Hi flopsy

May I ask a couple of questions and get a bit of clarification?

Is this like a 45 gallon drum style composter and is it on its side or does it turn end over end?

By "lumped" do you mean "settled to the bottom" or is it "clumping" in balls like the size of a fist?

How full did you fill it and do you add to it continuously?

What kind of shredded paper? Newspaper, office paper?

Lloyd

Hi, pt03, Yep, it's a drum, on its side. Lumped in my description means everything settled to the bottom and one big "clunk, clunk" when we rotate the barrel. Not balls the size of fists. No, I'm not adding to it continuously now, had hubby make the big bins for that. It was shredded envelopes, etc, like office paper.
Thanks for your help pt03!!!

Off hand I'd guess it was too wet. I had that happen a couple of times in my bigger tumbler. Given enough turns it does break apart but I also have a steel shaft in the center of the drum so every turn caused it to bang against that to break up some. (Sandy and Martin added steel rods through their tumblers to break up the clumps in their tumblers.) Once I cut back on the water added, it wasn't an issue for mine. After being in the tumbler for a couple of weeks it often settles to almost the halfway mark and due to all the weight being in the bottom it can be more difficult to rotate. Usually by the time it gets to this point I am ready to dump it and start a new batch anyways.

Generally I don't add paper anymore but I have in the past. I don't know why, but white office paper seemed to take longer than a newspaper and I am wondering if it has something to do with it's density.

Shredding the leaves has a huge impact on their decomposition rate and I have never added soil but I suspect there is always minute amounts with the grass clippings and/or leaves.

To repair it, I would start over again and monitor the moisture closely. Kitchen stuff is usually pretty wet so a thorough mixing with the leaves and paper might just give the optimum moisture levels. Depends on how much kitchen stuff you have I guess. In any event it is a learning experience. And as long as that damp rotting odor wasn't an offensive smell, I wouldn't concern myself, it is breaking down.

Wish I could come over and look at it, tough to diagnose exact problems on line.

Lloyd

I'm going to make a guess and suggest that you add some straw to the pile. I don't know what ratios you had greens and browns, but it sounds like a lot of greens. The straw might loosen it up as well.

Too wet is probably it. I will add straw or something and use a tool to break it apart just to see if this will repair it (or rather allow it to decompose). If not, I'll start over. I'm too cheap even with waste to just chunk it. (grin). Thank you both, and any other suggestions to help me are appreciated beyond all measure.

Oh, and I forgot to say, Good Hubby!

:)

Lloyd

Hello again (and yep, good hubby). I took a hand-held rake out to the barrel and it is not clumped. It just sounded and looked like it was. I was able to rake through the leaves, etc. It smalls like wet leaves and ground in the deep of the forest. Does that make sense? The egg shells are not decomposing nor do the leaves seem to be breaking up. I added some cow manure today (got it from the neighbor's pasture). I also added some to the two bins and worked it into the middle of them. I keep my kitchen scraps (egg shells, banana peels, potato peelings, coffee filters and grounds, tea bags etc.) in a closed bucket (screw on lid) in the utility room for several days, then go dump it into one of the bins. Tell me what I'm doing right and wrong, please. Thanks! P.S. Pt03, I've never visited Manitoba, but have been in Alberta, BC and Ontario. Love your country and its people.

Hi flopsy

Not much here to see, mosquitoes in the summer and snow in the winter. :)

Egg shells seem to last forever!

As far as I am concerned, if the smell is not offensive, then it's doing okay. If it has that nice dirt smell then I think it's them actinomighty thingies working. (Squonnk, fill us in on those critters)

Doing right: composting, trying different things, not giving up.

Doing wrong: nothing from where I sit.

You go girl!

Lloyd

Egg shells will take a very long time to get digested, because they are so hard. If at all possible they should be mushed, but even then they will be there for a very long time. People sometimes are a but disconcerted when they see compost spread on my planting beds with what looks like light brown specks and I explain that those are egg shells.
There is too much moisture in the mix of the barrel, so the aerobic bacteria that would digest that material cannot even get to work. Add dry material to absorb that moisture.

I wonder how flopsy made out?? flopsy, are you still around?

In case she does come back, I'd add that I have a trash-barrel composter that go a bit too wet. During one of my turnings, I spread the contents out on the ground, and let it sit for a few hours (2? 4? I don't remember), and then piled it back into the barrel. This made a world of difference -- the smell went away, and the texture was vastly improved.

I also make a point of smashing the egg shells whenever I see them during a turning...which isn't as easy to do if you've got a tumbler.