compost tumblers

[clkeiper]

Does anybody have one and how much does it really improve your gardening process? I keep thinking I want one for my high tunnel just to collect the debris and keep it contained in a smaller area but am i wasting my money on one?

[Salsacharley]

I have one that holds about 30 gallons. It is a barrel with a round 12" hole with a lid that screws on and off. It is made of very heavy duty plastic. It sits on a platform that has rollers at each corner, and it has hand grasp indentations to grip while rolling. I like that it is easy to mix items in the compost, but it is too small and a real pain to empty. I mostly just make compost from piles of leaves and green scraps in a big heap in the corner of my garden that I turn with a pitch fork. I keep forgetting to add more dry stuff to the barrel composter so it gets pretty wet and funky inside until I do add dry stuff. I'm using it now since my other piles are almost finished and I don't want to add any more new items to them. You can't have too much compost!

[greenthumbomaha]

My enormous Lifetime spinning composter is almost useless to me, but it may work in your commercial setting. You have to fill it up at one time and leave it. Any additions will start the process back to the beginning. If I had grass clippings I would use them as garden mulch. Kitchen scraps and coffee grinds I do have, and I compost those. The large addition is fall leaves, and in my climate they take 2-3 years to break down in the composter. A large heavy unit is hell to spin too.


On the positive side, my former growing partner had a house full of growing teenagers still at home, and kitchen scraps were plentiful. He had a medium sized Lifetime and it worked wonderfully with the food scraps only. His leaves went to the garden as mulch.



We used the compost in the planting hole with the tomatoes. He also had worms in his heated garage and they produced even more compost which also went in the hole.


Bigger was not better for me.


- Lisa

[PhilaGardener]

I have an old one with two compartments (so add to one while finishing the other). Tends to be very sensitive to air temps as one might imagine - composting process shuts down in Fall/Winter/Spring, and I also have problems with moisture build-up that is hard to regulate. At the moment, the handle isn't locking in the shaft, so I have to empty it out and fix that, but it did give trouble-free service for about 20 years. On the plus side is that if you have rodent issues in a ground pile, this solves the problem.

[clkeiper]

I appreciate the input. I am not sure if I want to spend 300.00 on a new large one and find I don't utilize it like I thought I would... so, craigslist will be my source for the first one I purchase I think. thanks all.

[FarmerShawn]

I had the big Compost Tumbler, on a Stand, and used it reliably for several years, until I got too big and got a tractor with a bucket. I loved it, and could dependably make finished (but not aged) Compost in two weeks. I put the ingredients through a shredder, for the most part, to speed the heatup and breakdown, and put lawn clippings in in the summer for ready green stuff. A spin every day to keep it mixed, and a temperature check on progress resulted in mighty fine garden supplements.

[Gregorio]

I have one that I got for free from someone who was moving. It is a Compost Wizard Jr, I believe. There are definitely pros and cons for it. First off, you are supposed to fill it up with mostly browns and some greens, add some water and then tumble it for six weeks without adding any more materials (except for water, when needed). To fill it once and then have it basically out of commission for a month and a half is pretty terrible, as my house is constantly producing kitchen and yard waste that needs to be composted. Getting the finished compost out is insanely difficult. I do love how it is enclosed, so it keeps rodents and racoons out of the pile.

Eventually I gave up on trying to follow the "rules" of the tumbler and just started tossing whatever I wanted to in whenever I had things to compost. This had an interesting effect, as the tumbler then became home to thousands of black soldier fly larvae, which voraciously devoured every piece of vegetable matter that I tossed in there within a matter of hours and converted it to frass. I've been moving the frass into a separate garbage can with holes drilled in it to further age. Some sources I've read say that black soldier fly frass is immediately ready for use on the garden, but others recommend that it be composted. I'm erring on the side of caution and giving it some additional aging time.

I think what I really need for the daily scraps is a worm bin, and I'm looking to buy or DIY one some time this summer.

[Shrinkrap]

Originally Posted by PhilaGardener

I have an old one with two compartments (so add to one while finishing the other). Tends to be very sensitive to air temps as one might imagine - composting process shuts down in Fall/Winter/Spring, and I also have problems with moisture build-up that is hard to regulate. At the moment, the handle isn't locking in the shaft, so I have to empty it out and fix that, but it did give trouble-free service for about 20 years. On the plus side is that if you have rodent issues in a ground pile, this solves the problem.

I have that set up as well, similar issues, although only for about a year. I am a little lazy about it, always adding, so its never "done".

[peebee]

I had one of those huge metal ones, forget the brand name but I got it for only $20 on craigslist years ago. At first it was fun but the novelty soon wore off. Like others here who replied, yeah it can be a pain to tumble it all the time and to get enough scraps, leaves, etc to fill it up. I finally got rid of it by passing it on to a friend who wants to try it. I would not recommend it for small urban yards like mine but for folks who have lots of stuff to put in it why not. But you have to put scraps thru a shredder first if you want consistently fast compost. I'm lazy and now do cold composting and worm composting.

[Nan_PA_6b]

When I clean up the yard and have tons of weeds to compost I fill the composter. Then in a couple of weeks, the weeds in the composter shrink & the composter is only 1/4 full. So, more weeds go in to fill it again. Couple more weeks, the weeds have shrunk and the composter is still only about 1/4 full. Repeat. How do you ever get the darned things full enough to make a decent load of compost?

[peebee]

Nan, the best time for me to compost is in the fall when there are lots of leaves & yard waste. I used to do it year round when people around here had grass clippings. Grass is rare now cuz of the long drought we had.