compost bins

[carla]

Has anyone used a regular garbage can or tin... with holes poked in it?
Do you have any special problems with that type of product?

carla

[tater]

I've used galvanized garbage cans (with lots of holes poked in the bottom using a large nail) for compost for many years. I've experienced only two drawbacks: they are difficult to turn (unless you are strong), and eventually the bottom rusts out. I set mine up on bricks (three--in a triangular pattern, or four--in a squarish pattern) to slow the rusting. However, if you set them right on the ground, the earthworms eventually find your compost and settle in . . . the best system I've found is a two-can system and moving the semi-composted material from one can to the other every few months, with the finished compost going into the garden of course.

To avoid attracting ants, I don't put anything sweetish in there, like fruit for example.

I have recently started using a 50-gal drum, but it is about the same deal as the galvanized garbage can, just bigger.

Hope this helps . . .

[carla]

[quote="tater"]

eventually the bottom rusts out.

However, if you set them right on the ground, the earthworms eventually find your compost and settle in . . . the best system I've found is a two-can system and moving the semi-composted material from one can to the other every few months, with the finished compost going into the garden of course.

I have recently started using a 50-gal drum, but it is about the same deal as the galvanized garbage can, just bigger.

Hope this helps . . .[/quote]

Ha! tater?! Funny. I used to have a neighbor who always said 'taters and 'maters.

Yes, this helps. Do you ever have trouble with the combustibility factor?
Or pests besides ants?

I would also like to know just how long till the bottom rusts out..
But also what about the plastic ones? The cost is less. Could get more more often, but there is a problem with sun-rot (brittle-breaking plastic) and could be leaching. And what about rust and metals for galvanized ? Is there a problem with leaching? I have used the chicken wire for bins, but they really don't heat up well nor do they have the structure you need to keep them easy to manage...

Worms for compost sounds great though. Worms are great for devouring garbage and leaving gold behind.

carla

[jrosto]

I currrently use chicken wire. I make a 5 foot circle of 3 ft. tall chicken wire. The 3 ft. height makes it fairly easy for me to turn the pile with a spade fork. I put about 7 or 8 total feet of material in my first pile (not all at the same time :D ), and the final height of the pile was about 2.5 ft. The only real problem I had with the chicken wire was that as the wire streatches, it gets a bit shorter. My piles do heat up very well using chicken wire, and my finished pile had lots of big, fat night crawlers when I put it into my veggie garden earlier this spring. I did not have an ant problem, but don't have many ants in my yard in the first place. I did have lots and lots of soldier fly larve last summer, and boy you can just watch your pile shrink when they are hard at work. One of these days I am going to build a two compartment open bin to make it easier to turn the piles and look a little nicer in the back yard.

[carla]

[quote="jrosto"]

only real problem I had with the chicken wire was that as the wire streatches, it gets a bit shorter. My piles do heat up very well using chicken wire, and my finished pile had lots of big, fat night crawlers when I put it into my veggie garden earlier this spring.
[/quote]

What are night crawlers? Never mind. I went ahead and looked 'em up because I thought you were talking about those ugly yellow centipedes. ! :-) (I'm not that smart about worms...
which ones are best? Now that I have looked them up a little, I remember OGM talking about certain kinds being bad for farming, but great for fishing. Well.)

Have you ever grown popcorn? I think about it, but never do it.

[/quote]

[tater]

carla wrote: Do you ever have trouble with the combustibility factor?
Or pests besides ants?

No problem with combustibility as long as I turn it about once a week.

carla wrote: I would also like to know just how long till the bottom rusts out..

Depends on how much rain you get, etc. In Portland, Oregon, my cans rusted out after a couple of years. It rains a lot in Portland, by the way.

carla wrote: But also what about the plastic ones? The cost is less. Could get more more often, but there is a problem with sun-rot (brittle-breaking plastic) and could be leaching.

sun-rot and leaching . . . I think you've answered your own question

carla wrote: And what about rust and metals for galvanized ? Is there a problem with leaching?

Rust is ok by me, adds iron to the compost. Not sure about leaching from a galvanized can. My current barrel is steel so will leach iron, I'm pretty sure.

[carla]

I want to experiment a little with the toggles please ignore

underline
Quote: texperimentt not working all the way...

[size=x-small]redherring[/size]

italicize

nightcrawlers

makes me laugh that I didn't know what they were! Ha! I guess ignorance is blixs. :-) I had read somewhere that if you farm worms you couldn't put them in your garden because they have certain needs that garden worms would die in... ie garden worms need to be able to burrow deep. I think it might be redworms and they use those for fishing, i hear.

[list=]
[*] nightcrawlers
[*] earthworms also nightcrawlers
[*] redworms
[*] etc.
[/list]

:roll: well
in Christ,
carla