Thread: Food refuse
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Old 17-08-2006, 04:02 PM posted to austin.gardening
OmManiPadmeOmelet[_3_] OmManiPadmeOmelet[_3_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2006
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Default Food refuse

In article . net,
"Jonny" wrote:

When I was growing up, my parents put food refuse in milk carton. Let if
ferment for awhile, them mixed it in the soil or just dumped it in the
garden. They dumped it when the fungus started growing on top.

I tried that, but the hungry ants got the topside stuff right away, and
somehow got to anything buried a few inches in the earth.

Know this may sound "gross", but I went a bit further with the ferment
process. I used an airtight container. After 2 weeks, a white fungus
starts growing on the top. That's when I stopped putting in more food.
Left it sealed. 6 weeks later, a greenish/yellow very watery broth was the
only thing left. It stank like a septic tank. The ants won't eat it, and
doesn't seem to bother the tomatoes and jalapenos so far. Don't put any
food refuse with seeds, nor bones in the pot. Animal fat/grease, and
vegetable oil is no problem. All else is consumed, if you will. If you
have problems with insects toting off your food refuse, you might try this.
The smell will permeate most plastic containers. Stick with glass or metal,
airtight of course. Can't vouch for positive results, just no negatives so
far. Let you know next spring. I'll be growing more juice in the meantime
and giving it to the soil on one side. The other side, I'll leave as is.


Try "Black bag" composting... It's not as smelly. ;-)
GOOD compost allowed to cure long enough smells like rich earth.

Mix the refuse with either weeds or dead leaves. Bag it and leave the
bag in the sun for at least 6 months.

Pressure cooked bones work well and add valuable phosphates to the mix.

The heavy duty construction bags work well for this. I've got several
bags of raked leaves composting at the moment. I'll spread them this
winter after a 1 year set.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson