Grinder?

[ChopperLinc]

Another strange question...

Has anyone had any experience using some kind of grinder, preferably hand operated, to break down organic material before composting or using for mulch? It seems like having smaller particles would speed up the composting, but maybe I'm missing the mark?

 

[thistlebloom]

Welcome ChopperLinc ! You can run stuff over with a mower to get it smaller, although this would work best with leaves and straw and twigs, might get too messy with kitchen compost.

 

[digitS']

A neighbor at one of my gardens moved in about 10 years ago. He used a shredder and turned lots of pine needles and grass clippings into quite good compost. The shredder worked very well. It was essentially a gas-powered hammer mill.

That's all in the past . . .

These days, he turns piles of pine needles and grass clippings into stinking piles of . . . stinking piles! Running a rototiller over them after they have sat for 3 years accomplishes very little.

Good example then/bad example now -- he once made good and fairly quick compost.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I have an old Troybilt Tomahawk shredder that I love! I bought it new about a thousand years ago and have put many, many hours on that thing. In the fall I use it on the truckloads of leaves I bring home from my customers yards, in the summer I run small pine trees and
branches that we have thinned through it. My favorite thing to run through it is pine cones, they make the prettiest mulch material.
Sorry ChopperLinc, I guess that doesn't really address your original question...

 

[gardentoad]

There is a guy on YouTube that turned an electric mower into s shredder, after seeing that I am on the look out for one myself..
I also have a sears shredder but the motor went bad..worked good when it worked.


Don :watering

 

[ChopperLinc]

I checked the YouTube videos, but couldn't find anything that looked too compelling. The one I could find of the electric mover was almost comical. The guy sucked, maybe a dozen leaves during the whole minute it was on. If you have a link to the one you thought was good, please post.

There was a "pedal power" mulcher, but it was a pretty course grind and the volume it could produce was really, really low.

Do you all agree with the basic concept? Wouldn't finely ground material compost more quickly, or is this idea just composting overkill?

 

[digitS']

I don't think it is overkill at all, 'Linc.

If you want to make something closer to sauerkraut than compost, pack it down and exclude the air. Silage on a farm is something quite well preserved, the farmer hopes. Sauerkraut and silage aren't what we are hoping for in garden soil.

In my own handling of compostables, I have to be aware of that. The last couple of years, I probably have a respectable compost pile by most gardeners' standards. There is probably that 4' by 4' mass that we are told should be a minimum for good composting. However, I have large gardens and can generate much more material than that. What I do is bury it.

The result is probably a good deal of anaerobic decomposition. That's slow and I probably only get away with it because I move a good deal of soil, which loosens and aerates it, then bury only about 4" to 6" of compostables, and the soil has an awful amount of gravel in it - which, at least, allows good water movement. But, 12 months later, organic material in that ground could only be found with a microscope -- so, that works for me.

Most gardeners like to compost material in a matter of weeks not months. They even like a good deal of heat so that weed seeds and plant pathogens are killed. That takes air.

You can take your pitchfork and turn, turn, turn. But, a more efficient way is to reduce the particle size of the material.

The fields beside my larger veggie garden have just been cut and the plant material baled. If I was to toss a couple of those bales in the back of the pickup, they wouldn't take up 10% of the space under the canopy. If I brought them home and ran them thru a good shredder, that same plant material would fill my carport. I could add some water to that alfalfa & grass and there should be rapid decomposition.

BTW, if I could somehow grind that material small enough so that if filled a 3 car garage - then tossed a match in there - I'd burn that garage down in a matter of minutes! If I could turn that plant material to fine enuf dust to fill a 6 car garage - then tossed a match in there - I could make a very significant contribution to the neighborhood fireworks display this 4th of July!! Anything left of that garage would probably be in the next county!
Talk about your rapid decomposition of material !!!

Steve

Edited to add: i've already begun burying some plant material in the garden. soon, the potatoes will be dug and all of the soil will be moved out of those beds to a depth of about 8" in the process. that harvesting will take a few weeks and i will refill those potato beds with compostables behind me, as i go thru the beds. maybe my work there could be called, "composting underkill."

 

[lesa]

Or....you can do it the lazy man way! I have two piles, next to each other. One is "resting" , the other is being added to on a daily basis. Most of what I put in there is, kitchen waste. I will add some weeds and cut off blooms now and then. About this time of year- I shovel the compost out of the resting side and use it in the garden. It is amazing, beautiful stuff. I take a few shovels full and cover the current pile. Now I switch and put the waste in the empty area. By next year, I will have usable compost again. I never turn, or water it. I don't know if that makes sense- but it is super easy- and at the moment- that is all the energy I want to spend on it!
I have some woods on the property which gets my large amounts of garden waste and tree branches, etc. I doubt I will ever attempt to use that "compost"- it will just go back to the earth.
Happy Gardening!

 

[gardentoad]

I checked the YouTube videos, but couldn't find anything that looked too compelling. The one I could find of the electric mover was almost comical. The guy sucked, maybe a dozen leaves during the whole minute it was on. If you have a link to the one you thought was good, please post.

There was a "pedal power" mulcher, but it was a pretty course grind and the volume it could produce was really, really low.

Do you all agree with the basic concept? Wouldn't finely ground material compost more quickly, or is this idea just composting overkill?

Here is the link

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?v=yE4K3Yl9ufU

This guy has the right idea I think, I have quite a few large trees and get so many leaves I though why not..I have a couple of drum
Compost bins..lots of dried chicken and rabbit poo so with any kind of luck next year I should have some good workable compost


Don :watering

 

[4grandbabies]

Digets, you mentioned burying it. I have been toying with the idea of scooping out between my garden rows, throwing the lawngrass mowings in there, along with some old straw, wood ashes, etc and putting the first dirt back, then covering with aged wood chips to make paths that dont get muddy. Next year, that can be my rows, and I can keep the whole garden soil building that way. What do you think? Also, we have incredible tomatoes this year, color great, loaded with fruit, and I am giving credit to my son in law, who added a bunch of agricultural grade charcoal to the soil. So....maybe that can go in between the rows also.