How To Build a Rolling Composter for CHEAP

This is an update of THE cheapest rolling composter ever. Get usable compost in 4 months instead of a year! Take a food grade barrel with a removable lid, drill holes in the sides and bottom, and start composting.

It's easy to use, just add 50% brown (dry) and 50% green (wet) organic matter and roll it a few times a week. Don't fill it over 75% and it'll never be to heavy to handle.

Though not as good as worm composters, rolling, or tumbling composters are the fastest way to turn lawn clippings, food scraps, plant matter, leaves and twigs into black, organic, inert compost.

Biointensive, or square-foot gardening requires at least one if not several composters. That way the external input will be minimized leading toward greater self-sufficiency. Which is another excellent use for rolling composters.

Forget bins and files, they take way too long-usually over a year. And you have to "turn" the organic matter with a pitch fork or shovel. With a rolling composter, you can cut that time down to 3-4 months.

Rolling composters are especially good in urban survival situations, or bugging in. The compliment rain barrels perfectly. Turn that lawn in a prize-winning Victory garden with a rolling compost tumbler and a rainbarrel!

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[sae1095hc]

I'm not a compost expert, but wouldn't it break-down faster if you used a barrel without holes to hold the moisture in?

[envirosponsible]

@sae1095hc The contents inside must have some moisture, but not too much. Air circulation is needed.

[ConditionRedDawn]

So....how do you know when it's ready to use?

[envirosponsible]

@ConditionRedDawn When it looks like the compost you get from the store-very dark with no discernable pieces of plant matter.

[cdltpx]

Simple and to the point I love it something I can do. Might want to add a blade in there.

[envirosponsible]

@cdltpx Are you serious about the blade? If so, that's a great idea. Thanks.

[MEGAONE302]

Roil it faster slave woman.

[qin02]

@sae1095hc it will sink if you did that.

[isaadavid]

@mae951 True, weed seeds will die with a high enough temp, but getting a compost pile to that temp, and evenly enough throughout to kill all weed seeds is tricky, requires a fairly big pile all at once from what I understand (I think I remember ~1 cubic yard or bigger). My pile accumulates slowly from kitchen scraps and yard trimmings, so I leave the weeds out. Got a volunteer tomato plant growing out of my pile this summer--nice bonus. :-). I wish you luck with your roller. Post follow-ups?

[Richardisdorky]

@mae951 Thank you, you have been very helpful.

[mae951]

@isaadavid If it's composted 'correctly' the internal temp gets high enough to kill all seeds, including weeds. In theory any way. A bigger problem, I've seen at my grandparents house, is that a compost pile will provide a very rich soil for weed seeds to collect from the wind and then grow.

[mae951]

@Richardisdorky Flies are attracted to raw manure & raw meat. Try burrying those things deep in the compost pile. Put plenty of leaves, lawn clippings left over veggys on top of it. If it's manure that's attracting them, leave the manure out somewhere to dry out a little, then move it to the pile.

[Richardisdorky]

I live in Easter central Co. I have tried composting in many different ways and always end up with the

same result. FLIES, someone please advise.

[isaadavid]

Simple idea--congratulations on building it. Adding dirt is not such a good idea, unless you are talking about a very small amount of soil as compost starter. Also, if you compost weeds, you'll most likely have weed seeds in your finished compost. Other comments are right- it shouldn't take 3-4 months in a tumbler. Maybe too many air holes?

Good luck!

[azurarz]

sonache sta burana

[chrislika1]

Where did you get the barrel?