Calling all expert composters. Help needed.
I have been trying to compost for 2 years. I bought one of those black plastic rectangular composters with the hinged front.
I have read all about it. I apply the proper proportions of brown (mostly straw) to green, I water it weekly, I put in only the right things and none of the wrong ones, I try to turn it (a problem in that narrow area), I put in top soil and soil and compost and manure, I send it good thoughts, and when I check on it every few months, everything is basically as I put it in, at best only slightly composted.(Ah ha, the squash I ate in October, still there)
I live at 7000 ft in Northern New Mexico, which is hot and dry for half of the year and cold and dry for the other half. I have a small fenced property, so the sompost has to be contained neatly and in a small area.(Anything being composted outside the fenced area becomes coyote snacks)
I am a low tech gardener (no roto tillers, chippers or shredders), and I am not willing to sit around and chop all of my vegetable wastes into tiny pieces before putting it in the compost, but I am determined to succeed.
My neighbors have an expensive round composter. They throw things in there that you are not supposed to (dairy, pasta, cooked vegetables) and do nothing with theirs, and they still get better compost than I do.
And while I have the attention of the experts, why aren't we supposed to put garlic in?
Thank you for any help you can offer.

i don't use a composter. i dig a hole about 2 feet wide by 2 feet long by 1 foot deep and place my organic matter from my kitchen into the hole. when the hole is full i dig another one next to it, using dirt from the new one to fill the old hole. with larger amount of organic matter, i lay it on a spot in my garden and during the year i dig it into my soil. i let the worms, bacteria and other natural remedies compost my matter for me. after all, ma nature has been doing a good job for years, so why should i disagree with her(or is it a him). peace be with you and may your garden work for you.

No expertise here but....

The black plastic thingies look neat but there is not a lot of space for getting decomposing temps up where they are needed. Your winters are cold, that would effectively stop the process, ergo the squash is still there. You did not mention earthworms. Without them, your conversion from vegetative matter to black gold would be slow indeed.

As Chef sez, try trench composting instead!



John

First of all, do not worry about your neighbor's expensive composter. Composting is nature's way of recycling since life has been on this earth. Spending more money may be cooler, but you can get great results without even a bin.

Where do you have your composter located? It should have Southern exposure to absorb sunlight in the winter. You should also make sure that it is sitting on soil. (Hey, people have been known to put bins on concrete. Go figure.) Without the soil contact you will not have the worm or other microrganisms that help to break things down (mostly for cold composting).

Are you trying to hot or cold compost? I'm sure that you'd be happy to get any compost, but the time frame for hot compost is drastically different than cold.

Hot composting has a better chance of killing stray seeds/disease/larve/toxins, it takes less time, and it does require more turning (that's why these compost tumblers are popular). Hot composting depends on a ratio of carbon (dry and brown) to nitrogen (green and fresh) or 32:1. That mixture is just right for aerobic bacteria to metabolize the organic material, and since the metabolic rate is so high, it will produce heat in excess of 140-170 degrees (higher metabolisim requires more oxygen, and thus more turning). My hot composter usually gets up to 150 for the first week. Since you do not have this setup, I won't go into it in great detail.

Cold composting can take months or longer depending on what your ingredients are (see below). Cold composting is less labor intensive, and it will not kill unwanted seeds. Turning a cold compost system is not required, but does help. Since you do not have a three bin composting system (requires 3x in space), here is how I turn my black square composter: I take a bulb auger, attach it to my cordless drill (not high tech, but not low tech either), and use this to turn my pile. I have found this to be much easier than other methods. The auger easily drills it's way up to the length of the auger (approx. 24"), and pulling it up doesn't take much effort, since the auger diameter is only a couple of inches. The resulting hole gets back filled, but leaves space for air and material from the top. It usually takes me about 5 min to turn my plastic composter this way. Even if you turn your pile this way only once a month you will notice a difference with the material on the bottom that you pull up.

Filling your bin: There is no need to add soil to your compost pile. It will only slow things down. There are enough microrganisms in the environment to facilitate composting especially if you are adding manure and finished compost (as long as it is not purchased compost). When you fill your bin, be sure to layer your materials no more than 3" thick, and alternate between brown and green. The green/nitrogen material needs to contact the brown/carbon for optimum composting action (hence the layering and mixing later on). If the layers are too thick, the green stuff will begin to decompose anaerobically and mat down. Grass is notorious for this sort of thing. And the brown layer will not receive enough nitrogen and water to break down. If you layer properly, you really don't need to turn your pile for a week or two. It sounds like you will need to water to keep the mositure levels up in your arid climite, but do not over water. To much water will keep oxygen from getting to the organic material. It should be moist, but not so wet that you can squeeze water out of it. If you are not going to chop up your organic matter, it is going to take longer. Cutting exposes the cells to the microrganisms, creates greater surface area for the carbon/nitrogen contact, and smaller pieces break up quicker. The auger can help here too, as you turn/drill, large pieces get skewered and that helps speed things up a bit. At some point, you need to stop adding things to your pile, or dig it out the finished stuff from the bottom. The disadvantage to a single bin system, is that the stuff you keep adding to the top drains onto the almost finished stuff on the bottom, thus keeping it from truly aging/finishing.

Oil (prevents oxygen intake) and dairy do slow things down, so it's good that you aren't using that. I have never tried pasta, but I have put bread and cooked vegies in, and I have not had problems with either. Well, the bread can become hard if not buried and if the pile is dry.

About your garlic question: I can't recall hearing this, but I do know that garlic does have some anti-bacterial qualities. So maybe someone figures that putting garlic in your pile will stop decomposition. Personally, I've never had a problem with putting garlic in my compost. I don't think it has to do with disease. I know that you should not compost diseased plants (wilt, powdery midlew, insect infested plants, etc) in a cold compost pile, because the spores/larve will survive the pile. I have also heard that cabbage roots should not be composted because they can harbor disease.

Just so you know, I've been composting in my black plastic bin all winter in zone 5. I stopped adding material about a month ago, because I wanted it to be able to dig it under soon. The top layers did freeze during the cold spells, but it has progressed along nicely. the last time I turned the pile, it was teeming with worms.

Good luck! Hope this helps. ..and my wife says that I'm long winded... :P

HI like you it took me 2 maybe 3 years to get this compost thing down... It seemed everyone could do it but me... I use a tumble composter and also traditional composting... I find the tumbler starts to break things down but it still needs time in the pile..
This is the list of items I put in the tumbler that makes it hot and break down the fastest.. about 14 days.. fresh cut grass, straw, newspaper shredded and wet , horse manure, kitchen scrapes...I fill the tumbler, turn it everyday and check inside to smell... you can tell by the smell if it needs something.. soar smell it needs more brown... I add straw or paper...if it is not getting hot you need more green ..fresh cut grass... if it smells earthy you have it just right... after about 7 -10 days it starts to cool down and I watch to make sure it does not get dry...after about 14 days I empty it into the big compost pile to continue breaking down .. I do not use what I compost in the summer until late fall...
I do use a shredder to get all the straw and larger item broke down as small as I can..before I got the shredder I used my lawn mower to mow over everything.. it has a bag to catch it all..I found that getting everthing chopped up small is what made the biggest difference in getting my compost to break down...
Now I can make compost.. it takes time... you have to wait and let nature take charge... What I compost now is not used for 6 months from now... don't give up.. I just kept trying until I figured out the right recipe.

it's like cooking. when you start cooking nothing ever seems to come out right, computers are teh same way; i call it the user intmidation factor. anyone w/ a 2yr old, a dog or a husband has experienced it.
i've build compost piles on cement when there was no place else i could do it. added topsoil for the microbes & worms that i dug up.... worked great. i've dug pits...worked great. now, being in the city again, i save it up in a coffee can in my oven (to dry it out so the house doesn't smell) & dig a hole in the garden & bury the contents of the can every few days, works great.
re your pile, how big is it? it has to be big enough to heat up. also watering it weekly might be too much. yuo might be putting the (microbe)fire out just as it gets started, drowning the little guys. the top of the pile will keep the water from evaporating from the middle. i'd say, if the pile is 5x5x5, quit watering.

Keep on trying - I worried that my compost didn't turn out as it was supposed to (so called) but realised that mixed in with all the one year old squash rinds (been there) was this incredible browny-black stuff that, when sifted out, actually WAS "sweet smelling). I'm in quebec, which means 5 months of sub-sub freezing, 3 months of so-so (wet and/or cold) and three months of humid summer. I start a new pile at the start of the season (three foot by three foot, in contact with the soil) loosely contained in scrap pallet wood and just throw in anything, including garden leftovers (although, in a vegetarian house thats not difficult). Every three inches or so I add an inch (or so - get the drift?) of mud. Once every two weeks I turn it roughly with a spade. It gets watered whenever the garden is watered. When it gets too tall (around three feet), I sift it through 1/4" mesh to extract the good bits anf throw the rest back in.
At the close of the season, I simply pile up whatever debris in a new pile and let it sit over winter, ready to start the next one. We keep all our kitchen waste during winter in sealed (hopefully) bins ready to throw it on the pile (or bury it) come spring. Now tha t smells.
As for garlic on a compost pile - why would you throw out good garlic? And if its already rotting - who cares? Thats what a compost pile is for. I never heard of not including it, although I guess that it would need to be in moderation.
Compost envy - who needs it?

chris