making good compost

[Tigerella]

Hi

I am wondering how easy it is to make compost suitable to sow next years seeds.
If I take kitchen waste, and not weeds from lottie, put it in a bin with lid on.
Would a few seeds from cucumber, jam, apples ect, make it through to the next year and be able to germinate?
A bin with the lid on, I assume it would need a little ventilation via the lid.
Would it be enough just to start it off with some soil and worms from lottie?

Tigerella

[NOG]

For good compost you will need to add grass cuttings, pealings, other plants reimmings. If you are just using kitchen scraps then go for a wormary.

The heat in a compost bin will kill all the seads...but you need lots of stuff, and you need to turn it to get the air into it occassionally.

[berksmike]

You need a good balance of green waste (eg grass), brown waste (leaf litter) and scraps..
If you get too much of either then the composting will be compromised. Too much grass clippings and it turns into a liquid mess, too much brown waste takes an age to compost.
I also add straw/waste from our house rabbit and I've heard male wee is a good activator too.

[Flummery]

I still wouldn't sow seeds in it Tigerella. I know the heat is supposed to be sufficient to kill off weed seeds but I'm not convinced. Commercal compost is sterile. You also only need a bit of root of some pernicious perennial weed and it will come up in cometition with your precious seedlings.

Flum

[johnty greentoes]

Don't forget to wee on it occasionally. Will kick start bacteria/fungi and inhibit seed germination.

[Sue]

Tigerella
You could plant things like squash, cucumbers, courgettes in or on the compost bin. I tried this last year and it mostly worked, except some of the plants made a bid for freedom and twined into the allotment hedge and some thoughtlessly grew fruits down the side of the bin I couldn't reach. Apart from that it worked fine!
This year in my long-term dalek bin I have planted nasturtium seeds as I thought this would look rather lovely - all that colour exploding out the top of the bin.
Sue
Sue

[Norm]

It seems I've been successfully doing it wrong for 30 years.
I collect all the kitchen waste and shove it in a darlek (I have 4 of them). When the darlek is full, it gets 2 gallons of wee and I start on the next one. By the time no 3 is full (about 18 months after no 1 was filled), no 1 has reduced in bulk to about a quarter and is well rotted compost with no weed seeds. I dont take it out and turn it to get air in, I don't use a chemical activator other than the self-produced kind, I just leave it to do it's own thing.
The other point is, I never get ants in it. It seems ants think human wee is from another ant colony and if it can produce 2 gallons of the stuff, there must be billions of them and the new colony will get it's head kicked in, so they find somewhere else.

[Tigerella]

Hi

Thanks everyone, I think I have the main points.

Tigerella

[Moglets]

Hi,

I have a compost bin in which I put all the veg peelings and shredded documents which is doing very well except for the ants nest - I will try the addition of wee.
My query is what to do with the other organic waste I produce namely old cat food and cat poo (well obviously I don't produce them personally but I have to deal with it!). Everywhere says never to put them in a compost but never gives a reason - can anyone answer that for me?
Would they be able to go in a wormery?

I do hope someone can answer this.

K

[Alison]

I never put anything meat based (cat food and poo would come under this heading) in my wormery either - think it can attract rats etc. However I've just sent off for a pair of bokashi bins so that I can "compost" meat products eg chicken skin, grissle etc, not sure how well they'll work but there were some positive comments on another thread and I found them on a reduced web site so fingers crossed.

[Moglets]

Excellent, thank you - do let us know how the bokashi bins perform.

I can guarentee no rats would get to the wormery or compost due to the 8' wall around my garden, so may be I'll try the wormery.

[Two_Sheds]

I've heard you can microwave it (compost, not cat poo) to sterilise it....anyone tried?

[heebiejeebie]

microwaving cat poo??? Yeuch!!

[Dobby]

we got spuds growing in our compost bin
and its full of ants
this is our first time so is it going to be any good

[Pottypotter]

Keep telling my little boy that I need him to go toilet in my scraps bucket, he thinks I'm joking