Resolutions for improving my compost this year:

Start a windrow compost operation (perhaps to replace the standard compost piles)
Covered tunnel over windrow of finished compost for access during winter
Redworm vermiculture OUTdoors (instead of just indoors, possibly in combination with the windrows)
Screening of compost

Things to learn:

Since I haven't done any of the above yet, I need to learn how to do them. For most of them, information is already available from a lot of sources. Using redworms to compost outdoors in zone 5 does not have a lot of available information however.

Ask other gardeners about their soil and compost.

Try experiments. I'm starting Bokashi this year. No expense to speak of, why not try it. Vermicomposting needs worms and some attention to keep flies out, so Bokashi will come before Vermicomposting. If I fished regularly, it might be Vermi before Bokashi.

My goals for composting this year:

1. Turn more frequently.
2. Make items smaller before putting in the bin.
3. Gather more ingredients, hopefully making more compost.
4. Devise a smaller hand screen for the vermicompost. Dh had made a screen that fits the wheelbarrow which is great when going through a whole bin but if I only want a little compost at a time, something less cumbersome would be appreciated. I am thinking of lining a milk crate with hardware cloth.

No changes for me.

Lloyd

I would like a rotating trommel screener with a hopper feed system. I've toyed with the idea of using a gravity feed system for turning a bin into a lower bin simply by lifting a door. Still working on a sensible design. Anyone who looks at Lloyds' photos will know he is the master.

First, Lloyd has it down! You go, dude.
I have been designing a pvc air injection system for my 8' diameter wire bins. Got a bad back, so can't turn often to oxygenate, so thinking about a pvc system with an exterior hookup to place at the bottom of the bin before starting to enter new OM. I've been adding urea as the N source since most of my stuff is leaves, water as needed. I've been injecting O2 from an air compressor via a tube stuffed in multiple times around the bin, seems to work...just looking for an easier way to add all the ingredients to speed the process.
hortster

Coffee waste the same as always.
More leaves, straw & grass from the field.
Outdoor Vermiculture & trench composting.
I will add some powdered Bentonite clay & Char coal to finished compost as I spread it on a bed.
This is so more goody stuff will stay in the soil of the bed.
Even better, the clay will not only hold water & elements, but may make it hard for RKN to live in the soil.
I have very sandy soil, more like a filter that most thing past though.

jolj, I'm with you on all but bentonite? Used to be heavy in ceramics, accidentally spilled bentonite on my driveway before a rain. Tough to get the car back in! "Liquid banana peel!" They use that to make the drill slip more easily when drilling for oil.
How does that help in sandy soil vs. using a regular types of clay? Just curious...
hortster

Horster, Eliot Coleman describes in "New Organic Grower" adding montmorillonite (which he said is also called Wyoming bentonite) to forage crops and the soil in hoophouses to improve the quality of the soil and humus.

"Montmorillonite is an expanding lattice clay that has been determined to have both biotic and abiotic effects in aiding the conversion of organic matter into stable humus. The resulting clay humus fraction that develops is very beneficial to soil fertility and plant growth."

He refers to a publication by P.M. Huang and M. Schinitzer, eds., "Interactions of Soil Minerals with Natural Organics and Microbes," SSSA Special Pubn., No. 17 (Madison, WI: Soil Science Society of America, 1986)

According to my soils textbook, montmorillonite clay has a specific surface up to about 800 m2/g, "which means that 3.5 grams of this clay has a serface area equal to that of a football field." "Montmorillonite clays have the greatest specific surface" of the clays.

Coleman and many others often recommend the addition of very fine rock powders to improve the availability of minerals in soils. Since food cops remove minerals from the cycle, it makes sense to replenish them with slow-release replacements. Shells from oysters and clams can also have long-term beneficial effects if they are crushed and added to soil or compost.

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback, everyone. There are lots of great ideas here, as well as throughout the forum. Thank you all for making this such a great online community.

Richard

Here is a link that might be useful: How Do You Compost?

hortster, I wondered if anyone caught that bentonite was not just field clay.
It is used to seal the drill chamber in many drilling operations.
A fruit friend, who is a geologist told me to try only a small amount. He said you add a little to water, you have dirty water, a little more as you stir, a little more, then you have thick mud. To be very light handed with it.
Thanks for looking out for me, but I am putting the bentonite in only on small bed to see how it will react.
To much & I could seal the bed, so it goes in dry, on dry soil & till it in.
Hopefully it will work & I can show photos.
Your commends are welcome, as always.
JOLJ

When putting together something on composting, remember that compost basically means "rot". So I sheet compost residues. I am able to finely chop them up in place...natures way?