Composting

Provincial living: homesteading, farming, gardening, self-efficiency and animal husbandry.
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StroppyChops
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Re: Composting

Post by StroppyChops »

Chickens work really well for maggots, as long as the pile isn't too deep - hey, borrow some from giblet... oh, wait.
Bodge: This ain't Kansas, and the neighbours ate Toto!
OrangeDragon
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Re: Composting

Post by OrangeDragon »

StroppyChops wrote:
OrangeDragon wrote:
StroppyChops wrote:Do these things actually work? That would be cool. Reminds me of that BBC series "The Good Life".
With about 10 cows, 6 geese, a handful of ducks, 6 pigs, and a bunch of chickens it's producing enough gas to power 3 households worth of 2 burner stoves and 3 mantle gas lamps. Now I really wish I'd bought a propane generator instead of a diesel one honestly... then it could run that as well.
Nice. We're involved with an orphanage in Sumatra where the young men have been trained to run their own western-style piggery. Immaculately clean, stalls, hot mash twice a day, long whites from Aussie stock, that sort of thing. They run the effluent off into one of two dams, when a dam fills they dry it, and then spread the dried kak onto their grain and vegetable gardens in the next field. Neat little system, works well. Always been fascinated by effluent digestors, though.
He bought this system from an NGO... if you're interested I'll get their contact info for you to set them up with. Really does a wonder with the pig poop for both killing the odor and making it even more useful.
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StroppyChops
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Re: Composting

Post by StroppyChops »

OrangeDragon wrote:He bought this system from an NGO... if you're interested I'll get their contact info for you to set them up with. Really does a wonder with the pig poop for both killing the odor and making it even more useful.
Thanks - I don't have a use for it yet (no livestock other than cat and hamsters) but I'm sure in years to come we'll be there.
Bodge: This ain't Kansas, and the neighbours ate Toto!
Mr Curious
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Re: Composting

Post by Mr Curious »

UT is dead on here. I like the chicken idea first and the plastic second. Rainy season is the main problem I see. It'll just stop the process and lay soaked for months, with more rot n maggots I spose.
This is what coastal Alabama does to a pile of leaves and grass clippings in around 6 months or so. Usually I make the pile in Nov before I go to Asia, then sift it out around March or April. Sometimes later.
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that pile starts out with around an 8 foot diameter base and about 6 foot tall. Fulla worms at the end too. If you want to keep the maggots away, cover the kitchen garbage, etc with leaves n such or like UT says, newpaper. Flies can't get TO it to lay eggs? no maggots. Turning it regularly with a pitchfork would help too. Get the new stuff down to the hot zone where it's being broken down. And some air. Compaction will also cause parts of the pile to stop working.
Username Taken wrote:
giblet wrote:Okay, I think the jury's back in and my compost is actually just a pile of rotting garbage. It's turned black and is definitely composting, but it is filled with maggots. Can I just bury it and forget about it and start over?
Maggot isn't good. :|

You could try one of the following:
1. collect the maggots and sell them in the market.
2. collect the maggots and sell them to people fishing at the riverside.
3. As Duncan said,"cover it with black polytheen plastic and the temperature should shoot up and kill all those maggots".
4. Add a couple of chickens to your menagerie. Let them scratch through your compost and eat the maggots, at the same time as mixing it for you and adding their own donation to the cause.

:thumb:

"A pile of rotting garbage" doesn't sound good. Is it slushy? Yucky, yucky?
If that's the case, then it is too wet and needs more carbon materials (like dry grass [hay], dry fallen leaves, or even ripped up newspaper should work).
The middle of your compost heap should be very, very hot. So hot that you can only put your hand in there for a couple of seconds. If it is really hot like that, then mixing the compost will help kill any maggots.
Plus, you really should keep it covered for a few reasons. 1. To protect from rain which makes it slushy. 2. To stop it from drying out. [There's a balance in there somewhere]. 3. To keep flies and rats out.

:D
Mr Curious
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Re: Composting

Post by Mr Curious »

They seem fairly serious about biodigestors in Kampong Cham. Not sure how far out of this building that gets tho. Might be just fulla important ppl's nephews.

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Milord
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Re: Composting

Post by Milord »

OD, How do they store the gas from the digester?
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Duncan
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Re: Composting

Post by Duncan »

Milord wrote:OD, How do they store the gas from the digester?
Going back to the good old days, late 60's to 70 's I lived on a commune and we made our own gas with a scrubber unite that removed the SO2 and the unite that removed the CO2 and it ran a old single cylinder stationary motor that had 2 big flywheels on it, producing our electricity , all 12v in those days.
It just so happens I bought that book to Cambodia because I knew some day someone will ask that question. How do they store the gas from a digester.

This book goes to the basics of producing, storing and everything you will want to know about the subject. About 50 pages and yours for the price of photo copying.

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Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
badneighour
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Re: Composting

Post by badneighour »

giblet wrote:There's a guy selling worms here for 60,000/kg. Wonder if it's worth buying some.
where can u buy worms..they 4 def speed up the composting process
:hattip:
giblet
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Re: Composting

Post by giblet »

Since I know that everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting for an update on my compost...

I got freaked out by the last batch and dumped it out of the bin into a pile and stopped thinking about it. Went back there today and the whole thing has turned into proper black compost! It's filled with worms and I'm very pleased with myself. I got a book on composting which I don't expect to read but I hope to learn something from through osmosis. In the meantime, I have dug a pit and am going to try some composting that way, and also work on building a pile for hot compost. I wish I could get my flock toilet trained because right now I have no way of harnessing the power of their crap.
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Re: Composting

Post by Username Taken »

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Good of you to come back with the update.

Read the book!
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