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Re: Compost tumbler - good investment?

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

Elizabeth Snively wrote:
> 
> Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
> 
> 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.
> 
> Thanks,
> Elizabeth
> Cary, NC, USA, Zone 7b
> 

Hi Elizabeth,

     I use a compost tumbler, but I built it out of stuff I had laying
about.  I'd never pay the outlandish prices they quote for commercially
built compost tumblers.  There is another think to consider when you're
composting, and that is that quicker ain't necessarily better.  Good
compost needs moulds and bacteria to provide the proper nutrients and
soil structure for your plants.  The material produced by a compost
tumbler doesn't usually contain much of either one.

     I find it useful for quick breakdown of the structure of the plant
material, but once cooked, it goes into a long term compost pile where
bacteria and fungi produce something really miraculous for your garden. 
So, in short the only benefit of a quick, hot cook in a compost tumbler
is that it kills most weed seeds and breaks the plant-material structure
down quickly.  Something else to consider - I'm a big able lad and can
turn my tumbler, but the consarned thing is HEAVY once loaded and the
contents properly dampened.

     Your compost will benefit from being turned, but simple aeration is
good enough to supply oxygen to the bacteria who compost for you.  Poke
holes in it....
-- 

                                   ______
                                __/__[___]
trucking along in East Uniacke /o ------o)=~~Nova Scotia, Canada Zone 5


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