6 ms·

Huh, I actually do some of this but I'm planning on doing a bit more that I'd like to get their feedback on. For background, I live in the PNW among the trees.

by oooyay 2y ago

Huh, I actually do some of this but I'm planning on doing a bit more that I'd like to get their feedback on. For background, I live in the PNW among the trees. My soil is part of a long dead riverbed and thus is mainly silt and sand. I have chickens, a worm bin, and a medium sized compost pile. The trees have the same erosive properties that trees in the Boreal forest have. Douglas firs have shallow roots but are towering trees, the soil just doesn't do them any favors. I'm building a chicken coop that's designed to take pine shavings and be completely emptied once a month with relative ease. The idea is to take the chicken poop and pine shavings and add them to the compost pile. I'll further introduce new worms from my separate vermiculture bin and add them to the compost. This should speed up the break down, but the pile will primarily rely on the Berkeley method to accomplish faster cycles. Each month I should start getting pounds of fresh compost that I can move around my yard. Secondarily to my chicken and worm hobby I love to smoke meat and cheese. I use all of the ash from the pellets to amend the soil as well. I pile it up in a box and spread it around when it gets full. I then till the soil, working it in over time. The natural acidity of the soil from the fir needles has slowly started regressing, but that's the most progress I've gotten thus far.

zwieback 2y ago
Also PNW, Willamette Valley, I've had standard compost pile forever and for a few years I had a few chickens. It was amazing how well the poop worked and I had such absurd amounts of worms in my compost that I fed some back to the chickens. The only problem is that it does take a while for the poop to turn into compost and with the constant addition of fresh poop it was hard to time. I have two piles and do a yearly changeover, that keeps it easy.
- deepnet 2y ago
  A hot heap captures more carbon, releases less methane and makes much compost, much faster, from same amount of base material ( less evaporates ). Ideally takes 6 weeks to compost a whole heap - using hot methods. Also kills fungi & pathogen and all weed seeds and readily ‘eats’ ( dissolves ) carcasses and meat and other nature that should be avoided in cold heaps. Takes a bit more management and monitoring but is easily automated.
  - franktankbank 2y ago
    > is easily automated. At scale, in the backyard not so much. I'm open to being wrong though... got any sources of low scale automation?
    - deepnet 2y ago
      Yes ! tl;dr air pump saves turning the heap, insulation keeps heat in, currently Raspi sensing methane, moisture and temp controlling water & air inputs has improved my home hot heap yields 80% and completely automated it - 100% labor free. The 4 key factors for a hot heap are moisture, temperature and oxygen and green ( high nitrogen ) to brown ( high carbon ) ratio ( approx 2 green to 1 brown by weight ). I have a 1 cubic metre heap ( the minimum to generate the necessary heat ) and I have an specialised product, a double wall insulated ‘hot’ bin which keeps it working even in winter. A hot heap steams so water input is necessary. Hot heaps need oxygen, which is the hard part - manually turning the heap. The temperature rises to 70 degrees C after a week, which kills all but the extremophile hot heap bacteria which are aerobic rather than the cold heap anaerobic bacteria. I added an air pump input to the bottom and I have a water hose and sprinkler the top. I run the air every day for 10 minutes. And the water for when it feels dry. Now it never smells and composts in 7 weeks instead of 12. I have now bought a methane, moisture and temperature sensors, electric valve for water and so a RaspberryPi is graphing the sensor inputs and recording the heap water and oxygen timings. Very importantly, I have a pile to collect greens ( veg and grass ) and a pile for browns ( leaves and cardboard ) so I can fill the hot bin in one go. Once I get some time I’ll write it up.
      - oooyay 2y ago
        Please link back when you do, this is really cool.

by oooyay 2y ago

zwieback 2y ago

Also PNW, Willamette Valley, I've had standard compost pile forever and for a few years I had a few chickens. It was amazing how well the poop worked and I had such absurd amounts of worms in my compost that I fed some back to the chickens. The only problem is that it does take a while for the poop to turn into compost and with the constant addition of fresh poop it was hard to time. I have two piles and do a yearly changeover, that keeps it easy.

deepnet 2y ago
A hot heap captures more carbon, releases less methane and makes much compost, much faster, from same amount of base material ( less evaporates ). Ideally takes 6 weeks to compost a whole heap - using hot methods. Also kills fungi & pathogen and all weed seeds and readily ‘eats’ ( dissolves ) carcasses and meat and other nature that should be avoided in cold heaps. Takes a bit more management and monitoring but is easily automated.
- franktankbank 2y ago
  > is easily automated. At scale, in the backyard not so much. I'm open to being wrong though... got any sources of low scale automation?
  - deepnet 2y ago
    Yes ! tl;dr air pump saves turning the heap, insulation keeps heat in, currently Raspi sensing methane, moisture and temp controlling water & air inputs has improved my home hot heap yields 80% and completely automated it - 100% labor free. The 4 key factors for a hot heap are moisture, temperature and oxygen and green ( high nitrogen ) to brown ( high carbon ) ratio ( approx 2 green to 1 brown by weight ). I have a 1 cubic metre heap ( the minimum to generate the necessary heat ) and I have an specialised product, a double wall insulated ‘hot’ bin which keeps it working even in winter. A hot heap steams so water input is necessary. Hot heaps need oxygen, which is the hard part - manually turning the heap. The temperature rises to 70 degrees C after a week, which kills all but the extremophile hot heap bacteria which are aerobic rather than the cold heap anaerobic bacteria. I added an air pump input to the bottom and I have a water hose and sprinkler the top. I run the air every day for 10 minutes. And the water for when it feels dry. Now it never smells and composts in 7 weeks instead of 12. I have now bought a methane, moisture and temperature sensors, electric valve for water and so a RaspberryPi is graphing the sensor inputs and recording the heap water and oxygen timings. Very importantly, I have a pile to collect greens ( veg and grass ) and a pile for browns ( leaves and cardboard ) so I can fill the hot bin in one go. Once I get some time I’ll write it up.
    - oooyay 2y ago
      Please link back when you do, this is really cool.