Questions tagged [compost]
Compost is organic material which has undergone decomposition by microorganisms and is used as a soil amendment.
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Adding indianmeal moth larvae to compost
I feed mixed grains to birds in a pot. Today, I saw that the grains have turned smelly. I wanted to clean it and I found that there were a lot of small worms in them. A quick google search shows that ...
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What is a good way of getting rid of cypress leaves?
My parents' garden is circled by a massive hedge of cypress. When they bought it 10 years ago, it was completely unkept, and over the course of the years my dad has been trimming the cypresses more ...
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Can you grow anything edible in leaf mold while it's decomposing?
I have hundreds of gallons of leafs that I've mulched with a WORX leaf mulcher. They're in one large bin now. I'm wanting to know before I move this soil to a raised bed, is there anything that you ...
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improve decomposition of wood chip pile
I recently cut down and chipped a row of lilly pills and now have 4 cubic meters of wood chip. Intention is to let it decompose over a couple of years and use it to compost my garden.
I originally ...
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What are these bugs? And how can I restore a healthy compost?
I have a ventilated outdoor compost bin, primarily for food scraps. Until recently, it was a diverse ecosystem that produced good compost. About a month ago, it turned into a mono-culture of these ...
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Should I mulch my neighbors' leaves?
My neighborhood is 40 years old. I'm planning to only compost my backyard trees leaves. My front yard has a huge maple infected with scale and aphids, and has iron deficiency. The aphids suck moisture ...
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What is this disease attacking the leaves of most of my plants?
more than half of my plants (total about 100, from a wide variety of plant families, all on a large balcony) are affected
stems, roots, flowers and fruit show weak growth but no direct sign of the ...
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Composting camphor leaves?
I have been reading at various sites online that it is bad to compost camphor leaves because camphor is mildly allelopathic, specifically, inhibiting seed germination. I also see some other people ...
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Galvanised fire bins and ash?
I bought a new galvanised fire bin and burnt a shed load of garden waste ...just leaves and branches. I want to use the ash in the compost when preparing my raised beds but I'm worried about the ...
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How long do leaves remain "green" for compost material after cutting a tree?
I am planning to clear some trees from my property to make room for a garden. I would like to chip/shred the branches to be used as mulch and compost material. According to the Back to Eden ...
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what happens to uncovered Bokashi waste?
Usually Bokashi waste is advised to be buried.
But we know rats are not attracted to the Bokashi waste. So what is the real reason for burying this waste. What happens if Bokashi waste is not buried?
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Simplest grass seed mulch options: Nothing vs Paper vs Ground Wheat vs Ground Oats
I am growing Kentucky bluegrass on deep topsoil in Minnesota and found that the grass
punches through mostly in spots covered by a thin shredded-paper mulch that I applied
(since I applied the paper ...
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Can anyone identify producer of this rotary sieve?
I am trying to find the producer of this rotary sieve (image found on now defunct hotbin blog). It is mentioned that it is a Belgian, but not more than that.
I'd be also happy with pointers to ...
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Is submerged composting of meat practical?
The list of no-no composting is
Meat
Fish
Poultry
Cheese
Oily foods
Butter
Dairy products
Other animal products
Can I drop them inside water for being composted and yet feel safe from smell and rats?...
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Growing plant in a composting terrarium
I was thinking about throwing compostable rubbish into a jar and growing a plant in it while the jar lead is closed as a terrarium before the composting proceeds—and then leave it as it is. I am not ...
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Why is table salt evil?
In history class they teach the military strategy Scorched Earth: "burn the villages and forests, salt the fields, come back next year to fight a starving enemy".
What is the chemical ...
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Is it safe to use yuca/cassava skins in my compost
A whole bunch of cassava root has made its way into my house and now I have a whole bunch of cassava rinds, about a kilo or so, which I chucked into my compost bin (A trashcan full of holes) to start ...
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Ammonia smell in compost
I've got a pile of hot compost going which consists primarily of:
Straw (about 75% by volume)
Kitchen Scraps
Rabbit Manure
Fall leaves and grass clippings
At the moment it's giving off a pretty ...
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Garden Bin full of decomposed grass... is this compost? Can I apply it to the dead patches of my lawn?
Disclaimer: I am a complete beginner to gardening and have no idea what I'm doing.
I have a garden bin full of decomposed grass from the former property owner.
Is this basically compost? Can I apply ...
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Does composting spearmint contaminate lower temp compost piles?
I heard that you should NEVER compost mint, because it will contaminate where you put the dirt with a lot of new mint plants. Is this the same if you compost spearmint?
Note to the masochist: I want ...
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Does adding large amounts of compost permanently decrease soil drainage?
Composting all my kitchen scraps in buckets ~20L results in:
large amount of compost compared to the amount of soil on the balcony (say 60L compost/year versus 200L of soil)
low temperature ...
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Does nitrogen-rich material become carbon-rich after drying?
So my compost is very nitrogen-rich since my yard is mostly lawn and grass clippings are nitrogen-heavy. I read that hay, on the other hand, is carbon-rich. Since hay is just grass dried in the sun, ...
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Compost won't heat up
I bought a composting bin with thermal-insulated walls, mainly for composting kitchen waste:
https://postimg.cc/k2XFsKv3
However according to it's thermometer, temperature never raises over ~20 ...
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does steam kills weed seeds in compost
I have some compost material from a group of homes, if I wanted to sell them to organic farmers, will steam treating them kill all the weed seeds inside it?
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Does a defunct anthill make good compost?
So, there was this defunct anthill at the summer cottage, that I decided to turn into a vegetable patch. After the fact, I'm wondering how good compost the stuff really was.
So, what sort of compost ...
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My home made compost produces leachate which smells a bit and is mixed with soil underneath, can i use that soil?
I've used a plastic bin with several holes done into it as a composting container. The content are all veggies and fruit leftover.
The compost gives out excess water (called leachate / compost tea). ...
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Are gnats or small flies common around compost piles?
I am new to composting and started my first pile a few weeks ago. I've only put the following things in the pile:
Yard waste - grass clippings from mowing, clippings from my garden, clippings from ...
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New home yellow and patchy lawn from animals
If I thatch and aerate my lawn add some compost and seed will it help prevent this?
should I add tons of seed or tougher grass?
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Compost for beginners
I generally use grass cuttings and vegetable waste. When material is added should it be gently compressed or just left as it had been added
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Compost from wood chips
Last year I had 3 pine trees cut down in my yard due to safety concerns during inclement weather. These trees were healthy and disease free. After grinding the stumps I had piled the remaining wood ...
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Is this growing medium good for compost?
This straw-like growing medium was used to grow dhingri (oyster) mushroom. However, due to climate getting hotter here, the mushroom died, and now I am thinking if this medium is suitable for compost ...
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Composting pineapple crowns, corn sheath and kernel
Do these take a long time to compost, if so is there some way to speed up the process. Or should I leave them out of the compost bin altogether?
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How do I deter the honey-bees from my compost bin?
I have two composting bins on the terrace beside my terrace garden (TG). A couple of days back I saw a swarm of honey bees near my TG, and from yesterday or so I am seeing that there are a couple of ...
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Can you bleach human poop to use as fertilizer?
I was thinking about how in The Martian the astronaut used the crew members poop to fertilize the soil and grow potatoes and decided to learn more about that. I read, though, that unprocessed human ...
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Terrace garden plants are slowly getting sick
I live in Pune, India and I am new to terrace gardening. I have no knowledge in this field.
I bought Marigold, Catharanthus, and Zinnia (name not sure) from nursery.
I made pot mix myself of 30% soil, ...
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Huge Ammonia in compost danger?
Is it safe to use a sealed container to compost the raw chicken manure? Because as far as I know, these nitrogen-rich materials generate huge ammonia when decomposing. If I use a sealed compost bin it ...
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Free movement of worms vs siloed containment
Is there a benefit to free range worms over battery worms? i.e. At present my worms live inside a couple of bins (one inside the other, with small holes for aeration and drainage, whilst keeping the ...
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Can I put orange or other citrus peel on the compost pile?
I have heard from a friend that orange and in general citrus peel should not be put to the compost pile. This is due to the artificial ripening agents added to them.
If this really the case what is ...
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Should the first bin of a 3 bin compost system be bigger than the other two?
Should the first bin (ie the one you put the fresh stuff in) of a 3 bin be bigger than the second? And similarly should the second bin be bigger than the third, due to the fact that volume will ...
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Is this an acceptable way to use green waste on plants?
From what I've read online, it looks like I'm not composting correctly.
I don't have much space in my backyard so there's no space for a compost bin/pile. Instead, I've been putting scraps of food at ...
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Identify these insects hiding under compost
I use a layer of compost as mulch, but every time I water, millions of tiny insects start jumping all over the place. Is it possible to identify them as I'm not sure if they're decomposing the organic ...
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Composting cooked food
I’ve made some vegetable broth and after it’s done I’m left over with some boiled vegetables can those be composted? I’ve seen some articles that say you cannot compost them while others you can which ...
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Lifespan/storage of Bokashi Flakes (compost)
I've made bokashi flakes from bran and LAB liquid, been using it for a while.
Dried the flakes and stored in plastic boxes, but I am unsure if that is the best way to
store, since I know the bacteria ...
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What would be the non-organic part in this vegetal compost mixture?
See the composition of this substrate mixture I've bought:
It only mentions organic stuff, like vegetal compost and composted pine bark. At the same time, it says that the organic matter content is ...
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Soil improvement for poor-producing squash for next year
I have two 8x4 raised beds that I grow various vegetables in, alternating tomatoes in one or the other with the other being squash, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, and a few other vegetables.
This year, ...
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Are dead mice by my compost heap a sign of trouble?
I have a compost heap at the back of my property, probably 30-40 feet away from the house. It's one of those simple "circle of chicken wire on bare earth" ones, with most of the material ...
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Sequoia needles as mulch or compost
I live in Portland, OR and I have a 100+ ft sequoia in my back yard. Keeping up with the falling needles/leaves is a year-round project. I've often wondered if they would make good compost. And ...
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Does compost 100% decompose?
I guess another way to ask the same question: Can compost be used as soil?
The question comes up as I have just removed a tree stump and would like to plant grass instead. So right now there is a hole ...
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Should a compost bin have air gaps or solid walls?
When watching videos about composting there seams to be two kinds. Those that are made from pallets, and therefore have air gaps and those with solid walls.
According to this video, the correct way to ...
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What do I do with compost bin contents
I'm not particularly green fingered but recently purchased a compost bin however I'm not entirely sure what I do with it once it's full.
I've been putting grass cuttings and fruit/veg waste from the ...
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