Compost bin

I've knocked myself up a compost bin today from four old shipping pallets donated by the farmer next door. So far they're just tied together into a square with twine so they'll come apart again easily enough if required. A couple of the pallets have quite big 50mm gaps between the planks and I'm wondering if this is a bit big for keeping both the contents and the heat in for best results, especially once the stuff has broken down into powder and might just fall out through the gaps. There's also a couple of spare pallets so I suppose I could in extremis lever up the planks from the two pallets in question and rebuild them without gaps using extra planks from the spare pallets. Or am I just making work for myself for no good reason?

Reply to
Dave Baker
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NT

Reply to
meow2222

For decent compost you want air to get in ... Old pallets tied together is a very common container, as you say easy to take apart to get at the compost. Even though good compost is quite crumbly, it does hold together quite well until disturbed so I doubt it'll fall through the gaps.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

+1 My compost bins (a set of three, next to each other) were made from wire fencing.
Reply to
S Viemeister

Pallets make excellent sides for compost bins. Absolutely no need to worry about the gaps though. Very little will fall out, especially when the stuff is fresh, and it doesn't break down to powder, more of a coarse crumble which tends to hold together anyway. The gaps also allow air to circulate through the heap. Don't worry about heat loss. If it's a slow-build heap, as most domestic ones tend to be, it probably won't get very hot anyway, i.e. it'll be a cold heap. Heaps only get hot if a whole lot of fresh material is added at one time, like for example if I cut the hedge and shred the trimmings, substantially filling the heap in one go. Adding a bucket or so of weeds or a few kitchen veg trimmings now and then won't get it hot.

For my compost heap, I've driven two 2-inch diameter stakes down through each pallet to keep them upright, which means I can lift one side right up and away, giving access to the compost, without having to dismantle the whole thing.

BTW, I have two heaps, one building, the other maturing/using. When the latter is ready, say after 12 months, it's used, and then when emptied, the first heap dug over into it. Some people even have three heaps, building, maturing and using. You do need plenty of space for that, though. I cover the maturing heap with a sheet of heavy duty black polythene, weighted down with another pallet, to keep the winter rains out.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

I have s similar bin made from pallets - nothing falls through the gaps...

Reply to
John Rumm

I'd use nylon rope. Twine will rot pretty quickly if you have a decent hot compost heap. Ideally you want to have three on the go at once. One building, one being used and one maturing. The first time to bootstrap it you might find Garrota (sp?) useful as a seed culture/initiator.

Just making work for yourself. Ignore all the stuff online about N to C ratios - if you add a cubic metre or so of stuff at a time and don't pack it down tightly it will get hot enough to devour almost anything.

I have had mine smouldering once or twice and it regularly gets to 70C after a bit grass cut or hedge trimming. Takes about a year to become good compost but partly because I don't turn it as often as you should.

Reply to
Martin Brown

Thanks for the advice chaps. I'll leave well alone then. I've situated the bin where's there's space next to it for another to be added on with three more pallets when the first bin is full although I suspect it'll take a while to fill a cubic metre from my little lawn and borders. However I can always get t'farmer to drop me off a loader bucket full of soiled cow shed bedding straw if I want to kick start the process. He gets through hundreds of tons of the stuff a year and composts it in huge heaps out in the fields where it turns into beautiful black loam after a few months gently steaming and then gets spread on the barley fields.

I could just ask for a loader bucket of his finished stuff I suppose but it'll be nice to have my own bin and make better use of the lawn clippings and autumn leaves than just dumping them.

Also hopefully it'll turn into a worm farm so I'll have a ready supply for the trout stream down the lane.

Reply to
Dave Baker

I thought baler twine was the agricultural equivalent of gaffer tape; the world would fall apart without it.

Reply to
Nightjar

It's nylon twine. What t'farmer uses for lashing the sheep pens together.

Reply to
Dave Baker

I don't think they bother with UV protection. Only does one year in my greenhouse.

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Reply to
Tim Lamb

I thouht it was polypropelene, not nylon.

Reply to
charles

Looking at my reel of baler twine it certainly feels like polypropylene to me...

Reply to
docholliday93

Dave Baker scribbled...

Fixed your post

Reply to
Jabba

I read it as baler twine. There is sizal or cotton but I'd call them "string"

+1

I was going to say you haven't got proper baler twine but then I spotted who had posted that comment. Seems pretty stable stuff up here. B-)

Thinks, does UV get through glass? Perhaps there is some thing else going on.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I put all my cardboard (food wrappings) and paper shreddings in my compost bin, especially when adding grass cuttings. Larger cardboard boxes with parcel tape etc. just get left out for a shower of rain and the tape comes off easily from wet cardboard. The occasional bucket of human urine in the heap also helps.

I get hundreds of worms in the top couple of inches of my maturing heap but not in my active heap.

Don't worry too much if you heap is not steaming. I only get this when I put in a very large amount of green material. Don't worry about ants nests or the other millions of insects - they are all there to help although ants may suggest the heap is too dry.

You may want to avoid cleaning out or turning out a compost heap during the slow worm breading season. They like large compost heaps that don't run too hot.

Reply to
alan

Lasts forever if you bury it. I have always assumed it is made from thin strips of Polypropylene. I usually split about 3 *figure of eight* ties from a short length for Tomatoes. There are several variants: thick stuff for the big Hesston bales, thin stuff for round bales and then regular for small conventional bales.

Some does. Bear in mind this is horticultural glass not Pilkington K:-)

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Reply to
Tim Lamb

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