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Re: Compost tumbler - good investment?

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Elizabeth elicited:

>Hi all,
>
>I am currently using a circle of wire fencing as a compost container. It
takes
>a long time for me to fill, and turning it is time consuming.
>
>Does anyone have experience with the barrel-shaped compost tumblers that
are
>advertised in gardening magazines and on HGTV? They promise to speed up the
>composting by making it easy to turn the stuff.

I have used a couple of tumblers, but not the Compostumbler, the Cadillac of
home version tumblers. (Swisher marketed a solar powered tumbler which may
still be available, but is even more expensive....call it the Rolls Royce! )

Tumblers do work but are frankly very expensive for a small composter. The
reason I never got one to keep is that, for the same money, or even no
money, I could build a hundred pallet compost bins that would process a
thousand times the material.

Last time I checked a Compostumbler was going for more the 300$ US dollars.
It produces "14 day compost" (which may take up to 6 weeks), holds 18
bushels (which may cook down to 9 or less), and even then you are left with
thermophilic compost that needs to age for some time to let the better
bacteria and other organisms give it that true well aged compost quality.
Think "I will drink no wine before its time" in humic terms...:-)

My composter-from-out-there-in-commercial-manufacturer-land, that I would
pay that kind of money for, if I didn't already know how to compost for next
to nothing, with my wallet firmly shut tight, would be a Worm Wigwam.

Try www.wormwigwam.com

That would give you prime vermicompost, 1/2 a cubic foot per day, day in ,
day out....they even use them in Alaska!

Now, you may get weedy materials in your yard that you would like to pass
thru a hot process for destruction of weed seeds. The Compostumbler people
claim their product will do that, although the thing is smaller than the
cubic yard usually recommended for that kind of heating. That can be checked
with a compost thermometer. The contained nature of the unit may make it
hold heat better than a larger open pile....

One Australian company I know of plans to offer a tumbler-vermicomposter
pair of units, so that pre-composting thermophilically can precede
vermicomposting.

That should produce a fine wine indeed. "Earthy, with just the right hint of
actinomycetes....."

Good composting,

Frank Teuton


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