Hello, I'm somewhat concerned about this plastic leaching into my compost, and then me consuming an unhealthy amount of microplastics or "bad" chemicals.

I have a hard plastic container, which I'm now using for the more finished compost. I suspect this is the most safe. But then I also have two black contractor trash bags, where I do the majority of the actual composting.

Should I be concerned about this? My main thought was that most of the heat of the compost would largely be in the middle of the pile, but when I turn it or touch it, it seems quite warm even at the edges, at least with the hard container. The compost in the bags is a larger quantity, and the edges tend to dry, which makes them not retain much heat, so I suspect there's less reason to worry. But I still feel paranoid.

I feel like an idiot. So this all started when I got a vitamix compost machine for Christmas. I had been using it pretty regularly and using the product for balcony gardening in the spring. After that, I didn't know what to do with all the stuff, so I just started putting it in a bucket outside. It was doing fine for a month or 2. Well... now it smells like an outhouse. Also the over a few days it rained super hard. There were a bunch of maggots floating around that had drowned. After scrolling for some time here I added a bunch of shredded cardboard to the mix to get all the moisture soaked up, punched holes in the side of the bucket to keep air flow, and put a lid on it to make sure no more rain gets into it for now. So... what should I do? I realized my compost machine made me unintentionally start a compost bin lol. I am also concerned cause I have neighbors who I don't wanna piss off with soldier flies and yucky smells. Thank you for any advice!

browns tend to be the drying component anyway, but I wanna make sure I understand correctly.

My tumbler compost recently got colonized by BSF so I stopped adding cardboard or dead leaves. And I stopped rotating it or mixing things to avoid possibly killing them. Today it started having a slight smell with all the food scraps (there aren’t enough larvae yet to eat everything at the same time, so the scraps are kind of accumulating now), and you have to actually bend to smell it so it’s not that bad but I don’t want to be producing methane if that’s what it is. I’m wondering if I should just keep the lid open to dry it out a bit, or if I need to specifically add browns

Seen at my local sonic

I grew some potatoes in compost in a wood tower, and just harvested the crop the other night. I was told you’re not supposed to reuse the dirt/compost that potatoes were grown in. Is this true? Should I put this back into my compost pile, my garden, or chuck it into the woods? Please let me know your thoughts!

Help! Worried I'm creating a portal to hell!!!!!!

Fairly new to gardening and houseplants! I live in a city and finally got my hands on some outdoor space.

A month or so ago, I threw a bunch of weeds in a bucket and then some rainwater got in it, and I got to wondering if that water might be good for my plants. Ended up going down a compost tea/swamp water/JADAM wormhole (no pun intended)--but it seems like there are many conflicting opinions, and the amount of information is a little overwhelming.

Anyways, I saw a bunch of little wriggly things in the bucket, so I transferred everything into a lidded metal trashcan to contain whatever hellish swarm was forming, but continued to throw in weeds, food trimmings, egg shells, paper towels, clipped plant trimmings into the trashcan--as well as any rainwater that collected in my buckets.

Well, dear god, the wriggly things have transformed. Every time I open the trashcan, it's like opening a portal directly to hell. I think they're mosquitos, but there are so many of them and they come out so quickly that I kind of just slam the lid back down and run away. Oh, and the whole thing is smelly as shit.

I just bought some Misquito Dunk bits to try and keep Satan's Spawn at bay. But after that--what next?

So my q's--
Am I creating something that will actually be useful as a fertilizer to my house and outdoor plants? Do I need to dilute this thing? Should I be stirring it every once in a while, and how often?

I have a couple of houseplants that I'm especially nervous about using this on--an angel begonia that was just a stick when I got it, and is finally getting leaves--and a calamansi that had lost all its leaves that I'm trying to rehab. How should I approach fertilizing these guys with this stuff?

Thank you for all your help!

I found this interesting article about a fungus that eats plastic. Thoughts?

https://fitfoundme.com/plastic-eating-mushroom-cleans-landfills/?utm_source=A2&utm_id=010&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1YGdSrXYWE0P9fX8w8zweLAQeJDgh-vYlC1D1rIICCAhS-PEra3eaEqLU_aem_wx7YaGzS5R2pE7zWDzRIdw

I want to build a two-stage brick compost bin. I already have the bricks (you can find used/old bricks on marketplace and I've occasionally seen free as well - plus, new bricks are often lower quality than older bricks). I plan to use the compost in my garden.

I have ADHD and it's a struggle to complete projects and tasks. So I want to keep the composting process itself as simple as possible. My plan is to add material to Bin A for 6 months and then switch to Bin B for 6 months. I would essentially do trench composting but chop up and work the material into the soil to speed things up (not just cover it with soil). I would add "browns" to the compost as appropriate.

Is this a good plan? Is 6 months sufficient or do I need longer rotational periods?

Pretty straight forward question.

For me, it's got to be a handful of entire chickens that were killed by a skunk or weasel. I also recently used a compost pile to strip the skin off a fresh deer skull. And years and years ago I inherited a large compost pile at a farm I was renting and was told that there was a goat body at the base of it, all I ever found was a skull.

What about you all?

Has anyone has experience adding pineneedles, browns from the naturally shedded ones and greens from those knocked down by storms?

I have two garbage can compost containers. (The kind with holes drilled in the sides and in the bottom.)

The strategy I used for the first one was as follows: mostly vegetative waste, with some browns (leaves, packing paper, paper towels, etc) added every once in a while. I filled it and am now just letting it cook. So far after a few months it’s just kind of dried out junk.

I started the second one several months ago and decided to just throw greens in it. (I saw a video explaining aerobic vs anaerobic and mostly understood it haha.) So far it’s really breaking down! I have some larvae in there going to town and eating and pooping it all. But it just seems “sludgy.”

I see folks w compost that looks like nice loamy soil and I’m at a loss as to how to achieve that. Any tips?

Title kinda says it all, dunnit.

I have a pile of bug eaten pears, just this bucket full of them. I have no idea what the pear tree was thinking to produce so much fruit.

I don't have a proper compost pile but i do have access to the back yard. Can i just bury them or should i throw them in the trash?

I have a small patio, so when they fly out are there just going to be hundreds of them swarming my patio to mate and die / lay eggs back in the same composter? Or will they mostly fly away? I have just a couple of small flower plants

I could have a largish tiller (think 3 ft wide, that goes down 6 inches or so), that I can have for free to get running if I want. I was thinking that I could probably used it to turn my compost row… do you think it would help also cut up wet cardboard small enough to use for browns?

To start, I know this is a highly debated topic. Compost from this will not be used in an edible garden. Likely only used as lawn dressing in my own backyard. I don’t care to hear any of the “don’t do it” comments.

I’m the spring this year, I started a dog waste bin. I also have a food scrap bin that we use regularly and is doing well. The dog waste one is not as productive. Looking for tips.

Current set up is a 120L plastic garbage bin with 1/2” holes drilled all around. I have a spaced wood cover on it to allow more air flow. Recently wrapped this with weed block fabric to deter flys.

At the beginning of the spring this was mostly grass clippings and dog waste. With some charcoal added and some cardboard periodically. As the season went on I found there was too much dog waste and not enough carbon, so I started adding in fallen cedar leaves and branches. I am finding this is still remaining too wet, although it seems to be generating heat. I turn it at least 2 or 3 times a week. It is not breaking down as fast as it did earlier. Anyone have success with dog waste composting? Any tips would be appreciated.

I did a lasagna method of hot composting with grass clippings and sawdust, and when I went to turn the compost, there was alot of moldy patches of grass in the middle. These patches were white and interlocked, I'm assuming from mycelium or something. These patches also stink, but I don't think they were creating any anaerobic patches. How do I fix this?

Saw this for the first time yesterday after composting for the past 2 months.

I’m new to composting and have started a pile in my backyard a week or so ago. I used yard waste, grass clippings and pine shavings that were used as bedding for my chickens. I layered and mixed it all up and added water for the shavings. I mix it and add more kitchen and yard waste every day as well as water. From my understanding the pile should be fuming hot by now. Although I don’t measure the temperature, I can tell it’s not hot because there’s no steam coming from the middle. Things are starting to break down but I feel like I’m doing something wrong.

I've wanted to compost for awhile now. Watched vids, read articles, and tried to learn the basics. So for prime day this year, I snagged a tumbler.

I started on Saturday, and likely started with too much green. I was cooking a lot that day. Lots of fruit and such. I have tried to balance with cardboard but there are a lot of flies. Fruit and house. I sprinkler some diatomaceous earth this morning and add more wet cardboard, but I'm feeling like I screwed up bad..I can bring home a bag of paper shreds.

Feeling a bit defeated, and I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew at the moment. This fixable or should I just get rid of it now?