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kcchuck

warm weather composting setup

18 years ago

High regards to all contributors to this forum. I'm new to composting. I want to describe my setup to see if can't get any specific feedback from people with similar setups to mine, as material online is generally geared towards climate much cooler and wetter than mine

CLIMATE

- I'm in Cairo, Egypt

- daytime temperature roughly 30-40^C, that's 85-105^F

- nighttime & winter temperature, around 5-15^C, that's 40-60^F

- no rain (well a few drops end of winter maybe), but a little humid

- I think this would roughly equate a zone 9 or 10

SETUP

- I live in an apartment with a rooftop terrace/balcony, floored in tiling

- i use a cardboard box with no bottom, sitting on a plastic sheet

- i use garbage rolls (look TP rolls but thicker & longer) with holes drilled for aeration, one vertical just off-center and one horizontal at the bottom

- fill up a box every 4-6 weeks, plan to tape another box on top, overlapping the folds to build a tower, giving me capacity for 8-12 weeks

- once a 'tower' is filled I'll leave it to 'season' for a couple of months

MATERIALS

- for browns:

-- shredded paper & cardboard (lots)

-- shredded dry leaves scavenged from the neighborhood yards (not that many)

-- kitchen scraps (eg corn cobs, fruit stones, coffee filters, etc)

- for greens:

-- lots kitchen scraps (fruit & veg trimmings, spent tea, spoiled produce, etc)

-- house plant trimmings (not much)

-- other bits and pieces

- for moisture:

-- urine, haven't used water at all

MAINTAINING

- I shred/chop/break before stuff goes into my kitchen organic bin

- I turn every couple of days, my browns seem very compressible, possible soggy

RESULTS SO FAR:

I get super fast decomp, never ceases to amaze me in 2 or 3 days I have to look really hard to find anything recognizable, with a new addition of greens or urine, it gets noticeably hot in a couple hours or less, if i have loads of dry leaves in there, it starts even faster

Saw maggots in there a few days ago, made me very happy

Any one with a similar setup? Any feedback or opinions? Anyone else use urine for moisture (& super high N content)?

Comments (4)

  • 18 years ago

    The concepts that became composting, as described by Sir A;bert Howard, came from the Indore, India region of the world so there are no differences in how compost is made in Egypt than would be in Alaska, except yours would get digested sooner because you would need much more compost for the soil.
    Contrary to what you often read here, maggots are not a good thing in compost since they need an environment that is wetter than what is good for the bacteria that digest your compost. Maggots are an indication that your compost is too wet.

  • 18 years ago

    I live in Central Florida and have really hot compost.

    I humanure compost so yes, we use urine and we do get hot compost that decomposes pretty quickly.

    Your method sounds like it is working pretty good. You probably need a little more browns to dry things out a little bit but you can let your nose be your guide. If it stinks, then you want more browns to dry it out more. If it doesn't stink, then I wouldn't worry too much about the maggots other than them perhaps being regular fly maggots which is not such a good thing. If they are Black Soldier Fly larva, then that is a fine thing.

    Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

  • 18 years ago

    tclynx, since the larva of the common house fly and the larva of the Black Soldier Fly look very similar how do you tell the difference?
    Once again, given the moisture level the fly larva need to grow the presence of them indicates that your compost is too wet to properly be digested, there is too much moisture that is excluding the air the bacteria also need to work.

  • 18 years ago

    kimmsr,
    you are right that fly larva of any sort are an indication of a bit too much moisture for perfect compost. Then again, some fly larva in the compost does not mean that the compost is broken and it isn't reason to worry. It is only perhaps reason to add more dry browns or pee in it a bit less.

    As to the difference between BSF larva and house fly larva, they look very different if you observe details carefully. Now BSF larva are quite happy in really wet nasty conditions but I have also seen them in much drier conditions that are just fine for worms and compost. BSF larva in compost or a worm bin do not automatically mean the conditions are wrong for worm composting or regular composting.

    kcchuck,
    Sounds like you are doing well with your compost in your situation. You may want to let the compost be a little bit drier though, especially if you ever notice unpleasant odor coming from it. Keep up the good work!!!!

    Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx