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| I'm working on my yard this summer quite a bit and am planning on building a compost bin/system. I have read what I can find about various bin designs and I think I have decided to build a three part, 3x3 or 4x4 bin.
I have found plenty of information on what each of the three bins hold and so on but haven't found info on how to turn them. I imagine if I fill up an area 4x4x4 it gets difficult to turn. How do you do it efficiently? In my mind, turning from one bin to the next one over (shoveling the whole pile from one spot to the next) seems like it would be the easiest solution. I also wonder what tools you all use with your composting? Any specialties? This is our first house and being a man, I would love any excuse to buy more tools. I mainly plan on composting grass clippings and leaves as my sycamore trees get bigger. I have some friends with chickens and have thought about asking for the droppings but also live near houses with horse property that I'm sure would give me manure. I personally wouldn't mind getting some chickens but my two great danes wouldn't leave them alone. Thanks in advance for your responses. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| When I turned my compost I used a manure fork to lift the material from one bin to another. I tried a spading fork once and found that a bit trying and a hay fork did not seem to pick up much material at one time, which may be an advantage. When turning your objective should be to move the undigested stuff that was on the outside to the center of the pile and the mostly digested stuff that was in the center to the outside, because the bacteria that digest the material are most active in the center of the pile. |
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| I use a potato fork for the bulk of it all, and a spade for scraping the very bottom of the pile/bin. |
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| .... and being a man, I would love any excuse to buy more tools. Aside from a Bobcat with a forklift? :-) The main reason that people turn a pile is to introduce air/oxygen and stir things up a bit. I've had a lot of luck with a rechargeable battery hand drill and a bulb auger - just drill it in all the way, then still spinning, pull it out. Do that every foot or so, and this works wonders. Another technique is just use a long steel tamping rod and a piece of wood as a fulcrum, but I'd go for the power drill. |
Here is a link that might be useful: link to bulb auger
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| "Aside from a Bobcat with a forklift? :-) Inspired by mxbarbie and Jon, we went with Bob T. Cat! ;-) Lloyd |
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- Posted by jonhughes So.Oregon (jonehughes@hotmail.com) on Sun, May 29, 11 at 16:00
| Nice one Lloyd ;-)
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| Can your Great Danes be trusted around a cat? If so, there's not a rooster on the face of this earth that couldn't teach your Great Danes just exactly who rules the roost. My rooster died in 2006. My Golden, still, to this day, doesn't dare make eye contact with the hens. Or any other bird, really. Thanks go to Orlando. |
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- Posted by californian 10 (My Page) on Sun, May 29, 11 at 21:07
| I have read for really big compost piles containing hundreds of cubic yards they use the walking pile method using a front loader machine. Compost from one end of the pile is moved to the other end. Repeatedly doing this makes the pile "walk" around the yard. I suppose they could also mix new material in at the same time. This is probably the only way one can insure every single part of the pile gets turned over, since every part of the pile eventually gets moved. |
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- Posted by sanctified Zone 5 (My Page) on Mon, May 30, 11 at 1:16
| First off, thanks for the responses. They are all great. I would love to buy a bobcat or mini ex but some how i dont think i could justify that with the wife. I'll take a closer look at the multitude of forks out there. I'm not worried that the danes would go after the chickens, i worried that my female just wouldnt stop barking at them. She gets nervous with the starlings running around the tops of my fence i k ow she would go crazy if i had chickens living in the back yard. John- i have checked out your youtube videos and have to say yiu are very enthusiastic. To sumerize what i have learned: use a fork (take your pick of which type) or drill it with a bulb bit to aerate the piles. You do t necessarily have to move it to another physical location as long as it gets rotated and gets fresh air. Am i understanding the wisdom right? You guys are great. Thanks so much. |
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- Posted by jonhughes So.Oregon (jonehughes@hotmail.com) on Mon, May 30, 11 at 1:47
| Since "cold" piles work....... Anything more than nothing will speed up your composting production. If it was me...with a fork,...... I would move it from a spot to another ;-) |
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| Keep in mind that the primary reason to turn compost is to get the undigested material on the outside into the center where the most bacterial activity is and where that material will be digested. |
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| "Jon- i have checked out your youtube videos and have to say you are very enthusiastic." Oh! That made me smile. Talk about an understatement! |
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- Posted by sanctified Zone 5 (My Page) on Mon, May 30, 11 at 21:44
| "Keep in mind that the primary reason to turn compost is to get the undigested material on the outside into the center where the most bacterial activity is and where that material will be digested." Kim With this in mind I may do a four bin system. Bin 1- material ready to be tossed into the pile. I can toss the working material between two and three. I'll have to do some measuring again and figure out how much room I have allotted but if I remember right I have 17' from fence to fence. Maybe 3 1/2' wide bins would work out with a little space on each side for weeds to grow. I have more room to go a little deeper to make sure the piles are big enough to heat up. Now that I think I have the turning size questions figured out let me ask a couple other questions I have been wondering about. I have a wood stair section that needs to be redone that goes from my house to the porch. Its not real big but there are 2x6x6' that I will be replacing. I am going to use the old lumber to build the sides of the bins. How much spacing should I leave between each 2x6 vertically? One inch, two maybe. I would think keep them close enough that the material doesn't escape too easily while giving some space for air movement. I was going to ask about proportions of grass/leaves/chicken poop but decided it was a dumb question and that every noob here has asked that so rather than ask I'll check some old posts. Thanks for everything guys, you are all great. As things get going I'm sure I'll be back asking noob questions. |
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- Posted by joepyeweed 5b IL (My Page) on Fri, Jun 3, 11 at 9:44
| FWIW, I have single bin cold pile that only gets turned, when I am digging out finished compost from the bottom/center. |
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- Posted by frankie_in_zone_7 (My Page) on Sun, Jun 5, 11 at 17:14
| If you become friends with horse farmers try to see if they maintain a huge pile of horse-poop-bedding they muck out every day. This IS compost, on the far side that is the oldest, and you can use it directly. |
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- Posted by tn_gardening (My Page) on Mon, Jun 6, 11 at 16:09
| The task of turning a pile is why a lot of folks use tumblers. IMHO, I'd work a little more on the front end by getting your ratios in order and not bother so much with turning the pile. It'll take longer, but it's easier this way. Another option is to build your bins so the dividing walls are removable. Then you can sorta turn it as you sorta push most of it into the neighboring bin. If you insist on turning, I find that a manure fork works best. |
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| My tumblers are easy to turn, apparently not all are. I've used the fork method, it can be a lot of work especially if the moisture is on the higher end and it's a big pile. I've used the wingdinger compost aerator, it works okay for what it is intended for but not so good in a wire bin. I've also used larger machinery, skidsteer, manure spreader, front-end loader tractor. Lloyd |
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| I use Grandpa's silage fork that I inherited. It has about 8 strong tines and really grabs a lot of compost at a time. If you have the room, the 4 bin system sounds right. I basically have a two bin system (2 with compost in turkey wire and a chicken wire hoop for material). When I do want to do more than just stir up the pile, I literally scoop it out and then scoop it back in. Though I did just "swap" sides from working pile to nearly finished and then I was able to toss the one pile into the other bin after I manually emptied it in front of the piles. I'm still drooling from those pictures... No fair to post such compost porn ;-) |
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- Posted by trivedi_south (My Page) on Mon, Jun 6, 11 at 17:28
| Right now I am using plain ole shovel to do the turning; it is time consuming, tiring but very rewarding in terms of exercise and actually "seeing" the compost in the middle and determining how much water it would now need. Using a turning tumbler compost "system" for me is like putting food into slow cooker and forget about actual cooking. |
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