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Hot composter!?

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    #32
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,459 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    Day Lewin wrote: »
    Those Dalek bins are nearly the hardest to make compost in: it is very difficult to aerate the interior.
    there are a few dedicated tools to help, e.g.
    https://www.mrmiddleton.com/compost-aerator/

    you also see ones like a large auger or large corkscrew which pull compost up from the bottom.

    my method is to use two dalek style bins - and transfer between them occasionally.


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    #33
    Day Lewin
    Registered Users Posts: 4,607 ✭✭✭Day Lewin


    magicbastarder wrote: »

    my method is to use two dalek style bins - and transfer between them occasionally.

    That could be done, too: although you've still got a massive cone of plastic with no air intake!

    My main method is to overturn the Dalek once in a while and fork out the nearly-cooked material onto an open bunker (a rough enclosure of blocks or logs) and toss it around there with some "made" compost,
    Then start filling the Dalek again.

    That aerator corkscrew thing does help but the whole plastic-cone system isn't really the most effective for a serious composter.


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    #34
    Turbulent Bill
    Registered Users Posts: 1,622 ✭✭✭Turbulent Bill


    Day Lewin wrote: »
    That aerator corkscrew thing does help but the whole plastic-cone system isn't really the most effective for a serious composter.

    Now that I think of it, lots of industrial mixers for powders etc. use conical hoppers (point facing downwards) with large augers. The auger circulates the material from bottom to top.

    Flip the Dalek upside down, stick an auger and crank handle in, hope for the best?


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    #35
    Gangu
    Registered Users Posts: 396 ✭✭Gangu


    Great thread. We have a Dalek one which works ok. I’m not very strong so I wonder what aerator would be best. The corkscrew one or the one with the flaps? The flaps one looks quite breakable.


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    #36
    secman
    Registered Users Posts: 6,235 ✭✭✭secman


    I have 2 darlek type bins, i have tried different approaches. I year i kept filling 1 bin and occasionally transferred contents to the empty bin. Ended up in spring with a 2 third bin of nice compost. Last year i used the 2 bins, filling both at same time, aerating it, was using a garden fork. I regularly pee into them, also put chicken manure pellets in. Was also using schredder to mulch cuttings off the back hedge, mostly wood as those hedges sre cut down in November/December . This April i had 2 almost full bins of lovely compost for a border 35 meters long by 1 meter wide.
    Now the whole process starts again.
    Just to add thats a weekend home in a rural area.


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