caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 21, 2019 19:05:51 GMT -5
I think... I am going to build a simple hand trommel. I found some spare casters around the house. Plenty of spare wood. Bicycle rims should be easy to find. The purpose would be to pay $20/yard instead of $40/yard on compost and then just sift it myself and use the smaller pieces in the gardens and use the larger pieces for walkways/paths. I don't have a truck and so it will have to be delivered. And, I don't need 6 cubic yards of ...anything... although I'm pretty confident I can use up most of it and give away what I can't use. Better yet is I use the hand trommel to sift free compost. I just get icky about picking up free compost because I don't know the history of the compost. With Oquirrh Mountain I know it's passed Composting Council inspection. With my own stuff, I know my own standards. Similarly with folks I know personally and can base whether I accept or not on my knowledge of their approach to gardening (i.e. not accepting from the guy that I know places only partially finished manure on his edible crops.) Then again, I don't want to fall to the "$54 tomato" trap. Hrm. Any thoughts or warnings as I embark on this little adventure? What am I not considering?
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Post by farmerjack41 on Apr 21, 2019 22:00:30 GMT -5
I have been looking at and scratching my head about the same project. Not sure where I am at yet. Have some built using and old cement mixer as the base for the unit. They add screen out the opening of the mixer, looks like maybe two or three feet. See those setting around in the weeds quite often. Thinking that project might get put off till next winter. Gardening and haying season leaves a shortage of time. Good luck on you endeavor with the project. Keep us informed.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 22, 2019 7:20:38 GMT -5
Looks like it works really well but I never have to sift my compost. I have a large pile that just sits on the ground and lucky for me hubby has a garden tractor with a bucket and he turns the pile for me periodically. I don't add wood so there are no chunks of that in my compost. it is fine to use as is. I agree about that free compost from the township because I see the lawn service people dumping their truckloads of grass clippings there. Those clippings are full of lawn treatment herbicide and pesticide residue. Any time I accept any mulch, mushroom soil, etc. from elsewhere I do the "bean test" bu planting a couple of bean seeds in a cup of the mulch or compost. If the beans germinate normally, it is OK but if they come up and look all deformed then there is a residue in it that I certainly don't want on my garden. DSC01742 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 23, 2019 13:33:13 GMT -5
farmerjack41, I love the idea of using a cement mixer. I also see those laying around unused a lot. If I had the space to store one, that would be a fantastic solution. Let me know if you decide to give it a whirl! brownrexx, The bean test is a good idea. Thanks for the tip! I trust the municipal compost in my specific district (and two other local municipal districts) because they send their samples off to get tested a couple times a year by the US Compost Council and publicly post the results, which include nutrient content, heavy metals, etc etc info plus it has to pass the council's standards. Not all counties (by far) do that though. And, certainly, the folks offering up free compost in the classifieds haven't either. --- I suppose it's only $10 for a soil sample test through the county extension. Maybe that would be a good workaround. Rather than chasing after the latest classifieds, I could pick one of the various farms that offer compost on an ongoing basis. Especially if it's one where I won't be in the way filling up plastic totes to fit in my hatchback, instead of needing a truck bed for them to dump in and have me on my way. There's a goat dairy nearby that might work. Hrmmmmmm That's a little off topic for the hand trommel, though. More on the "how do I feed my soils in a cost effective manner" topic, which the hand trommel is one piece of.
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