M Mitchell

Tobacco mosaic virus is one of the most stable viruses you'll find...and can infect plants outside the Solanaceae family. For this reason I keep products like cigarette filters & half-smoked cigars out of my compost, even a worm bin or a thermophillic pile.

Where does it go? This may help, plus addresses the effect of water on the process.

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/consideration_reclamation.htm

Why not address the clay with daikon?
https://permies.com/t/7378/plants/soil-building-daikon-radish

The answer is yes. And here is a matching denim worm bin to hang up somewhere in the cab for on-the-road composting.

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-bins/the-creepy-pants-vermicomposter/

Sounds like you're a perfect candidate for bokashi composting. There are multiple threads on it in the composting forum.

In the discussion on bioremediation on the "composting contaminated grass clippings" thread, John says this:

"Now, how do you do this on your lawn? Here is a reasonable plan of attack: (1) get a truckload of mulch that contains lots of tannins. Oak leaves would be perfect, what you want to avoid is actual structural wood like pine logs or lumber or wood shavings or newspaper, those things are all cellulose."

My question: how important is it that the leaves in this step have a high tannin level? I'd love to try this, but I don't have access to oak leaves. The rest of your instructions I get, but the tannin part gives me pause.

I'd post this on the "composting contaminated lawn clippings" thread, but it seems to have gone from a discussion of bioremediation back to "it can't be done, we're doomed" and/or "this is how to test your compost to tell if it has picloram and the like."

In my worm bin I've used the K-cup filters (plus grounds) from hundreds of K-cups given to me by a friend whose office uses them. There were flavored and non-flavored ones from 3-4 different companies.

Getting the filter ripped out of each plastic cup is annoying, but not the true problem (bribe a small child to do it if you have a bunch of Kcups to do)...it's that the paper filters are enmeshed with plastic that isn't visible until the micro life has eaten the paper coating it. Almost a year later I'm still finding <redacted> plastic mesh from the <redacted> K-cups in my worm compost. So you're getting maybe 1 tsp of grounds for each plastic cup + plastic-infused coffee filter. I can't think of a less permaculture friendly way to drink coffee.

I'm also wondering how far to plant a comfrey plant from the trunk of an apple tree. Someone asked previously in this thread, but I don't think there was ever an answer. 3 feet? 4 feet?

Oops, here's a whole thread on it. /smackforehead.

https://permies.com/t/17731/permaculture/Comfreys-proximity-fruit-trees

Willikers! I would have skipped the whole air pushing and pulling and timers and gone straight to homemade bokashi or lactobacillus fermentation with those barrels. No power tools needed. Put in material, add innoculant, squish down, cover, go home for day.