What's the difference between different composting systems?
- Composting is a "hot" system, is quite slow, but perfect for large quantities
- Worm farming is a "cool" system, around 18-25 degrees, and lovely wriggly worms do all the hard fwork for you!
- Bokashi is a "fast" and indoor composting system, originally designed for high rises. It essentially 'pickles' the food waste in an anaerobic environment, which you then bury and it becomes rich compost in only a matter of weeks.
What composting system is right for me?
There are lots of different composting systems out there, and for a new composter, it can be quite overwhelming in choosing which system is right for you.
At Chooktopia, we use the following:
At Chooktopia, we use the following:
- Chooks
- Dogs
- Worm Farms
- Compost Bins
- Bokashi
- Direct application
Why use more than one composting system?
Each composting system has its own strengths and weaknesses. You need to look at what organic waste (resources in fact) that you produce, and choose a system that meets your needs.
We use chooks as they give back so much more not only in eggs, but lots of love too. But chooks don't eat everything we produce - in particular: avocado pips, bread (fills them up but lacks nutrition), mango seeds, citrus, dog poo, rhubarb leaves.
We use worm farms as they are fast, fun and interactive, and are awesome at breaking down avocado pips, coffee grinds and tea leaves, watermelon skin, banana peels, mango pips and stone fruit seeds. They are also a great way to compost some of your chicken bedding.
We use compost bins for some of the trickier ingredients such as onion, cabbage, citrus and lawn clippings. You can also put soil in a compost bin but not in many other systems.
The dogs eat much of the cooked food scraps and meat/bones.
We use a bokashi bin to not only speed up our compost bin, but to tackle dairy, bread, and basically any food that has gone off that is too acidic for the worm farm.
We often directly apply chook bedding and poo around our fruit trees and directly into the veggie patch as well.
Between all our compost systems, the only organic waste (resources) that need to leave our property are fallen branches that we can't use in craft and furniture building. We are saving for a decent mulcher.
We use chooks as they give back so much more not only in eggs, but lots of love too. But chooks don't eat everything we produce - in particular: avocado pips, bread (fills them up but lacks nutrition), mango seeds, citrus, dog poo, rhubarb leaves.
We use worm farms as they are fast, fun and interactive, and are awesome at breaking down avocado pips, coffee grinds and tea leaves, watermelon skin, banana peels, mango pips and stone fruit seeds. They are also a great way to compost some of your chicken bedding.
We use compost bins for some of the trickier ingredients such as onion, cabbage, citrus and lawn clippings. You can also put soil in a compost bin but not in many other systems.
The dogs eat much of the cooked food scraps and meat/bones.
We use a bokashi bin to not only speed up our compost bin, but to tackle dairy, bread, and basically any food that has gone off that is too acidic for the worm farm.
We often directly apply chook bedding and poo around our fruit trees and directly into the veggie patch as well.
Between all our compost systems, the only organic waste (resources) that need to leave our property are fallen branches that we can't use in craft and furniture building. We are saving for a decent mulcher.
Can you put dog poo in a worm farm?
Yes you can.
Things to consider however are:
Things to consider however are:
- What you feed your dog - it may determine if you are comfortable using the castings on the veggie patch
- Worming of your dog - you will need to do a kamikazi-worm test before you start adding dog poo to your worm farm again so that you don't kill off your whole population. Just take a few worms from the farm and add them to an icecream container with some fresh dog poo. If the worms haven't died after a week, it is safe to start wormfarming the dog poo again.
- It may be worth considering having a separate worm farm just for your dog poo - where you can use the castings on the non-edible garden beds, and have a worm farm just for vegetable scraps dedicated for your veggie patch.