Below is the composting experience of Cdr Prasad Padhye with a rotating drum composter in his own words. Hope it inspires more members of the community to take up composting. This method of composting is absolutely free of operational costs. Without adding of any external accelerators, without use of electricity.
Cdr Prasad Padhye is a retired Naval Engineer. Wherever he could, He has been implementing
- vermi composting
- composting
- root zone biofilter for sewage treatment by natural means.
I must thank @Alka Damle and @Abhinav Apte for their constant guidance and passion. I had got a rotary drum composter on 31 Aug. So it’s now time for feedback.
I used to use these milk crates for composting. But they attract rats and inevitably snakes. The drum composter is a welcome addition to my tiny garden.
Rotary drum composter has several holes, to allow water and leachate to fall onto soil below. This makes fertile potting soil.
Kitchen waste is broken down by Black Soldier Fly (BSF) and 100s of other organisms. They can be introduced by adding some fresh Cowdung. Along with the wet n green kitchen waste, one needs dry n brown leaves, grass or sawdust to keep the composting as dry as possible.
‘Brown’ dry organic matter absorbs the water/ leachate and ensures aerobic bacteria are thriving. Otherwise Anaerobic bacteria causes a foul smell. After 60 days of feeding, the drum was increasingly heavy to rotate. The composter is being emptied and with the green sieve, the small compost will separated. Larger pieces go into the red drum.
The uncomposted/ large items can be noticed. Mistakes i.e. plastic, groundnut shells, corn cobs and PLASTIC invariably land up in the drum.
Quite a number of seeds remain intact. These are Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae. Since the drum composter is off the ground, no earthworms can be present
That’s almost 40 kgs of black gold. I’ll wait for the BSF to burrow into the lower levels and put them back into the composter. And the process begins all over again with kitchen scraps.
YouTube gives great ideas about hanging bottle planters. These are Pudina mint and spring onion. The compost+ Cocopeat + soil mixture means constant growth.
Thanks Cdr Prasad Padhye for documenting in such detail on your experience.
Happy Composting to All
Team ComePostVille
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