Hi everyone!

First time posting here and so happy that there's a community about composting!

I was having a look at the different posts and saw some about critter IDs. I just wanted to let you guys know that iNaturalist lets you create projects and I follow this one https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/home-compost-exploration, which turned out to be useful sometimes.

It's great that you can contribute uploading pictures of whatever you find in your compost, and pretty fun (if you're curious) to see what other piles attract all over the world. You can also filter by location, of course, and see what you might find in neighbouring piles.

My city collects waste food for composting. There is /no seeds/ rule, likely because whoever uses the compost wants to control what they grow.

I make veg. broth by boiling veg. scraps for ~30—60 min., some of which are loaded with seeds. I’m wondering if the boiling kills the seed, in which case I wouldn’t likely cause problems by tossing the boiled scraps into the city’s compost.

I've been working on composting using another method besides trench composting for about two months now. I've enjoyed it so far, and been honestly trying to compost anything that is possible to compost. One thing I noticed though, as a moved from my brief time using a bucket (there were some holes), to a pile, is that I didn't see worms anymore. So I come to you composting experts to ask how can I bring more worms to my shady compost pile on clay soil.

Earlier today I posted to the farming community to ask about a photobash of a village I'm working on. One of the suggestions I'd received in my last search for inputs was a centralized composting solution, which I think makes sense for a solarpunk community. Everybody contributes organic waste and everyone benefits.

I started doing some reading about options from a random state website so I guess you can assume that's the absolute upper limit of my understanding of composting at this time. I just want to represent it well and if there's any good talking points that could go into the picture's text write up to drive discussion, I'd love to include them.

One thing I saw was that with aeration, you can do negative pressure systems which suck air from the compost windrow to pull in fresh air - if you did that, could you divert the compost offgassing (which should be a decent amount of CO2 right?) into the greenhouses to boost the plant growth without burning fuel?

Thanks for any input

Piped video

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/2967556

I know I can send soil samples to my local university extension office for testing, but how do I test soil for glyphosate-based herbicides, lead, arsenic, and other contaminates?

As a citizen scientist I'm about to get into composting more on my property and would like to know more.

Welcome to The Composter, a podcast for farmers and composters. I'm your host and fellow composter, Jayne Merner Senecal. Join me in practical conversation between industry professionals and farmers with a passion for producing high-quality compost. We are going to dig deep into the science, technology, and art of compost production so that we as composters can help enliven the world's soils.

Season Two begins August 15th!

1. Keep a couple pieces of charcoal in your kitchen bin for smell absorption. I just took some charred bits out of my firepit. When they're used up they can just go right in the pile.

2. A large piece of cardboard makes a good lid, and somehow looks nicer in your yard than a pile of old food. Also helps regulate rain absorption/moisture retention.

An OK starter article here with a range of composting methods. Minor summary below:

Composting is a process that involves the decomposition of organic materials to create nutrient-rich soil.

It is an environmentally friendly way to reduce waste and improve soil health.

Composting can be done in a backyard or on a larger scale.

There are two common types of aerobic composting processes: vermicomposting with worms and hot backyard compost piles.

Some states have legalized human composting.

My understanding is a lot of "greens" eventually become "brown". Green leaves when they dry up would switch to a "brown". Same with dead grass.

With that in mind I tried a very lazy process of only adding greens for a continual process. My first addition to my pile this year was grass clippings. They still haven't really broke down.

Is my approach fundamentally flawed? Or is there something I'm missing to improve the process?

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/1154585

I was going thru an old device and found this bookmarked. It's a great resource if you're into brewing compost teas or would like to get started doing so

I am curious. Are some of you doing bokashi ? What composting / fermenting method are you using ?