Allotment Stuff > The Basics

Compost for free ( nearly)

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picman:
I guess the days of reasonably priced bags of ‘good’  compost are over, and looking at the price of the peat free stuff forced upon us leaves me only one alternative, to make my own.. I don’t have a receipt but I am gathering hopefully suitable material in a ‘ton’ builders bag . We get horse manure and wood chip delivered free to the site so barrow loads of that gets mixed with grass cuttings, and some ‘compost maker’ granules. I add the occasional shovel of nice soil, water and worms if I find some, plus the odd nettle and comfrey leaves. Come the autumn I shall add some dead leaves to the mix. My plan is to use my rotovator to break and mix it all before bagging it. It wont be sterile and possibly too rich for seeds etc, but worth a try . Any suggestions for other materials are welcomed .     

Tee Gee:
I am having a go as well, where I have saved  all my spent compost in Dustbins & Daleks over the last couple of years.

I now have a stock of around 5-600 litres in store, along with all the pots/planters I have filled for this year's crops.

My plan is to try and do a bit of soil/compost rotation, where approx 50% will be in store and the other 50% in use.

My theory is; for the past30-40 years I have rejuvenated my soil each year, so why can I not just rejuvenate my spent compost.?

Working on the John Innes formula I am using spent compost as the loam content and this year I have used a peat based multipurpose compost as my peat (fibre) source.

In future years because I have a source for free horse manure, I will store this in a Dalek for a year.,

Then I plan on using the year-old horse manure  in lieu of peat based multipurpose compost for my fibre content.

As you all know, John Innes composts come in 4 strengths that is Ji Seed / Cutting Compost, and Ji1/2 & 3

What you might not be aware of is; all of these composts are made from the same loam/peat/sand content with variable amounts of fertiliser, which I am calling "Base Mix"

This means I can pre-prepare bulk quantities of "Base Mix" and just add enough fertiliser to give me Ji 1/2 & 3.

I did a rough costing on what I made this year, and I was producing my compost for 3-4p per litre. Which includes buying in my multipurpose compost, something I won't have to do if my horse muck exercise works.

I knocked up a little slide show to show you my set-up, but sadly I cannot upload that on this forum, so I have added a few photos instead.

Deb P:
Blimey, what a set up! That looks incredibly thorough….I don’t think I’d have the space or patience to do that TeeGee, but have nothing but admiration for those having a go!
I have a lot of compost bins at home but struggle to get enough brown waste to balance it….I shred all our our junk mail etc so that all gets composted but we don’t have enough!

picman:
Yes , very scientific Tee Gee , think my approach is more trial and error . Was thinking i could add some Fish blood and bone , silver sand, grit and perlite in my final mix ...the wood chip seem to be rotting down well ...

Nora42:
i too have been empting my compost bins this year. 2 very open ones on my allotment have produced some very good stuff. these have a variety of composable debris chucked in them over the 1- 2 years they are in use. all non flowering weeds and tap root weeds drown first go on the heap. as do fallen apples dried leaves stalks and privet hedge cuiings form my hedges at home. anything that had not composted down goes in the next empty bin. it always has some soil from lumps of grass i dig out in spring these are left to dry out completly before being covered. i also tear up corregated brown cardboard and add this to these heaps. my dalec compost bins at home have compostable kitch waste and old potting compost added to them - the resulting compost made in these bins is richer darker denser stuff than the bins on the allotmet. this year i got 10  bags of lidl peat free and mixed this with my made compost. the new bin had all the unrooteed compost added, then a layer of cardboard and then a thick layer of unsieved darlec compost topped off with a bag of shop bought peat free . i planted a squash in this and it's growing better than the ones in the ground.  all good fun but i do need to put a layer of shop bought compost on top of my home grown stuff. i repotted a fig tree and now have 4 very heathy tomatoes plants growing from the base. win win.
Nora

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