Making compost on site

[Crow River]

Hey there growers in the great outdoors!

 

A thought occurred to me while at the plot that I was cutting a lot of vegetation, weeding and so on. Then just chucking it all in the bushes. At the same time, I'm bringing in bags of home made compost from my allotment. Why not get all that vegetation and make a compost pile? Nothing fancy, just pile it up under a tree somewhere. Turn it every few months. Sure, it might take a few years before it makes any compost, but if a plot is a keeper then could work?

 

Any of you folk who have been using the same plot for a few years, do you make compost on site? Have you tried and failed? Or did you consider it just not worth it?

[Pepe Ramon]

I'd just be mindful of any perennial seeds that may get into the pile but if it saves you lugging bags of mpc then why not?

 

I've turned my no-till bed into the place where I now dump my bokashi, leaves and weeds we pull up while keeping the plot in order.

[disco survivor]

I work in reverse and collect nettles from a local field to add to my compost bin at home. Nettles definitely accelerate the composting process by some margin.

 

If a grow site has nettles nearby then get them on the pile. Definitely no bracken though. In fact, I wouldn't attempt to cut down or handle bracken (especially August - late September) without a face mask and gloves. I see a lot of GG sites on here that have been made in beds of bracken and I'm not sure some are aware of the gastric/ bladder cancer risk associated with bracken spores. 

[Crow River]

@disco survivor I did not know that about bracken!  There's a very small clump near my bramble plot, I'll be sure to treat it with due respect! Good tip about nettles, I do find they compost well right enough... 

 

@Arbre Medicinal yeah that is one of the drawbacks of home made compost - I have probably imported a few weed seeds to my plots that way (Dock and Bindweed by the looks of it). So with the no-till bed, are you effectively mulching with the weeds and Bokashi? Or building up a layer of compost to rot down?

[Pepe Ramon]

@Crow RiverI'm using it as a compost pile, I've given up growing in it, it's too unpredictable and it's difficult to feed and irrigate properly, that's my experience here in Spain and it's mainly because of arid conditions I have to deal with.

 

So I bury the bokashi and I mulch with stuff I've weeded, trimmings etc. 

[Crow River]

@Arbre Medicinal that sounds sensible given the conditions.

 

Opposite problem here up  north, wet and relatively cool. I have found that Bokashi takes ages to rot down when buried in soil, leading to vermin issues: rats and foxes digging the stuff up.  I will persist though, as it still seems to work and as a family of four we produce a fair bit of food waste. It seems to also do really well in my black compost bin, accelerating the composting process. I occasionally bury some in my looser compost heap too, with similar effects. Not really practical to take Bokashi to the guerrilla plots however, hence considering composting on site...

[Pepe Ramon]

@Crow Riverwhat amazes me is how long it takes for onion and garlic skins to breakdown.

 

I persist with the bokashi because it makes sense to me to recycle our waste, rather than putting it into the municipal organic waste bins. I am considering setting up a wormery and putting the bokashi into that as I believe I could make better use of vermicompost and the run off it produces, rather than continuously burying bokashi.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Arbre Medicinal

[Crow River]

@Arbre Medicinal absolutely agree with you.

 

We are thinking along similar lines. We have a council food waste collection, but it makes more sense for me to use it at the allotment and for grows. I have all the bits I need to make a small wormery except the worms, just need to get on and do it... Worms can apparently eat Bokashi (as part of a varied diet) so could be compatible. Then the vermicompost and worm tea could be very useful! 

[Pepe Ramon]

I've just taken the plunge and ordered one complete with 250 worms and coco for less than 60€.

 

It has 3 levels and the bottom level has a tap for the run off.

 

[Crow River]

@Arbre Medicinal that's a good deal. They're much more expensive in the UK, eve second hand. So I plan to make my own from an old wheelie bin...  

[Mad Barry]

Certainly doable, you would need to prioritise non woody material because to make good compost from tree branches brambles etc its a good idea to shred them into small bits.

From my experience manure makes the best compost for ganja (make sure its fully decomposed tho. root rot is a bitch)

[OldFord]

If your going to that stage mate,  poss be worth trenching areas for water diversion away & towards desired areas.

Then use the removed native soil as part of the compo ,  some hay in there to aid breakdown and heat duties as thats where the magic happens       

 

Good luck with it mate.  

 

[DutchFox]

On 18-8-2023 at 3:33 AM, Crow River said:

Hey there growers in the great outdoors!

 

A thought occurred to me while at the plot that I was cutting a lot of vegetation, weeding and so on. Then just chucking it all in the bushes. At the same time, I'm bringing in bags of home made compost from my allotment. Why not get all that vegetation and make a compost pile? Nothing fancy, just pile it up under a tree somewhere. Turn it every few months. Sure, it might take a few years before it makes any compost, but if a plot is a keeper then could work?

 

Any of you folk who have been using the same plot for a few years, do you make compost on site? Have you tried and failed? Or did you consider it just not worth it?

 

yes best option to make it...save time risk and money

got a clay plot...but under the nearby trees there was a layer of leaves.....

took some off in december....and mixed the rest in with dried chicken manure on a certain amount of m2.

mix in 1 teacup per 10 liter soil ..works best....

 

in spring there were plenty of worms there and they made perfect compost ready to use  

so all you do is feed the worms  

bringing worms to plot is not the best way....all plots have all the rightkind of worms you need....just feed them and they multiply a lot.

Edited August 23, 2023 by DutchFox

[Crow River]

Thanks people for your tips and advice. Some really interesting ideas there. Seems to be a consensus around manure!  @DutchFox I like this leaves and chicken shit mix thing. Do you just make a pile to compost that? Or are you spreading it over your grow plot to rot down like a mulch? @OldFord irrigation ditches sounds quite involved, but getting some native soil in the mix makes a lot of sense, get the local fungi and bacteria in on the act.  @Mad Barry, good point about woody material. I do compost some of that at my allotment, but larger pieces gets burned and then I use the ash in the compost instead. 

[DutchFox]

1 hour ago, Crow River said:

Thanks people for your tips and advice. Some really interesting ideas there. Seems to be a consensus around manure!  @DutchFox I like this leaves and chicken shit mix thing. Do you just make a pile to compost that? Or are you spreading it over your grow plot to rot down like a mulch?

 

there was a layer of leaves of about 20 cm under the trees.

i took off 10cm....then topdressed the dried chichenmarure....and mixed it with the 10cm remaining leaves for more air and to mix it well.

 

and just left it flat...no pile. ( marked the m2 which was treated )

with rain the water groundlife activates the manure and will attract more worms.

that made the compost ready to use.

at transplant i mixed the ready compost with the clay.