Comments on: 2nd Composter Finished http://www.cloacina.org/blog/2010/06/2nd-composter-finished/ Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:03:18 +0000 hourly 1 By: molly http://www.cloacina.org/blog/2010/06/2nd-composter-finished/comment-page-1/#comment-887 molly Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:42:08 +0000 http://www.cloacina.org/blog/?p=109#comment-887 Hi Dennis Friend! Thank you for the questions: answers abound, here are a few. -Word, the woodchips are so happy to have the urine. I did a test one time to see how much urine sawdust could absorb. One pound of sawdust absorbed 3 lbs of urine. The nitrogen in the urine is in the form of ammonia (NH3) until the bacteria and what not in the pile convert it into nitrates(NO3). -The idea of a removable inner core looked really awesome on paper but it was Really hard to lift out a wire basket full of compost by hand. Instead just like you imagined we ended up shoveling out the compost and only after it was barely empty could we lift it. For this 2nd composter we built it right next to the garden so that when it's finished we'll unclip the zip ties to remove the wire mesh and let it spill into the garden. Right now it's 120 F in the top 5 inches. -the mushrooms in the pile are volunteers. Our friend Dan was over and said they were in the Coprinus genus. I believe the nickname is inky cap. Dan had a great idea to inoculate burlap with mushroom spawn and wrap it around our next compost pile so our compost pile will become a cylindrical tower of oyster mushrooms. We've drawn up plans for it, and are totally going to try it out when we empty the old composter. Yours in Decomposition, molly Hi Dennis Friend!
Thank you for the questions: answers abound, here are a few.
-Word, the woodchips are so happy to have the urine. I did a test one time to see how much urine sawdust could absorb. One pound of sawdust absorbed 3 lbs of urine. The nitrogen in the urine is in the form of ammonia (NH3) until the bacteria and what not in the pile convert it into nitrates(NO3).
-The idea of a removable inner core looked really awesome on paper but it was Really hard to lift out a wire basket full of compost by hand. Instead just like you imagined we ended up shoveling out the compost and only after it was barely empty could we lift it. For this 2nd composter we built it right next to the garden so that when it’s finished we’ll unclip the zip ties to remove the wire mesh and let it spill into the garden. Right now it’s 120 F in the top 5 inches.
-the mushrooms in the pile are volunteers. Our friend Dan was over and said they were in the Coprinus genus. I believe the nickname is inky cap. Dan had a great idea to inoculate burlap with mushroom spawn and wrap it around our next compost pile so our compost pile will become a cylindrical tower of oyster mushrooms. We’ve drawn up plans for it, and are totally going to try it out when we empty the old composter.
Yours in Decomposition,
molly

]]> By: Dennison Williams http://www.cloacina.org/blog/2010/06/2nd-composter-finished/comment-page-1/#comment-886 Dennison Williams Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:44:04 +0000 http://www.cloacina.org/blog/?p=109#comment-886 I have seen this in person and it is impressive. I am glad I checked this out, because even after seeing it I was not sure where the household urine was going. This makes so much sense now that I know that the wood chips breakdown faster and hence produce more heat when exposed to nitrates (nitrates not nitrogen right?). There was a bit in here about having a removable inner core, but you never explained how you get the compost out. Leaning over the "urine chips" (TM) with a trowel? Bummer! I also know that yall have been doing some mycelium research, and you even said that you get some fungi popping out from time to time. Are these volunteers or from a culture that you inoculated the wood chips with yourself? Do you think the urine helps or retards fungi growth in the wood chips? Finally, there is reference to this blog post in the <a href="http://github.com/rj-steinert/Sensor-Server-on-Drupal" rel="nofollow">drupal sensor server module</a> referring to the type of arduino sensor configuration you are employing, but there is no mention of the hardware in this post. Please advise. Yours in mischief, Mr. Williams I have seen this in person and it is impressive. I am glad I checked this out, because even after seeing it I was not sure where the household urine was going. This makes so much sense now that I know that the wood chips breakdown faster and hence produce more heat when exposed to nitrates (nitrates not nitrogen right?).

There was a bit in here about having a removable inner core, but you never explained how you get the compost out. Leaning over the “urine chips” (TM) with a trowel? Bummer!

I also know that yall have been doing some mycelium research, and you even said that you get some fungi popping out from time to time. Are these volunteers or from a culture that you inoculated the wood chips with yourself? Do you think the urine helps or retards fungi growth in the wood chips?

Finally, there is reference to this blog post in the drupal sensor server module referring to the type of arduino sensor configuration you are employing, but there is no mention of the hardware in this post. Please advise.

Yours in mischief,
Mr. Williams

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