Compost tumbler question

[charles p]

I have a compost tumbler and feed it a steady diet of scrap veggies and occasionally some wheat straw when the mix seems to get wet and sour.  Decomposition is quick during summer months.

It will not make soil.  Instead I make goo balls that smell like rotten garbage.  As my composted product reduces, it forms balls about the size of tennis balls. 

What can I do to produce soil?  Do I need more brown matter.  I once used shredded paper.  Nothing seems to reduce the balls to a soil-like texture.  I do not add water but my end product is rather wet.

[Graybeard]

Sounds like it's way too wet. You need to figure out why. Might need some way to breathe or might be it's raining into it. Stop the wet and you'll get soil

[mirage1988]

Sounds like you need oak leaves to dry it out and earthworms to aid composting. If you add worms, don't tumble it too much, they will do it for you.

[Drilling Man]

  I'd say adding a bit of nitrogen will help too.

  DM

[charles p]

I tried worms but the tumbling killed them.  Will remove the lid on clear days for evaporation.  May empty contents into a large tub and start a new batch. 

Gross as it may sound, my compost balls remind me of piles of elephant dung.  Full of fiber and smell like - well - you know what.  Once they get to the garden they are fine.  Just wish I could produce soil.

[Drilling Man]

  Put some chicken manure in it, or throw in a few big hands full of fertilizer with a high first number. (nitrogen)

  DM

[mirage1988]

Like I said- the worms turn it for you. A tumbler is a composter, not a blender. You have to let nature work.

[charles p]

I mix a few handfuls a week of wheat straw to add brown matter and to dry it.  I have some very high nitrogen fertilizer with pre-emergent in it.  Will add a little of it.  I don't plant from seeds in the spring anyway, and I'm plagued by volunteer seeds that sprout after a year in the tumbler.  Maybe the fertilizer will solve two problems.

[iiranger]

First you have to work away from the water/moisture. Grass clippings are around 80% water. You can dry them first or add dry material like shredded paper. But you have to have a low/lower moisture environment.

#2). You want aerobic bacteria (oxygen loving). There are tons around on leaves etc. You can buy additives but really not necessary. These will break down the organic into the soil like material you seek if you don't "drowned them" with way too much moisture.

#3). You MUST avoid anaerobic (oxygen hating) bacteria. These take over when things are too wet [Oxygen excluded by the water!!!]  and form a goo that is not the soil you seek. It has the same nutrients, basic, but you have to "dry it" and essentially "re compost it" right.

From there it is technique to reach this goal. You can mix carefully and put it in garbage bags. Or pile it and turn the pile every so often. If you want to make the drum work, sounds like you need to add a whole lot more "dry" and some less "wet." Anything organic. Corn meal. (Spoiled is awful cheap). Ground paper. Hay. Straw. Wood chips/sawdust. Nitrogen will feed these good critters and speed things up a bit, but "low moisture" is the key. Not desert dry but if you can squeeze much water out of it with your fingers, too wet. Luck. 

[JASmith]

I thought that compost tumblers were useful only for the urban environment and very small families.  The comments here suggest that maybe there's more to them.  Does anyone have experience with both the tumblers and the more classic bins?

[Drilling Man]

  I don't waste my time with either one, waaaay too much work.  I'd much rather put everything that needs to be composted, straight into the garden and let it compost there.

  DM

[Graybeard]

I've never used a tumbler but at one time had around a dozen compost bins in operation back when I was doing some land clearing here. I chipped all the trees and brush I cut when clearing the back yard and my barn site. I generated a lot of compost in those days.

While it's not absolutely essential to turn it doing so really does speed up the time it takes for stuff to compost. That's why with the tumbler composters it is possible to turn stuff into soil so much faster. Still if you're in no hurry you can just pile the stuff and leave it alone and eventually it will compost. If it's small enough you can do as DM said and just turn it under in the garden and be done with it. I've done that as well but some stuff is best composted first then added.

[charles p]

Actually I use all three methods.  I mulch my garden with straw and eel grass to retain moisture and add organic matter.  I have a bin constructed of hardware cloth that is about 40" in diameter.  I put stalks, leaves, and limbs in it.  Sometimes I move contents from the bin to the tumbler after emptying the tumbler.  The tumbler gets kitchen waste mostly.  I put a few shrimp shells in it about once per month with no problem.  It is full of worms and beatles but they are not earth worms.

The tumbler lid has positions for open, vent and closed.  Will set it to vent in future.  It also has drainage holes in the bottom.

I live on the Outer Banks of NC.  Our soil is 100% sand unless something is added.  My garden soil has benefited from the addition of a truck load of topsoil, plus five years worth of compost, peat moss, chicken manure, ground peanut shells, and eel grass.  I also have a drip irrigation system.  I get an annual soil test from NC State University.  My fertilizer requirements are normally 6-6-18, which is often used by tobacco farmers.  Lime is not needed every year.

[Drilling Man]

If it's small enough you can do as DM said and just turn it under in the garden and be done with it. I've done that as well but some stuff is best composted first then added.

  Small enough???  You just need a BIGGER garden to put it in!  lol

  Seriously though, i put everything to be composted between my rows and walk on it, by the next season it's all composted, and my new rows go over the new compost.

  I don't buy any chemical fert, i add a bit turkey poop to add the "N", that's needed to break down the carbon faster.

  DM

[pmeisel]

I just use piles -- most of my material is grass clippings and shredded leaves, very little food matter.  I just pile the stuff in a sheltered corned, and use a shovel to turn it maybe once or twice a year.

I have seen something similar at commercial operations, they make piles in long rows, and use a bobcat to turn them once in awhile....

[Bucker]

anyone have any ideas or lans to make your own tumblers?

[gypsyman]

My next door neighbor has one. Looks like it would be easy to make. Around here, I see blue what looks to be 55 gal. plastic drums for sale, $5-$10, advertised clean. I used one in my boat as a live well for years. Heavy enough to cut and put a lid on the side with holes drilled into it for evaporation. You could build a frame for it out of 2''x4'' with dolly wheels, so you could spin it. My neighbors is a store bought one, and has a handle on the side to rotate it. He just backs up his riding lawn mower with his cart attached, dumps the barrel into the cart and hauls it to his garden.  gypsyman

[charles p]

Make it from something that will not rust!  Mine gets real heavy when it is half full.  Total capacity is probably 40 gallons.  You'll be amazed how stuff you can mulch down to almost nothing during warm weather.  Reduction is surely 20:1.