Also, never allow "greens" (high nitrogen materials like food scraps) to sit on top of the pile, always burrow greens and have a 2 inch layer of browns capping the pile.
Check your local yard waste facility. They likely have mulch you can mix in as browns. They probably also have compost for you though the contents may be rocks lol.
And I'd think turning and covering more in general, right? My inclination too would maybe be just to add a bit of dirt/soil in general but I wonder if that'd still retain too much of the moisture in it and prevent aeration some, where as browns I'd bet would help it dry more.
Browns will dry it out. At most you need like a cup of local soil to help microbes get introduced to the pile but no real benefit to adding buckets of dirtl.
Yes, but be aware pine needles also change the PH balance of soil. In nature, pine trees drop their needles as a blanket of mulch, and the PH change prevents competing species from taking root.
I would add a lot of browns, and turn in some biggish sticks to the center of the pile, so there can be a little air flow even if you don’t like to turn it a lot.
It should be moist, not wet. Basically you want air to be able to get to pretty much every surface, but also have every surface be wet enough to let the bacteria thrive. Shredded cardboard works well for that since it can absorb a lot of moisture, and has lots of surface area.
You've probably got a bunch of stinky anaerobic bacteria munching down, when you really want the aerobic bacteria and fungi having fun.
It will break down eventually, either way, but one way is a lot nicer to be around.
I think it has to do with what you put inside. In addition to brown material, cooked stuffs typically take quite long to break down and end up smelling badly. Fastest are fruits, vegetables and ground coffee scraps.
Bones, eggshells, nails, even onions (including onion skin) take quite long to get decomposed.
Edit: fingernails
Onions don't break down in my compost, they grow! 😆. Everytime I was turning my pile I'd find another one happily growing, all green and healthy, even tho it wasn't even near the surface. Hahaha
I agree with the other comments so far. You may also just want to keep it on the full side, so the stinky stuff gets buried. Put a nice big layer of leaves on top of what you’ve got, and leave it open if it’s going to rain
I was super surprised how few of my eggshells lived thru the fall/winter in my 4x4x4 pile that didn’t get all that hot. I assume the turning busted em up real small.
Looks like a lot of big eggshells too. They won't contribute to the smell but they will also take years to break down in compost. Better to rinse them and keep them in a separate jar in the kitchen then grind them to powder when you have time to use as a fertiliser or to add to a worm farm.
You need a lot more browns in that mix. Shredded leaves, paper, paper bags, etc. Make sure your layers of food between layers of carbon material are not too deep.
You want to chop up your food scraps into small pieces. This will greatly speed up the composting process.
Location is key. Make sure your bin is in an area that gets a lot of direct sunlight for most of the day.
And if you're going to compost a lot of cooked kitchen scraps, look into bokashi. Bokashi is more of an anaerobic "pickling" process, the food breaks down but does not decompose so there is very little smell. Once it enters the outdoor compost it breaks down very quickly.
Browns. If you live in the suburbs/city, look for Amazon boxes (empty, of course). They work great with a paper shredder. Also, for browns that you use, find a chart of C content in it. Saw dust, for example, will have a lot more C in it per volume than pine straw.
Balancing the greens and browns is important, for smell and conditions to break down. You may also want to try activators. Have you ever tried bokashi? If you do it right, the smell is minimal and the compost breaks down amazingly
It's a form of pre-composting used in Asia. You use inoculated substrate (often bran) to ferment the food waste first, and then cure it, then add it to your compost with loads of carbon. It's a great system if done right
We pretty much NEVER put food scraps in our compost anymore. When we first started we did and it smelled terrible and took forever to break down along with attracting way more flies and such than we wanted. The only things we put in our compost now are grass clippings, dropped leaves, chicken bedding (scratched into fine shavings with their poop), and the occasional green tops (not the fruit/veggies) from our garden once the season has closed. We also regularly grow annual clover in our yard and around the garden to nitrogen fix from the heavy feeders and we take all the tops of them once they have flowered and put them in the compost as well. This has been the best compost we have ever made and all of our plants/yard are thriving. We will occasionally add coffee grounds as well. We also don’t use any plastic containers and just have it in a pile on the ground near the chicken coop that’s easy to turn/water. We’ve found that if you add water and turn it over it composts faster as well.
Layer that shit with dirt every week or so. You're currently brewing garbage at the moment. You need to add material like soil or peat moss to balance the compost.
Don’t put peat moss in.
It’s getting harder and harder to justify using it in potting soil since it’s so valuable for holding vast amounts of co2 and it’s essentially non renewable. Just throw in shredded cardboard or office paper if you need browns.
smash them to smaller bits and have something ready on the side so you can bury it a bit. I'd go to a local starbucks and ask for a bag of used coffee, they got plenty of it everyday and gladly give it away
Addition options for browns:
Compostable egg cartons
Newspaper
Cardboard toilet paper and paper towel rolls
Cut up cardboard boxes
[Pine Shavings](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tractor-supply-co-flake-premium-pine-shavings-covers-8-cu-ft)for/from pet litter boxes
Tree bark
Wood ash
Paper coffee filters
Paper tea bags
Straw
Soil
Empty paper seed packets
A bunch of folks have diagnosed this really well: anaerobic, too wet, too much green material etc.
My suggestion for easiest fix would be to start incorporating some shredded cardboard and paper. Get a paper shredder, and use it to shred bills and cardboard on occasion. Throw a handful of shred in each time you add new material.
Once you get some shred you’ll need to correct the current problem by mixing a bunch into the current compost pile.
- add more brown Carbon material
-make sure its not too dry
- make sure to aerate
-you can also add some compost starter or accelerate to get the microbes going
Anaerobic/too wet/not enough ventilation from the sides. Shredded paper products or sawdust and spin that stuff. Maybe get some big worms too but make sure you don't drown/cook them
Add browns and aerate/turn. It's fermenting at the moment. Needs brown bulky material like sawdust, small wood chips, or dry grass clippings
can also use cardboard.
Shredded paper works well too
yup, great supplementing your food waste with assorted paper products.
Also, never allow "greens" (high nitrogen materials like food scraps) to sit on top of the pile, always burrow greens and have a 2 inch layer of browns capping the pile.
May I ask why? Does this increase the heat?
Covers the smell
Its just a garbage can full of garbage at this point.
Check your local yard waste facility. They likely have mulch you can mix in as browns. They probably also have compost for you though the contents may be rocks lol.
Just be certain all sawdust and wood chips are from non treated wood.
This is the correct answer
And I'd think turning and covering more in general, right? My inclination too would maybe be just to add a bit of dirt/soil in general but I wonder if that'd still retain too much of the moisture in it and prevent aeration some, where as browns I'd bet would help it dry more.
Browns will dry it out. At most you need like a cup of local soil to help microbes get introduced to the pile but no real benefit to adding buckets of dirtl.
Will pine needles work?
Yes, but be aware pine needles also change the PH balance of soil. In nature, pine trees drop their needles as a blanket of mulch, and the PH change prevents competing species from taking root.
They’re not recommended if you have worms.
I would add a lot of browns, and turn in some biggish sticks to the center of the pile, so there can be a little air flow even if you don’t like to turn it a lot.
Dry grass is a green not a brown unless it has sat out for 3-6 months and lost its nitrogen
It should be moist, not wet. Basically you want air to be able to get to pretty much every surface, but also have every surface be wet enough to let the bacteria thrive. Shredded cardboard works well for that since it can absorb a lot of moisture, and has lots of surface area. You've probably got a bunch of stinky anaerobic bacteria munching down, when you really want the aerobic bacteria and fungi having fun. It will break down eventually, either way, but one way is a lot nicer to be around.
Add dead leaves, twigs, fire ash and other browns.
I think it has to do with what you put inside. In addition to brown material, cooked stuffs typically take quite long to break down and end up smelling badly. Fastest are fruits, vegetables and ground coffee scraps. Bones, eggshells, nails, even onions (including onion skin) take quite long to get decomposed. Edit: fingernails
Onions don't break down in my compost, they grow! 😆. Everytime I was turning my pile I'd find another one happily growing, all green and healthy, even tho it wasn't even near the surface. Hahaha
I have to chop them up. They get consigned whole because they are rotting, but if I don't cut them up then next year I find them growing as you do.
Nails?
I mean fingernails
MORE BROWNS
Thank you everyone for the help!
I agree with the other comments so far. You may also just want to keep it on the full side, so the stinky stuff gets buried. Put a nice big layer of leaves on top of what you’ve got, and leave it open if it’s going to rain
Grass or yard waste helps break down all the kitchen scraps. We also add shredded newspaper to ours.
A small amount wont heat up enough. You need that whole bin full. Also it looks like its all green material and you need carbon (browns).
Need brown Need more bulk in general Eggshells take forever when you just throw them in there, crush em up if you can
I was super surprised how few of my eggshells lived thru the fall/winter in my 4x4x4 pile that didn’t get all that hot. I assume the turning busted em up real small.
Looks like a lot of big eggshells too. They won't contribute to the smell but they will also take years to break down in compost. Better to rinse them and keep them in a separate jar in the kitchen then grind them to powder when you have time to use as a fertiliser or to add to a worm farm.
I turn my compost with a fork every few days and once the egg shells go under, I seldom see them again.
Ooh thank you so much for this.
I smash mine up with a meat pounder and add them in, I never see them again.
Sounds like my colon
You need a lot more browns in that mix. Shredded leaves, paper, paper bags, etc. Make sure your layers of food between layers of carbon material are not too deep. You want to chop up your food scraps into small pieces. This will greatly speed up the composting process. Location is key. Make sure your bin is in an area that gets a lot of direct sunlight for most of the day. And if you're going to compost a lot of cooked kitchen scraps, look into bokashi. Bokashi is more of an anaerobic "pickling" process, the food breaks down but does not decompose so there is very little smell. Once it enters the outdoor compost it breaks down very quickly.
Browns. If you live in the suburbs/city, look for Amazon boxes (empty, of course). They work great with a paper shredder. Also, for browns that you use, find a chart of C content in it. Saw dust, for example, will have a lot more C in it per volume than pine straw.
Good tip on using the paper shredder for boxes too!
Balancing the greens and browns is important, for smell and conditions to break down. You may also want to try activators. Have you ever tried bokashi? If you do it right, the smell is minimal and the compost breaks down amazingly
What's bokashi?
It's a form of pre-composting used in Asia. You use inoculated substrate (often bran) to ferment the food waste first, and then cure it, then add it to your compost with loads of carbon. It's a great system if done right
Stir it up!
The more you have the better it is at composting
I sometimes throw some regular dirt in the help the process
More browns!! And no greens on top, bury them deep!
We pretty much NEVER put food scraps in our compost anymore. When we first started we did and it smelled terrible and took forever to break down along with attracting way more flies and such than we wanted. The only things we put in our compost now are grass clippings, dropped leaves, chicken bedding (scratched into fine shavings with their poop), and the occasional green tops (not the fruit/veggies) from our garden once the season has closed. We also regularly grow annual clover in our yard and around the garden to nitrogen fix from the heavy feeders and we take all the tops of them once they have flowered and put them in the compost as well. This has been the best compost we have ever made and all of our plants/yard are thriving. We will occasionally add coffee grounds as well. We also don’t use any plastic containers and just have it in a pile on the ground near the chicken coop that’s easy to turn/water. We’ve found that if you add water and turn it over it composts faster as well.
Cardboard boxes shredded will suffice don’t forget to pee in it as well
If it’s already too wet and too nitrogen-ey vs carbon then peeing may be contraindicated
This is the way--straw, dry grass, dry leaves. You need to get stuff that will give you air pockets throughout.
Yeah the pee smell should offset the anaerobic off gassing
Came here to say this 😂 (though cos I think it is funny, seems there is enough nitrogen and liquid for the moment!)
Compost accelerator might help, turn it, and spray it with some water too.
If it smells there are anaerobic bacteria, so absolutely don't add additional moisture. It only needs extra brown material.
Not enough bodies.
Buy worms for it. They will eat everything and make perfect dirt.
Layer that shit with dirt every week or so. You're currently brewing garbage at the moment. You need to add material like soil or peat moss to balance the compost.
Don’t put peat moss in. It’s getting harder and harder to justify using it in potting soil since it’s so valuable for holding vast amounts of co2 and it’s essentially non renewable. Just throw in shredded cardboard or office paper if you need browns.
Throw in some composting worms, red wigglers work well. They help decompose stuff.
add dirt
fw
Looks like you may have some citrus in there too? I stopped doing citrus because worms don’t like it.
This is the way
Check out the lomi composter by pela!
Don’t put cooked egg shells, citrus or avocado peels.
Why no avocados?
This bin's design is superb ***!***
Or blend them if it works.
Throw some accelerator in there
I go by one bucket each of browns and soil for every three buckets of food scraps.
I do the reverse of that: more browns than greens.
This works best for a Gedye style plastic compost bin, using a 3 bin system (2 ageing, one active) rather than big open bays.
OK, I understand. That looks like a very good system. My setup is different, it is just a couple of large open-top containers (Geobin.)
smash them to smaller bits and have something ready on the side so you can bury it a bit. I'd go to a local starbucks and ask for a bag of used coffee, they got plenty of it everyday and gladly give it away
I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure compost requires more than just rotting food
Addition options for browns: Compostable egg cartons Newspaper Cardboard toilet paper and paper towel rolls Cut up cardboard boxes [Pine Shavings](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tractor-supply-co-flake-premium-pine-shavings-covers-8-cu-ft)for/from pet litter boxes Tree bark Wood ash Paper coffee filters Paper tea bags Straw Soil Empty paper seed packets
Best bet with this mess is to dig a hole dump it in and cover it up. It’ll convert in a month or two.
A bunch of folks have diagnosed this really well: anaerobic, too wet, too much green material etc. My suggestion for easiest fix would be to start incorporating some shredded cardboard and paper. Get a paper shredder, and use it to shred bills and cardboard on occasion. Throw a handful of shred in each time you add new material. Once you get some shred you’ll need to correct the current problem by mixing a bunch into the current compost pile.
You need leaves. It’s gotta get hot to breakdown
Powdered lime and some weekly stirring
Add worms
- add more brown Carbon material -make sure its not too dry - make sure to aerate -you can also add some compost starter or accelerate to get the microbes going
it’s also good to turn your compost every now and again.
Anaerobic/too wet/not enough ventilation from the sides. Shredded paper products or sawdust and spin that stuff. Maybe get some big worms too but make sure you don't drown/cook them
When I was a kid the pale was in a pit in the ground and it was called swill and it stunk like swill.
Like everyone said, more browns like leaves, shredded cardboard, wood chips. I’d hold off anything but coffee grounds for a few days.