Greasemonkey's Compost Pile

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Yo Grease, hope you're well!

Anyone got points on selecting rotting wood chunks..
I know we may be in different countries n might have different chunks of wood kickin about, but jus thought some gd principles otta apply

What textures & sizes are good, whatever else a wood chunk trucker might not have thunk of before he filled up a trunk full

Curious How you ensure there be no bad pests inside it too, like thrips
Thanks mangs
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
Yo Grease, hope you're well!

whatever else a wood chunk trucker might not have thunk of before he filled up a trunk full


Thanks mangs
heh that sounds like the "wood chuck" rhyme..
a wood chunk trucker..
hah
so all I have is redwood trees, so that's all I use
but as long as it's SUPER composted, like you can reach in and crumble away the log, that's what you want, and I treat them like biochar, in that I like to charge them prior.
I used comfrey/dandelion tea.
in the summer they are reaaaally handy in keeping the soil moist, and I like about a half inch by a half inch, so like a marble sized or so.
but they should have the texture of like Styrofoam
and they will dissolve in about two runs, every summer I add more.
oh.. and I don't worry about bad bugs... the way I see it is the only bugs in there are the ones that like decomposing wood..
but I imagine soaking in a nitrogen tea wouldn't make them happy either.
but I don't worry about any bugs out there at all, I NEVER get any bugs at all.
except for mites...'but those aren't coming from the wood chunks... the entire forest is crawling with like 4 different types... including russets..
 

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
heh that sounds like the "wood chuck" rhyme..
a wood chunk trucker..
hah
so all I have is redwood trees, so that's all I use
but as long as it's SUPER composted, like you can reach in and crumble away the log, that's what you want, and I treat them like biochar, in that I like to charge them prior.
I used comfrey/dandelion tea.
in the summer they are reaaaally handy in keeping the soil moist, and I like about a half inch by a half inch, so like a marble sized or so.
but they should have the texture of like Styrofoam
and they will dissolve in about two runs, every summer I add more.
oh.. and I don't worry about bad bugs... the way I see it is the only bugs in there are the ones that like decomposing wood..
but I imagine soaking in a nitrogen tea wouldn't make them happy either.
but I don't worry about any bugs out there at all, I NEVER get any bugs at all.
except for mites...'but those aren't coming from the wood chunks... the entire forest is crawling with like 4 different types... including russets..
Awesome info man!
Props!
 

MustangStudFarm

Well-Known Member
heh that sounds like the "wood chuck" rhyme..
a wood chunk trucker..
hah
so all I have is redwood trees, so that's all I use
but as long as it's SUPER composted, like you can reach in and crumble away the log, that's what you want, and I treat them like biochar, in that I like to charge them prior.
I used comfrey/dandelion tea.
in the summer they are reaaaally handy in keeping the soil moist, and I like about a half inch by a half inch, so like a marble sized or so.
but they should have the texture of like Styrofoam
and they will dissolve in about two runs, every summer I add more.
oh.. and I don't worry about bad bugs... the way I see it is the only bugs in there are the ones that like decomposing wood..
but I imagine soaking in a nitrogen tea wouldn't make them happy either.
but I don't worry about any bugs out there at all, I NEVER get any bugs at all.
except for mites...'but those aren't coming from the wood chunks... the entire forest is crawling with like 4 different types... including russets..
Mann, I had a upper respiratory thing that turned into a ear infection. Later, I got a little bump on the inside of my eyelid and caused an abrasion on my cornea. I have not been avoiding this week, but for the last couple of days I could not open my eyes. Fuck I am not used to getting sick like this!!! I didnt get sick for years after getting out of the army, all of those shots and vaccinations.
 

cannakis

Well-Known Member
heh that sounds like the "wood chuck" rhyme..
a wood chunk trucker..
hah
so all I have is redwood trees, so that's all I use
but as long as it's SUPER composted, like you can reach in and crumble away the log, that's what you want, and I treat them like biochar, in that I like to charge them prior.
I used comfrey/dandelion tea.
in the summer they are reaaaally handy in keeping the soil moist, and I like about a half inch by a half inch, so like a marble sized or so.
but they should have the texture of like Styrofoam
and they will dissolve in about two runs, every summer I add more.
oh.. and I don't worry about bad bugs... the way I see it is the only bugs in there are the ones that like decomposing wood..
but I imagine soaking in a nitrogen tea wouldn't make them happy either.
but I don't worry about any bugs out there at all, I NEVER get any bugs at all.
except for mites...'but those aren't coming from the wood chunks... the entire forest is crawling with like 4 different types... including russets..
Anyone ever use Wood Chips as a mulch?
 

Kind Sir

Well-Known Member
I went leaves,
cannabis trim,
leaves,
fishmeal &fishbone meal,
leaves,
kelp meal and alfalfa meal,
leaves,
ground eggshells &comfrey leaves,
leaves,
doghair (lots) &shrimp & crab meal
leaves,
greensand/ kelp meal/ oyster flour
leaves
rock phosphates (lightly, already amended with minerals@initial soil mix) and a nice thick layer of neem meal.
Then leaves.
Presto, then cover with a tarp.

--note-- I didn't water anything down because it was fuckin raining on me the whole damn time.

You want the leaves wet, and the pile "moist" not dripping.
then cover and it'll steam up in about two or three days.
Hey man, Im starting my compost pile and leaf mold today. I have enough leaves, and some grass clippings (along with kelp/alfalfa/oyster/fish bone..) To get more greens, I was going to go down to the local nature preserve. Will plants and green stuff out there work just as well?

I was also thinking about taking some soil from there. They keep it up really nice, seems like itd be good soil.
 

Attachments

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Anyone ever use Wood Chips as a mulch?
We used to our first year, they Slowed the evap down..
However,
To make it even tougher on gnats and any pest for that matter, I like a tighter spacing up top like the sharp, bug-body-cutting, Si-containing, DE rocks (not DE powder, tho, that'll clog), or a couple inches of sand, or companion crops, if that's something you'd like..

There's also a kind of wd chip to avoid if I'm not mistaken ?
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
Mann, I had a upper respiratory thing that turned into a ear infection. Later, I got a little bump on the inside of my eyelid and caused an abrasion on my cornea. I have not been avoiding this week, but for the last couple of days I could not open my eyes. Fuck I am not used to getting sick like this!!! I didnt get sick for years after getting out of the army, all of those shots and vaccinations.
hope you feel better my friend, I feel ya on the eyelid thingy, I used to be a welder, and arc-flash is a lot like that..
Hey man, Im starting my compost pile and leaf mold today. I have enough leaves, and some grass clippings (along with kelp/alfalfa/oyster/fish bone..) To get more greens, I was going to go down to the local nature preserve. Will plants and green stuff out there work just as well?

I was also thinking about taking some soil from there. They keep it up really nice, seems like itd be good soil.
yea you could do that, but be careful using anything with stems, as they take a long time to breakdown.
leaves and blades of grass work best.
remember you need about a 5/1 ratio of leaves to grass clippings
also alfalfa is great for a green input too
I try not to encourage people to get stuff from reserves if possible. May also be illegal
I bet my balls if you put an ad on craigslist for grass clippings you'd have tons.
of even easier, call a landscaping place.
i'd do that prior
oh and shred your leaves if you can, or run em over with a lawnmower
 

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Speaking of stems, what do you guys do with your stems? Is there some kind of smart concoction one could make with them?

Like a steeped tea/alcohol or ointment vs say a flour?

I wonder what would be easy and useful..

Trichs can be seen on stems under microscopes so seems wasteful to toss..
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
Speaking of stems, what do you guys do with your stems? Is there some kind of smart concoction one could make with them?

Like a steeped tea/alcohol or ointment vs say a flour?

I wonder what would be easy and useful..

Trichs can be seen on stems under microscopes so seems wasteful to toss..
you could easily make a old-school tincture out of it, either with a super pure drinking alcohol or an isopropyl
last time I did that I got a splitting headache from the alcohol evaporating though.. but it was 100+ deg out too.
stems take forever to breakdown in the pile though
like probably two yrs or so for main stems (non-hollow)
personally i'm a speck wasteful.. I throw away/compost a LOT of THC
 

Mohican

Well-Known Member
Ashes from burning the stalks and roots are all that the Africans have for fertilizer. If it is good enough for them I figure char or ash will be a great addition to the pile.
 

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Any Idea how I'd go about composting 4 cubic yard of used coco fibre? LOL
20160420_181116.jpg 20160420_174942.jpg
It's about 5 years worth of spent coco from grows where chem nutes were used. The pile's not had anything added to it for around 3 years now and has been left, covered, as shown in the first photo. It does get thoroughly soaked when it rains so I'd hope most, if not all the chems would've washed away by now??? I've not had a good dig into it yet (it goes at least a yard deep), but on and near the surface has plenty of life living in it and weeds trying to grow in it.

I've just found a little info on its properties for composting:

Carbon/Nitrogen: Ratio of between 90:1 and 110:1. This combined with coir’s lignin content makes it a good long-term growing medium.

Nutrition: Coir contains a useful amount of available potassium, and small quantities of:

  • Nitrogen
  • Phosphorous
  • Calcium
  • Magnesium
  • Sulphur
  • Copper
  • Zinc
  • Manganese
  • Molybdenum
  • Boron
  • Iron
From reading that I'd take it to be pretty hard to break down and it'd require a shit load of nitrogen, it's much higher than tree leaves which I believe are around 60:1

I have got some leaves which I collected last autumn, although not as many as I'd have liked due to it not stopping raining for months, which will be incorporated. I've got plenty of meals to throw in, alfalfa etc, and I've got access to copious amounts of fresh organic greens, mainly grass clippings and stinging nettles, but also a wide variety of other fast growing weeds and plant waste.

I know I'm not gonna be able to compost it all at once and I'm actually gonna use some of it in a soil mix for a raised bed, but could it be a good carbon source for a say 5 or 6 years of compost runs?

 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
Any Idea how I'd go about composting 4 cubic yard of used coco fibre? LOL
View attachment 3661679 View attachment 3661680


Carbon/Nitrogen: Ratio of between 90:1 and 110:1. This combined with coir’s lignin content makes it a good long-term growing medium.


that's not too bad, so you just need grass clippings man, and go a 3/1/ ratio

another thing that is the coolest shit, is see if you can find dandelions, pull those suckers out and throw them in too, even better if you have a burly lawnmower and can mow down some.
so lets do some math here...

An optimal compost has a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 30 to 1 (some say 25/1) I like 30 to 1
your coco is lets say for math's sake, that its 100/1
so you need to "dilute" that with a third PURE nitrogen, problem is, pure nitrogen isn't available, even the best "green" is alfalfa, and it's ratio is 12/1
but fear not, some math can help out... just let me shake out the THC webs from my post holiday's usage..
umm... so if you cut it with grass clippings (20/1), at a three parts grass to one part coco, that's be roughly a 160 to 4 ratio
that would be a 40 to 1 ratio, which is pretty close to perfect.
now that's to COMPOST the coco, meaning it'll disappear, if you want the coco to still be around for a grow or two, you could do a 2 to 1, grass to coco.
so i'd do a half inch layer of coco, to a inch and a half of grass clippings.
that shit'll steam like a mofo in about a day, especially if the grass is fresh and wet.
heres a good link on the carbon/green ratios of composting stuff.

http://www.planetnatural.com/composting-101/c-n-ratio/

for arguments sake, I layer leaves (apparently 60/1) with alfalfa, or grass at even amounts, and it does just fine BUT I also add amendments, kelp meal, fish meal crab meal, all those are loaded with nitrogen
especially the kelp and fish meal
EDIT--
so if anyone wants to be PRECISE...
here ya are
Typical C/N ratios and nitrogen values for many kinds of compostable substances can be looked up in published tables such as Appendix A, On-Farm Composting Handbook. Some additional nitrogen and ash data is in the table of Lignin and Other Constituents of Selected Organic Materials. (A No-Frames version of the Table of Lignin is also available.) To calculate the carbon content given C/N and percent nitrogen, solve:

%C = %N x C/N

You may be able to measure the carbon and nitrogen content of your own materials and then calculate the ratio directly. Soil nutrient analysis laboratories or environmental testing laboratories can do the nitrogen test, and maybe carbon as well . Your local Cooperative Extension office can give you the names of soils laboratories in your area. The Cornell Nutrient Analysis Lab has information about their procedures for total carbon, organic carbon, and total nitrogen analysis. You can also estimate the carbon content from ash or volatile solids data if either is available. Once you have the C/N ratios for the materials you plan to compost, you can use the following formula to figure out the ratio for the mixture as a whole:



in which: R = C/N ratio of compost mixture Qn = mass of material n ("as is", or "wet weight") Cn = carbon (%) of material n Nn = nitrogen (%) of material n Mn = moisture content (%) of material n

This equation can also be solved exactly for a mixture of two materials, knowing their carbon, nitrogen, and moisture contents, the C/N ratio goal, and specifying the mass of one ingredient. By simplifying and rearranging the general equation, the mass of the second material required would be:



Returning to the previous example of grass and leaves, lets assume the nitrogen content of the grass is 2.4% while that of the leaves is 0.75%, and the carbon contents are 45% and 50% respectively. Simple division shows us that the C/N ratio of the grass is 18.75 and the C/N content of the leaves is 66.67% For the same 10 kg of grass we had before, if our goal is a C/N ratio of 30:1, the solution is:

 
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