Composting leaves in plastic bags

 Has any one had success doing this? I've tried on several occasions with
very little compost and lots of leaves looking like they just fell yesterday
after a year's time. I've tried adding water after filling the bag and
bagging wet leaves. I use partially shredded leaves from my mower.

Cheryl
Southern NH

 On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:51:10 -0400, Cheryl Isaak wrote:


Air is a very important part of compost production. To make compost you
need:
equal part green, brown air annd water. When you bag the compost you make
it very hard for the air to reach the leaves. The water that you added
will be enough for a while but the bacteria will comsume it over time. If
you were able to get compost working in the bags, the heat from the
cooking compost maybe too much for the bags to take.

Why do you feel the need to make compost in bags? There are really nice
compost bins on the market that are rather cheap.
Good luck.......

--
Trees are like children, train them right when their young.....
or spend a lifetime trying to correct them.

 

occasions with

fell yesterday

bag and

Composting in bag will result in an anerobic process, which will
tend to be smelly.

Try mixing in a sprinkle of dirt to innoculate the leaves with
the necessary bacteria. Mix in some lawn clippings to help it
along. Better yet, do it in a bin so air can get at it.

Bob

 On 10/28/04 1:51 PM, in article Wkagd.326576$3l3.73916@attbi_s03, "Bob"


I've only tried doing this as I tend to
A. Fill up my bins quickly
B. Can't resist when I see all those leaves already bagged and waiting on
the street.
and
C. I keep reading, in magazines, online, etc, how easy it is to bag it and
let in rot. I think I've even seen the method in the book "Let it Rot".

I guess I really need to find a new spot for another bin/heap, but it's
getting harder, I've got 1 large bin, an "Earth Machine", a tumbler (waste
of money for me) and 2 heaps.

Cheryl

Cheryl

 

--
Humankind has not woven the web of life.
 We are but one thread within it.
 Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
 All things are bound together.
 All things connect."   Chief Seattle

I've only tried doing this as I tend to

A. Fill up my bins quickly

I tend to be quite the lazy composter......I NEVER turn my heap......(you
should see all the bee-ou-i-ti-ful black soil just begging to be shoveled
into my cart and used somewhere worthy......................

B. Can't resist when I see all those leaves already bagged and waiting on
the street.

well, I too tend to gather and scrounge those leaves that are already
bagged. And by the way, around here, the bags of leaves have mowed grass in
them, which makes them little plastic bags of instant compost!  I found
seven mashed bags of leaves I'd scrounged from a job I worked at three years
ago under the deck where I'd forgotten about, and when I dragged the plastic
bags out to the side slope, it was like dragging a small body.  the bags
opened easily, and I discovered it was full of rotted, perfect black soil,
the smell was divine, and it was teaming with red worms!  My Vitex bed was
extremely grateful for the dumping of them.

 Now I know three years is much, but I'm sure with the cheapness of the
plastic bags, and that the leaves were totally composted, there was some
ability of moisture to get inside and work it's magic.  I remember now that
all of those bags were HEAVY they were stuffed so full when I saw them out
front of the people's house where I turned to go home every night.

When I finally stopped and asked if I could have them, they said I was the
third person to stop and ask, and since I was the first to actually come to
the house after asking, to take what I could. I managed to get almost all of
the 35 bags into the truck and inside.  When I got them home, I was curious
as to why they weighed so much and that's when I discovered they were ground
up leaves and grass clippings and were packed so tightly they almost didn't
have room to be tied!!

the majority of the bags were the underlying layer of the tomato boxes since
I hadn't enough money at the time to buy bags of soil to fill the deep boxes
up with.

I say if you spread your leaves on your yard and mow them once or twice,
you'll have enough grass clippings and those leaves will be shredded enough.
Sprinkle them a little bit and tie them up and you'll most likely have
almost finished compost by spring! (I've done this for YEARS, as I used to
live in the city with not enough room for all the compost piles and spots
myself...................)

C. I keep reading, in magazines, online, etc, how easy it is to bag it and
let in rot. I think I've even seen the method in the book "Let it Rot".

I need to photo copy you my copy of Ruth Stout's book, How to have a Green
Thumb Without an Aching Back. A New Method of Mulch gardening............In
fact, if I mail it to you, you can scan it yourself and send it back to me.
It's a photo copied copy of the book when I checked it out at an old library
where we first lived when we moved here. I then glued the pages together
into a book and there you go............interested?<g>



I guess I really need to find a new spot for another bin/heap, but it's
getting harder, I've got 1 large bin, an "Earth Machine", a tumbler (waste
of money for me) and 2 heaps.

How about using a plastic garbage can on wheels (they're $9 at Lowes) with a
few holes drilled into the sides for ventilation and layer your green and
brown and kitchen stuffs?  I thought about a snap lid round garbage can that
I could roll across the lawn to mix up the stuff with, but I have no lawn or
yard you'd call a yard. Side yards, yes. Steep slopes you need a short leg
and a long leg to walk level deffinately.  Let me know about the Ruth Stout
book, ok?

madgardener up on the rainy, and stormy unseasonably warmish ridge, back in
Fairy Holler overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7,
Sunset zone 36



Cheryl