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Soil, Compost & Mulch

homemade compost booster

15 years ago

im looking for a good homemade recipe for some compost booster. im just about open to pretty much anything. ive got my pile layered with just about anything i could find. it is very large and i want to get it cooking. thank you fellow composters david goode

Featured Answer

iowa50126

15 years ago

I use Diet Coke, beer, diet rootbeer, tea, milk, water, OJ, Canadian Club, 7-Up and sometimes hot coco...but not coffee...I hate coffee.

Of course, I purify it by passing it through my kidneys first just to be safe. (grin)

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Comments (11)

gnomey
15 years ago
you've got it right now.. no mixing, nothing to buy.

Urine.
brandond
15 years ago
I use chicken or horse manure. I also have used alfalfa meal. Its good at getting things hot. Just put a few cups on it and turn it over a few times. Really anthing that has nitrogen works well. Blood meal, is another one.
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Both temp. and pests are more a function of how well you understand the composting process, rather than the type of bin you use. Many people think the compost bin is the first step, but I consider choosing an approciate bin/system the last step. The poster did not indicate the size of his tumbler, which is one consideration; and especially important in the winter I found my tumbler to be too much work in the warmer months, and decidely inferior in the winter to a more traditional mesh bin. Plus, the mesh bins costs $20 versus $350 for the tumbler, and held three times as much material. .
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Tom I don't have a bearing. I just cut a hole the same size as the OD of the galvanized gas pipe I had (1 1/4" pipe) using an adjustable hole saw. If the hole wears too fast I'll just use some wax for lube on the next ones. I can get more barrels free. I work part time at a car wash and just bring home the empty white chemical barrels (painted the first one black also). I also have a friend that works at a uniform company that brought me 2 of the blue ones (what I made the second out of). I'm thinking about getting more of the blue ones and saving the $6 for the paint. We'll see how much of a difference there is in temperature between the 2 before deciding that. I'm also using these barrels for rain storage. I only get the ones that came with biodegradable products in them. All the car wash products are biodegradable. I figure it's much better to reuse them for something than let them go to a landfill. I might even cut some in half and use them for planters. I'll bet I could make some hefty SWC's from them that would last longer than any I've seen.
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*sigh* and here I have been thinking of a 55 gallons drum as my "base" with the power supplied by me turning it a few revolutions per day! I guess I'll have to think about scaling THAT idea up! Although, having never looked into making one up till last week I am very please to see the wheel idea at tyhe bottom as that is where my brain was going... Glad I am on the right track!
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westover
15 years ago
The hottest temperature reached in my Earth Machine composter was 165 Fahrenheit, and that happened a few days after I dumped in a batch of fresh English Ivy that I had just pulled and ground up.
gilli2007
15 years ago
Rabbit pellets soaked in water works for me.
digdirt2
15 years ago
Another vote for alfalfa pellets - rabbit food. Cheap and effective. Another good one is a cheapo box of blood meal - about $2 at Walmart but hard to find this time of year.

Beer is another option as is molasses and canned soda.

Dave
bpgreen
15 years ago
If you're looking for free stuff, I'd start with UCG and various animal manures. If you're ambitious, urine can help, as long as you don't already have too much moisture.

If you want to buy something, if you have a dollar store and they have bags of cat or dog food, those can provide a quick boost. The cat food usually provides more bang for the buck since it has a higher protein content. A potential drawback to the cat food is that it may have a higher salt content.
Kimmsr
15 years ago
The coffee grounds, N of about 1.7, alfalfa meal, blood meal, N of about 7, or anything with a C:N ratio below 30:1 would be a catalyst and get your compost cooking.
burra_maluca
15 years ago
How about liquid gold, aka human urine?

It's free and it gets the heap cooking in no time.
gamekeeper
15 years ago
My kids never finish more than half a glass of soda but always fill very large glass and now I add that to my compost bucket rather than putting it down the drain.At the end of a year it amounts to quite a bit.
packrats_r_us
15 years ago
Any one have access to a truck stop? Ever heard of trucker bombs? hehe.

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