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Info request: vermi-composting - sh.itjust.works
sh.itjust.worksI don’t know much about vermi composting, but I am thinking of giving it a go.
Does anyone have a good resource, knowledge, or recommendation on where to
start? My thoughts were to get a couple metal grated waste baskets, a bunch of
earth worms and put one in each of my raised garden beds. Or should I run an
experiment and do one bed and not the other? What are its benefits?
Downsides(rodents,possums for instance)? Guidance is appreciated.
I guess I’d say first that I don’t have anything on hand to do that with, and I have a lot of shop and garden tools.
If you can turn a skeleton into powder, it’ll no longer be recognizable as a skeleton. It has nothing much to do with composting though. It’s debatable whether the powder would undergo any chemical change by microorganisms. Eggshells for example go into a compost pile and ride along into the soil eventually where they make minerals available to plants, but eggshells don’t get significantly broken down by the composting microorganisms.
Isn’t bonemeal a pretty common soil additive?
Yes, soil additive, not composting material. That’s all I meant. I think the original question was could you compost a body and I said yes except the skeleton and then someone asked what if you grind it up and the answer is still you can’t really compost bone.
You can’t yourself, but if you heat the compost it’s possible.
Our city takes bones as well as dog and cat poo as well as a host of other stuff you can’t compost personally since it’s a heated above 55c and breaks down all that extra stuff.
Municipal compost is put through a tub grinder, which masticates everything to a fine degree. So even there, it’s not really the heat. They are just grinding it to the point where you can’t distinguish it from other bits of rock and silica in the soil.
Video: https://youtu.be/j_RXRqFB_bM?si=g2_1Pt99qIc9cq6g
Also, I’ve gotten my home compost over 160 degrees F which is considerably hotter. I mean the same pile that these bones have survived.
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Municipal compost shouldn’t be accepting those items if it’s not heated since it doesn’t break down, nor does it kill pathogens off that can be deadly if used for vegetable gardens.
Linky
Heating it in specially designed containers with controlled environments is a little different than the center of the pile getting that hot for a few hours during a hot day.
It’s a stare of the art facility that’s brand new, they’re a little different than most other municipalities.
I’m not saying the facility doesn’t get hot. It is for sure hot. I’m saying it is not the heat that breaks down bones, but the masticators they use.
Without the heat it still takes months to years to break down, with the heat it can done in the 21 day cycle.
It’s a culmination of everything, which is why it’s not really possible to do yourself.
When I say my pile was 160 I do not mean for a few hours on a hot day as you said. It was over 140 for a period of 3 weeks and peaked at 160 for about 5 days. Bones came out of that intact.
Heat + bacteria will not make bones disappear in 21 days or 210 days.