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I used to think all compost was the same until I saw a 3 year difference in two piles...
Back when I started gardening, I figured you just throw stuff in a bin and wait. Didn't matter what went in or how you mixed it. Then my neighbor let me compare his 3 year old pile against mine from the same timeframe. His was dark, crumbly, smelled like forest floor. Mine was slimy, stinky, still had eggshells in it. Turns out I wasn't adding enough browns and never turned it. He did a 50/50 ratio and flipped it every 2 weeks. Felt pretty dumb admitting I'd been making garbage soup for years. Anyone else have a garden practice they thought they had right but were totally off on?
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tyler_bell19d ago
Right, but nobody ever mentions how your source water chemistry changes the whole breakdown speed.
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betty_palmer19d ago
Hard tap water here and it definitely takes way longer to break down compared to when I visit my buddy with soft water. Had to start keeping a jug of distilled on hand just for mixing since the tap was messing up my whole routine, @tyler_bell.
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