View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Old 24-02-2010, 01:19 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
FarmI FarmI is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,358
Default My Compost Smells

"Tonyfrost" wrote in message
...
On Feb 24, 6:30 am, "George" wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message

...

Tonyfrost wrote:
Hey folks,
A few months ago a friend of mine who lives near me,
pointed out a good solution to avoid spendig money on fertilizers,
which is piling garden trash,
but the thing is how long will it take for my pile to be ready for the
soil? And anyway it smells!


The time it takes depends on the mix of ingredients in it, the
temperature, how often you turn it and if you have the moisture right.
From 6 weeks to a year. If it has been snowing those microorganisms are
not working much at all. They all smell somewhat but if it is a really
revolting sour smell it means that it has gone anaerobic, that is not
enough air and/or too wet.


...if it smells like rotting eggs or sulphur then you can solve that
immediate problem by turning it several times and mixing in some dry
material like leaves or shredded paper. The smell should lessen.

rob


Thanks Rob, I'll try to do that, but I was wondering if there was like
a product
that you can put on the stack to cover the smell...
______________________________________
It's called 'sweat'. Get a fork, turn the compost until you are lathered in
sweat and then you'll have no further problems with smelly compost.