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Nova Scotia

i'm starting a large compost on my vacant land. i have sewer sludge, wood ashes, seaweed and plant vegetation. i have truck loads of each but how should i combine them? 2 sludge, 2 seaweed, 1 plant and 1 ash, or some other ratio?

12/21/2003 7:46:42 PM

Montoursville, PA

Many compost advisorys suggest little or no lime in the compost pile. It can tie up the nitrogen and slow the biological heat up within the pile. Ashes create the same effect as lime and does it faster.

I saw Steves assesment of sewer sludge with a pretty nice natural low number like 5-3-2. I would just go in and make that pile a scatter bust but leave out the ashes. If it stinks on you add more plant vegetation, leaves and seaweed to calm it down. A little experience over three to eight weeks will teach you more than we with at least two of your components out of normal reach can tell you.

Seaweed should have about 1% nitrogen but also carry trace elements from the sea. Fish and kelp plus something sweet like molasses will build you one heck of a biological kicker or starter upper. I would think roughly that your seaweed would be a fair exchange for kelp if not an absolutely equal trade off.

Look to the area coffee shop for lots of grounds. How about a poultry house and their feathers. Leather scraps, feed mill floor sweepings and any other kinds of poop you can mix in. Food processing plants..potato skins, tomato skins, grape hulls, ground corn cobs, legume wastes in fields after pea picking and such. It's every where! You just need to set your mind to search. You will be amazed as you progress. Dog hair, human hair, 100 % cotton or wool sniblets. Holey cow....cow crap, rabbit crap and such. Man you will know your shit in no time!!! Have fun. It is not an exact science. It all finishes at a PH of about 7.0.

12/21/2003 9:09:14 PM

Nova Scotia

thanks docgipe. one can always count on you for advise. by the way will ashes increase my ph in my soil as it is high anyway?

12/21/2003 9:35:59 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

If the pH is high now, don't add the ashes. You can get potash from other sources then if it's needed. Greensand if organic is desired. Sulfate of potash meets most organic standards too. Muriate works but go real easy. It's high salt content will repel or kill worms & they help the pile like nobody's business.

Organic matter is hard to get wrong. Like Doc says, the nose knows. If it stinks & there's a lot of green material, add more brown & turn. If it's too cool & moving slow, add more green. Thermometers help, but turn the pile & you'll know either way.

But combine materials well & soon. Keep the pile aerated by turning. And be ready to add moisture as needed during dry weather or the decomposition process stops.

The beautiful thing about composting is that even when we really screw up or just ignore the pile, Mother has a way of fixing things in time anyway.

My "lazy pile" was the one we dumped grass clippings, sod, sticks, unshreaded leaves, dead potted anuals, tree stumps or anything else I was in too big a hurry to clean up & mix into the real-deal compost piles. After 8 years it was getting too big. With my back I feared having to dig into it to screen out the rocks, roots, & branches. So my buddy with his backhoe had at it. Even the large branches at the bottom had succumbed to the forces of nature. Now all but the top 6 inches & the rocks are in the patch. Black gold as they say. Beautiful earthy black humus at it's finest despite my neglect.

Steve

12/21/2003 10:24:55 PM

Montoursville, PA

Acknowledging the tenancy to be lazy or inept at turning huge piles of compost for faster decomposition some wizards have offered a solution.

Purchase some sewer and drain plastic pipe. That is the stuff with the holes drilled in it. As you build you pile toss in a few pieces here and there. This enables oxygen to get in and gasses to escape. It builds a chipmunk maze which always amuses me. With my intelligence it takes little to amuse me. Watching them run the pipes is a hoot. Popping them with a dusting of lead may be a miserable act to some but it is animal volume to my piles of compost.:)

4/23/2004 10:31:49 AM