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[Radium]

Recently I bought a small bag of commercial compost, and then i found lots of brown baby scorpions in my balcony, while in my area scorpions are officially non-existant.

1 Like dEEcor likes this.

[sporehead]

That's awesome. Next on my bug farming list is scorpions. I hope I'm as lucky!

[Jonnybegreen]

What blend of materials do you all use to make a balanced potting mix I have some compost I made,  some sand,  vermiculite,  and perlite at my disposal.

[plantlight]

What blend of materials do you all use to make a balanced potting mix I have some compost I made,  some sand,  vermiculite,  and perlite at my disposal.

Sorry to be hitting all of your posts -- I'm not a spammer but feel a bit like one right now
All are topics I'm interested in too. 

I use all of the above except for sand.  Maybe it's just me but I've found that sand tends to settle at the bottom of my pots. 

[Jonnybegreen]

No problem,  I am not the biggest fan of sand but I think it has to do with the type of texture I use. I want to make some cactus/succulent mix also so I figured I will try different kinds of sand. Any suggestions?

[plantlight]

I will try different kinds of sand. Any suggestions?

Please post the results of your trials.  I tried builders sand because it was the most coarse I could find but I wanted something more coarse than that.  I'd give it another try if I could find something more coarse.  I like pumice better because it is lighter and there are more choices of coarseness.

[Radium]

The anaerobic compost I made is ready.
It is a dark gray muddy substance.
Upon drying, it forms a rock hard composition, and mixing it with soil is very hard, because it just breaks into large clumps and doesn't mix well.


What have I done wrong?
It was made from powdered beans and lentils, paper pulp, fruit peels, and other green stuff.

[plantlight]

What have I done wrong?

Hard to say without a bit more description of your process.  I use about 2 parts dried leaves and 1 part fresh matter.  Cover, let it get hot and turn.  Never has gotten hard, lumpy, or resistant  to mixing.

I've never used powdered material but I think it would be ok as long as it is mixed well with the other composting materials in the beginning. 

If you describe your setup and mixture in a bit more detail, perhaps I or someone else may be able to help.

[plantlight]

Oops! My process is aerobic composting.    I'm just reading up on anaerobic now.  Seems there is no need to turn the pile.  I'm especially interested in your process now.

[Radium]

Here's my compost story:


I had 10kg of old rancid kidney beans and lentils which had holes and was attacked by an army of tiny black insects.
I ground them all, and got a fine bean+lentil+insect powder     [BTW, my grinder died during the process, leaving about 1kg of beans unground]
Then I poured the powder in a big tub, added of finely blended paper pulp, and a good amount of neighbors' kitchen scraps (fruit peels, scrap meat, rotten fruits, etc)


I mixed them all finely, and then placed them in the balcony.
The flies attacked the tub, and then an army of white maggots appeared in the tub, I loved to watch them, and they were helping with the process, but they also were stealing lots of nutrients to grow and turn into a fly and go away, so each 5 days I covered the tub with a lid for 24 hours to kill the mature maggots, and then removed the lid to let flies place lay new eggs in the tub for a new generation of maggots.


I repeated the process until flies didn't have any interest to lay eggs in the tub anymore.
I got a mushy homologous brown mud now, and it smelled like zombie poop.
I covered it to let the anaerobic process begin, and occasionally uncovered it, added lots of fresh urine to it and let it dry to the former volume and then covered it again.


I did that until the mud turned into gray, and it no more smells bad.
So yeah, I got a dark gray cream now, which upon drying turns into a rock hard cement like material, which is impossible to mix well with soil.


I also added soil to the wet cream mud, and got a finely mixed muddy soil, but it cracks like clay when it dries.


Anyway, I gave the cracky stuff as top soil to my plants, and they grew new leaves and their leaves turned greener, but I miss the fluffy texture of the black compost you guys make :[


I also added just a bit of it carefully to my cactuses, around the rim of their pots, not touching their bodies, and they responded with deeper color, fatter bodies and new growth [their growth was stalled for some reason I don't know].

1 Like plantlight likes this.

[LIBERTYNY]

  Im guessing your  anaerobic compost is not fully decomposed ? ?

I know with waste water and sewage anaerobic process can create some nasty byproducts that can need to be further processed with heat and chemicals before it can become milorganite.

 Why anaerobic ?

 I make 'leaf mold' like product which is a partial anaerobic process,  by just pilling up all the yard scraps and letting it decompose,   When I want some compost/mold I just take from the bottom

[LIBERTYNY]

I will try different kinds of sand. Any suggestions?

Please post the results of your trials.  I tried builders sand because it was the most coarse I could find but I wanted something more coarse than that.  I'd give it another try if I could find something more coarse.  I like pumice better because it is lighter and there are more choices of coarseness.

 A local land material place by me lets me screen my own sand on site.  Which is not always even nessary, Just take from around the bottom/base of a older pile where it gets 'washed'

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[plantlight]

So yeah, I got a dark gray cream now, which upon drying turns into a rock hard cement like material, which is impossible to mix well with soil

I have a similar issue with the worm casting cream/paste that I harvest from this http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?topic=2903.0
 

I also added just a bit of it carefully to my cactuses, around the rim of their pots, not touching their bodies, and they responded with deeper color, fatter bodies and new growth [their growth was stalled for some reason I don't know].

I have been using the cream/paste as a top dressing too. Seems to work ok like that as it dissolves a bit with each watering even after it hardens to chunks.  As far as the stunting, I'm wondering if it could be a ph issue.  I read in this article:  https://www.planetnatural.com/composter-connection/compost-digesters/anaerobic/
that ph can dip to 4 in anaerobic compost and I believe that is too low for cactus. The ph in worm castings is 6 which is a bit low for my plants, but in the tolerable range.  Please post any updates.

[TBM]

I did that until the mud turned into gray, and it no more smells bad.
So yeah, I got a dark gray cream now, which upon drying turns into a rock hard cement like material, which is impossible to mix well with soil

How much time did this whole process take you? Sounds like maybe... 2-3 weeks? Longer? Maybe try crushing the cement like material you've created into granules/flakes so it can be dispersed more effectively?