I have been playing around with kitchen waste and found that putting fruit and vegetable peels through a meat grinder and adding some composting bran to it makes some safe instant compost within a few days. I have been trying this on my container grown vegetables. The plants looks good so far... Do you have any tips that you would like to share ...
I have never heard of adding bran before but I wouldn't think that it could harm the plants. It is interesting that the bran speeds up the process. I have just tilled peels, egg shells and used coffee grounds into the soil before planting young plants and that seems to really help out alot. This can be done in the fall when preparing the garden for winter as well.
Maddie, are you still thinking of trying bokashi? I found an interesting DIY link that shows how you can make your own starter mix, though to me it seems a little labor intensive. That is unless you want to be able to compost meats and fats. Here's the link:Log In.
Channel, the second option sounds good and it not so hard to do. Anyways I think I would use wormy compost instead, the worms would easily eat up all the ground stuff in no time. I am already doing this and let me wait for a week to see how my experiment goes. Dissn-it, the bran is said to be inoculate the soil and prevent the compost from carry any infections or diseases from the rotting waste to the plants on which you would be using the compost. The bokashi bran is expensive and I think I would try earthworms or yogurt as suggested by the link channel has provided.You don't need to add any soil to this mixture. The bran or the worms would take care of the stuff themselves.
Maddie, I am strongly leaning towards using worms indoors. It seems like a very efficient way to dispose of kitchen scraps and you get a quick return. Not to mention there is the liquid byproduct as well. The worms can only eat so much so I will most likely set up a regular bin outdoors for the surplus as well, but I think I would prefer them over a bokashi system for now.
The worms seem to be doing well at the moment with my experiment... there is little or no smell with my compost.. and I turn it around a bit everyday... I think I will use this method more than the bokashi style because that will take me two months or more to get a bag of compost.
Worms definitely seem the faster way to go and you don't need additives to spark the decomposition process. To me the only drawback with the worms would be the amount of food scraps you can put in. I think I may still need a conventional compost bin outside to handle the overflow. For a while I was freezing scraps and taking them to the farmer's market to be composted. I have some scraps in the freezer now to start a bin with, I just need to find a spot and drill holes and get started. The worms will come down the road, maybe in another month or so.
Worms are more ecological.. You could buy a huge batch of warm to hasten the process. Dig up a huge trench and put your kitchen wastes in and drop the can of worms into it.. by spring you would have natural compost without having to turn it around and expend your energy on it.. If I had the space that would surely be my option.. You can put in any amount of waste you want if you had two huge trenches.. and your garden will thank you for it
I agree with the person who mentioned the coffee grounds. In my experience, coffee grounds make plants grow, they seem to love the stuff. I don't know if this is true of all plants and vegetables, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. I also agree with the egg shells, my mom used to throw egg shells in her garden. My mom seemed to be able to grow any and everything, so I trust that since she used egg shells, they are a "go." I love that you are composting. It is a good way to feed plants some good stuff. It is good that you are doing the composting yourself. I have heard of some places (that sell compost) accepting dog/cat feces for use in their compost. The very thought of that just makes me scratch my head. I really don't get it. Perhaps that type of compost is safe, but "yuk." I adore dogs, and I have a relish for cats, but I don't wants their "left-overs" in my compost.
Animal poop is great for plants.. I cannot use them as I live in an apartment and the darned thing puts skunks to shame.. any kitchen waste could be composted.. But I avoid putting meat , fish scraps into my bin. I don't want any infection spreading from my kitchen. My earth worms seem to be doing fine and the compost is smelling earthy and nice at this moment.
I just use a bucket with holes in it, and some leaves that fall on my deck, a small scoop of soil, and any used coffee and vegetable scraps that we would throw away. The plants seem to like the first batch...
Just a note here - you can't add dog or cat waste to your organic compost. You can only use the feces of animals that don't eat meat. To compost pet waste from dogs and cats you need a solar food digester. You can put meat, dairy, pretty much whatever in one of those. I also read an article about composting pet waste in a smoker type barbecue grill. I still laugh at my mother's reaction to that one when I told her about it.
Chanell, that is a good tip. We take it for granted that people know what can go into the compost bin or not... Yes, poop of meat eating animals would be a good way to keep out any infection. The poop of cows, goats, sheep, horses and pigs can be used. But they could kill some plants with their heat if used directly. Composting them or drying them out in the sun for a week or two before feeding them to your plants could help.
I used to work at a compost place, and we did not allow any animal waste at all in our collected materials that were to be turned into compost, although I'm sure some people slipped it in there. I agree with not putting dog or cat waste into compost, but I have actually seen "tutorials" I guess one would call it, where a 'teacher about all things compost' is advising people that they CAN put their dog and cat waste into compost. That is just so nasty to me. Perhaps the 'teacher' was allowing dog/cat waste because the compost was non-organic? I have no idea. Cow manure, okay, perhaps even horse manure, but not from a dog or a cat. Come one. Also, since I don't eat pork, I would not want manure from a pig in any compost that I would use.
As I understand it, you can't compost waste of any animal that is carnivorous if you want to use it for food plants. If you're not organic, you can do whatever you want; but manure should be kept separate in my opinion. As for the waste of domestic pets like cats and dogs, you can technically compost that in an earth pot/solar digester. It's getter for the environment if you do it, but you still can't use it for gardening. You might be able to sterilize it and use it in a flower bed, after all, human waste has been used from composting toilets in Asia...
I totally did not know about the composting toilets thing. I don't know whether to Google it and learn more, or just pretend that you never told me this. Learn something new everyday.
My grandparents used to do the coffee grinds and egg shells thing as a starter for the plants before they moved them outside into their garden. I would be leary of trying to compost things while living in an apartment since the space is smaller and I'd be nervous about the smell, not to mention attracting bugs.
I do the same but I don't bother grinding up the peelings etc. We buy biodegradable bags and put all our peelings etc in the bag through the week and then take it down to the compost heap in our garden. We don't do it in the summer, though, because of the flies.
I live in an apartment and I have been composting.. When I grind the peels and the kitchen scraps.. it takes much less time to compost and there is absolutely no smell.. I leave the bin in my garden.. and I can say there are no flies.. summer or winter. I guess the earth worms really eat up fast.
