Originally Posted by 0tterbot

hello,
the first batch of compost i made in my new! tumbling! composter!! was
absolutely tops. this second batch is not going well at all - would anyone
have any thoughts?

at first, it dripped profusely out the holes. then, it heated up. my
goodness!! i had inadvertantly made an incendiary device (don't tell john
howard) and it was actually smoking. i cooled it by turning it often &
leaving the lid off for 4-5 days until it cooled. after it cooled, it
recommenced to drip profusely. now, several weeks later, it's too cold & the
composting stuff has merged into big wet gobs about the size of two fists, i
can't get it heated & the gobs won't break up naturally & to do so with my
hands is extraordinarily unpleasant (whereas i don't normally mind _what_ i
put my hands in, so it's really not nice at all). i added some lime to no
effect. it doesn't smell bad - it just doesn't smell like anything at all
(certainly not that lovely composty smell).

my idea was that tomorrow i'll empty it out & break up the lumps with a
spade, & then put it back in for a while with some more lime & some
partly-decomposed chicken-pooey straw (for carbon with a poo-boost) & see
what it's like after a week. if still no good i might just dump it out to
break down on its own & start again.

does anyone have a better idea? does anyone know what went wrong? i strongly
suspect the materials were just too wet & nitrogenous (iirc it was mainly
fruit peels & such, from the cafe) & not enough carbon, even though there
was quite a bit of paper in there.

thanks for any thoughts!
kylie