Thanks everyone.

I had some old dried out prunings, small twigs, dried grass--about 1/2 a wheelbarrow full. I put that in and the flies died down for about an hour.

Problem is--the bin is now full. I wasn't expecting that so soon!

Now what?

If the bin is full you can leave it for awhile. If you can, aerate it (turn it, fluff it) every week or so. The volume in the bin will begin to decrease as things compact down and break down. If you keep adding new stuff, it will be hard to get usable compost. Unless you harvest from the bottom of a pile you just keep adding to and don't mix it around. That's why composter people often have 2 or 3 piles going, becoz at some point you have to let the stuff compost.
Laurie

Ohhhh. I see. I thought it would compost as I added stuff--and I assumed I weouldn't have anything ready for a year or so. I just didn't realise how fast it would fill!

I'm a bit confused, though.

So, I turn it, then don't add to it.

but then you say:
Unless you harvest from the bottom of a pile you just keep adding to and don't mix it around.

I had actually planned to do this (starting next spring, or this fall or whenever)--so I'm a bit confused at the moment!

My understanding is that one can do what's called "continuous composting", where one keeps adding to and turning a single pile or bin, and stuff keeps breaking down. The only drawback with that system is the stuff will be, at any given time, at varying levels of decomposition or "finished-ness". Which means that when one wants compost from a continuous system, the pile has to be sifted with a screen. Anything that falls through is ready for the garden, and anything that doesn't fall through goes back to the pile/bin/system.

Until I overwatered my bin yesterday, it had been shrinking regularly. But I turn every three days (patience is a foreign word to me), so that might be a difference.

(Oh, and re: dog poop... it can carry pathogens, so you probably don't want to use it unless you either don't plan on using any compost in an edible garden or are very sure that you will be able to achieve high temperatures in your bin. Personally, I'm staying away from it because it's hard to get a small bin/tumbler very hot.)

dried out prunings, small twigs, dried grass--about 1/2 a wheelbarrow full.

All of which are more nitrogen (green) sources and you already had too much of those in the bin ;). You're pile needs carbons (browns) and lots of them. Search out the thread here called 'what are you using for browns' for many suggestions of what qualifies as carbons. Or as has already been suggested use torn up newspapers and cardboard.

witeowl summed up the process good. If you want to do continuous process composting you will either have to sift it regularly for the good stuff or have multiple piles/bins.

Dave

In my experience as a bartender, any amount of fruit at all can attract fruit flies.

That was more green?

drat.

I'd better make a list, then, and not rely on my memory!

About the continous thing--I'll have to think on that. I'd like another, but space...still I'd hate to go back to throwing "good" stuff in the garbage. It just feels so good, somehow, making something good out of waterelon rinds, and so on....

In my experience, I have piled stuff on the compost pile and at the very bottom was finished compost. I was able to dig out the bottom part to use. Becoz I add large stuff like watermelon rinds, banana peels, twigs, etc, I find it hard to utilize the finished compost among all those new and larger items, and I don't have a sifter, and wouldnt' want to do that. So instead I get a large pile going and stop adding to it. Then I start a second one. The first one will go to finished compost, and I'll start using it, while the second one keeps getting added to. When the finished compost is all used up, I start a new pile there, and the one I was adding to now just sits or gets turned, with no new stuff added. I would love to use unfinished compost, and I would, becoz it will finish up wherever you put it, but I have a little poodle who gardens with me, and she would get into the unfinished food stuffs. It sounds like your system will work if you have a sifter.

Some people have built "continuous" composting bins and I helped one person (lives mostly in a wheelchair) made a compost pile that he can feed from the top (there is a berm the pile is built into so he can wheel up there) and then the "bottom" is raised off the ground so finished compost falls down and he can reach in, with a shovel, to remove and use that finished compost. Since I seldom turn my compost piles anymore, until I am ready to use the material, there is often some material that gets chucked into the next bin because it is not finished, usually the topmost material and what is one the outsides.
Eventually, most all organic matter will be digested.

It sounds like most of what you're composting is food waste. If that's the case, you should consider vermicomposting. It's a good way to compost your food waste and not have to have a constant supply of "browns". And the resulting vermicompost is really good stuff.

Deanna

I hand shredded three newspapers, other assorted bit of paper and a dozen tp rolls today.

I'll keep at it.

PS: we will have bags and bags of leaves come fall.

sounds like you are headed the right direction now. I was going to suggest straw for more browns. It works great because its light and clean plus the straw acts as little tubes to bring oxygen in to the center of the pile. If you can get dirty straw from a farmer even better. Bonus poop!
And remember not to over think it. Everything rots eventually!

In my experience of being greek,we always had a concrete garden... we never used compost.So when i got my own house,I got confused and we don't read newspaper or have junk mail.even when we go to the toilet we don't use toilet paper,we just use a hose.I tried composting broken plates,cos us greeks,we break plates after we finish eating... it's a compliments to the chef thing.I found out that compost worms don't eat glass.Oh well,I hope this helps

I started off with one bin and also ran into the question on how to mix and get finished compost while continually adding to it. I ended up making a sifter. It works great! I have no complaints and I continue doing it. I now actually have two different bins and run them the same while sifting out the finished compost. If you want to make a sifter just connect a few 2x4s in a square and attache some 1/4 or 1/2 inch hardware cloth and away you go.

this question is to smokensqueal - I would like to know how the 2x4 attached to the pin and what is a 1/4 or 1/2 hardware cloth. Wonder if possible you can attached a picture or link.

As this is an ancient thread, and smokensqueal may no longer be around, I'll give this a shot -hardware cloth is metal mesh, available usually by the fencing in a hardware store. The 1/4 and 1/2 is the size of the holes in the mesh, like a window screen.

I don't understand the question about the 2x4; what smokensqueal probably meant was nail or screw some 2x4 together in a square, as they said, or rectangle. The size of the square is up to you, but 15" x 15" or a little bigger is probably a manageable size.

Than you so much. Another things to confirm it that "Is this supposed to be mounted inside the bin, so it is a continuous shifting of the finished compost ?" I have one that will spin, but I always put in the coffee grain in. Wouldn't that be shift out before it become compost ?

The sifter will not work if it's in the pile or bin. Set it over a wheelbarrow or other container. Dig compost out of the pile, place on the screen and shake.

Compost Sifter Video (2 minutes)

I have a question about the shredded paper and cardboard suggested - I'm trying to keep my pile organic and adding shredded paper made with ink and chemicals doesn't seem right to me. However, being the beginning of summer, I'm having a hard time finding other "Browns". Should I buy straw? Would pine needles be ok? any other suggestions?

Straw and pine needles will work. Black and white newspaper does not have the chemical loading of colored papers - the black ink is made from powdered carbon.

Other sources: Sawdust/wood shavings from a cabinet shop or sawmill or local woodworker (make sure there is no treated wood); wood chips from a municipal yard waste dropoff/mulch site if you have one; or from a utility tree crew. Around here we can load all we want off a big pile at the elec. co-op service center. Some utilities will put you on a list and dump them in your driveway when they're in your area. Call your utility and ask.

Thanks for your suggestions Toxcrusadr! Would you say that junk mail (with B/W ink) is as safe as newspaper? I have lots of that but i don't get the newspaper. I suppose I could ask my neighbors.....

The black ink newspapers are printed with is simply carbon mixed with soy bean oil as is the black ink on "junk" mail. The only problem would be with glossy papers where the inks used are still the metallic pigments in petrochemicals and covered with lacquer.

The local farm store down the road has straw in two different types of bales. One is just the straw baled normally with some of the seeds still on the stalks. The other is cleaned of seeds, wrapped in plastic, and sells for twice as much for half as much.

kimmq is kimmsr

kimmq - should I avoid the straw with seeds?

Straw shouldn't have seeds, it's supposed to be the stalks of wheat from which the grain has been removed. There might be a few they missed. Hay, on the other hand, is grass which often has seed heads. Avoid that like the plague unless you can hot compost it to kill seeds or you don't mind having them sprout.

Straw is the stalks of grains, Wheat, Oats, Rye, any grain that has been harvested, Sometimes the reaper does not knock off all the seeds from the stalks and those are the seeds, that some think are "weeds" and they are simply going to germinate and grow into what ever the grain harvested was, Wheat, Oats, Rye, etc. That is not a problem.

In over 50 years of buying baled straw I have never had a bale that did not have some seeds still attached to the stalks. Where I have used straw as mulch I have had these green stalks growing and, often, the bales used for decoration around Halloween will have green shoots growing in them.

kimmq is kimmsr

Hi lads,im new to this composting.My problem is i dont have any grass area to put my compostor on so i was told to get a wooden base and cover it will plastic and place the plastic compostor on it.This i have done during the summer but its filling fast.Is having it on a wooden base going to work.its mostly food scraps veg,fruit,potato,etc.

I am not 100% sure how you are set up. Do you use a plastic compost container and sit it on top of a wooden platform or are you composting a pile on top of a wood platform either way it sounds like you need more browns (Newspaper/cardboard/wood chips) added to the pile.

There is going to be some liquid leaching out of the bottom so it should be on the ground. If you put it on plastic any leachate is going to have to run somewhere when it reaches the bottom. There won't be a lot, normally, but you want to be ready for it. I suppose a box with a plastic liner would work but watch out for excess liquid down there because it can make the bottom of the pile anaerobic (smelly).

You can put a compost bin in a flower bed or next to a tree, but maybe you have a totally paved area? Kind of a difficult situation.

yes its on a wooden base which is covered with thick plastic.My yard is tarmacadam so i have nowhere else.ill add the cardboard pieces and give it a good mix.yes i noticed the first signs of leaking at the bottom.its a plastic compost container.

There is no good reason to put any composter on a wooden base, especially one covered with plastic sheets.

Compost that leaks liquids while being digested is too wet.

kimmq is kimmsr

Of course I agree that compost shouldn't be overwatered. However, it's impossible to manage a compost pile perfectly all the time, so there is going to be some leachate now and then. Anyone with a compost bin on a paved surface who doesn't want runoff or staining needs some kind of containment.

I run the compost bins for my office building, about 5-10 lb per day of coffee grounds and food scraps. We use shredded leaves, sawdust or wood chips (about as dry as you can get!)for daily cover so there is a layer cake of wet greens and dry browns. Even so, the compost can be pretty wet and there is definitely leachate. We have to use enclosed plastic bins to keep the varmints out so evaporation is limited. In spring when the compost ice blocks thaw there is plenty of excess moisture. I think it's managed about the best we can do and the compost is very good quality. I don't worry about the leachate. It feeds the soil underneath.

I grind up lots of leaves ahead of time, when they are available, and stock them up close to where I compost. Every time I empty my compost bucket onto the pile, I completely cover the layer with ground leaves - all year long. Never have a fruit fly problem at my compost pile.

How do you grind leaves?

If you have a leaf blower/sucker, you can suck them up into the bag and they come out shredded. Or, mow over them several times (without the bag, just use the side chute, or a mulching mower). You can also use a leaf or yard waste shredder like the Flowtron. Some people put dry leaves into a trash can and stick a weed whacker down into it.

I have a tumbler compost. Can you turn it too often? Every time I add to it I give it a couple of turns. Should I not be doing that?

The directions I have seen that come with tumbler composters say to turn the tumbler with every addition.

kimmq is kimmsr

Thank you!

and I read to drill some holes in your bin so it can drain

My tumbler suggests only turning every 3 days (3 turns every 3 days).

If you purchase a commercial compost tumbler there should be no reason to need to drill holes in it, but if you make one, from a garbage can, you will need to drill many holes, not so much for drainage as to allow air circulation.

Different tumblers have different directions and what you want to achieve has different directions. Some tumblers say you can make compost in 14 days and those must be turned much more than every 3 days. Once you learn to make compost in whatever you have, an open pile, a closed in bin, a garbage can, a commercial composter, keep on doing what you did and the results should be the same.

Composting is a much art as it is science.

kimmq is kimmsr

I am having the problem that my compost doesn't feel hot enough AND there are fruit flies. To deal with the lack of heat I'm supposed to add greens, but to deal with the fruit flies I'm supposed to add brown. Not sure what to do!!! Thank you!

Your compost doesn't have to be hot, first of all. The fruit flies are usually a sign that you need to COVER the food scraps or whatever attracts them a little better.

Tell us what your compost bin/pile looks like (what type and how big), and what you are putting in it.

It is a compost tumbler with 2 sides to it. I have the fruit flies as well. I have been reading that some use shredded paper - should I be doing that also?

I have a large shredder (since I grind up hundreds of bags of leaves that I use not only in my composting but also in mulching everything around my yard) that I got for a bargain price on craigslist.

If your dog is on heart worm or any other anti worming medication the poop will kill the beneficial garden worms in the compost.

You should always add browns (dry leaves, shredded paper, cardboard, straw, sawdust etc.) when adding greens (kitchen scraps, grass clippings, fresh manure) to the compost. Otherwise any composter will become a stinky mess.

giallian, are you certain of that? I mean it makes intuitive sense, just wondering if you have any links or references.

Saw the thread title for the umpteenth time, but this time...

"Millions of fruit flies in my compost bin--is this a problem?"

"Not for the fruit flies."

:-P

I was told 25 years ago by Australian author of "Organic Gardening" that horse manure may not be good for gardens because of worming treatment (used frequently for racehorses) means the manure will kill garden worms too. Need to be sure the horses have not been worm treated in the last few days. Worm treatments may have changed by now ? I imagine same would apply for dog poo.

I don't have a reference, but have read many times that the medications used (including for worming treatment) will usually break down fairly quickly. If concerned, compost separately for some period of time. You will likely not find concrete, reliable info on number of days needed; for a wild guess, 30 days would likely be enough.

Note, medicines/treatment intended to work in an animal's gut may not have much effect outside; and they're not magic - dosage matters, so they may not have much impact if spread out over a garden. (May be different for a small worm bin though)

So as you can tell, I'm a bit skeptical ('may not be good for gardens' doesn't sound like the result of a controlled study); but I understand composters and gardeners may want to be cautious. If so, just leave the manure to compost separately for a while.

A few more thoughts:

A compost pile made with fresh manure will run hot and will not have worms in it to begin with. Decomposition is done by a wide variety of microbes and insects at higher temps. Worms only inhabit cool piles.

The 'worms' that affect animals are different species entirely from earthworms and one should not assume that medications for one will affect the other. They might, they might not.

Finally, vet drugs (and human ones too for that matter) undergo a battery of tests in order to be registered for sale in the US. This includes internal metabolism, where and how much of the original compound is excreted, and how fast it breaks down after that. So there is at least some attention paid to that issue.

The dilution effect and the general probability of breakdown causes me to not worry about vet medications in manure. I am much more concerned about the persistent herbicides in the hay they ate because there is actual evidence of it harming gardens.