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Composting Question

1.How to avoid maggots in compost bin?

Maggots become flies and leave their worm castings...which is good compost.

  • Maintain moisture level in the bin by using adequate amount of browns (crushed dry leaves, Bioclean cocopeat, plain cocopeat if required).

  • Do not expose wet waste in a open container. Flies will lay eggs when it is exposed which in turn become maggots. Store the wet waste in a closed container in the kithen only for one day and add it to the compost bin within a day.

  • Use neem powder. It helps. If you have left over turmeric...add it. It helps reduce. During Hindu festivals....women exchange turmeric and kumkum.....remove the plastic and both turmeric and kumkum. Do not add the plastic. Also do not add too much.

  • Composting is like cooking...add only adequate amount. But we cannot tell you the measurements.

  • Keep the bin in a good shelter to avoid rain water splash. Do not pour water below the bin to clean the floor. Try to minimize water usage...so that we save water also.

  • Finally....maggots are good for composting as long as they reside inside the bin. Do not worry. Keep feeding them.

2.Maggots are collected in the place below the compost bin. What do I do ?

They can be a fish or poultry feed (Food for fish and chicken). You can also put them back in a compost bin with fresh or semi decomposed material.

3.How to I tell that it composted ?

The decomposed material in the compost bin should smell like soil like earthen smell.. Most of the kitchen waste added should not be seen.

4.Should I dry the compost or just bag it?

Sun dry compost for about 3 hrs and bag it, It should still have some moisture in it for the microorganisms to be alive. Drying in sun is good...but do not solarize it.

5.Our two composting bins are full after about 4 weeks each. Upper 2/3 of both were very nicely composted without any smell. Lower 1/3 still had fair amount of vegetable residue and gave off a rather strong smell!! Considering that in our home, each bin filled in less than a week it seems that the lower 1/3 remains very moist and is relatively compacted by the weight above. Could this decrease the rate of composting in lower third?

Thanks for the feedback. It shows the importance of initial setup. Remember, when we start...we filled good amount of crushed dry leaves or plain brown card board box pieces without print....then add all the compost provided in the 8 Ltr bucket...and add four handful of Bioclean If you notice that your kitchen waste is consists of high water content fruit peels like watermelon...musk melon...cucumber...then add more browns ( crushed dry leaves, card board box pieces or plain cocopeat). Plain cocopeat is half the price of Bioclean. You will have balance the browns vs fresh kitchen waste. Yes...composting is slower when the pile is too moist...It is not because of the weight of the pile.