Welcoming discussion on the whole spectrum of composting methods. If it's a way of turning organic material into fertile earth, lets talk about the method, your experiences, the pros and the cons of it!

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  • Help please!

    We have a compost tumbler that we have recently purchased to share with our landlords.  We are each adding food scraps (4 adults+1 toddler worth) and it's getting stinky.

    Despite my best efforts (breaking and cutting up dry twigs to add etc) it is showing all signs of being too high in nitrogen.  I don't have any dry leaves stored as it's our first gardening year.  


    What do you add to your compost as carbon (other than Autumn leaves)?

    Many thanks

    Miriam 

  • Anyone fancy logging in to a free webinar about how to use Bokashi buckets for composting food waste? Now there's an offer you don't get every day!! we have just produced an hour long 'webinar' on the subject which will run on 21 Oct (7-8pm) and 30 Oct (8-9pm) - so you can do it in your jim-jams. Go to Ooooby Events for all the deets or register at www.kaipatiki.org.nz/courses

  • Does anyone know what makes compost worms move into the vermiliquid part of the worm farm? I've noticed that sometimes a few seem to migrate there and other times there are none. Curious. : )

  • to be honest I prefer to burn tomato and potato plant material even if it looks ok. I just put it somewhere relatively dry until there is enough other stuff to burn, then the resulting ash can be returned to the soil or compost pile having destroyed most pathogens. Make sure any fire ban has been lifted in your area of course.
  • Hi Peter,

    Viruses are mostly spread from a living, infected plant to another plant by either insect vectors (aphids, thrips etc.) or when we or other animals brush past an infected plant or trim it with secateurs and transfer the sap onto another plant.  Usually if you compost a plant with a virus it is thought to be unlikely that you will spread a virus in that way. However diseases can survive the composting process sometimes, especially if the compost pile is not that hot or the compost is put back onto the garden before it is fully broken down. I recommend that you use the compost from the tomato plants on another part of your garden where tomatoes are not going to be grown, just to be safe. Good luck! Ingrid

  • Is it ok to put branches of tomato plants that have wilted through possible disease, into my compost , or will this simply spread any virus problem as I use the compost?

  • Hi everyone. Well once I drag myself out of bed this beautiful Spring morning, my aim is to finish off building a bamboo storage bin. This is where we are already starting to stockpile and use materials for mulch or compost duties. The chooks have already discovered it as a nice scratch pad and I may have to sort out some weeds which have started to look rather lush...
  • thanks Matt, will do

  • Hi Nicolas check out the industrial areas wharehouses often have stacks of unuseable or broken pallets that are only good for firewood or compost bins if they havnt put their old pallits on the verge for people to take then stop in and ask if they have any

  • anyone knows where can I get used pallets for low price or free? I want to get my compost corner in better shape, but I would like to do it on a budget. thanks

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Help with carbon options please

Help please! We have a compost tumbler that we have recently purchased to share with our landlords.  We are each adding food scraps (4 adults+1 toddler worth) and it's getting stinky. Despite my best efforts (breaking and cutting up dry twigs to add etc) it is showing all signs of being too high in nitrogen.  I don't have any dry leaves stored as it's our first gardening year.   What do you add to your compost as carbon (other than Autumn leaves)? Many thanks Miriam 

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10 Replies

Hugelkulture

Has anyone got any experience with composting trees - hugelkulture? I grew a Blackboy peach tree from a stone: it produces beautiful peaches but the tree is a mutant. EVERY fork in a branch turns into a split that propagates back down the branch and in a wind the new branches break and fall off in pairs. I am cutting down the tree and want to compost it. If I pile the branches over the stump will it re-sprout through the pile or rot down? If I make the pile elsewhere on my sloping section…

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2 Replies

Composting lilies

Hi all, We just chop down a big amount of lilies that were growing under our deck and invading the pathway. We put them next to our existing compost pile, and we pretty much doubled the size of the whole thing (about 1.5m x 1.5m x 1.5m of lilies).  The thing is, this second pile, is only lilies. Leafs and roots all chopped and mixed together. So our question is: will they compost by them selves? or we need to mix them up? Cheers

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2 Replies