Type of composter?

I am looking at getting some form of composter but am very limited for space. My total growing area is not very big.

I'm considering the Earthmaker composter as it seems to have good reviews and has had a proper trials against more traditional home composting methods which it convincingly out performed, and is only 750mm square by 1200mm high. Upon further investigation I have also seen that a good wormery seems to be very popular and take up very little space 430mm square x 800mm high, but after delving deaper they do seem to require some looking after (well they are living creatures after all), so I guess that's out, unless anyone on here can tell me different.

So my question is has anyone any experience of an earthmaker or wormery composter?

Thanks

 

I lost interest just as you were typing mm's and stuff. Sorry, I'm a rod, pole and perch bloke. Cheers, Tony.

 

There is that better? Sorry to have bored you but I thought as much info as possible would have helped the more experienced of you out there give me a more informed reply.

 

We've been using two standard "Dalek" bins as worm composters for the past several years. They work extremely well and the worms don't require any TLC other than keeping them fed with organic matter. One advantage of worm composting is that the compost produced is a bit richer in nutrients than compost created by other methods.

 

That was a bit rude Klefti to a new joined member, I too am an imperial man but I struggle my best to convert, divide by five multiply by two = inches for cms etc

Jack McHammocklashing

 

I've got several dalek bins which would fit within the sizes you give. (Just knock a nought off and get with the European vibe, you chaps.) I didn't introduce worms, they just arrived by themselves, so I guess it is a worm bin, of sorts.

 

Blimey Jack, that's taxing! Just bung it into google (and if you have Google Toolbar, or Chrome, stick it in there and it will do the sum real-time without you having to refresh the page).

Google knows all sorts of units:

750mm in inches =

Or for the rude Kleftiwallah:

750mm in rods =

and if you need some maths you can do:

750mm x 4 feet =

which gives = 0.9144 m^2 which probably makes no sense, so just do:

750mm x 4 feet in square feet =


26 in bakers dozen =

anyone ?

 

I can't answer that one (no experience of either), but how about this.

In your area, do you get standard issue green waste wheelie bins off the local authority? We do here, and mine is my compost bin now.

In my first year here, I simply used it as it was. Stuff rotted but not so well. So after emptying it and digging the contents into my heavy clay soil about last april or may, I set to the bin with my drill. I made lots of 5mm bore holes all up the sides for ventilation, and a few much wider holes (about 5/8 inch / about 15mm) in the bottom for drainage and to allow worms and other small creatures to climb in (but not wide enough for rats or mice). Since doing that I can't seem to fill it. Apart from garden waste, it gets about a gallon bucket per week from the kitchen in the form of used tea bags, veg peelings, brown paper bags that the beg came in, used kitchen towel (depending on what it was used for) and basically anything else that will rot (excluding meat).

I haven't emptied it yet this year, but given that it must have had easily 10 times its volume put in, and is usually only half to 3/4 full, it must be doing something.

 

Hmmm ... this aint an easy question I reckon.

Two ways of making compost (leaving aside Wormeries about which I know ZIP I'm afraid)

HOT - that makes compost quickly

COLD - and that is slow.

You can see Monty Don sweating away turning his compost heap on Gardeners World. He has a huge garden, and thus plenty of material, and can probably get the right "balance" of materials at all times. Short of that it is VERY difficult to maintain a HOT heap. A HOT heap will make compost in weeks, or a month or two at worst, in Summer. In Winter you are looking at months.

For a COLD heap you are probably talking a year, maybe two years.

With a small garden you will have very little material, and it will be very difficult to get enough material of the right type / quantity to make a good heap.

I expect this is not what you want to hear, but my advice would be to get two Daleks (they may well be sold subsidised by your local council, mine were) and fill one up until it is full then fill the second one. By the time the second one is full the first one will probably be "done", or will be done enough that you can sieve it and use the small stuff, and put anything big back in the heap.

It would probably help if you had a shredder - putting only minced up material in the heap should speed it up.

You could look at compost tumblers, that are supposedly quicker, but I fear you might be wasting your money (but I've not tried one).

I don't use them, but you could also try Compost Activators, they should help speed up the composting process in a conventional help.

 

Just had a quick peek at the Earthmaker - seem OK, but to be frank rather expensive. You would probably get very acceptable results from a standard 'Dalek' type, which are generally available at discounted prices from most local authorities. - Check with you Council.

a-a

 

Oh metric's so much simpler and we've been using it for decades now.
If you ever listen to BBC4 on long wave, you don't tune to a wavelength of 649feet 7.27inches but tune to 198m. And if you are really up to date with the technology and have an fm (frequency modulated) radio rather than a crystal set you can find BBC radio on a frequency of 95.8 megaHerz or a wavelength of 3.1293 metres rather than on 10 feet 3.2 inches.
Look into your local DIY store and you'll need a pocket calculator if you still work in imperial.
About the only country still wedded to imperial mensuration is our former colony across the pond.
And they still drive on the wrong side of the road.

 

And they can't get the measurements right either ...

They say things like "twenty-thousand-pounds" (for weight, if you thought my meaning was Money then, yeah, I would do too!). Even if they don't have Stones, or Tons, they must have SOME units larger than "Pounds" surely?

And their Gallons ... not the same size as ours. How did that come about? Did the bucket shrink on the Mayflower? or was someone sold a 10% smaller bucket just as they were leaving Blighty by a Rogue Trader? Or maybe the Rogue Traders shrunk the Gallon Bucket when they arrived over there?

They measure their flower pots in Gallons ... surely a "Gallon" is quite a large pot, not one you'd need very often? (even with the 10% reduction the Rogue Traders have insisted on).

What do they use for Heat? BTU's still perhaps?