How to - Indoor Compost?

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7Wannabe5
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

One way or another you will be managing hordes of small organisms, standard variety earthworms are just among the few species that you can easily see in a handful of soil.

You might try reading "Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live" by Rob Dunn to increase your acceptance of earthworms into the mix of creatures usually to be found in the average house.

bostonimproper
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by bostonimproper »

+1 to 7w5, you'll get bugs whether or not you put them there.

I have a tumbler on my balcony. I threw a thin plank of plywood that was floating around in my basement under it to prevent drips onto my neighbor. I also do the 10 gallon bucket method with top and side aeration holes. Honestly, there isn't that much liquid if you are adding sufficient dry matter on a regular basis.

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Alphaville
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Alphaville »

mmm yeah, composting is a biological process, and digestion by worms seems to be the quickest/most efficient method available for small mass. there are fungal composters, what’s the name... johnson-su bioreactor, but it’s biggish/not for indoors.

my project got sidetracked by covid, but i might be ready to initiate soon as i attempt to populate the apartment with vegetation.

mathiverse
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by mathiverse »

Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess it's not a big deal to have drainage holes. I also should probably make sure my bucket is big enough for non-worm composting? I'll do some more research.

mathiverse
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by mathiverse »

I set up an 18 gallon bucket with layers of 1) a burlap sack 2) a pile of ripped up cardboard 3) fruit and vegetable waste, and 4) more cardboard pieces. I drilled holes in the top, sides, and bottom for airflow. I left this out on my balcony.

I've got 1/3 food waste and 2/3 cardboard, so the carbon to nitrogen ratio is along the guidelines I saw. If I turn the thing a couple times a week, then I should have soil in a few months based on what I read around the internet.

I went with the no-worms version of composting for now since I already had everything to try except a drill bit (which I ended up buying), but if this doesn't work out I will rethink that decision.

Any tips? Advice? Anything sound weird to more experienced people?

Also can I use compost as the sole component of soil for gardening in containers?

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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Solvent »

Hmmm. I have balcony space and DW wants (me too, I guess) foliage and healthy plants. I hadn't really considered composting on a balcony, but it makes sense. I should look into this...

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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by jacob »

I don't use drainage holes in my container (just a big rubbermaid) when I move my worms into the basement for winter. Any liquid will evaporate off as long as I don't add too much greens relative to the carbon (cardboard) and worms. That's another way of saying that I add a lot of cardboard and my population is healthy/large. (I think this also depends on temperature. It's cool here, about 50F.)

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Alphaville
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Alphaville »

i was thinking of how to avoid the worms and here’s another idea: get a pet rabbit. feed the rabbit vegetables. result (besides tasty rabbit) is quality manure. i can’t kill a pet though—i lack the element of crime, prefer others to do the dirty work for me, out of sight. another downside is the smell of indoor rabbit cage.

mathiverse
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by mathiverse »

So my understanding is that I don't need worms (though some bugs may find my compost pile a good habitat along the way). There are a lot of tutorials mentioning vermicomposting versus normal composting. They usually say something like as long as there is enough air, a good balance of carbon and nitrogen, and you turn the pile frequently enough that is enough to compost. I want to double check: Am I missing something? Are worms a necessary part of composting even when I'm not vermicomposting?

Maybe the difference is that I'm not actually composting indoors? I have the bucket on my balcony. Is that the difference?

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Alphaville
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Alphaville »

worms are faster than microbes because of the rate at which they digest. worms is worms + microbes really. they help each other. worm does the macro bit, like a tiny shredder, and is full of microbes.

a hot large outdoor compost pile can turn compost in as fast as 3 months maybe but it’s never gonna be that way indoors unless... well, not in any realistic way.

a slow/starting outdoor compost pile might take a year?

indoors and no wigglers... maybe never?

indoors is the operative word here. you don't want it to accumulate and stink up.

mathiverse
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by mathiverse »

A friend sent me this link to vermicomposting webinars if anyone else is interested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vermicompo ... 6635145861

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Alphaville
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Alphaville »

mathiverse wrote:
Sun Sep 27, 2020 11:46 pm
A friend sent me this link to vermicomposting webinars if anyone else is interested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vermicompo ... 6635145861
thanks for that!

also, great thing, i spotted in a related event a nice-looking vermicomposter that could totally be diy’d with simple tools:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/composting- ... erelexpmlt

looks much better than buying an ugly-ass $100+ bunch of plastic! :)

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jennypenny
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by jennypenny »

Has anyone seen/tried/purchased a countertop composter like the Vitamix Foodcycler? I know it's normally frowned upon to purchase a gizmo to solve a problem, but a couple of our neighbors who have compost bins have had terrible trouble with rodents and other pests. I want to compost but don't want to invite that kind of trouble into our yard. I also like the idea of composting daily and adding it to whichever bed we're working on at the moment. They don't use much energy and I could hook it to solar most of the year. We aren't eating meat and don't eat much dairy, so this would take care of a lot of our remaining trash output.

Vitamix version

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Slevin
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Slevin »

jennypenny wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:03 pm
Has anyone seen/tried/purchased a countertop composter like the Vitamix Foodcycler? I know it's normally frowned upon to purchase a gizmo to solve a problem, but a couple of our neighbors who have compost bins have had terrible trouble with rodents and other pests. I want to compost but don't want to invite that kind of trouble into our yard. I also like the idea of composting daily and adding it to whichever bed we're working on at the moment. They don't use much energy and I could hook it to solar most of the year. We aren't eating meat and don't eat much dairy, so this would take care of a lot of our remaining trash output.

Vitamix version
I think it's just drying the food, not doing any sort of composting or anything. So its kinda like an electric dehydrator that does a little bit of agitation. From what I can tell from the sites of electric composters, they don't do any of the aerobic decomposition, etc, so I'm not thinking that the nutrients in the claimed "compost" are actually available to your plants anytime soon. So basically, I think you are just dehydrating and slightly breaking up the food, which will then need to break down and decompose in the garden bed anyways, and are gonna end up with a dubious npk ratio (if you care about adding certain ratios of ammendments).

theanimal
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by theanimal »

@jp-I can't comment on the electric composter but have another idea that may work. I don't remember if you have a greenhouse, but if you do, you could place your compost pile inside your greenhouse. Some people use them here in AK to heat their greenhouse and extend the growing season. The structure would serve as a barrier to prevent any rodents from entering.

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jennypenny
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by jennypenny »

@theanimal -- Our greenhouse is incorporated into our house. I'm not sure I could talk everyone into letting me compost indoors.

@slevin -- Huh. If all it's doing is dehydrating and mincing, I could do that myself with my oven and food processor. I wonder if that would still draw critters since it would obviously rehydrate the minute I added it to the garden beds?

This is a frustrating gap in my waste loop.

sky
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by sky »

Here is my compost system:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/txJV5Q7

The brick and pvc plastic top keeps the raccoons out. The 2x10 boxes are screwed together to keep raccoons from knocking the stack over.

This size works for kitchen waste of 2 people. The pile builds up over winter and the worms and microbes devour everything over summer. In the fall I will switch to the second stack and by spring there should be about 2 pails of rich compost to spread on the garden.

I would not compost inside a living area. Maybe in a shed.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

sky wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:20 am
Here is my compost system:
The floating lid is clever.

I think someone who is into woodworking or metal fabrication could build a compost bin that is mouse / rat proof. Venting could be done with holes too small for a mouse to fit through. I have had rats tunnel up through the frozen ground into the my compost bin in the winter.

More alternatives for apartment dwellers or those who don't want to deal with the hassles of composting are 1. to pay for a private composting service to pick up your waste (this used to be a restaurant thing but has expanded to homes) or 2. to get your municipality to offer composting from the curb like trash and recycling (often expensive but to me the only way that composting will ever become really widespread).

7Wannabe5
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

You could just strew the waste about so that it can dehydrate in the sun. If it's not consolidated, the rodents will be less interested.

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jennypenny
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Re: How to - Indoor Compost?

Post by jennypenny »

I tried dehydrating the food waste in the oven but it takes a long time and I'm not comfortable running the oven all night. It works though. I think the best approach (for me) is to construct a solar dehydrator outside. I can crush the dehydrated stuff when it's done and put it directly into the beds. I don't know if the outdoor dehydrator will draw rodents though. *sigh*

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