hot bins, anyone got one? I want santa to bring me one.....

I was incredibly lucky this year and got one free from someone who didn't want it anymore. I am still getting used to it and find it difficult to keep it to a hot temperature unless it is filled in one go - which I can do with the deliveries of fresh manure to our site. I also find the compost gets compacted and needs aerating, which is tough to do without damaging the inside of the bin if you're remotely clumsy. I am more than remotely clumsy.

The compost it produces (not in 7 days, it takes a while longer, say about 2-3 months) is wetter than the stuff I get from daleks. I tend to put that into the daleks to mature a bit more then use it. It is good stuff, and means you can produce a lot more compost in a year as long as you have the materials to fill it. I am not sure I would buy one though, they do cost a lot.

If you've got a rat problem, could you not use daleks on chicken mesh? They wouldn't be able to get through that to the bin contents, and daleks are usually available either free or for very little on freecycle etc.

Have a read at these older threads might be useful :-

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...day_63831.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ood_75771.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...bin_77967.html

Yeah the one I have got is one of them daleks, I think I'm just gonna throw it! I've given up. 2 lots gone its proper disheartened me. We produce a lot of kitchen waste and the brown bin is near full and I started it 3-4 weeks ago. Its just waiting for it to become compost.
The dalek Ive got atm has a really loose front so I think they are getting in that way.

Do you think I could use that compost on my flower part of the garden or should I just fling it?

Was it the council and did they not use proper rat poison stations?

Wire round your bins would stop them - would need to go under and be rat proof wire.

Hot composting

My first post to the forum

Forget about the hot composting bin, spend your money on some other things. You want aerobic compost not anerobic, no air is going to create anerobic enviroment. If you must use this it will only really be useful for brassicas as they enjoy the bacterial dominance and don't make mycorrhizal associated. Most vegetables and fruit prefer an aerobic fungi dominant compost really. If you create a really good compost that consists of the full soil good web (fungi, bacteria, micro arthropods, nematodes etc) you will activate the natural cycling of nutrients and water etc in the soil. You'll also supress disease as the good biology will feed off of the bad. Also get the biology right in the soil and the life will make nutrients available to your plant regardless of what the purported PH is tested at. Things like lime and sulphur only have temp effect, it's the life in soil that will create long term changes.

Look into hot composting it's self, the process of it. All you need are the right ingrediance, it's like a cooking recipe. To get the heat you need something high in nitrogen like fresh manure or legumes (with red colour inside root nodules) if your a vegetation. You also need it to be a large size pile too. Don't keep adding to it over time, save up ingredients by drying them out if needed. That or like leaving a pile of wood chip alone untill your ready to make it.

What your money will be better spent on is some chicken wire to make a container for the compost (let air in and easy to turn). You will also need a compost thermometer, with 1mtr probe length. You would really benifit from buying or renting a chipper to chop it all up first.

All you have to do is turn it as soon as the centre gets up to a set temperature. Turning to outsides into the center. Simple enough process just hard work turning it every few days for a couple of weeks (till temp drops to ambient). Don't let it get too hot or it goes anerobic and grows the bad fungi/bacteria.

What your aiming to do is create a balanced fungi and bacteria ratio, to do this you simply use a lot of fungal dominated ingredients like say branch prunings. Diversity of ingrediance is another key to creating a compost diverse in soil life.

As a side note if you don't have a lot of ingrediance to create lots of compost to dig into soil then you can you the small amount you have created to make airated compost tea. It grows and in turn concentrates the benificals, this makes a little go a long way.

Let me know if you have any questions. It's simple, your using your compost as an innoculate or probiotic to bring back the life cultivation destroys. Also compaction (tested by soil probe) create anerobic enviroment. Double dig your soil and put compost and/or tea into your subsoil. If you don't dig tea will help (after a good rain) to get life down into ground. Works will pull down compost in time. Nothing beats cultivation and getting air in there BUT you have to put back life after you destoy all the soils glues (glomalin) etc and send your life into dormancy.

You say you produce a lot of kitchen waste..? That's exactly what the rats are coming for and will continue to come for if your providing it.

You need to reduce your kitchen waste.
Normal peelings are fine, but egg shells and uneaten cooked and uncooked food tends to become rat food.

The thread's well over a year old. Am assuming the OP's found a solution by now...��

hotbins, advice please

Hey guys, I'm after a hot bin, we go through so much kitchen waste etc that I have 4 compost bins on the go atm.
So I thought Id get a hotbin that will produce compost a lot quicker, which would you recommend?

Please leave links if possible

I thought there was only one Hotbin? HotBin Compost Bins | Compost Garden & All Food Waste

At £185 a bin plus delivery I think I'll stick with the free Daleks off Freecycle and wait a little longer for my compost.

If you had the room, you can't beat chooks for producing fast compost.

I have a Hotbin - it does produce compost faster, but only if you get the balance of stuff right and keep it full so the core temperature stays high. Which I do struggle with.

The compost if produces is wetter and a bit more clumpy than the compost from my daleks. Still full of red worms somehow.

I didn't pay for mine though, I was incredibly lucky and got one that someone wanted rid of. I don't think I'd shell out for the thing otherwise. Wrapping daleks in carpet is one way I've seen of keeping the warmth in there in winter.