Jason Matt-hew

Understood
Understood and
Understood
Trying to understand.

Thank you.

Call me boogie. The composter we have has a pretty thick layer of insulation on the inner walls. It's lined. I don't think it's anywhere near a cubic yard (I'll have to look around to get a better sense of what a cubic yard looks like) but with the insulation I might be able to achieve some heat. I wish I hadn't disposed of all this leaves now!

Thanks y'all!

Really!

Of course I should be comfortable with this.
Gotta think on it. And maybe make it my little secret, lol.
We are city slickers, kinda...

So, how much?

Ohhhhhh,,,, I don't think I'm anywhere NEAR 149 degrees/65C but I'll take it as a challenge and warming this pile as part of my STEEP learning curve. Super interesting...

Thanks for the info. It really helps.

I may need to start thinking of someplace to where I might get my HANDS on some manure, lol. You know what I mean.

There is a small zoo on the island! Hmmm,,,

Brilliant, Abraham... This description is kinda exactly what I was needing... All good to know and begin to understand!

Goodness knows (thanks Amazon and the world of online ordering) there is a lot of cardboard turning up. Is there cardboard that should NOT be included in composting?

I used a mower to do some of the lawn in leaves collection. Nice and shredded. I added the leaves, regular food scraps (plants and - no meat stuffs at all) and the 40-50lbs of coffee and the barrel is full again, but "melting". I opened it over the weekend to find it steaming. Not HOT but warm. At the same time, foolishly I think, I put hundreds of pounds of leaves to be picked up. Perhaps I should have spared some to mix with a future load of coffee grounds from Starbucks and more regular kitchen stuff? I split the coffee in the two halves of the barrel, with leaves and kitchen stuff.

Is that a right-ish kind of combo?
I'm liking this!

Timothy, Patrick, Thank you!

Green and Brown... I think I'm picking up what yo putting down. So, I have some leaves to shred up this weekend. Not a lot but some. What I think I'm hearing is that a good thing to mix with these leaves in the pile could be the coffee grounds? That, and I also have a pretty good sized pile of sorta depleted soil that was in an old bed when we moved in...

Remember y'all. I'm a complete novice (less a novice after carrying 60+ pounds of hot wet coffee grounds on my NYC commute) so take it slow with a brotha, 😂

Good Day All...

I went to start another thread but thought,,, if I was sitting at a table in a circle with all y'all talking about THIS subject, would I get up and go to another table to start another conversation? Nope! I'd just keep it rolling. Seems like I got some great minds at this table 😊

Cool!

So, there is a Starbucks near my job. I went in and asked them about coffee grounds and composting! Yesterday they handed me a 60lb bag of warm, wet, coffee grounds. They wanted to give me TWO bags. * not fun because my commute is train to ferry to bus, lol. Anyways...

What are best practices and main ideas with coffee grounds?

What do I need to be thinking about when adding them to the heappp? Hoping my question doesn't start a fire storm hahaha

Hmm. New guy here.

I live in NYC and here,,, all things ecological, earth friendly, healthy and all that jazz is alllll the rage. I hate to say this but it's MORE of a trend, hip, in style and and and than a core and serious set of beliefs and values people hold. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I kinda see it.

With that, at least in NYC, from an economic standpoint many are making more money than the average NYC Joe or Jane ever had, per capita. The money in this city for those that have it is actually pretty insane IMHO. Anywho.

I don't know where you are but if you were here you could easily pull this together just using Craigslist or something. It's how you "sell" it. What ideas you tap into.

Then, charge 125$ per visit and explain, sell, the idea that you need at least two full visits a month plus one half priced (60$) visit just to keep an eye on things. I would BET on recommendations. More, I would bet the freelance gig would stretch out into areas (pretty quickly) that you may not have foreseen or imagined. Cities are just kinda like that, depending on the city.

Get 7, 8 regulars and you'd be ok. Maybe. Have days where you visit 2 customers per day.

The 350$ tax is CHEAP for peace of mind, getting people to see the value in gardening, doing the right thing, and and and.

I say GO FOR IT. Depending on the city and the potential for clients, that is. Which city?

I think the FREE in freelance stands for something else, lol. It doesn't necessarily mean cheap.

I wish you the best.

Abraham Palma wrote:

I hope y'all won't be laughing at me as a city slicker

You are not the only one city slicker, so they better don't laugh XD.

I don't know if it's good or bad BUT it looks like the birds have picked a fair amount of them larvae out of the pile in the wheel barrow.

Did they gift you back with some manure in return?

Over the summer, as we started filling it, I noticed heat.

Cooking temperature is around 70ºC. You can't hold your hand in that heat. Less than that it is cold compost.

I also put a scoop of soil from a pile we have around here in thinking it would help.

Yes, it helps. Any organic material which may be already colonized by local microorganisms is good to have.
The only thing that ruins your compost is anaerobic composting. Anaerobic compostage gives microorganisms that are detrimental to most plants, and you need to wait until those microorganisms are gone before applying what would be no more than an expensive manure. A truly vibrant aerobic compost is full of benefitial life. Think of it as drinking probiotics.
Anaerobic compost happens when:
-Excessive watering.
-Excessive compaction.
-Excessive temperature (not likely your case)
and you can tell it is anaerobic by the septic smells.

The proportion of the materials you use in your compost matters. If you want your compost for woody plants, use mostly woody material, rich in Carbon. If you want it for veggies, use mostly non woody material rich in Nitrogen.

Awesome info,,, we thank you! Many thanks.

I am amazing at how good all this is going.
We will certainly be keeping it up.

Abraham, or anyone. What I understand is that it IS possible to get to HOT composting with this Vevor device. You can see the "belly" (our nickname for the composter) in the link in my previous message. With what we have, how would one GET that thing hot composting, in y'all's experience?

Or, maybe it just WARMS but never really reaches hot?

https://m.vevor.com/compost-tumbler-c_11277/vevor-compost-tumbler-125l-dual-chamber-composter-rotating-outdoor-compost-bin-p_010290582455?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_id=20738448458&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgK2qBhCHARIsAGACuzmp4ZY5jg4rQZ3MBGfFXRstx8g6B0V93nzJ0sKq6d760U6MInBilJwaAtClEALw_wcB

Good Morning 🌞

I do hope that that link will show up in some abbreviated form.

I'm learning from ALL y'all's posts! Thank you!

This is my composter. Thought I should give an idea of what I'm working with. The inner panels are insulated with like two inches of a insulating material. It's also (was) placed in a sunny spot for the summer. Sun has moved. I hope y'all won't be laughing at me as a city slicker, or a cheater for using this device, but this is what I got.

I don't know if it's good or bad BUT it looks like the birds have picked a fair amount of them larvae out of the pile in the wheel barrow. The number of larvae seems less dense than I remember that first day.

Over the summer, as we started filling it, I noticed heat. I've even opened it to find steam. Once, put in fresh grass cuttings and I know it was getting warm. Lately, I've used a gloved hand to break up mud balls that were forming when spinning and the heat had gone. I also put a scoop of soil from a pile we have around here in thinking it would help.

I'm not sure of the "health" of my compost at all. I'm not sure if finding earthworms and the larvae is a good or bad sign...? We haven't been putting bones, or meat, bread or anything like that (I've feared contamination) just fruits and veggies, some yard grass cuttings and weeds and what not.