Extreme Composting

I'm going to go squeeze the bunnies now and see if I can get them to produce some for me.

assuming a uniform spherical rabbit dropping of approximately 2.634 millimeters in diameter, the recommended dosage is 3.78 berries per 5 cubic centimeters of soil within hemisphere 9 centimeters beyond and below the drip line of the plant.

Geesh, what are you a rookie at this stuff?

ROTFL! TIMIBE!

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Yes.

We're new to bunnies, and thus bunny poop.

Pony - ya got me. ?TIMIBE?

Ernie - You are way ahead of me. I've only ever had one rabbit. It was an attack rabbit. The Irish Setter and Great Dane shared the backyard with this rabbit and it would chase them all over the yard till they retreated to safety, on the top of the picnic table. I can tell you 2 big dogs + 1 rabbit in 1 backyard = too much poo.

I have 2 now, thanks to a very kind lady who gave them to me.

The female "Hope She Makes It" is due to deliver tonight or tomorrow. The male "Brigadier Stuart" is ready to do his duty for King and Country. Maybe even twice!

Someone's been watching a bit of Monty Python! CESUMPEC!!!

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True, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is my daughter's fave movie. But our attack rabbit was for real. The rabbit would nibble and pull hair on the dogs and the dogs did not like it one bit. Why they never ate that rabbit I do not know.

I was comparing the specs on rabbit turds and swallows!

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Just a few more days to travel just a few more days to roam then I'll enter heaven's portal, when the saints are gatthered home!

http://mlw107.zealforlife.com

come see my page

<g> Brain blip from the old BBS days.

Tears In My Itty Bitty Eyes

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Hi all just wanted to say hi, I joined this site because of this thread. I did a google search to get more info on compost and Extreme Composting popped and I started to read..........4 weeks later I've gotten through all 85 pages. Forerunner your insane BTW, but in a good way...lol I'm currently in the military and living in VA Beach area so my composting is rather limited though for my area and space I think I'm doing ok. My wife and I bought a house 2 years ago and I have since been composting, planting and otherwise driving my wife insane (more than I've already done of course). I've got 4 beds of 4x18 for veggies. then blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, apples, pears and peaches planted around the yard plus a rose garden and what will be soon a herb/wildflower garden out front. All this is on a .25ac plot that was either pack dead dirt or heavy clay, no in my garden I have black soil that I can see 10 worms in each shovel full and plants that are loving it all in 2 yrs and it can only get better as I go. I've gotten all my composting material from horse farms around the area and my weeds lol, I did suggest composting the possum my dogs caught the other day but the wife wasn't going for it lol but I did try Forerunner! lol maybe when I retire and we move to our own land I'll convice her . Anyways wanting to say hi and thank you all for the info!

Thank you for your service, Navyman. I grew up across the river, in Hampton. My dad was a Newport News Shipyard worker. If you live in Va Beach, I'm guessing you are in aviation and there is a chance you served on one of Dad's ships, JFK, Enterprise, Nimitz.

Composting is a challenge for someone who has to move every few years. You get a good garden going with some mature piles ready to spread and then you find your self living in San Diego. congrats on the rich black soil you have created and you may want to put a guard on that fruit next time I'm in the area visiting my mother.

Welcome aboard Navyman.

The closest I've ever come to marine service is my trusty old canoe.

Sounds like got a firm grasp of the composting process.
Too bad google couldn't do you better service than to send you to this motley assembly, but oh, well.....here we are.

I don't know if I see periodic relocating as a composting challenge.
I'd have to say that such only expands your opportunities to educate yet another community and greatly enhance the fertility of yet another plot of land.

Of course, trying to get fruit off your trees would be another story.......

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III

Cesum not an airdale I'm one of those engineering rates that talks crap about airdales well them and every other rate lol. I'm Hull Tech (my rate or job) and as such I do welding, brazing, metal fab and repair, plumbing and some wood working. I'm also a hobby wood worker so between them all I tend to do alot of things on my own and I hate paying others to do what I can do myself or figure out, though it drives my wife batty lol.
Forerunner the making compost isn't the issue what is tough is putting all that work into a place and then moving and driving by some weeks/months or even years later and seeing how all my hard work has gone to hell. but I hope to stay in this area until I retire so another 8 or so years which is plenty of time to reap the rewards of my fruits......literally though as far as spreading the good news of composting and what you can do with it I've been thinking of getting some of the neighborhood churches to start like food bank garden plots to help people out, alot of churches have the land and many members are gardeners and if everyone help it wouldn't be much work though I some how doubt they would let me make Forerunner level compost piles Oh and any that are in the area are welcome to fruit when I get them really producing, once they start going I doubt that my family of 5 can eat all that fruit though the kids are really likeing the strawberries!

I have been mixing my fresh cow manure and sawdust about 50/50 plus about two squirrels a week. Is that going to be too rich or should I mix in more sawdust?

For the raised beds that I am in the planning stage can or should I mix in some topsoil into the compost pile while its hot.

Opinions on this plan for raised beds:

Dig one foot deep into the ground inside of where raised bed frame will be, line with plastic to have more depth and retain moisture below original ground level under each raised bed. Plastic would extend out from depression and frame of beds sit on top.

Skip the plastic. That will just hold water like a bath tub. Other than bog plants, normal garden plants will not survive such conditions. Most vegetable roots extend 3 or 4 feet into the soil. The roots would simply ball up at the plastic and become waterlogged and die.

Martin

I agree. Plus, if you deep water a raised bed, that soil underneath it holds water like a battery for plants.

In my raised beds I dug down a foot and then filled in the bottom with dead branches and rotted wood. Then the bed sides are about 18" up from that. Out here in central Texas we need all the water storage we can get.

(One of the problems from that dead wood, I think, was that all of the carbon sucked away the nitrogen. I had to put a bunch back in.)

Under your conditions, shredded Christmas trees would be a better source of a deep base. There is sufficient nitrogen in the needles and new growth to enable it to break down by itself without seriously affecting the soil nitrogen. The end result is the same as the ability of the humus to retain moisture is the same as if it had been plain wood.

Martin

Okay, lets leave off the water retention under the raised beds and go back to my first two questions

I have been mixing my fresh cow manure and sawdust about 50/50 plus about two squirrels a week. Is that going to be too rich or should I mix in more sawdust?

For the raised beds that I am in the planning stage can or should I mix in some topsoil into the compost pile while its hot.

Also I am studying up on the use of zeolites
Already using it as litter in my chicken coop
Now looking to use in in my compost piles as well

Sorry. Water is always foremost in my mind.

You need to compost any of that manure and sawdust before it goes into your raised beds. If it's composted, it's not too rich. I'm not even sure what too rich would ever mean in terms of compost. Too nitrogen-hot? I didn't know you could even do that with compost. Just raw manure.

What's a zeolite?