As my bins are very hot they dry quickly and I use a garden sprinkler to soak the compost as I turn the heap from bin to bin. Sounds like lots of water but it rapidly loses any excess and tends to heat right up again. I'd say that you really need to add water as you mix as it will never reach below halfway.
I have picked up so much information from this thread but still do not understand everything. What is a brown bin? I thought brown meant paper or dried leaves does that mean you put weeds or diseased plants to dry out and die before adding to compost? A few posts say to water frequently.....one of my first mistakes was a big wet stinky smelly mess from not adding brown stuff so I am careful not to let that happen again. Thing is I have not had to water at all lately as it seemed about right but on reflection I realise I have not been adding anything dry at all so obviously it would not need watering. So should I be adding paper anyway then water to compensate? I'm thinking maybe I should Also I do not add weeds except nettles, should i be drying these out before adding? Grateful for all advice on here
Also meant to say that sometimes I have had insects and woodlice in bin and was told that it was not hot enough and to add more greens. I thought worms and insects played important part but if it gets hot they cannot survive in it. Is there not one set rule and whatever works just go with it?
If you have insects of any quantity in your compost it's probably too dry and the material won't breakdown very fast. If the bins are hot then you won't have many worms however they will come back once they cool down. Hot bin composting doesn't need worms to break down the material it needs lots of material and plenty of air and just the right amount of water. Thing is all plant material will breakdown just how you compost will either speed this right up or just allow it to happen more naturally
@susananwms only just seen your previous previous post. So you don't have brown and green bins separately, you just have compost bins with everything mixed up. You need to have a good mix of the browns and the greens so that they all work together to breakdown well. Getting more engrossed in compost means that you can get away with less accurate quantities of the greens and browns as you'll probably be turning it more which means more oxygen to feed the stuff that breaks down the compost. If you get a bit werid like me then you can add vast quantities of material and be confident that you'll not end up with a sticky mess as you will be turning it very regularly (I do my bins every 3/4 days) and you see exactly what's going on. Today I've added 6 large piled high wheel barrows of fresh grass clippings and all of the hedge trimmings from a 80ft long 12ft high hedge into the bins (it's all mown up 1st) this will be up to 80°c by tomorrow and will be turned once this drops to 50°c to get the high temps again
@susananwms I think when people talk about their brown bin it is the colour of their council garden waste recycling wheelie bin. Stumped me too - our council's is green, blue for recycling and grey for gen waste. Not standardised nationally! Possibly due to outsourcing but hey ho! Nothing to do with composting. 😁
Thanks for your replies, I guess I need to add water to my compost then, it does seem to reduce down quite quickly (I think so anyway) but if i can speed it up a bit more, great!! Thanks Cloggie for letting me know about brown bins (am such a plonker at times) haha
One tip I read from the lovely Mr Titchmarsh was not to turn the whole heap, but to periodically tread on it to ensure no air pockets, and just to twizzle a fork in it vertically at the same time. I did that last year and made the best compost I've ever had, so I'm doing it again this year. Did it the other day for the first time in a few weeks, and the top layer twizzled ok but it was a bit thicker underneath. A good stab down with the fork and it loosened enough to twizzle, settled the top layer down a bit further, and all is looking good.
We have three 'heaps' in open bins made from old pallets, one has leaf mould in, the other has this year's compost and the other has last year's in it waiting to be used. We cover the current year's one with a tarpaulin and some thick black plastic, and at the moment it's beautifully warm in the middle. It's good to have the space for three heaps, but as the garden's big we often have more material than room to put it.
I often don't have enough brown stuff from the garden itself but use paper and cardboard from things that come in the post. If the heap is smelly and slimy there's too much green, but if there's lots of brown you need to make sure there's enough water to get it going.
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
Posts
A few posts say to water frequently.....one of my first mistakes was a big wet stinky smelly mess from not adding brown stuff so I am careful not to let that happen again. Thing is I have not had to water at all lately as it seemed about right but on reflection I realise I have not been adding anything dry at all so obviously it would not need watering. So should I be adding paper anyway then water to compensate? I'm thinking maybe I should
Also I do not add weeds except nettles, should i be drying these out before adding?
Grateful for all advice on here
Thanks Cloggie for letting me know about brown bins (am such a plonker at times) haha
We have three 'heaps' in open bins made from old pallets, one has leaf mould in, the other has this year's compost and the other has last year's in it waiting to be used. We cover the current year's one with a tarpaulin and some thick black plastic, and at the moment it's beautifully warm in the middle. It's good to have the space for three heaps, but as the garden's big we often have more material than room to put it.
I often don't have enough brown stuff from the garden itself but use paper and cardboard from things that come in the post. If the heap is smelly and slimy there's too much green, but if there's lots of brown you need to make sure there's enough water to get it going.