I got a apartment at ground level with a big terrace. My household of 3 people (wife and kid) produce waste such as coffee, eggshells, tealeaves, bones and lots of peels. If i wanted to do potatoes on my terrace, how would i best mix this (aside from bones and peels) into something that gives the soil nutrition? Do i just mix the grounds and eggshells in the soil or do i burn them beforehand and then mix the ashes?t. clueless and only knows how to take care of flowers
don't bother with compost, i mean you can try, but it usually require an actual environment you'd find in a countryside garden, not a terrace, also require an actual volume of biomass and more diversity than peels and eggs to have good results, also you need to mind the acidity of it and allit can smell and attract animals tooi mean you can try for fun, it will be educational at leastnow growing a bit of potatoes with the right tools is perfectly accessible, maybe would be better in large pots rather than directly in the terrace ground
>>2866912what is a terrace? is that like a deck? you should just plant the potatoes in in dirt with dried tree leaves. you can just mix that stuff bones and all into the soil
>>2866912small scale compost is tough because it doesnt have the mass to build and hold heat but the principles are pretty straight forward. put it in a bin. mix it up to aerate occasionally. eventually it breaks down to something like potting soil. and i always advise against growing vegetables unless you are going to grow enough to have surplus for trade or sale. vegetables are cheap so you dont save any money and they tend to all come in at once and you end up forcing yourself to eat them all before they spoil. grow herbs instead. herbs are expensive and goy only need a couple square feet to grow all of them and they can be moved indoors and harvested year round once you figure out the growth cycles
>>2866931>vegetables are cheap so you dont save any money and they tend to all come in at once and you end up forcing yourself to eat them all before they spoil.I can about 500 quarts of green beans in a season then use them over 3-4 years.Im due so have another crop of green beans growing right now.I have peaches and pears from 2023 still.I just pulled a vacuum sealed bag of pecans from my freezer that were dated 2015 and they tasted awesome.Its not about just saving money.My shit is pesticide and preservative free.
>>2866912Just ask an AI bro, they will tell you all this shit in detail.
>>2866912If its small scale waste-to-fertilizer you are looking for you could check out bokashi. Its kinda like composting in that it helps you rot your waste down into something to feed your garden with. Different from composting, in that its anaerobic (i.e. no oxygen) instead of aerobic. It produces a liquid you can tap off and dilute with water to use as fertilizer, and it produces solids that you could dig into your soil. Personally I'd consider using just the liquid and dumping the bokashi itself in your situation.A lomi (pre)composter might also be a good option. Its more akin to classic composting but turbo charged and at small scale. It uses something akin to a heating and blending process. https://youtu.be/q93WMpOW80g?is=llr-HzprxDuFYiW4I doubt you're gonna have large enough scale to actually compost.
I use my balcony to supplement my community garden plot (pic related) and I think worm bins are the most worthwhile small space "composting", assuming you have some kind of small garden space or someone to give the casings to. between freezing veg scraps for stock, feeding worms, and a nice compost tumbler I got for free, we have virtually no veg waste in a household of 2. the worms also like ground up eggshells and dried/wet coffee grounds. the main godsend is that I can shred all our boxes and non-glossy paper and use that shit as bedding for worms or browns for the tumbler.I'd only do this if you KNOW that someone will make use of the casings though. I'd also be wary if you only garden in buckets/growbags. not sure how the worms would work in small containers, but I bet they'd do fine in raised grow beds or larger containers.most folks just start with plastic storage bins, but I wanted to keep my balcony cozy so I went with a nice looking tray that's been great for months. if you do try it, be aware that the worms use less food scrap and more cardboard/paper than you'd think and imo do NOT fall for the indoor worm bin meme
>>2867007oops lol, here we go
>>2866931>you dont save any money>they all come in at oncebrainlet takes. I'm saying this as someone that thinks potatoes are one of the few veg that are usually so cheap in most places that they're not usually worth growing unless you're bored of what you usually grow and/or really want a specific kindIt takes like 2-3 hours of research a season for most noobs to figure out how to spread out harvests for 90% of vegetables between succession planting, picking the right varieties, curing, cut-and-come-again, and just literally leaving shit in the ground. That's besides different preserving methods too>>2866967agree, anon is a bit delusional about the value of growing your own veg, frugality aside. I had at least 1-2 crates of pole beans each month, for 3+ months, with only like 6 plants and barely any growing space taken up cause they grow vertically. you can also pick them at different times for different tastes if you want to spread it out/harvest earlier.You can get a decent, continuous variety of veg in a small space and very few plants if you plan it out a bit. Even 5-10lb growbags of veg are worth it unless you get no sun. Hell, you can probably get away with mixing herb + veg in 10lb containers
>>2867007thanks for this post, i forgot i wanted to do this. how many worms did you start with? can i just dig up a bunch of worms out of my compost pile or do you need special worms?
>>2867021I started with 1 lb (which is supposedly 1000) for a single 3 gal tray, but I have no idea if the vendors actually count these things. I've heard of folks literally digging out a bunch of worms and starting with that, but I think success would vary based on whether you're actually picking up enough of one type of worm that can breed plus the increased risk of random pests. It's a decent time investment to take a risk on random worms, even if you go the cheap route with a plastic tote imo. It's up to you, but I'd start with a few hundred from a worm seller. The main types I hear about are red wrigglers and European nightcrawlers. I got a 50/50 mix of both from a lady with a website that's unironically called Meme's Worms cause I wanted to use the nightcrawlers for fishing, but heard the wrigglers are the standard.I think the number really depends on how fast you want initial composting to go and size of your bin. If you're ok with starting off slow, you can probably do like 100-300 worms. I started with 1 lb because I thought for sure I'd kill them somehow and wanted a larger margin of error. I started seeing a lot of eggs within like 3 weeks. It's been a few months and I'm gonna split them soon.Also, fair warning that some pests are normal for outdoor bins to an extent, like very small populations of fungus gnats, mites, or potworms. They fluctuate with the weather, but if there's a shit ton then something might be wrong like overfeeding, etc. Overall, it's a bit more hands-on than a compost pile, but I really only check them once a week or less and enjoy it. Maybe watch some videos of "rotating" or "harvesting" worm bins to see if you're into it. I use gloves and I was still more squeamish than I thought I'd be at first, since you're not just touching 5-6 like in a handful of nice garden soil, it's fucking handfuls of wriggling strings kek
>>2867024Also to clarify, I think I'm dividing mine a bit early, but I want to do it because I overfilled the bedding at first and it seems like they're breeding a ton to the point where I can justify it. It'll definitely make feeding waaay easier and I noticed being able to top up with new cardboard shreds every other feeding helps maintain the environment.Side note: I don't think worms can overpopulate to the extent that they'll die off, folks say they'll just plateau at some point. I don't know if you necessarily *need* to divide them if you don't feel like it, but you'll probably take some worms in the process of "harvesting" castings anyway.
>>2867024>>2867026thanks. i live in a big fishing town and everywhere sells nightcrawlers and meal worms and i think even red wigglers. night crawlers are expensive (12 for $3) but the meal worms way cheaper. im looking for worm casting for my garden and food for my chickens. i make lots of kitchen scraps and just throw it in the compost pile but i think this may be a better use of them.
>>2867030this is what im gonna dohttps://m.youtube.com/shorts/Qhtmyl4QizI
>>2867038Looks good, hot tip = you can line the bottom of the actual worm tray with dampened newspaper or other thin paper to stop worms/debris from falling thru to the liquid layer. The paper will still drain and decompose later. I think it's only really a concern if youre using pure cardboard bedding though since it's very loose at first.Id be careful and make sure it's at least a good bait shop cuz personally ive bought wrigglers and nightcrawlers for fishing before that were clearly labeled wrong/half dead lol. Also some worms arent great composting worms for dif reasons, ex: ive heard canadian nightcrawlers start dying off at a comparatively low temp. Not sure if meal worms are good composters, but I know Jim's (online store) has those too so definitely shop around. 1/2 lb (500 count) of red wrigglers worms at meme's or Jim's is like 40-60 USD iirc
