Topic: Compost Heap

[themauler]

Can anyone tell me what I can put on a compost heap. I assume any old plants etc are OK but I wasn't sure if I could put weeds and grass cuttings on.
Also, do I need to add anything to the compost heap or do I just leave it to decompose on it's own.

[lincsyokel2]

You need Brown Stuff, Green Stuff and at the same time, something to activate it.

Green stuff is stuff that rots down, goes liquid and turns into liquid nutrients, such as grass cuttings, kitchen waste,  vegetable leaves

Brown stuff is stuff that rots down a lot more slowly, or not at all, but is there to soak up the  liquid green stuff as it rots, such as leaves, hedge trimmings, sawdust, shredded newspaper, and provide bulk.

Heres how i build mine.  Every year, starting in about September, i start collecting stuff. I save all the hedge cuttings, which have been mulched up. I save all the bags of leaves. I turn all the pots out, because there's nothing wrong with the old compost, apart from its full of roots and devoid of nutrients, and it can be revitalized in a compost heap. Later on, in January time, when im collecting timber and logging it up for my wood burner next year, i collect bags of sawdust. Finally, about March, i go and collect a huge trailer full of fresh or almost fresh horse poo, preferably with no straw, and also several large bags of grass trimmings from the first cut of the lawn from all my neighbors.

Then I start to build my compost heap. I build it in layers, at the bottom I start off with a layer of old pot compost, and I alternately put layers of brown stuff and green stuff, and finally top off with a layer of horse poo. The processes that forms compost operating two ways, hot composting and cold composting. The layering method described causes cold composting to occur.  The heap takes about two years to compost  fully. The composting process is initiated by the grass trimmings, which is one reason for including a fair percentage of it in the mixture. You can buy compost initiators but you might as well simply put grass trimmings in as it'll do the same job

If you make a compost heap with too large a proportion of green stuff, what will happen is that it  will shrink alarmingly reducing down massively, because there's nothing to absorb the liquids which will soak into the ground.  The compost will compost by a hot process. You can make it  hot compost by including a very high percentage of horse poo and grass trimmings. The Victorians use this process to create hotbeds in glass houses.  If you use too much brown stuff, composting will be slow or not at all, and the nutrient content of the final stuff will be low, but the bulk will be larger.

I use horse poo because I get it free and the stuff I get has no straw in it. I could also use cow manure, but I find it tends to have a lot of straw in,straw is almost an inert substance in a compost heap and takes a long time to compost down, so I like to avoid putting too much in. Some people have an objection to horse poo on the grounds that horses gut is cold and it tends not to break some weed seeds down, so the theory is that compost made with horse poo has weed seeds in it, but I've never found this to be a problem, since I know the horses that produce the horse poo I collect are grazed on the field with almost no weeds on it.

The nutrient content of my compost is huge. Nutrient levels are measured in Microsieverts per second.  Ordinary soil has the nutrient content of about 300. Commercial multipurpose compost has a nutrient content of about 452 to 600. The compost produced by the method above has a nutrient level of 2500. This has been verified in a laboratory test. This actually makes it far too strong to grow seedlings in, as it will burn the roots of the seedlings. I mix compost produced by this method  with two parts old compost, or I use it to turn into the beds with the rotavator.

[caroline7758]

Can I add a question- if I shred prunings (some dead. some green), do the shreddings count as green or brown stuff? I presume they will rot down quicker than unshredded stuff, but I'm not sure in what quantities to add them to my bin.

[lincsyokel2]

Can I add a question- if I shred prunings (some dead. some green), do the shreddings count as green or brown stuff? I presume they will rot down quicker than unshredded stuff, but I'm not sure in what quantities to add them to my bin.

I presume you mean hedge trimmings? They are essentially brown stuff, but the leaves are green stuff. You need about 60% brown stuff to 40% green stuff, and the initial volume will probably halve as it rots down.

[Digeroo]

Grass clippings are normally fine but there can be a problems if you have used selective weedkiller. 

[woppa30]

The nutrient content of my compost is huge. Nutrient levels are measured in Microsieverts per second. Ordinary soil has the nutrient content of about 300. Commercial multipurpose compost has a nutrient content of about 452 to 600. The compost produced by the method above has a nutrient level of 2500. This has been verified in a laboratory test. This actually makes it far too strong to grow seedlings in, as it will burn the roots of the seedlings. I mix compost produced by this method with two parts old compost, or I use it to turn into the beds with the rotavator.

There may be some confusion. Nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium will be measured in a weight per Kg of solid or similar. The sievert is a measure of radioactivity, such as X-rays or gamma radiation. Have a look on wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert
"Fresh" compost will naturally have a higher radiation level, all living material will compared to old material (hence carbon dating)...

[tottieheed]

All this complicated composting concerns and confuses me  :(

I am now wondering if I will never end up with any home made compost at all?

I throw my daily veg peelings, tea bags, some paper, grass clippings and any other compost type material on the heap on a daily basis. The heap is constantly being added to. I intend to fork it over maybe once a month to add some air into the mix.

Will this method not produce the desired end result?

[Chrispy]

Don't be concerned tottieheed, it is not complicated.

I do what you do, the only thing extra I do is add extra shreadded cardboard when it looks like it needs it (looks too wet), and it composts just fine.

[Digeroo]

I am a total failure at compost.  Far too much green and it is always wet, smelly and sticky.  But the plants do not mind one little bit, I would say courgettes and pumpkins adore it.  So if things go wrong, just dig holes and bury it, it gradually disappears.

I put lots of cardboard in, and just ended up with soggy pieces of cardboard in the usual smelly mess.

Do be careful not to put plasticised cardboard in.  Boursinpackets are a pain.

[laurieuk]

I fully agree with you , all you need to make compost is four stakes some wire nettting and put all you waste ( not food0 in and leave it alone. Once in 60 years have I turned a compost heap and never again. As is mentioned already do not use lawnmowings if you have used weedkiller on the lawn. I have put an open plastic sack on the ground so as a avoid couch or any such weed getting in.

All this complicated composting concerns and confuses me  :(

I am now wondering if I will never end up with any home made compost at all?

I throw my daily veg peelings, tea bags, some paper, grass clippings and any other compost type material on the heap on a daily basis. The heap is constantly being added to. I intend to fork it over maybe once a month to add some air into the mix.

Will this method not produce the desired end result?

[Chrispy]

I put lots of cardboard in, and just ended up with soggy pieces of cardboard in the usual smelly mess.

You need more air, the bugs and critters that do the composting need to be able to breath.

When the cardboard goes in it has to go in losely with air pockets in between and do not pile too much on top.
I spend ages tearing the cardboard into small pieces, but it is something you can do while you watch the telly.

Woodchips are good if you have any as they naturaly have air gaps.

[antipodes]

Digeroo, sounds like too much green. try getting some coffee grounds - I find they are great for breaking up the compost and adding good fine material to it.

Laurie, I never turn my compost either!!! I  moved my bin in the winter, I am going to plant the courgetts and squash on the old pile. It is really well broken down, 3 years of composting on the same spot. I add: all veg scraps, tea, coffee, eggshells, always wrapped in newspaper, some paper like flour and sugar bags, ripped into pieces, weeds that have been pre-rotted in plastic bags, and any grass.

It's not rocket science, it will all break down eventually. I also dig holes where the squash will be planted and about a month before, I bury a big box of my veg scraps (about a week's worth of kitchen waste). they never complain about that.

[lincsyokel2]

All this complicated composting concerns and confuses me  :(

I am now wondering if I will never end up with any home made compost at all?

I throw my daily veg peelings, tea bags, some paper, grass clippings and any other compost type material on the heap on a daily basis. The heap is constantly being added to. I intend to fork it over maybe once a month to add some air into the mix.

Will this method not produce the desired end result?

yes but at some point you have to stop adding and leave it to compost. The other point is that you wont get the volume you need in one go. I can use a cubic metre of composted materials in March easily.  I have four bins running to keep up (and by bins  i mean four bins made of 1.2 M pallets knocked into squares) - one im using, one ive just made, and two, one last years and the other the year before's)

[manicscousers]

We add shredded bills and junk mail to it, really gives me a kick  ;D

[Digeroo]

I am not clear why you measure nutrients in either 'microseiverts per second' or 'microsiemens per second'.  You could increase the electrical conductivity of the soil in many ways which would not be beneficial to plants.

[Chrispy]

You measure the soluble nutrients by dissolving them and then measuring the conductivity.

The units should be µS/cm, but soluble nutrients are only part of the story so is not that relevent for home made compost.

And I did not look that up on wiki, I used to work in instrumentation in a ChemEng department.

[lincsyokel2]

I am not clear why you measure nutrients in either 'microseiverts per second' or 'microsiemens per second'.  You could increase the electrical conductivity of the soil in many ways which would not be beneficial to plants.

compost makers largely are not interested in knowing the exact NPK level of a compost, they already know it roughly based on the recipe, and on the raw ingredients. All you need to know is the total  content of  nutrients.  Nutrients in compost appear as ions, ie negatively or positively charged  electrons, atoms and molecules. Electrical conductivity is exactly that, a measure of the flow (exchange)  of ions and electrons in a medium. So by measuring the electrical conductivity of a compost gives you the nutrient content total

Consider:

Why is seed compost so?  Seed compost is low in nutrients.
Why? Because the presence of too many positive and negative ions 'burns' the microstructure of the roots. The ions literally corrode away the  roots surface, in exactly the same way zinc corrodes when exposed to acid, and kill the seedling.

The entire process of taking up nutrients in plants is to do with exchanging ions, and like most things biological, including your brain, it is essentially an electrical current.

Therefore the true, and complete way, to determine the nutrient level in compost, in one test,  is to measure its electrical conductivity. Since this is also affected  by the moisture content (bone dry compost cannot supply nutrients to a plant), it also has to be done at a specific moisture level, this is determined by measuring the weight of a fixed volume of compost (known as the 'bulk weight') and this is also factored into the calculation.

[goodlife]

Can anyone tell me what I can put on a compost heap. I assume any old plants etc are OK but I wasn't sure if I could put weeds and grass cuttings on.
Also, do I need to add anything to the compost heap or do I just leave it to decompose on it's own.

Lets see if I can give you bit 'shorter' answer.. ;)
You can put any plant based material that is not deseased or not perennial weeds. Grass clippings mixed in small quantities at the time is fine..actually good. Some amount of 'rough' & 'dry' stuff (often referred as carbon 'stuff') will help to soak up excess moisture and give some air gaps into mixture helping your compost not turning into sludge...carbon rich stuff is things like straw, cardboad, shredded paper, dried up weeds and old crop plants.
You can also add 'old' compost, vegetable peelings/trimmings, pet/human hair, coffee/tea grounds...and many many other bits and bobs.
But if you are not sure about something that is not mentioned here..just ask..and hopefully you get simple answer for it.  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I put everything in my compost bins, perennial weeds and all. Each spring, I empty them, put anything that's still alive (there's never anything except the odd dock root) back in, spread it over my potatoes, and cover it with a couple of inches of grass cuttings to deal with germinating seeds. It's pretty rough stuff, but the spuds appreciate it.

[cornykev]

All vegtable kitchen waste
Tea bags
Toilet and kitchen roll innards
Screwed up receipts
Shredded bills and newspaper
Grass cuttings
Leaves
Most weeds
Old plants and compost
Human hair
Hedge trimmings
Coffee grounds
Ash
Urine
I mix mine regularly and have found it breaks down quicker when I do so
If it's too wet keep adding shredded newspaper
If it's too dry add water or grass cuttings

 ;)