Very common in tumblers.

I'm not sure there is an exact cause but moisture seems to play a role. I usually do batches in my tumblers. If I fill them and tumble them to mix the materials well before I add water, there seems to be less 'balling'. I don't panic over them, they still break down and when I sift they either get busted up or they go in the next batch.

Lloyd

I don't add water.
I save my kitchen scraps in a container, and when full I empty it into the composter.
There is a lot of nasty-smelling fluid to keep the compost wet.
Also - see my other thread about adding beer which really speeds up the fermentation of the mix.

Any other suggestions to eliminate the balling up of my mix?

Compost that has too much moisture will tend to ball up.

OK, thanks.

Usually it's a result of using too much soft green matter such as grass clippings. Adding a couple of fist sized round rocks helps break them up when you turn it. They're not that big a problem. As you pointed out, they are handy to put under plants so they release a little manure tea each time you water.

I once put a wood log into my tumbler thinking it would break down the balls. Balls formed anyway. I don;t worry about them anymore. They will breakup.

I found clumps were very common in my tumbler. Not a problem in my plastic bin, as well as the mesh bins I currently use.

It was not the main reason I threw my tumbler away.

You need lots of browns. Dry leaves, cardboard.

As mentioned, the compost balls break down so all you need to do is crumble them or as in my case, toss them threw the shredder and they come out dust.

I find wasting beer on compost more then a little disturbing! burp.

When you say it will break up does that mean it will break up when its done? Or will it break up when you do it with your hands?

Also if it stays in the balls how do you know when it is done?

You would have to break up a few balls to look at the insides and see if it's done. I do not have a tumbler but judging from the posts in this old thread it appears they should break up naturally as they finish.

Once it's mostly done, you could empty it all onto the ground or into a wire mesh bin to finish. That frees up your tumbler to start a new batch, and the balls would have a chance to dry out and fall apart into nice fluffy compost.

Not all the balls are the same. It can depend on what they are made up of. Some can dry up and become hard but when broken up by hand they turn into dust. If soft and moist, some can break up easily. When the material comes out of the tumbler for curing after the thermyphillic phase, the balls just keep on decomposing as long as they are kept moist. Eventually, most are just gone after curing but there can still be a few left. I don't concern myself over them.

Lloyd

I have the same problem. It bothers me, a little too much, I'd say, because it's probably slowing the composting process for the matter stuck inside those balls. I believe it's a result of the natural action of tumbling plus excess moisture. I use coffee chaf as a brown and I need to add huge amounts to even start to get the moisture level down. Also, if you have materials like eggs cracked in half but not crushed, or rinds from tough fruit that are cut in half, they create natural little cups that get stuffed with other material as they tumble. I also find highly fibrous materials like long grass or ripped up cardboard egg conversant to be typical culprits. Best I can figure out, you need to keep moisture well under control and make sure everything that goes in is pretty well chopped or crushed.

Tumblers are kind of a pain. This is reason #47. Not to be a wet burlap sack about it. :-]

What are you using for brown (carbon) material and what is the ratio of green (kitchen scraps) to brown?