no longer want a compost tumbler

I've owned three compostumblers. The biggest ones. They do work as advertised. I've just gotten to the point that ... for me ... any compost is a sign that I'm doing something wrong. Kitchen scraps go to the pigs or chickens. All of the animal shelters are portable, so there is no manure buildup. Any unwanted plants are chopped and dropped right in that spot. There is no longer anything to compost.

But that's just me.

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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Hi jwal10....wondering what brand and type you have? I have been looking for one. Thanks

willowworker

I'm thinking about making a tumbler from a 35gal plastic drum. How well will this work in the winter when the temps are in the 10s and 20s? Will I have to keep it in a semi-warm spot such as inside a garage that usually gets no colder than freezing?

They seem easy enough to make. It'd sure be nice to run grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps through it. I also like the paper shredder idea. I have a good amount of cardboard trash from empty pop 12-packs that might be good to compost.

In the winter, they will freeze just as a pile would do. Decomposition stops at freezing either way. All you will have available to add would be kitchen scraps so you just keep adding until spring. When I dump the fall batch, only dry shredded leaves are added back as a base. Then I can keep turning and mixing it until there is too much accumulated liquid from the kitchen scraps and everything freezes.

Martin

I still have rabbits and chickens though so could I add their poo and expect the composting to keep working in my 35degree garage? I might even have a goat before winter.

Any time that the material is kept above freezing, it will decompose at a given rate and regular turning will keep it aerated and loose.

Martin

Paul,

Around here there's still a lot of sawdust to help keep things going (I would hope). I'm making a composting toilet for the woodshop. Not sure if I'll be putting anything solid in it.

Our chickens refuse some of our kitchen scraps like onions, wheat grass, and certain beans. Until we get a hog we'll still have a few kitchen scraps that will go to waste otherwise.

I got one a month ago and loved it, until, we had two weeks of heavy rain and the composter was flooded. I closed all the air vents on the tumbler before it rained but the rain still got in through the seems. I treid to rescue the compost as it started to spoil, but I couldnt. I wasted a lot of material in that spoiled batch and I still have to go clean it out and dump the anerobic compost. I am giving it one more try to see if I want to keep it. This time it will be under a tarp.

City Bound,

I want to build one out of a plastic barrel which will not need air holes in the barrel where water will get in. Instead, it will have two PVC pipes that extend beyond the ends of the barrel that are open but have screens to keep bees out. The PVC pipes will be perforated so air can get in to the compost. It will spin on a 3/4" steel pipe in the center of the barrel. The steel pipe will sit horizontal on top of a wooden frame. A simple hatch type door will be cut into the side for adding and removing material.

When you make it, also fit two rods through the barrel from front to back. They'll slice through the material and keep it from rolling into one big "loaf" if you don't have baffles..

Martin

Great Idea. I will add that to my plans. Thx.

Sounds good. I have made a few compost bin, during my on going quest for the perfect system. One bin I made had perferated pvc pipes in it to let the air in. The trouble I had with that bin was water getting in and over watering the compost. Next I made a bin by stacking plastic milk crates and putting a roof on it to regulate the water, that worked good, but taking the stack of milk crates down every time I needed to turn the pile was a pain. So, now i am trying the tumbler and if it doesnt work well I will go back to the milk crate bin.

Let me know how your bin comes out.

Paul W, you have a good point. maybe making compost is a sign that something is wrong with systems in a persons lifestyle. You follow permaculture, right? Is your opinion about compost influenced by your explorations into permiculture?

The original form of composting food products was consuming the edible portion and discarding the rest in place. That was the natural method used by every form of animal life. The edible portion would then be processed for the calories it contained and the unused solids deposited as waste elsewhere. That went out of fashion when one line of animals decided that it was easier to grow much of their food instead of wandering around and looking for it. Thus humans are the only ones who have mastered that while the rest of the animal kingdom still stick to the original design of merely in one end and out the other in a continuous cycle with little or no defined rules. Returning to that is not an option for humans at this time given the number of potential participants.

After giving considerable thought to the suggestion that composting is wrong, I can't come up with any domestic animal which would substitute for the tumbler here. A goat could eat the leaves which fall from the 3 trees on this property but there would only be about enough to last for a month or so. Rabbits could eat the grass and do that for 6 or 7 months in a wet year. A pig would be left with mostly coffee grounds, tea bags, and onion skins. Chickens would find food for 8 months here and not much. Anyone who generates enough waste material to support such a menagerie can only do so with a massive infusion of food for it. A compost tumbler allows a person to add something when he has it available or when there is sufficient accumulation to be added. Unlike an animal which suffers when not fed for a week, the tumbler is content to just be turned a few times each day.

Oh, so as to not to be judged a hypocrite on the above, I do often dig a few dandelion plants and give them to the pigeons. They do convert the plants to very rich droppings which end up in the tumbler. But again, that's only for a short period before either the supply is exhausted or the plants become too bitter for the birds.

Want to learn everything about composting? Remember what I've sometimes said that it all leads back to compost? You can prove it by signing in at http://z15.invisionfree.com/SCMFroup/index.php and learn what IALBTC means!

Martin

Paquebot - what is IALBTC? It appears that you must register to take a look and I don't like that idea.

I just went to that site (but didn't register). It All Leads Back To Compost.

Before I heard the word "permaculture" I referred to what I was doing as "full farm ecosystem: systems feeding systems feeding systems." And this lack of compost thing started happening before the p-word came along.

I had always done a lot of composting, so the idea that suddenly I had no compost made me think I was doing something wrong. But on further reflection, I thought the new path was better.

I made a podcast with Helen Atthowe, the most advanced composter I have ever met, and we talk about how her massive composting operation started to move in this direction. We also talked about many situations one might still want to make some compost. And we talked about folks that don't have a full farm, and composting, and how you don't need to buy anything to have an excellent compost pile.

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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my compost tumbler worked OK, but it was a hassel getting the finished compost out of the tumbler, esp for this nearly 60 year old lady..first I had to roll it either onto a wheelborrow or to the back garden and then open it and then get the stuff out..which was the most difficult part of having a tumbler..there is not the best opening in the tumbler and it has a lip about 2" extending inside the tumbler where the lid screws into it that catches the stuff when i tip it out or even use a small rake...which means you can't get the last little bit out at all unless you nearly climb into the tumbler..

I can't kneel or crawl around on my haunches as I'm partly disabled with a painful hip replacement, so it just ISN'T for ME..even though it did work well ..except it did freeze in the winter..it made great compost

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Quite often, ads for that type will show a woman standing by it and holding a shovel full of compost. That would indicate the probable best method for getting it out of the tumbler is to shovel it out since every gardener has a shovel. Also, it would need not be completely empty unless doing a special batch.

Martin

Paquae, wether to compost or not comes down to personal choice. Paul's comment made me think about it in a different way, and made me curious if such a thing could even be done.

I personally think compost is good. I dont have animals yet, so my compost pit is the best way to give back to the garden that gives so much to me. I think composting is laborsome sometimes, but I feel ethicly that I do have to live with nature's laws and ways the best I can and laboring a little to give back to the ecosystem is a wholesome effort.

If I had animals I would give them all the scraps I could and then compost what they dont eat. I pull my weeds when they are young and I just leave them laying on top of the soil where I pulled them, it works for me.

Everything turns back to compost, even us, and everything is then made in large part from compost (I guess genisus was right).