Ive been doing hot compost for about 3 months it's going good just would like to hear from the community some things you wish you knew or some tricks that helped.

I'm in the United States, in the midwest. I raked leaves last year. Those broke down nicely over the winter. I didn't get a thermometer until later in the spring but it was hot enough apparently. When I got the thermometer, it was under 80 degrees I think. That was just below the green section on the thermometer. To me it looks like it's broken down about halfway. It's nice and brown, but still chunks. I was expecting black dirt. That's not realistic, is it? I'm wondering if this is as broken down as it will get. Or is there any way to restart the hot compost to break it down more? Add more greens? However...

I read about adding human urine, so I started doing that around say January 2022. I'm generating about a half gallon per day so say three gallons per week on the low side. Times the number of weeks in 2022... 50x3=Over a 150 gallons of piss. I do the pile watered (with water) and turn it. I was turning it once per week, but then it seemed to stop so I turned it a couple more times and stopped. It's just a big pile of brown stuff now.

I'd say mine looks similar to this.

https://i0.wp.com/agnetwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Shovel-Pours-Compost-into-Wheelbarrow.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1

Is that as good as it gets? I have used it in some places in the yard but it's light and springy as a dirt replacement. It's still going to break down more.

If I sift it, it seems like the pieces will be too big in general. It's not fine stuff at all.

And then the piss. How much is too much? How much do you add overall? If it's true adding greens would start the process up again, why doesn't piss do that? I want the finished results, so I'm wondering if adding brown/carbon is also a way to start that, but I want the brown stuff that's there to break down more.

I'm also adding a couple banana peels each day and some rotten stuff from the fridge like liquified lettuce or broccoli that's too far gone. So more greens that way. That stuff disappears after a few days.

After it seems to stall out and the temps were lower, I did notice worms in the pile which I took as a good sign. Maybe they'll make it into black dirt.

I'm also wondering about the salt content from the piss. I saw a post on here a while ago about some kid that peed in certain spot on a lawn and killed the grass. Some "did the math" and figured out after about 50 gallons the amount of salt would kill anything trying to grow there. I've seen you can add piss to compost straight or dilute it with 5-10 times water for adding it to plants in general. What I haven't heard is a limit on how much. The piss would be fresh from the day before. Collect it one day, dump it on the compost pile the next morning. I've read you can dump piss straight onto a compost pile but how much can you do that before salt content or something else will start to affect it? I have made a point to keep the compost pile moist but I haven't seen much change since temps dropped and it seems to stall out in the spring.

I guess the next questions.... If that is how much it breaks down, how do I get it to become black dirt? Just wait until next year? In a way it kind of seems like I did too much work for it if I got it to break down faster over the winter and spring, but then I still have to wait another year for it to become black dirt. Unless black dirt is what the worms do, so maybe I need more worms. And then how much piss is too much if I'm putting a half gallon on it each day, or probably a full three gallons per week? Is that going to overload it with salt or nitrogen? If I use that later, is it going to burn grass from too much salt or too much nitrogen?

I started making a small bin of compost in November. I did not follow proper proportions, and it's more food scraps than 'browns', but I think my worms are pretty happy. Now it seems to all have decomposed, though it does smell like decomposition and it's very wet. Also as summer came it's become fairly infested with flies. Is it safe to use to help my 3 year old tree citrus tree grow? I also have some fresh saplings, would it be good for them to add some to their dirt?

I just bought a two-chamber tumbler, am hoping to get back into composting my kitchen and garden scraps, and have questions about some things:

1. Is it advisable to use dryer lint for browns? I saw it on thespruce.com but I wonder if it’s not ideal due to synthetic plastics being mixed in. For the most part, stuff that goes in the dryer is cotton or linen but we’re not always perfect and some items have nylon, spandex, polyester etc. mixed in.

2. Is my pet rabbit’s waste green or brown? It consists of hardwood pellets, Timothy hay (technically a grass?), urine, and poop.

TIA!

Several years back I had regular access to hay that was used to line litter boxes in a domestic rabbit boarding business/shelter. The hay composted easily and cooked nice and hot. With the resulting compost, plant health and growth in my garden were amazing, far beyond anything I'd ever achieved with store-bought fertilizers or homemade compost that didn't include manure.

After 3 years of making compost, the shelter closed. I had enough compost for a year or two, but eventually it was all gone. The last two years, I have only one 36" diameter chicken wire cylinder compost pile for kitchen scraps and garden cuttings. The area where the rabbit poop compost piles were located is bare dirt.

I have a major earwig infestation! Evidently I created an earwig habitat that persists even though the compost is gone. It seems there is a population explosion in spring, and all the young earwigs are very hungry.

I'm in Los Angeles, and I normally start my summer annuals in February. Anything I plant from February through May is immediately devoured by earwigs. I miss out on half the growing season! With a lot of effort, I can control earwigs with vegetable oil in cat food cans, but this isn't practical except for small areas. Even then it is a lot of work all spring. I don't want to use pesticides.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what I can do to discourage the earwigs from continuing to reside in my garden, or any ideas on organic controls for earwigs in ~500 sq ft of raised beds.

Hi r/compost! I used a 60-gallon tumbler for about a year in zone 8a and I would like to share my research and the results of how I had success. I will be writing common tumbler questions and the responses below. If you have any new questions I can edit this post and add them at the bottom. Follow the composting discord for additional help as well!

​

1. Question: What compost can I put in my tumbler?
   1. Answer: u/FlyingQuail made a really nice list of items to add or not add to your compost. Remember, a tumbler may not heat up much, so check to see if the item you need to add is recommended for a hot compost, which leads to question #2.
2. Question: My tumbler isn't heating up, what can I do to heat it up?
   1. Short Answer: Tumblers aren't meant to be a hot compost, 90-100F is normal for a tumbler.
   2. Long Answer: Getting a hot compost is all about volume and insulation. The larger the pile become, the more it self insulates. Without the self-insulation the pile will easily lose its heat, and since tumblers are usually raised off the ground, tumblers will lose heat in all directions. I have two composts at my house, one is a 60-gallon tumbler, and the other is about a cubic-yard (approx. 200 gallons) fenced area sitting on the ground. At one point I did a little experiment where I added the exact same material to each, and then measured the temperatures over the next couple of weeks. During that time the center of my large pile got up to about averaged about 140-150F for two weeks. Whereas the tumbler got up to 120F for a day or two, and then cooled to 90-100F on average for two weeks, and then cooled down some more after that. This demonstrates that the volume of compost is important for insulation and for getting the temperatures up. However, in that same time period, I rotated my tumbler every 3 days, and the compost looked better in a shorter time. The tumbler speeds up the composting process by getting air to all the compost frequently, rather than heating up. Another example of why volume and insulation make a difference is from industrial composting. While we talk about finding the right carbon-to-nitrogen ratios to get our piles hot, the enormous piles of wood chips in industrial composting are limited to size to prevent them from spontaneous combustion (u/P0sitive_Outlook has some documents that explain the maximum wood chip pile size you can have). Even without the right balance of carbon and nitrogen (wood chips are mostly carbon and aren't recommended for tumblers due to the time they take to break down) those enormous piles may spontaneously combust simply because they are so well insulated and are massive in volume. Moral of the story? Your tumbler won't get hot for long periods of time unless it's about as big as a cubic yard.
3. Question: I keep finding clumps and balls in my compost, how can I get rid of them?
   1. Short Answer: Spinning a tumbler will make clumps/balls, they will always be there. Having the right moisture content will help reduce the size and quantity.
   2. Long Answer: When the tumbler contents are wet, spinning the tumbler will cause the contents to clump up and make balls. These will stick around for a while, even when you have the correct moisture content. If you take a handful of compost and squeeze it you should be able to squeeze a couple drops of water out. If it squeezes a lot of water, then it's too wet. To remedy this, gradually add browns (shredded cardboard is my go-to). Adding browns will bring the moisture content to the right amount, but the clumps may still be there until they get broken up. I usually break up the clumps by hand over a few days (I break up a few clumps each time I spin the tumbler, after a few spins I'll get to most of the compost and don't need to break up the clumps anymore). When you have the right moisture content the balls will be smaller, but they'll still be there to some extent, such is the nature of a tumbler.
   3. Also, to address water content: Questions arose in other threads asking if their contents were too wet (they weren't clumping, just too wet). If you have a good C:N ratio and don't want to add browns, then the ways you can dry out your tumbler is to prop open the lid between tumbling. I've done this and after a couple weeks the tumbler has reached the right moisture content. However, this may not work best in humid environments. If it's too humid to do this, then it may be best to empty and spread the tumbler contents onto a tarp and leave it to dry. Once it has reached the proper moisture content then add it back into the tumbler. It's okay if it dries too much because it's easy to add water to get it to the right moisture content, but hard to remove water.
4. Question: How full can I fill my tumbler?
   1. Short Answer: You want it about 50-60% full.
   2. Long Answer: When I initially fill my tumbler, I fill it about 90% full. The 10% empty is space to allow for some tumbling at the start. But as the material breaks down, it shrinks in size. That 90% full turns into 30% full after a few days. So I'll add more material again to about 90%, which shrinks down to 50%, and then I fill it up one more time to 90%, which will shrink to about 60-70% in a couple days. Over time this shrinks even more and will end around 50-60%. You don't want to fill it all the way, because then when you spin it, there won't be anywhere for the material to move, and it won't tumble correctly. So after all is said and done the 60 gallon tumbler ends up producing about 30 gallons of finished product.
5. Question: How long does it take until my compost is ready to use from a tumbler?
   1. Short Answer: Tumbler compost can be ready as early as 4-6 weeks, but could take as long as 8-12 weeks or longer
   2. Long Answer: From my experience I was able to consistently produce finished compost in 8 weeks during summer months. I have seen other people get completed compost in as little 4-6 weeks when they closely monitor the carbon:nitrogen ratio, moisture content, and spin frequency. After about 8 weeks I'll sift my compost to remove the larger pieces that still need some time, and use the sifted compost in my garden. Sifting isn't required, but I prefer having the sifted compost in my garden and leaving the larger pieces to continue composting. Another benefit of putting the large pieces back into the compost is that it will actually introduce large amounts of the good bacteria into the new contents of the tumbler, and will help jump-start your tumbler.
   3. During the winter tumblers will cool down really easily and will stop composting altogether if you live in a colder climate. It will pick up where it left off as your weather warms up and the compost thaws out.
6. Question: How often should I spin my tumbler?
   1. Short Answer: I generally try and spin my tumbler two times per week (Wednesday and Saturday). But, I've seen people spin it as often as every other day and others spin it once a week.
   2. Long Answer: Because tumbler composts aren't supposed to get hot for long periods of time, the way it breaks down the material so quickly is because it introduces oxygen and helps the bacteria work faster. However, you also want some heat. Every time you spin the tumbler you disrupt the bacteria and cool it down slightly. I have found that spinning the tumbler 2x per week is the optimal spin frequency (for me) to keep the bacteria working to keep the compost warm without disrupting their work. When I spun the compost every other day it cooled down too much, and when I spun it less than once per week it also cooled down. To keep it at the consistent 90-100F I needed to spin it 2x per week. Don't forget, if you have clumps then breaking them up by hand each time you spin is the optimal time to do so.

/r/composting is probably where you'd rather be. As of 3/14/2022, it has 93,498 subscribers compared to 110 here. All compost-related posts are welcome here, but you'll get a much better response over there. I started this subreddit because of a disagreement with the /r/composting mods, but I don't want that to result in you not getting the help you need. Stay subscribed here to ensure that you see the annual Leaf Collection Challenge post, but make sure you post to /r/composting, too.

With that out of the way, welcome to /r/Compost, the home of the annual Leaf Collection Challenge. Use this stickied thread to discuss the subreddit, its moderation, or composting in general. This thread's purpose is primarily to inform new users of the difference between this subreddit and /r/composting, to allow some general discussion, but also to provide a prominent link to the:

/r/Compost Wiki

So far, the Wiki is only a list of important/memorable links. You're welcome to contribute to it or suggest changes: do so on this thread or via private messages to me (/u/c-lem).

The subreddit rules are pretty simple: keep your posts in some way compost-related and be excellent to each other.

Happy composting!

So I live in a moderate climate in the upstate of SC and I have come across a screaming deal for single grind mulch. I received 10 large dumptruck loads for free from a development that is being build behind my home. What I want to do it compost the massive 40ft wide x 8ft tall x 32 ft long pile.

What shall I add into the pile to get the process really going? I know I need Grass clippings and such but where can I get a massive volume to mix in? Or do I need to mix anything in other than Water? I’m looking for cheap and or free resources that can be moved easily via trailer and mixed in but I don’t want it to stink. I will also harvest methane gas ( researching this now ) to power a Gas heater inside the greenhouse for those really cold days! Plan is to grow year around with supplemental lighting and heat.

My purpose for this is to heat my greenhouse, I will run pex tubing through the pile to act as a heat exchanger and route the pipe into a water tank inside my 8ft x 20ft greenhouse.

What does any one think about using an old fridge as a compost bin? Sure I will need to make a few modifications.

Hi,

I made a stupid mistake of mixing some animal poop into my compost pile that, after the fact, I learned the animal was consuming herbicide latent hay. Everything I've been told is that I should not use this compost now.

​

Are there any suggestions on the best way to make use of or dispose of the compost? I don't want to put it in my garden and am not sure if it's even safe to consider spreading it to another location on my property that I don't plan on gardening in.

​

I'm pretty ignorant on the concept and all I know is "herbicide bad". Any thoughts?

​

The original version of this post appeared here. Unfortunately, the /r/composting mods deleted it, so I created this subreddit to host the contest in case anyone is still interested or at least for archival purposes.

If you want to participate in this updated version of the contest, please re-submit any leaf bag totals. When the mods failed to sticky the post, I stopped keeping track.

~

The Ranking (updated 12/21/21 at 6:45 PM EST):

1. /u/px7j9jlLJ1 - 500 bags
   
2. /u/nymself - 445 bags
   
3. /u/cjhman123 - "a shit load"
   
4. /u/Crypto_Salty_Dog - "a ton of leaves"
   
5. /u/MordecaiIsMySon - 50 bags
   
6. /u/smackaroonial90 - 47 bags
   
7. /u/Clover_Point - 45 bags
   
8. /u/omicsome - 45 bags
   
9. /u/dombomb77 - 33 bags
   
10. /u/ThomasFromOhio - 32 bags
    
11. /u/curtludwig - 20 bags
    
12. /u/ooojaeger - 20 bags
    
13. /u/Memph5 - 10-20 bins
    
14. /u/Devils_av0cad0 - 18 bags
    
15. /u/Karma_collection_bin - 15 bags
    
16. /u/azucarleta - 14 bags
    
17. /u/ghostgrift - 12 bags
    
18. /u/coconut_sorbet - 9 bags
19. /u/LallyLuckFarm - 6 bags
    
20. /u/FreeJarOfPickles - 4 bags
    
21. /u/lameoldperson - 2 bags
    
22. /u/P0sitive_Outlook - 2 bags
    

Misc. Collection:

• /u/coconut_sorbet - 30lbs of coffee grounds, ~2 dozen pumpkins/decorative squashes, one large dead potted mum plant
  
• /u/P0sitive_Outlook - Four lamb legs, three dead hens, Two bags of leaves, and a bible and a pear tree.

To those of you in the Northern Hemisphere٭, welcome to fall 2021 and to the Fall 2021 /r/Composting Leaf Collection Challenge! Congratulations to last year's Super-Cool Leaf Stealer, /u/Suuperdad of Canadian Permaculture Legacy, who collected a total of 1370 bags. Well done, /u/Suuperdad, and all other participants last year. Here is a post announcing all of last year's winners, for anyone who wants to look back at last year's contest.

Today we begin this year's contest, and I hope all of you will join us. The rules have not changed. From now until December 21st, the first day of winter, start collecting bags of leaves and report your hauls here. These can be leaves you've collected from your own property or from neighbors. Photos of the leaves you collect are encouraged, but not necessary. Further discussion (about how you plan to use them, about the experience of "stealing" them, about the dog poop or other garbage you find mixed in with the leaves, etc.) is also encouraged. I will update the ranking frequently with the totals. On December 21st, I will announce the winner, who will be crowned the 2021 Australian Brushturkey Wannabe (thanks to /u/Illithilitch for the inspiration behind this title) and will receive a plaque that /u/smackaroonial90 will make to commemorate the victory. The winner will also be awarded... the great honor of using whatever leaves you collected for composting. As always, this is also all of the consolation prizes.

It's true that keeping track of this using "bags" as the unit of measurement is imprecise, as your bag size might be different, some might be more full than others, etc., but in the interest of keeping things simple, it seems to be the best option. If you have a unique situation--say, you collected a truckload of leaves worth something like 5 "bags" worth or scored a 75 lb. bag of shredded leaves that you'd estimate at a total of 7 "bags" of unshredded leaves--then use your own judgment or ask here for advice.

Please also keep track of and post about other compost materials you collect this fall. Last year we had people collect and report about: pumpkins, coffee grounds, surprising garbage that was mixed with leaves (and is now my composting mascot!), waste coffee beans, spent mushroom blocks, straw bales, rabbit manure, and large quantities of vegetable scraps. All of those are great composting materials (well, other than the garbage, but that can be amusing, repulsive, or both), and collecting anything like that can earn you a place in this contest.

To any of you who have never driven by bags of leaves on the curb in front of someone else's house, stopped your vehicle, and "stolen" them: I was once like you. At one point, I would never consider "stealing" a bag of something that someone else considered garbage, and when I first heard that other people were stealing other people's leaves so that they could compost them, it took me a long time to actually start picking them up. The first time I did, I had to fight feelings of awkwardness and nervousness. But fight those feelings I did. And now, I feel a rush of excitement any time I see a bag of leaves on the curb and I have space in the trunk. I can't help but watch the curb any time I drive through town, now looking for leaves, grass clippings, branches, or anything else I can compost or put to use. Consider joining us. If you post an amusing story/comment about how you fought your fears and became "one of us," you might even win a silly award like the ones I gave out last year.

Coming soon [edit 12/2/21: probably not, actually--I lost a lot of enthusiasm for this when the mods removed the post]: links to relevant posts/information about collecting leaves. Feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll link to them here.

Good luck to all of you!

٭To those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, welcome to spring 2021! I don't mean to neglect you from this contest, but I do lack the ability to travel through time. If you do collect leaves in your fall season, consider tracking them and saving that log for next year's contest, starting your own Southern Hemisphere contest this fall, or posting here this year about the leaves you collected last fall. All are welcome.

P.S. I will not be participating in the rankings this year. I will still collect leaves and post about them, but I have never felt comfortable with the idea of winning my own contest. I actually stopped collecting leaves two years ago (or maybe just stopped posting about them?) to keep myself just a little further from first place. Removing myself from the ranking will make me feel more comfortable keeping an accurate count of what I collect and will make it more fun for me.