A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 More questions about composting

Weezie, you mentioned in another post that you put Pepsi in your compost pile. Are you kidding? We have black ants. Will the sweet stuff cause me a problem?

Not that I know of.....
I don't put a ton of it in there, My husband sucks Pepsi like it's going out of style and he sometimes, (oh, alright, everytime he empties a bottle he never finishes the end, he says it's flat) But I pour it in....
I have a nice size compost (2 ft high)
and the ratio is very slim.... When starting a brand new one, crammed to the top all layered,
I will add 3 beers, or the equivelant!!!

I know there is always critters in my compost piles like I think they are called pill~bugs,
and centipedes, millipedes.
Centipedes, Millipedes & Pill Bugs
They eat up decaying stuff, they're harmless per~say and eat up stuff..

But I would think that the sugars would really get to workin' the pile and get to fermenting reasonable fast????
I'm no scholar mind you, but I've never seen a colony in my piles?????

Try it once, and if you do see them, don't do it again???? Or maybe in a moist area, usually ants
here like a dry surface and if it's sort of moist they might not travel there, just put some big heavy sticks in the bottom of the pile for good aeration and not soggy!!

Weezie

Did I help????

Yes you did. My pile is pretty big. I've not seen any critters in it either. I'll put in the Pepsi and see what happens.

To be honest with you,
I believe it was Jerry Baker I got it from!

*and The Gardener Guy on HGTV,
I think he joked around and pretended to cry
when he poured the beer on it*

You should hear some of the things I've
read for the compost pile....

fingernails,
hair,

I have even heard of people filtering their beer with their kidneys first before putting it on the pile.... I am not kidding...
I don't think I would ever do that, but hey, what's manure????

Weezie
And those critters are good for it,
they help break down the vegetation that's put in.

Ok now don't laugh. Here is Raye's secret pile starter for a large pile.

Before you build your pile, in two or three 5-7 gallon buckets place into each 2 pounds of corn meal, 12 ounces of unsulphured molasses, and 1 packet of dry yeast. Fill with warm water. Leave an inch or two at the top for the foam. Within a few hours it will start to work off. Stir the mixture daily. Now just before it stops working off (you will be able to tell as the action will be slower) start building your pile. As you layer the carbon to green matter add this mixture (make sure it is stirred up well first) to each level. Lightly misting it with water.

Turn pile once every 10 days making sure that the outside is now inside and mist lighty with water if needed. In 70 to 90 warm days if the carbon to green matter was balanced correctly you will have black gold.

The reason I use corn meal is the extra nitrogen it adds to this mixture. A very important food source for the microbes.

Oh ya you can drink this, and get drunk...but in the morning you will wish you had just died~~! LOL!

HEY CINDY
Forget "zinfinsomething" we have "Pineapple_Rayes Suprise"!

Karen

LOL Raye

I wish I had the room to compost,about the best I can do right now is,have a pile where I throw old plants and potting soil. I also throw newspapers,yard waste,etc. I try and make sure I stir it around every couple of days.

Karen

Karen
You can still use this mixture on it. You can always run a lawn mower over the stuff and then put it into a large plastic garbage can. Get one with a locking lid. This way you can roll the stuff instead of turning it. After rolling you can open the lid back up.

When I feed my worms I use these basic items except the yeast. I sometimes add Kelp meal to it. The worms love it.

I have a good sized one going now about 2 1/2 ft tall and 4 ft wide.my indoor composty is tatter peelings,coffee grounds& filter tea bags& I drink both reg and herbal so is alot of green tea and others in there& mint.odds of veggie scraps some canalopes weekly.all my weeds i pull recently added a bunch of rabbit poo,some pine needles,grass clipppings one a month from neighbors yard.
yep its got critters and some nice fatt juicy worms that a bass fish would love.hubby spied one one day. was amazed,its got pill bugs centapieds some black ants some times but not all the time,plus is at a base of dead tree and a woodpecker lives about 50 ft up dead tree he eats in compost sometimes,but mainly winter.its got leaves too.got 2 acres and live in woods.got a never ending supply of leaves.I pour tuna juice also and if eat shrimp I toss leftovers in compost,sardine juice oh and egg shells!I go through about an 30 ct of eggs weekly.

hair adds protien.it don't make it alot,but not a compost bucket in bathroom so I DO have an excuse.

Hey hey sounds like you have a working plan!!!

Really glad you joined us on this forum. I will have to give some thought as to that bathroom container... nice! Never considered that...again nice advice.

Cya ya soon~~!
Pineapple_Raye