Compost piles are relatively easy, but when they are not properly maintained and cared for you can definitely have a nasty situation on your hands. If you are having any problems with your compost here is some helpful information for you (I hope). Some of this is information that I have just gathered while reading and talking to people about composting but quite a bit of it is from the city of Seattle’s website.

Any sort of overpowering foul odor is a sign that something is not quite right with your indoor or outdoor composts.

First of all NO animal products except for rinsed out egg shells should be composted. That means no dairy, meat, fish, etc. Smelly composts are caused by too much water, no air, or the addition of meat or other animal products.
Smelly compost solutions:

• Mixing fresh grass clippings with stalks or brown leaves to help air get in.
• Keeping the pile as moist as a wrung-out sponge, but not soggy.
• Turning wet or soggy piles to let air in.
• Keeping animal products out of worm bins.
• Add some sawdust, dry leaves, wood shavings, or newspaper if it is too wet.
• It could also be that there are not enough worms for the amount of food scraps that are being composted and therefore the food is rotting before it can be composted by the worms. If that is the case, you should add additional red worms to your outdoor compost pile or start a second bin if you are indoor composting.

If you are having problems with bugs (fruit flies and fungus gnats):

• Add sawdust or wood shavings to your compost and then continue adding a layer after each addition of food scraps to your bin/pile.
• Keep food scraps in a container in the fridge until you are ready to add them to your compost.
• If fruit flies or fungus gnats get in your house (they multiply really quickly) a great remedy for this is to put a low bowl out with a apple cider vinegar, water, and dish soap. Within 24 hours this usually clears up any fruit fly/gnat problem I have.

Basic compost information:

• It is important that you use red worms for your composting.
• The lifespan of a red worm is 2-5 years, they breed quickly, and compost large amounts of food.
• It takes 2000 red worms to eat one pound of garbage per week (red worms multiply quickly so you don’t have to start with 2000).
• If your compost is indoors it needs to be in a covered worm bin for composting and if it is outside it can be in a pile. The pile outside works because the sun, oxygen, and worms work together to compost the food scraps and yard waste. The indoor bin works because there are enough worms to eat through the food scraps and it being enclosed keeps out any animals.
• Both indoor and outdoor composts need to be turned and when there starts to be a good collection of soil it can be removed. You will know that your scraps are done being composted because it will have an earthy smell.
• It’s OK to compost vegetables and fruits, bread, grains, spoiled food, coffee filters and tea bags, eggshells, fruit from yard, and food soiled paper or cardboard (It is possible to compost more than just this, but it takes more a little more investment than these simple composts).
• DON’T compost meat, fish, dairy (these attract rats) or pet waste.

City of Seattle’s Guide to Composting at Home.

I hope this is helpful to those of you who need it. Don’t give up on your compost pile. Composting your food makes such a positive impact and creates really healthy and fertile soil.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Environment, General, making changes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.