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| I bought a compost bin from Sam's. It is made of plastic material with two doors at the bottom. It has holes around the bottom and holes on the lid for rain.
My question is do I need to drill more holes in the bin for better air circulation? I have been keeping the bin full for three wks with staw, bermuda hay, banana peels, coffee grounds, tea bags, shredded paper, aged manure and some compost.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by Shane_Genziuk (My Page) on Thu, Mar 3, 11 at 21:42
| How wet are the materials marvin? That is usually the problem I get. You want it at the point where you hold a clump and it is damp but not enough to drip out of the hand. You might find that mixing molasses with rain water or urine straight does the trick, in addition to turning as you are already. |
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- Posted by mustard_seeds 4 -Onalaska Wisconsi (My Page) on Fri, Mar 4, 11 at 12:46
| I have the same Soilsaver bin - actually three now so I can have one collecting, one cooking, and one curing. I agree with Shane - I bet there may not be enough moisture since your ingredients sound great. When I am adding a lot of material, I wet down after adding 2-3 inches of material, then add more ingredients. When I only had one bin and tried to mix/turn it when nearly full, I did crack one of the sides due to the pressure of my pitchfork against the side. So watch out for that! Now with three I can turn by moving stuff into the "next" bin in stages. I water when turning it too. |
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- Posted by marvinvwinkle 7 (My Page) on Fri, Mar 4, 11 at 15:17
| Thanks for the info. I turned it again today and some felt a little warm, but not much. I did buy a plastic barrel today to make a rolling compost and also as a second bin. We'll see how that works. As far as water, I think I am keeping everything damp. I worry about putting too much water in. I agree about the breaking of the bin issue. I busted a couple of plastic bolts, so I replaced them with metal bolts. |
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- Posted by dorothyroeder (My Page) on Sun, Mar 6, 11 at 16:08
| I got a couple of plastic barrels a few months ago. I find turning them and uprighting them is not so easy and not much mixing occurs. I found this today. http://www.ecoyardfarming.com/all/new-diy-aeration-tool-for-your-compo st-pile/ I went to Home Depot and got the stuff, haven't made it yet, although I was able to cut the tie plate to size with tin shears. Can't wait to try it out. It looked like a brilliant idea. |
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- Posted by piranhafem (My Page) on Sun, Mar 6, 11 at 22:41
| If you're not very handy (like me) you can buy a garden auger attachment for your power drill at the hardware store. I think I paid $20 for mine. I also bought a Compost Crank, which is an excellent tool. It has a sort of corkscrew at the bottom and two offset handles that make it super easy to manually crank the corkscrew to the bottom of your pile. I think I paid about $40 and got mine from Arbico Organics. HOWEVER, I just learned yesterday that the man who makes the Compost Crank has had health problems recently, so they are not available right now. He is looking into getting help to manufacture them so hopefully they will be available again soon. --Maureen |
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