Hotbin composting

www.hotbincomposting.com
Expensive at £138 a throw, but claims composts anything, kitchen waste meats, garden waste etc in 12 days to mulch, 32 days to Loam

An insulated Dalek type bin, pressure cooker style, with insulated side walls bottom and lid
The lid has an adjustable air escape valve and temperature gauge
One small air intake bottom front, and a bottom door to take out the ready compost,
Directions are more or less the same as normal composting layering, only the insulated walls and pressure cooker type lid seems to make the difference between 12 months and 32 days ?
I have liberated the wifes pressure cooker tonight, sawed and drilled a small air intake at the bottom, chucked in the family veg and some wood chips

Let you know the result in 12 days :-)

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Sounds good in principal Jack, but to get a good ferment going to that temp in a few day would need the bin filling with a good mix of food waste and dry matter in one hit.
Wouldn't be so good for the adding the kitchen waste every few days.

Would be ok if you put on a hi viz jacket and went before the council re cycling lorry & had it away with half the village
kitchen waste.

 

Not like Mrs McHammock's then:D

John, try adding a 3inch cellotex lid, drilled with some holes to let the water in.

Might reach critical mass much quicker then.

Eddie will be proud of you.

 

I don't seem to have any cooked kitchen waste, I just eat it all.

 

Well I have filled it, and just gave it a good start on the gas burner, to get a bit of temperature in it
(SWMBO not noticed it gone yet, soup making is next Sunday)


Jack McH

 

Should be done and back in the Kitchen by then Jack:D

 

Anyone use any accelerators with the compost heaps? I used to use Q.R. (Chase Organics) many moons ago, but can't be bothered anymore, I just pile everything up and leave it a year ... but a hot compost would kill some seeds and make a better compost I reckon.

Monty D seems to put all in store of turning it quite a bit. I'm sure that would help, my heap is the size of his and although he relishes the challenge I feel a JCB is a better tool than Mr Muscle ...

Advice please ??

 

Accelerators do work but I've stopped using them (bought ones) since moving to a two year cycle with the main heap which gets turned over into another container after year one, this seems to rot the majority of unwanted seeds. I do though add comfrey which helps speed decomposition.

Hot composting is probably better but you need large quantities of green material more or less all year round and this is beyond the resources of most gardeners.

With the size of your plot Kristen you could probably easily create a good sized comfrey bed to harvest as an accelerator.

 

Your two-year cycle is where I've been for a number of years too, after years of trying to make "faster & hotter" compost.

I have been propagating Comfrey for a couple of years and will plant out this Spring. I had assumed I would use it all as fertilizer, but I could try giving the compost-heap a boost too - thanks for that idea :thumb:

 

Well the pressure cooker thing did not work, Just a very smelly and very SOUR mix, It was not going anywhere
So ENDEX

Jack McHammocklashing

 

No I was foolish enough to try it, but it was not the number one pressure cooker in the house, just an old High Dome thing about 16 pints
I thought if I could knock out a batch a month then I could use it as I went along

It did not work at all, just gunge
No doubt the guys original large pressure cooker system would work though

Lets face it, I could have been the inventor of the worlds first, window box compost maker machine

If you do not try you do not get

Jack McH

 

Bokashi Composting seems to be catching on .... apparantly, you can make compost in a few weeks, and you can include all kitchen scraps such as meats and cheese etc ... all you need is the Bokashi bran which acts as an activator



I would not use the liquid that drains off the Bokashi Compost for my plants though .... that is not compost tea!