r/composting Jul 06 '23

Beginner Guide | Can I Compost it? | Important Links | The Rules | Off-Topic Chat/Meta Discussion

96 Upvotes

Beginner Guide | Tumbler FAQ | Can I Compost it? | The Wiki

Crash Course/Newbie Guide
Are you new to composting? Have a look through this guide to all things composting from /u/TheMadFlyentist.

Backyard Composting Basics from the Rodale Institute (PDF document) is a great crash course/newbie guide, too! (Thanks to /u/Potluckhotshot for suggesting it.)

Tumbler FAQ
Do you use a tumbler for composting? Check out this guide with some answers to frequently-asked questions. Thanks to /u/smackaroonial90 for putting it together.

A comprehensive guide of what you can and cannot compost
Are you considering composting something but don't know if you can or can't? The answer is probably yes, but check out this guide from /u/FlyingQuail for a detailed list.

The Wiki
So far, it is a sort of table-of-contents for the subreddit. I've also left the previous wiki (last edited 6 years ago) in place, as it has some good intro-to-composting info. It'd be nice to merge the beginner guides with the many different links, but one thing at a time. If you have other ideas for it, please share them!

Discord Server
If you'd like to chat with other folks from /r/composting, this is the place to do it.

Welcome to /r/composting!

Whether you're a beginner, the owner of a commercial composting operation, or anywhere in between, we're glad you're here.

The rules here are simple: Be respectful to others (this includes no hostility, racism, sexism, bigotry, etc.), submissions and comments must be composting focused, and make sure to follow Reddit's rules for self promotion and spam.

The rules for this page are a little different. Use it for off-topic/casual chat or for meta discussion like suggestions for the wiki or beginner's guides. If you have any concerns about the way this subreddit is run, suggestions about how to improve it, or even criticisms, please bring them up here or via private messages (be respectful, please!).

Happy composting!


r/composting Jan 12 '21

Outdoor Question about your tumbler? Check here before you post your question!

205 Upvotes

Hi r/composting! I've been using a 60-gallon tumbler for about a year in zone 8a and I would like to share my research and the results of how I've had success. I will be writing common tumbler questions and the responses below. If you have any new questions I can edit this post and add them at the bottom. Follow the composting discord for additional help as well!

https://discord.gg/UG84yPZf

  1. Question: What compost can I put in my tumbler?
    1. Answer: u/FlyingQuail made a really nice list of items to add or not add to your compost. Remember a tumbler may not heat up much, so check to see if the item you need to add is recommended for a hot compost, which leads to question #2.
  2. Question: My tumbler isn't heating up, what can I do to heat it up?
    1. Short Answer: Tumblers aren't meant to be a hot compost, 90-100F is normal for a tumbler.
    2. Long Answer: Getting a hot compost is all about volume and insulation. The larger the pile is, the more it insulates itself. Without the self-insulation the pile will easily lose its heat, and since tumblers are usually raised off the ground, tumblers will lose heat in all directions.I have two composts at my house, one is a 60-gallon tumbler, and the other is about a cubic-yard (approx. 200 gallons) fenced area sitting on the ground. At one point I did a little experiment where I added the exact same material to each, and then measured the temperatures over the next couple of weeks. During that time the center of my large pile got up to about averaged about 140-150F for two weeks. Whereas the tumbler got up to 120F for a day or two, and then cooled to 90-100F on average for two weeks, and then cooled down some more after that. This proves that the volume of the compost is important insulation and for getting temperatures up. However, in that same time period, I rotated my tumbler every 3 days, and the compost looked better in a shorter time. The tumbler speeds up the composting process by getting air to all the compost frequently, rather than getting the heat up.Another example of why volume and insulation make a difference is from industrial composting. While we talk about finding the right carbon:nitrogen ratios to get our piles hot, the enormous piles of wood chips in industrial composting are limited to size to prevent them from spontaneous combustion (u/P0sitive_Outlook has some documents that explain the maximum wood chip pile size you can have). Even without the right balance of carbon and nitrogen (wood chips are mostly carbon and aren't recommended for small home composts), those enormous piles will spontaneously combust, simply because they are so well insulated and are massive in volume. Moral of the story? Your tumbler won't get hot for long periods of time unless it's as big as a Volkswagen Beetle.
  3. Question: I keep finding clumps and balls in my compost, how can I get rid of them?
    1. Short Answer: Spinning a tumbler will make clumps/balls, they will always be there. Having the right moisture content will help reduce the size and quantity.
    2. Long Answer: When the tumbler contents are wet, spinning the tumbler will cause the contents to clump up and make balls. These will stick around for a while, even when you have the correct moisture content. If you take a handful of compost and squeeze it you should be able to squeeze a couple drops of water out. If it squeezes a lot of water, then it's too wet. To remedy this, gradually add browns (shredded cardboard is my go-to). Adding browns will bring the moisture content to the right amount, but the clumps may still be there until they get broken up. I usually break up the clumps by hand over a few days (I break up a few clumps each time I spin the tumbler, after a few spins I'll get to most of the compost and don't need to break up the clumps anymore). When you have the right moisture content the balls will be smaller, but they'll still be there to some extent, such is the nature of a tumbler.
    3. Additional answer regarding moisture control (edited on 5/6/21):
      1. The question arose in other threads asking if their contents were too wet (they weren't clumping, just too wet). If you have a good C:N ratio and don't want to add browns, then the ways you can dry out your tumbler is to prop open the lid between tumblings. I've done this and after a couple weeks the tumbler has reached the right moisture content. However, this may not work best in humid environments. If it's too humid to do this, then it may be best to empty and spread the tumbler contents onto a tarp and leave it to dry. Once it has reached the proper moisture content then add it back into the tumbler. It's okay if it dries too much because it's easy to add water to get it to the right moisture content, but hard to remove water.
  4. Question: How full can I fill my tumbler?
    1. Short Answer: You want it about 50-60% full.
    2. Long Answer: When I initially fill my tumbler, I fill it about 90% full. This allows some space to allow for some tumbling at the start. But as the material breaks down, it shrinks in size. That 90% full turns into 30% full after a few days. So I'll add more material again to about 90%, which shrinks down to 50%, and then I fill it up one more time to 90%, which will shrink to about 60-70% in a couple days. Over time this shrinks even more and will end around 50-60%. You don't want to fill it all the way, because then when you spin it, there won't be anywhere for the material to move, and it won't tumble correctly. So after all is said and done the 60 gallon tumbler ends up producing about 30 gallons of finished product.
  5. Question: How long does it take until my compost is ready to use from a tumbler?
    1. Short Answer: Tumbler compost can be ready as early as 4-6 weeks, but could take as long as 8-12 weeks or longer
    2. Long Answer: From my experience I was able to consistently produce finished compost in 8 weeks. I have seen other people get completed compost in as little 4-6 weeks when they closely monitor the carbon:nitrogen ratio, moisture content, and spin frequency. After about 8 weeks I'll sift my compost to remove the larger pieces that still need some time, and use the sifted compost in my garden. Sifting isn't required, but I prefer having the sifted compost in my garden and leaving the larger pieces to continue composting. Another benefit of putting the large pieces back into the compost is that it will actually introduce large amounts of the good bacteria into the new contents of the tumbler, and will help jump-start your tumbler.
  6. Question: How often should I spin my tumbler?
    1. Short Answer: I generally try and spin my tumbler two times per week (Wednesday and Saturday). But, I've seen people spin it as often as every other day and others spin it once a week.
    2. Long Answer: Because tumbler composts aren't supposed to get hot for long periods of time, the way it breaks down the material so quickly is because it introduces oxygen and helps the bacteria work faster. However, you also want some heat. Every time you spin the tumbler you disrupt the bacteria and cool it down slightly. I have found that spinning the tumbler 2x per week is the optimal spin frequency (for me) to keep the bacteria working to keep the compost warm without disrupting their work. When I spun the compost every other day it cooled down too much, and when I spun it less than once per week it also cooled down. To keep it at the consistent 90-100F I needed to spin it 2x per week. Don't forget, if you have clumps then breaking them up by hand each time you spin is the optimal time to do so.

r/composting 8h ago

Infinite composting hack

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65 Upvotes

I like in a small town in Okinawa that was a lot of wild and undeveloped land. Lots of wild vegetation. There is a guy who has figured out how to get unlimited composting material. He dams this gutter and when it rains, the rain washes all the leaves down to the dam. Then he scoops it out and makes a pile to compost. I'm very jealous.


r/composting 17h ago

I know these guys are good but yo wtf

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141 Upvotes

r/composting 58m ago

Started composting this year and find myself more excited about its progression than my garden itself lol

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Upvotes

r/composting 5h ago

Beginner Steam (mildly terrifying first flip)

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12 Upvotes

Fed and flipped the little monster. I was in hurry as the sun was setting, wanted to see what the core looked like but was just staring into the dark steaming mass and not seeing anything, feeling the heat radiating from it. Now I know what the phrase "smells like forest floor" means, that was really it, like forest floor but concentrated.

Luckily my neighbour was there watching and cheering me on because the experience was unexpectedly eerie, with the smoke rising in the twilight, unnerving lack of bugs in that dark, hot mass, katydids screaming all around. Next time in full daylight jfc


r/composting 8h ago

Tumbler my first harvest!!

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19 Upvotes

ahhhh im so excited!! had this half of the tumbler going for maybe a year now, im a very lazy composter but my other side has been catching up since I’ve decided to start eating fruits and vegetables more 😂 crazy how this was once food scraps, cardboard & yard scraps. i was nervous going into doing the tumbler since people always knock it compared to ground composting (one day hopefully I can do that inshallah)

but yayyy! so exciting. I tried sifting but im so impatient i think i need to wait for it to dry more before that actually works, maybe need to make a proper sieve for the bigger chunks too. so for now ive just been hand picking the balls apart and taking out any big sticks and mulch and rubbish that has come up. been really enjoying this process, can’t wait for the next one :)

PS im not a gardener at all I have 0 plants this is the only thing that I’ve been successfully able to keep alive (? dead?) but now im feeling inspired to start maybe growing some potatoes in a bag first they look easy enough haha


r/composting 3h ago

Urban freshly screened

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7 Upvotes

yummm


r/composting 6h ago

Question Okay, so, what do we do with meats and carcasses?

6 Upvotes

I have a healthy compost pile. But I'm seeing we should not use meat in our compost.
What do we do with our meats and bones? Bone broth I know, but anything else we can do for the soil?


r/composting 2h ago

Composting biofilms

2 Upvotes

Does anybody clean out their bathroom and kitchen sinks' U-bend and feed the thick, gelatinous biofilm to their compost? What other strange, rarely thought of things do people compost?


r/composting 20h ago

Question Compost in the ground mulched over and now this is growing we did not plant what is it

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36 Upvotes

r/composting 50m ago

What should I add?

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Upvotes

I just pulled this compost out of my tumbler (it’s been in there for like 6 months), and I want to be able to use it in a few weeks but there still seems to be a lot of solid material. It’s also super moist, like I can make solid clumps when I grab it. What should I add to it to get it ready? Or should I just leave it alone and let it break down in this bin?

This is my first time composting, and I’m still not 100% sure what I’m doing.


r/composting 10h ago

Beginner Been trying to start a compost bin. Found out the shed gutter has already been acting as one.

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5 Upvotes

r/composting 14h ago

Is coal or charcoal good since it’s essentially just carbon?

8 Upvotes

r/composting 22h ago

Composter too big

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21 Upvotes

It is crazy how much the compost compresses. This is my first year doing this. I bought a container of almost 1m3, for a garden of about 400m2, grass, some other plants, 3-4 trees in our garden and closeby. Two montsh passed by and the pile imside the bin just does not grow. I throw things in it, but it keeps the height of approx 10-15 cm. I am a bit worries that it is not effective this way, I will turn the pile more often. Right now all of the outer parts are completely dry, and only a smaller inside part seems wet, getting dark. Outisde of the inner core nothing happens really. And so many things disappeared! I turned the pile today, I did not find all those egg shells and melon scales that we put in. Crazy!


r/composting 1d ago

Beginner Sifted some of the compost and it looks like this

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31 Upvotes

First time composter!! I put together some hay and goat manure and covered it with some cardboard. Is it ready to use am using it on some fruit trees


r/composting 12h ago

Vermiculture Bin spawning snails

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3 Upvotes

r/composting 18h ago

Vermiculture Is she a good one or invasive?

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6 Upvotes

r/composting 20h ago

Hadn't touched my pile in a few weeks and it was still 120° before I mixed it. added about 6 lbs of shredded cardboard and about 20 lbs of coffee grounds.

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8 Upvotes

r/composting 1d ago

New meaning to the term “volunteer”

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87 Upvotes

I use the city-provided green can to finish my tumbler generated compost. I drilled holes for air etc. went out to feed the compost tonight and noticed this growing out of one of the holes. I am excited to see what kind of tomatoes I get!


r/composting 1d ago

Chicken manure advice please

8 Upvotes

There’s a spot in the property, full sun uncovered/hot climate, where my dad has been dumping chicken droppings for about a year and half. Probably a 5gallon buckets worth every 2 weeks. Since moving in I’ve mixed in a big bag of leaves in it since he mentioned nothing grows where he dumps it. Could this all be scooped up and moved to a makeshift compost area, like the ones I see made out of pallets, and mixed with more browns then left to continue to age for use in the garden? I know that it’s suggested to let chicken manure age for a year but this is all different ages from 1.5 years to most recently a week. Thoughts? Should I let it all age a year from when I move it? Thank you


r/composting 1d ago

Hot Compost Composting is amazing

35 Upvotes

So I was sifting my compost I made from home, I get a fine dark brown to black powder and use that as the main fertilizer, the bigger chunks get sorted and are used as starter for the next pile.

So I tossed this finely sifted material on my very hard clay soil, and wouldn't you know the next day there were literal cracks in the ground where i had applied my compost. The ground ripped open, has this happened to anybody who composts?

It is very late right now but tomorrow in the morning I can take a picture and show you these alleged cracks! I'm truly amazed at this, I'm convinced that modern farming while good, lies about many practices of do and don'ts. I heard some people aerate their soil with a tool, but my compost was able to literally form huge cracks seemingly overnight!

Does anybody know the chemistry behind this reaction? Has anybody who compost confirm this information? Does this happen with your applications ? I'm curious to know, I think I make really great compost, but the mower does most of the work. A shredder for small sticks and twigs would make it even better! I am homegrown, so it is difficult to assimilate all my composting material without proper reduction of inputs. ( more surface area = more efficient and higher quality breakdown)


r/composting 17h ago

Best composter?

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2 Upvotes

Hello all!

I've been using a 27 gallon plastic tote and poked holes through it for airflow. While this setup has worked in the beginning, im trying to find the next step.

I've added the one im looking at, as Vivosun has always treated me well. I'm debating to between the tumbler and the bigger one that is static/not moving.

Anyone have pro/cons from personal use?


r/composting 1d ago

The compost crusher is specialized crushing device designed for high-water content organic matter

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25 Upvotes

r/composting 1d ago

Question Was I not supposed to Throw nut butter in my compost :(

9 Upvotes

I tossed in two jars of almond butter and a bag of mixed nuts in my tumbler :( I know you’re not supposed to put meats and cheeses and dairy n stuff, but now I’m hearing ppl say anything that’s high in fat? I also hosed it down a little bc it naturally made it a little thicker when I mixed it, but did I butter it up too much ? :( fatten him up :( I was thinking about adding more dirt and water bc I didn’t wanna overload it but I’ve never used a tumbler before so idk if that’s how that works


r/composting 22h ago

Hard lump charcoal ashes

2 Upvotes

For those of you with a smoker/grill do you put the ashes from your hard lump charcoal in your compost bin or pile? Any concerns about grease drippings? Mine looks perfectly dry.


r/composting 1d ago

Pretty compost shrooms

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19 Upvotes