Composting

[Kieran]

I have started composting in a plastic container with a lid, bought from the local authority.
There are a lot of small black flies aroung the bin and they are now invading the house.
Is it normal to have this amount of flies and can someone advise me the best way to get rid of the flies without getting rid of the composter.

[Geordie]

Compost flies

Hi Kieran,

These are fruit flies. They arrive following parent fruit flies laying eggs on the compostable material when in the green grocers, whilst in your kitchen or when the matter is waiting to be put in the bin. To prevent this be sure to keep the compostable matter waiting to be put into the bin covered so that parent flies cannot lay eggs upon it, either use a newspaper shroud or a covered bin as a storage container. To eradicate, always ensure that fresh matter added to the bin is placed under existing composting matter, or add a layer of soil or other “brown” material over the top. This will prevent the fruit fly larvae from hatching. You can also leave open the compost bin lid to allow fruit fly predators to enter. Don’t use fly spray.

Generally it helps if you can add some 'dry' or woody type waste to break up the heap, even paper or cardboard will do. It may help if you place a few woody plant stems or small twigs on the bottom first, especially as you are using a plastic bin, as this will improve the air circulation and drainage. In addition you may want to start a new bin/heap off by adding a layer/sprinkling of compost from a previous heap (full of beneficial micro-organisms & insects).

[fruit&vegvirgin]

hi Geordie
do you mind if I ask you a compost question? I have started an experiment today - added a load of old compost out of last summer's flowering pots to a mixed pile of grass clippings of various ages (some dry, some going very slimey) plus a load of this year's fallen leaves. I'm going to leave it well alone and see what happens... the background to this is that we have made beautiful compost almost by mistake over the last 5 years or so, from just a mixture of leaves and grass clippings but if you leave it long enough it turns into nice stuff it seems.
however, I have added today's potato and parsnip peelings to the top of the new pile - should I cover them up do you reckon? and is that the general thing to do with any type of food waste? thanks in advance.

[Geordie]

Compost

Ok here goes.....

for the raw materials to make good compost the heap will need to generate heat. Essentially this comes from some of the raw materials but you need to concentrate on keeping the heat in by insulating. How you insulate will depend somewhat on outside temperatures. This is generally why a cover is placed on top of the heap. At this time of year a cover is needed, the heap will slow down anyway.....possibly even stop. You may need to give it a 'kick start' in spring.

As for food waste put any fresh vegetable waste on compost heap....can even use cooked waste veg (no gravey!), do not put things like meat or fish etc on as it will attract vermin. Fruit can be composted (eg banana skin) but to avoid fruit flies bury in middle of heap. Generally you have two types of material:
Brown materials

Brown materials have lots of carbon and are generally tougher for creatures (e.g. friendly bacteria and worms) to break down. Brown materials provide compost with important air pockets because they do not squash together as easily as green materials.

Cardboard (crumpled/torn up)
Hedge trimmings
Leaves
Small amounts of newspaper (crumpled/torn up)
Egg shells
Bedding from vegetarian pet cages


Green materials

Green materials have lots of nitrogen and are broken down quickly.

Cut flowers
Fruit & vegetable waste
Garden & house plants
Grass cuttings
Tea bags & coffee grounds
You can introduce good bacteria by adding a few handfuls of soil, manure or finished home compost, to give the process a kick start.

The materials in your compost bin should be moist to touch. Gently squeeze a handful of compost: if it feels dry and dusty you should add some water; if it feels slimy and soggy you should mix in some brown materials to soak up some of the excess moisture.

When your compost is ready, it will be crumbly and brown. It should look like soil and you should not be able to make out the original shape of any of the materials that were put in your compost bin.

Depending upon type of compost bin used or size of heap it will need to be turned....ie the iside which should be composted first needs to be moved to the outside and the outside moved to the inside to compost. Generally a heap will need to be qiute large to generate the heat required.

Hope this helps...anything else just ask and i will try to answer

[fruit&vegvirgin]

hi Geordie, oh fount of all compost knowledge!! quick question - am I dreaming, or did I read somewhere not to add citrus fruit to a compost heap??

[Geordie]

You can compost citrus fruit but only in very small quantities as it raises the acidity of the heap.

[dni_dave]

Thanks Geordie

Geordie - You've answered a lot of questions I had about compost.

We've just completed our first year as fruit and veg gardeners and what a great year it's been. We've composted everything we can:

Horse manure in 800mm x 800mm x 1m (WxDXH) wooden bin lined with plastic sheet

Same style of bin for Grass cuttings and weed leaves, which we layer with straw occasionally.

Plastic council bin with lid for the kitchen waste. I've chopped up the waste fairly small and leaned in with a garden fork to try and turn it.

One question is how long should I leave the horse manure bin, grass cuttings bin and the compost heap? The manure is looking well rotted at the bottom, as is the grass bin. Both seem to have lots of worms in (our new best friends!).

[WiZeR]

I have just ordered one of these compost bins:

http://www.evengreener.com/Scripts/p...?idproduct=108

2 questions...

1. How do I start it off? I will be putting mainly kitchen scraps in and grass cuttings in the summer.

2. Can I add worms? or rather should I?

[Geordie]

Ok to answer your questions, starting with Wizer,

Site the bin over soil or lawn rather than concrete or tarmac, to take advantage of the earthworms, beneficial microbes, and other decomposers, which will migrate up and down as the seasons change. Uncovered soil also allows for drainage. You dont need to add worms as they will magically appear (in theory)!!

I would start with a thin layer of twigs or similar and then add alternative layers of green / brown waste (see earlier post). In areas with a cold winter, spring is the best time to start the compost bin in earnest. There's an abundance of grass clippings and trimmings. Summer is the time the compost pile is working at its peak range of decomposition, especially if it has been turned once or twice. Cover and store the finished compost, or use it, and start another batch. With enough organic waste, you can produce several batches of highly managed compost during the summer.

To kick start your compost add some manure. It is one of the finest materials you can add to any compost pile. It contains large amounts of both nitrogen and beneficial microbes.

Just as a side note.....if you paid the price quoted on your link ...many local councils will sell you a similar bin at a discounted price (about Ł10).

Now Dni_Dave.....horse manure....ideally it should finish as a dark brown getting on for black colour, no real smell and a dryish, flaky sort of tobacco type consistency. This typically takes about a year from conception! All the books will point you to this nirvana but in the real world.......
I get manure delivered once a year....its generally fresh ie just been created by the animals. I get a trailor load from a farmer and it fills 2 large timber bins each approx 1x1x1.5 metre I always have some left over and just spread that across 2 beds. shock horror!
The reason I add manure like this, i have a heavy soil and it helps loosen the clay, i am not going to plant on the beds untill April so weather will help break down manure, (washing away most of the nutrient benefit in the process), and it acts as a weed supressing mulch. The two bins i cover and leave till next Autumn when it will be dug into the soil.

I have 3 compost bins and all get the same type of mix.....how you make your compost depends upon how involved you want to be -

(When your compost is finished, leave some in the bin to kickstart you next lot of materials.)

Compost can range from passive - allowing the materials to sit and rot on their own - to highly managed. Whenever you intervene in the process, you're managing the compost. How you compost is determined by your goal. If you're eager to produce as much compost as possible to use regularly in your garden, you may opt for a more hands-on method of composting. If your goal is to dispose of garden waste, a passive method is your answer.

Passive composting involves the least amount of time and energy on your part. This is done by collecting organic materials in a freestanding bin. It might take a long time (a year or two), but eventually organic materials in any type of a pile will break down into finished compost. Add grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps (always cover these with 8" of other material). The pile will shrink quickly as the materials compress and decompose. Wait a year or two before checking the bottom of the bin for finished compost. When it's ready, shovel the bottom section into a wheelbarrow and add it to your garden beds. Continue to add greens and browns to have a good supply of finished compost at the ready. After the first few years, most simple piles produce a few cubic feet of finished compost yearly.

Managed composting involves active participation, ranging from turning the pile occasionally to a major commitment of time and energy. If you use all the techniques of managing the pile, you can get finished compost in 3-4 weeks. Choose the techniques that reflect how much you want to intervene in the decomposition process and that will be a function of how fast you want to produce compost.

The speed with which you produce finished compost will be determined by how you collect materials, whether you chop them up, how you mix them together, and so on. Achieving a good balance of carbon and nitrogen is easier if you build the pile all at once. Layering is traditional, but mixing the materials works as well.

Shredded organic materials heat up rapidly, decompose quickly, and produce a uniform compost. The decomposition rate increases with the size of the composting materials. If you want the pile to decay faster, chop up large fibrous materials.

You can add new materials on an ongoing basis to an already established pile. Most single-bin gardeners build an initial pile and add more ingredients on top as they become available.

The temperature of the managed pile is important - it indicates the activity of the decomposition process. The easiest way to track the temperature inside the pile is by feeling it. If it is warm or hot, everything is fine. If it is the same temperature as the outside air, the microbial activity has slowed down and you need to add more nitrogen (green) materials such as grass clippings, kitchen waste, or manure.

If the pile becomes too dry, the decay process will slow down. Organic waste needs water to decompose. The rule of thumb is to keep the pile as moist as a wrung-out sponge.

If you're building your pile with very wet materials, mix them with dry materials as you build. If all the material is very dry, soak it with a hose as you build. Whenever you turn the pile, check it for moisture and add water as necessary.

Too much water is just as detrimental as the lack of water. In an overly wet pile, water replaces the air, creating an anaerobic environment, slowing decomposition.

Air circulation is an important element in a compost pile. Most of the organisms that decompose organic matter are aerobic - they need air to survive. There are several ways to keep your pile breathing. Try not to use materials that are easily compacted such as ashes or sawdust, without mixing them with a coarser material first. People who build large piles often add tree branches or even ventilation tubes vertically into different parts of the pile, to be shaken occasionally, to maximize air circulation.

A more labor-intensive way to re-oxygenate the pile is to turn the pile by hand, using a large garden fork. The simplest way is to move the material from the pile and restack it alongside. A multiple-bin system makes this efficient, in that you only handle the material once. Otherwise, you can put the material back into the same pile. The object is to end up with the material that was on the outside of the original pile, resting in the middle of the restacked pile. This procedure aerates the pile and will promote uniform decomposition.

I have tried to provide you with a simple problem / solution guide:

Damp and warm only in the middle of the pile - Pile could be too small, or cold weather might have slowed composting
If you are only composting in piles, make sure your pile is at least 3 feet high and 3 feet wide. With a bin, the pile doesn't need to be so large.

Nothing is happening.Pile doesn't seem to be heating up at all -
1. Not enough nitrogen
2. Not enough oxygen
3. Not enough moisture
4. Cold weather?
5. Compost is finished.
1. Make sure you have enough nitrogen rich sources like manure, grass clippings or food scraps.
2. Mix up the pile so it can breathe.
3. Mix up the pile and water it with the hose so that there is some moisture in the pile. A completely dry pile doesn't compost.
4. Wait for spring, cover the pile, or use a bin.

Matted leaves or grass clippings aren't decomposing - Poor aeration, or lack of moisture. Avoid thick layers of just one material. Too much of something like leaves, paper or grass clippings don't break down well. Break up the layers and mix up the pile so that there is a good mix of materials. Shred any big material that isn't breaking down well.

Stinks like rancid butter, vinegar or rotten eggs - Not enough oxygen, or the pile is too wet, or compacted.
Mix up the pile so that it gets some aeration and can breathe. Add course dry materials like straw, hay or leaves to soak up excess moisture. If smell is too bad, add dry materials on top and wait until it dries out a bit before you mix the pile.

Odor like ammonia - Not enough carbon. Add brown materials like leaves, straw, hay, shredded newspaper, etc. .

Attracts rodents, flies, or other animals - Inappropriate materials (like meat, oil, bones), or the food-like material is too close to the surface of the pile. Bury kitchen scraps near the center of the pile. Don't add inappropriate materials to compost. Switch to a rodent-proof closed bin.

Attracts insects, millipedes, slugs, etc - This is normal composting, and part of the natural process. Not a problem.

You should now be producing the finest compost known to man after this post, a little rambling and some repitition i know but hey...you did ask!

[Geordie]

When i recover i will post a (shorter) article about alternative types of material that i use as compost.

[fruit&vegvirgin]

blimey geordie, you must be exhausted after all that!!!!! a big round of applause, and a large beer...

[Acorn]

composting

Wow Geordie!! That definitely deserves an ovation!!!

[WiZeR]

Thanks very much Geordie

[dni_dave]

Thanks Geordie

Geordie
That was exactly what I needed.

I think I'll now leave the horse manure to do it's own thing, turning it once in summer to spread as a weed suppressant in autumn. The grass/straw bin and compost I'll manage and turn more regularly. The stuff I got out of the bottom of the bin was in great shape.

I never realised I'd feel so proud about producing compost. If only my Grandad could see me now.....!

Many thanks
Dave

[JennieAtkinson]

Just spent my lunchhour reading the post Geordie - wow thanks. (I even stopped eating my sandwiches!) Also answers my thread elsewhere about cold weather compost and I always wanted to know what to do with horse manure straight from the horse! What an oracle you are!!!!
What we need is somewhere that Geordie's detailed responses can be available long term on the website? Any clues on whether that can be done? Otherwise I will have to start printing them off!
Thanks again Geordie