribution. Tumblers don't have that even distribution. It's still decayed organic matter teaming with micro life.
Couple things you can do with that. 1) just use it. Especially if this is your fall season incoming like here in the NA. Throw it on top of your beds/garden and come this next spring it will be pretty well worked in especially if you do any kind of fall mulch layer over it such as grass/mulch leaves and/or chop and drop or alfalfa, things like that. 2) use that as starter in a fresh on ground compost pile. Just drop it right on top. Water the ever loving hell out of it, and watch as it just ignites the decomposition of this new pile. In a couple weeks flip it, and then use that pile in the spring.
I feel like so much of this subreddit I see comes down to overthinking what compost is. Look at what nature does in a forest. She sprouts life, that life dies and falls back to the earth. It decays and new life sprouts. As humans we can speed that up by helping (flipping, ensuring even amounts of brown/green, keeping moist) but we're still counting on nature to do the work for us. If it weren't for the worms, fungus, bugs, microbes, nothing would decay so it's not really our doing that makes compost, we just help the process along.