It’ll be fine to put the materials in the tumbler. But it won’t be compost by next spring, unless you live in a warm climate.

I can’t help with the black bags because I don’t know what they are but it's not usually recommended to add compost to containers.

I wasn't clear in my post. I'll have the compost ready before winter. I'm really asking if it will lose potency or effectiveness if the finished compost sits in the tumbler over the winter. If it will, I'll wait to start another batch closer to spring time so it will be ready when I'm beginning the new garden bag. These garden bags are 4 feet across and a foot deep. I'd like to add compost to the commercial soil and manure I plan to use in the bag. I hope this is clearer.

I’m still puzzled. If you have some nearly ready now there doesn’t seem to be any alternative to keeping it overwinter. Surely you wouldn’t throw it away? It won’t lose effectiveness. It’ll just sit there.

If you abandon the current batch I don’t know any way to start another in late winter and have it ready for spring.

I currently have a 4x8 wooden raised bed that has fallen apart. I'm going to replace this bed with 2 of the garden beds in the spring. The wooden bed has snow peas growing in it now, which is why I can't replace it until the peas are finished. So... in the spring I will take it out and put in the 2 garden bags. At that point I would like to add compost to the bags. I have one round of compost that I've just about finished putting in the garden, and so I am thinking of starting another round, which will probably be finished before the cold weather hits here in Southeast Coastal Georgia. That's why I was wondering about keeping the finished compost in the tumbler and then using it in the spring in the garden bags so I can plant some early spring crops. I hope this is more clear as to what I was asking.

You've clearly got a super fast composting technique there. How do you produce it so speedily?

I use peat moss and the green leaves that grow prolifically by my back fence. I layer them in trying to keep to a 30 to 1 ratio of the peat to the leaves. I turn the tumbler every day or every other day and keep it moist. I hope to have it ready by December. I should mention this last round of compost was my first successful batch I've ever made, so I want to keep to the formula that worked. I know there are many ways to make compost; this is the one that worked for me. I'll probably add the food scraps that I don't need to give to the composting worms. I also don't know how the compost will do in the cooler weather. It's all an experiment....

That’s an interesting method. But it doesn’t really sound like what is commonly understood by compost. The usual ratio of green to brown (nitrogenous material to carbon material) is 1:2. What you are producing sounds like a lot of carbon with a scattering of nitrogen. Its essentially not much different from the peat you started with. Is it something you read about somewhere?

Since compost doesn't really have "potency" the simple answer is no, nothing will be lost. Compost that you may have had sitting around for two years is just as good - maybe better, in fact for organic gardening.

Most of what we call "compost" - and certainly everything sold in bags - is really only partially decomposed plant material. The thing that would make it even better is for it to be fully decomposed - but that takes more time.

In the decomposition process bacteria comes in and starts to digest the soft plant structures. It does its job relatively quickly - in a few weeks if you do hot composting, of several months if you do cold composting. But bacteria don't eat the tough, woody carbon-heavy parts of plants. That is left for fungus to feed on. And fugus is efficient, but slow. "Hot" composting can't make fungus go faster - they operate on their own timing.

After a few more months the plant material is broken down to a point where it is no longer recognizable as leaves. twigs, corn stalks and grass clippings - it is just a dark brown mulchy mixture. That is what we usually call compost. However, that is not the end of the line - the fungi are still feeding and digesting, probably for another year or two. The actual end result of the decomposition process is humus. Humus is a neutral smelling crumbly almost black mixture that resembles used coffee grounds. Humus has no nutrients to speak of - it is almost all carbon.

While humus has no nutrient value itself, it has wonderful properties that makes it a terrific addition to the soil. The carbon in the humus binds easily to nutrients and holds them in place for the plants to use. Without it the NPK would just sink down in to the water table.

All the compost you add to your garden will eventually become humus. (Actually, everything organic will eventually become humus - including ourselves.) Older compost just has that extra head start.

Thank you for that explanation. I read about the ratio of 30 to 1 carbon/nitrogen somewhere, but perhaps that is not the best method. I'll try adding more nitrogen this time and see how it turns out. It's all an experiment in gardening.

If you use all the waste from your garden, yard and kitchen there should be no need to spend money on peat.

Nitrogen is optional for composting. You can take a pile of shredded wood or leaves and leave it for two or three years and it will break down into a wonderfully crumbly compost all on its own. No green material required. After, that's what built the forest floor for eons.

Adding more nitrogen-heavy, or "green", elements will encourage bacteria and will make the process go faster. Faster isn't always better, because a lot of that nitrogen will be expelled as waste ammonia gas as the bacteria are multiplying and dying off in huge numbers. But it will speed decomposition of the soft material in the pile from a year to a couple of months to even a few weeks if you can get the hot ratio just right.

So, if you want the fastest, hottest compost pile on the block, by all means work those ratios and increase the mass of your pile as much as possible to get things cooking.

But that's only if you want to press on the gas pedal as far as speed goes. If you don't care about that all you need is the high-carbon leafy, woody material and a place to stash if for a couple of years.

wow! Dear frdnicholas, I’ve not heard

of “garden bags” and wish you would tell us about them. Are they they the big black plastic garbage bags one would use to put leaves in after one rakes his yard?

It sounds to me like you’re using those same TYPES of bags

to hold a planting mix that you are “creating” for spring planting in the spot where your “now collapsed” 4x8 beds used to be. If this is not right please share what is correct.

regarding if your compost will still be useable In spring if u leave it in yr tumbler the answer is YES!!!

a comment on “compost will look like coffee grounds“:

that would be in the finished composts’

color only. The coffee grounds are coarsely textured. Finished compost is not coarsely textured.

Regarding your 30 to 1 experiment, please let us know how it turns out.

I don’t think you’re going to have great

results though by spring. Perhaps it’s the abundance of turning added to the

dampened materials.

bye for now :)

The garden "bags" are not trash bags but are 4 feet in diameter and 12 inches deep. They have a mesh bottom for drainage and serve as a raised bed for me. I have gotten rid of the the 4x8 raised bed which was rotting and replaced it with 2 of these bags. I found them on Ebay and they work for me.

I did some more research on the Nitrogen to Carbon ratio and continue to see articles saying that ratio works the best. Using that ratio I have had a successful compost in my tumbler for the first time. I have another batch working but it's not quite ready yet, so we'll see how it progresses over the winter. I am pretty sure it will be ready by Spring for my garden.

Please, please let me know how your ‘ready for spring’ batch turns out. My winter compost Pile slows down drastically but it’s a “me w the pitch fork“ turn so it doesn’t happen as efficiently or as often as yours. Please tell me what part of our USA u are gardening in. I’m in Baton Rouge, La. :)

I'm in Southeast Coastal Georgia and our winters are fairly mild. I'm turning the tumbler every other day about 5-10 times so we'll see how it looks in the Spring. (Of course, I do look at it when I turn the tumbler, just for the pleasure of seeing the mix)

i can understand that! (i mean sneaking a look at your compost) It gives me pleasure also.

My husband says Im easy to entertain

Ours are also mild and we are so glad.

Have a safe and Merry but Blessed Christmas