How to manage composting kitchen scraps in the winter.
linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
15 years ago
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duluthinbloomz4
15 years agohighalttransplant
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Compost kitchen scraps with no smell in small space
Comments (19)-What is the purpose of fermentation? Why are fermented scraps preferable to fresh ones? --Purpose? In a kitchen bucket, it has the same general purpose as compostingto break down material into plant-accessible nutrients. Its just a different process, requiring conditions easier to maintain in a bucket. I dont know that fermented matter is always preferable; that depends on your needs and situation. For me, bokashi means I can feed my container garden all my kitchen waste (including meats, dairies, and oil). The liquid has value as a fertilizer, too, and is harvestable in as little as a few days after starting a bucket fermenting. Also, materials compost more easily after fermenting than when fresh. -Does it smell? If so, how much? Any rat or bug issues so far? --If you have the right container, theres no scent at all outside the bucket, so nothing to attract pests. When you open a healthy bucket, the smell is like vinegar, though if youve added a lot of a strongly scented item, the bucket will smell like that and vinegar for a day or so. Mistakes will stinkas with any processbut I didnt run into any problems until after I started testing which of the retailer instructions I could safely ignore, so if you follow directions, thats probably not an issue. -G- -Does fermented stuff take longer to compost than fresh stuff? --No!!! Fermented bokashi speeds aerobic composting marvelously; you can add it to a slow pile as an accelerator. I get fresh compost from cured bokashi and dried leaves in about a month, ditto from bokashi and soil (as with any compost, it should be left to mature awhile before using in the garden, and Im still testing those times). -Is anyone burying the fermented stuff without composting it first? If so, do you live in the city/ have rats? --Sadly, I have no holes in the ground. -The biggest benefit as I see it, is that I wouldn't need browns. I could probably filch a used newspaper here and there, but finding browns in three times the quantity of my kitchen scraps is not proving easy. If I can compost without having to drive around looking for bags of leaves/ begging home depot for sawdust, so much the better. --This is true. If youre going to trench (bury) orplanter-finish your bokashi, youll need soil but no browns. To compost your bokashi in a container after fermentingI recommend that part be done out on a balcony or other outdoor spaceyou will need some browns, though not nearly so many as with fresh-matter aerobic composting. Ive been using equal volumes of bokashi and dried leaves; YMMV. Retail EM bokashi bran is usually wheat bran in the US, but thats convenience and consistency more than anything, and you dont use much per bucket. Buying EM-1 inoculant fluid is cheaper than buying pre-mixed, and you can make your own bokashi "bran" with any number of things. Im playing with used coffee grounds right now, and have used EM inoculant fluid in shredded newspaper with some success. Cant speak to the non-retail newspaper-and-whey technique, as I havent yet tried it (small space, lots of experiments, but I will, soon. Ish). If odors are a concern, you might add a handful of really good soil and hope for rhodobacters! Obligatory disclaimer: while not a retailer, I do have a blog about bokashi, so am probably not the most unbiased of sources. DSF...See MoreCompost Newbie!! Easy to manage compost setup???
Comments (17)Judy, If critters are a problem, you can always trench compost. This is how my mom has been doing it since forever. If she has something really stinky like lobster shells she digs a deeper hole, but usually she just takes the day's kitchen scraps out to the garden and buries them. In summer she buries them between rows, in winter she buries them anyplace until the ground freezes, then she just dumps them on top until spring. You could do a couple of trenches if you want to start with a big load of something stinky, but if you are going to do mostly kitchen scraps a daily hole will do fine. I have an open pile next to my current veggie bed and that works fine but if I want to compost something really stinky like some chicken I forgot in the fridge or one of the casualties from my chipmunk eradication program I just bury it. So far that has worked extremely well....See MoreFreezing kitchen scraps for compost
Comments (15)I'm not super big on aesthetics, so I just keep an open tin foil pie plate and put all the scraps and coffee grounds in it. It thus gets carried out often. I don't use a compost pile at all, I just toss it on top of, or depending on what it is, under the mulch. It's rare that it gets messy, and it is never allowed to get to the point where it has any smells. Leaving an open plate ensures that I can always see it, and never forget to do the simple chore of carrying it outside. Translating that to freezing would mean that you keep an open-able bag or container in the freezer and add to that instead of a counter-top container. The scraps would never get to the point of messiness....See MoreCompost scrap storage for new kitchen?
Comments (14)Free containers---especially ones already trash bound---are my favorite, but pretty is nice, too. Your fruitflies depend on large, infrequently emptied, compost containers. I agree with Flora. You don't want to have more than a gallon of scraps at a time in your house. While I can see someone with physical limitations using an expensive, energy using, plastic gadget for producing something that can be produced naturally outdoors, I can't see a serious composter with acreage being able to keep up using one. May I recommend an outdoor compost bin for you as a housewarming gift before you start seeing all the fancy cedar ones available? I love my hardware cloth (Hardware cloth is a stiff wire mesh, much stiffer than chicken wire.) freestanding, bottomless, stake-free compost cylinders. If you decide to be a compost flipper, they're lovely for that, but they're also very easy to harvest from if you're a cold composter. I can't wait to get my hands on you....See Morediggerdee zone 6 CT
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