"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Rick Hughes wrote:

"Dave Baker" wrote in message
...


Key ingredients I think are lots of air and lots of heat so the bigger
the pile the quicker it rots. Plastic bins with no holes in them keep
both the air and the worms out which is bad n'kay. Just cobble something
together out of scraps of wood on the bare soil so the wormies can get
in. Supposedly if you get it right you can have compost in under 2
months. If you get it wrong you just end up with smelly mulch. No air,
no heat and no wormies = smelly mulch. I think that about sums up where
you've got to.



Been Googling everywhere on this ... while you can use an open heap with
loads of air .... this is not effective .. as it simply will not generate
enough heat ... except perhaps in middle.

Golly. You had better tell God that, as the last 10,000 years of leaf
mould cant have rotted into topsoil yet.


The key thing initially is heat ... once it's past first rotting phase,
it can be turned out into a pile and left to mature into compost, but
initial stage needs loads of heat ... and anaerobic.

Still does not explain why mine is so poor though.

I think almost everything I have ever seen written about composting is
basically WRONG. Everybody does it different, and claims their way is The
One True Way.

Organic stuff is broken down by many many sorts of fungi, bacteria, eaten
by worms, shat on by pigeons. ALL it takes is time.

I just threw stuff in a pile and left it a few years. Perfect compost.

The rest is just bollox.


I'm sure that stuff left for years will rot ......... I'm just trying to
find optimum way .... which could speed it up into months.
Compost companies make the stuff in weeks.