permaculture

[Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>]

The agricultural extension units of the land grant colleges typically 
have tons of info
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/compost/chapter1.html
Even the big boys compost -- and aerobic processes fit industrial time 
tables.
http://www.compost.wsu.edu/page.asp?rid=13

Also consider looking into the bio-intensive world of john jeavons - he 
has a interesting discussion of fast aerobic composting If you google, 
also use the term 'aerobic' composting

I tend to get lazy and fall back on burial of kitchen scraps since I 
have no fowl, and am leaning toward large worm bins to produce potting 
material -- the best lazy compost piles end up like worm bins anyway.  
The open food scrap heap looses a lot of nitrogen as nitrogen and 
ammonia gas.  A dusting of straw, weeds, or leaves, will help you 
nutrient retention

The problem with doing true hot composting at a residential scale is 
batch size.  I haven't played seriously with bacteria for a while, but 
when I did I tended to store my food scraps in 5 gallon buckets (butter 
cream frosting containers from the supermarket bakery work well if you 
can get them to keep the lids).You typically want a 4' square heap 
minimum to retain heat and get the temp up to the 140-160 degrees 
range... a long probe thermometer is a fun tool to track what is going 
on inside.  So a little added to the top every day is no way to build a 
hot pile.  A manure source is great for building a hot pile.

moist like a wrung sponge
small pieces of stuff
get some soil and/or old compost in there for innoculation
thin layers, wet as you go.
something springy like straw to get oxygen in, but use old straw thats 
lost its waxy coating
make big piles in a batch
have fun

Paul Cereghino
Olympia, WA, USA

John Fritz wrote:

> Do you have any reference for "hot compostiing" of kitchen and garden wastes? 
>  I generally just toss these into a chicken wire bin and let them decompose at their 
> own rate over the course of the summer. Hot composting sounds like fun, and I would 
> like to learn this technique.  Thanks for any insights.
>   
>  John Fritz, NW Arkansas. 
>   
>  Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:16:42 -0700
> From: yarrow@sfo.com
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] poop and pee
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <f06110401c1597bb97e88@[66.81.68.221]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>
>
> Generally the advice re humanure composting is to become adept at hot 
> composting of kitchen and garden wastes before attempting humanure 
> composting. Once your first batch of humanure compost has aged a 
> year, if you have any doubts at all on whether it's safe to use, get 
> it tested by a soil/microbiology lab. Or wait 2 years, or use it on 
> ornamentals or fruit trees.
>
>
>
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