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Trench and Cathole Composting

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Trench and Cathole Composting Empty Trench and Cathole Composting

Post  trolleydriver 9/10/2018, 4:44 pm

I found this article on trench composting and cathole composting to be interesting.

https://www.growveg.com/guides/trench-composting-your-kitchen-waste/
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Post  sanderson 9/11/2018, 3:21 am

I have kind of done that in my beds with the worm tubes for kitchen scrapes. I have also dug little holes and buried the scrapes. ?? I have her book on composting.

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Post  SQWIB 9/11/2018, 7:06 am

I do this in my raised beds (Non SFG)

I trench compost most of my kitchen scraps during the growing season, alternating between the garden and compost bin, coffee grounds are used as a mulch as they become available.
So far it has worked out well.
Once the beds are planted with cover crops, all my kitchen scraps will be placed in the compost bin along with yard trimmings.

A drawback for many SFG folks could be that a lot of your veggies seeds will start to grow, I look at this as a benefit and use this to my advantage in my garden.

Thanks for posting such a wonderful article.
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Post  OhioGardener 9/11/2018, 10:12 am

SQWIB wrote:A drawback for many SFG folks could be that a lot of your veggies seeds will start to grow, I look at this as a benefit and use this to my advantage in my garden.

I am always pulling out volunteer tomato plants - they show up in the lettuce, th swiss chard, the radishes, wherever...   But, sometimes I let the volunteers grow and the plants are stronger than the ones I planted.  Very Happy

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Post  has55 9/17/2018, 9:17 pm

SQWIB wrote:I do this in my raised beds (Non SFG)

Once the beds are planted with cover crops, all my kitchen scraps will be placed in the compost bin along with yard trimmings.


Thanks for posting such a wonderful article.
is the cover crops just your regular plants shielding the ground as they grow?
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Post  SQWIB 9/18/2018, 7:03 am

has55 wrote:
SQWIB wrote:I do this in my raised beds (Non SFG)

Once the beds are planted with cover crops, all my kitchen scraps will be placed in the compost bin along with yard trimmings.


Thanks for posting such a wonderful article.
is the cover crops just your regular plants shielding the ground as they grow?

I grow a living mulch with oregano and strawberries in most of my beds.

I plant Oats and Crimson clover as a fall cover crop when I put the beds to bed.

I also inter plant with crimson clover during the growing season. Earlier in the season I grow, or should I say I try to grow early spring crops like bok choy.

This year I had some chia seeds that had a few pantry moths in it so I used them in the garden, the only problem was the chia plants grew crazy and even if cut would regrow, or it seemed.
Lets say I had plenty of chop and drop work to do this season, I treat the weeds in the beds the same way, some things like crab grass and maple tree seedlings, I will gently pull up and chop up real good and drop back in the beds.
If any weeds went to seed they were tossed in a bucket of rain water for a week or two, the dumped in the compost bin.

My mistakes this year was inter planting too soon and I had a bit of competition with the peppers.
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Post  OhioGardener 9/18/2018, 8:49 am

SQWIB wrote:My mistakes this year was inter planting too soon and I had a bit of competition with the peppers.

I planted Crimson Clover as a living mulch for the peppers this year (18 squares), but the peppers grew so heavy and dense that they smothered out the clover. Maybe the nitrogen that the clover put in the ground caused the peppers to get so big that they smothered the clover.... Cool

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Post  SQWIB 9/18/2018, 9:58 am

OhioGardener wrote:
SQWIB wrote:My mistakes this year was inter planting too soon and I had a bit of competition with the peppers.

I planted Crimson Clover as a living mulch for the peppers this year (18 squares), but the peppers grew so heavy and dense that they smothered out the clover. Maybe the nitrogen that the clover put in the ground caused the peppers to get so big that they smothered the clover.... Cool

That's what I was hoping for.
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Post  sanderson 9/19/2018, 2:36 am

OH, How many crimson clover did you plant per square?

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Post  OhioGardener 9/19/2018, 8:05 am

sanderson wrote:OH,  How many crimson clover did you plant per square?

LOL   That would be like counting the grains of sand on the beach, wouldn't it? Very Happy

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Post  OhioGardener 9/19/2018, 8:52 am

SQWIB wrote:
OhioGardener wrote:
SQWIB wrote:My mistakes this year was inter planting too soon and I had a bit of competition with the peppers.

I planted Crimson Clover as a living mulch for the peppers this year (18 squares), but the peppers grew so heavy and dense that they smothered out the clover. Maybe the nitrogen that the clover put in the ground caused the peppers to get so big that they smothered the clover.... Cool

That's what I was hoping for.

SQWIB, do you apply inoculant for the crimson clover, or do you assume there is plenty of rhizobia bacteria in the soil from previous clover plantings?  I use pre-inoculated clover seed and have been wondering if it is still beneficial, or should I start using just raw seed.  In Teaming with Microbes, the author seems to indicate we should always use it with new seed planting.   BTW, I always inoculate the beans as well....  Very Happy

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Post  SQWIB 9/19/2018, 1:24 pm

OhioGardener wrote:
SQWIB wrote:
OhioGardener wrote:
SQWIB wrote:My mistakes this year was inter planting too soon and I had a bit of competition with the peppers.

I planted Crimson Clover as a living mulch for the peppers this year (18 squares), but the peppers grew so heavy and dense that they smothered out the clover. Maybe the nitrogen that the clover put in the ground caused the peppers to get so big that they smothered the clover.... Cool

That's what I was hoping for.

SQWIB, do you apply inoculant for the crimson clover, or do you assume there is plenty of rhizobia bacteria in the soil from previous clover plantings?  I use pre-inoculated clover seed and have been wondering if it is still beneficial, or should I start using just raw seed.  In Teaming with Microbes, the author seems to indicate we should always use it with new seed planting.   BTW, I always inoculate the beans as well....  Very Happy
Apologies to the OP, for the thread going off topic.

Ohiogardener, we should probably start a new thread for this subject.

I'm pretty sure that it would be more beneficial to inoculate.  My crimson clover came inoculated.  I also just planted a bunch of stuff from Sprouthouse that I purchased for sprouts.  I wanted to use them up because I dont do the sprouts anymore.

With that said, I'm not going to sweat the Rhizobium in the soil, I'm guessing there should be sufficient bacteria since I grew some clover last year, if not, I'm not worrying about it.  When I run out of seeds, I'll probably just by lentils, beans and peas from the supermarket (goya).
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Post  OhioGardener 9/20/2018, 8:30 am

Did some major Cathole Composting yesterday afternoon.  One of the original raised beds was empty after I pulled the beets and carrots, and I had cut off the bush beans that were exhausted.  This bed needed some major work since the primary soil in it was old topsoil with coir mixed in. In spite of adding compost to the bed both spring & fall, the soil still was not a rich as it needs to be.

I had two 5 gallon buckets of kitchen waste from the canning we were doing, so I decided to use it in that raised bed.  I dug out the top 8" of the soil and tossed it in the garden trailer, then I spread the 10 gallons of kitchen waste on top of the remaining soil and added two large bags of coffee grounds & filters from Starbucks.  I mixed the soil in the trailer with and equal amounts of coarse Vermiculite and Coir, then returned it to the top of the raised bed. After it was leveled and watered in, I sowed a Winter Rye & Crimson Clover cover crop on it, and inoculated the bed with fresh compost tea.

By next spring the earthworms will have totally composted the kitchen waste and coffee grounds, and the bed should be ready for some intensive planting.

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Post  has55 9/21/2018, 9:41 am

winter rye is a weed here, It very slow to die back. the lawn care companies use herbicides to kill it in spring, then sow Bermuda grass. How aggressive is crimson?
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Post  OhioGardener 9/21/2018, 9:54 am

has55 wrote:winter rye is a weed here, It very slow to die back. the lawn care companies use herbicides to kill it in spring, then sow Bermuda grass. How aggressive is crimson?

That is probably Rye Grass and not the Winter Rye grain.  Winter Rye grain is an annual, and if you cut it off at ground level it dies.  Crimson Clover is also an annual, and if it is cut off before it blooms, or as it just begins to bloom, it will die as well. 

In early spring I cut off both at the ground level and leave it on the ground as a mulch to decompose. Then I plant vegetables between the stubble and let the old roots decompose in the ground for earthworm food and to open airways.  Back in the day when I had the in-ground garden, I used to till the cover crops down for green manure. But, life got much easier when I switched to no-till. Very Happy

This year, for the first time, I reseeded Crimson Clover between the peppers (18 squares) for a living mulch, but after the peppers got big and bushy it smothered out the clover. The dried clover plants lying on the ground did provide some mulch, though.

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Post  has55 9/21/2018, 12:31 pm

What type of clover did you use
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Post  OhioGardener 9/21/2018, 12:36 pm

has55 wrote:What type of clover did you use

Pre-inoculated Crimson Clover.

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Post  has55 9/21/2018, 12:58 pm

OhioGardener wrote:
has55 wrote:What type of clover did you use

Pre-inoculated Crimson Clover.
did you get it from a place like johnny seed company or a local feed company?
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Post  OhioGardener 9/21/2018, 1:04 pm

has55 wrote:
OhioGardener wrote:
has55 wrote:What type of clover did you use

Pre-inoculated Crimson Clover.
did you get it from a place like johnny seed company or a local feed company?

Unfortunately, we don't have any local seed dealers that sell non-GMO farm seeds. I ordered it from Deer Creek Seed.  I have purchased in the past from Johnny's Seeds, too.

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Post  trolleydriver 9/21/2018, 1:05 pm

Well this thread seems to have taken off in a different direction from what was intended.  Razz
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Post  sanderson 9/21/2018, 4:45 pm

Squirrel!

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Post  has55 9/24/2018, 5:21 am

got to thinking about thiose vermicomposting buckets are actually a type of contained cathole composting system. I emptied one bucket 3/4 the way down and will fill it to the top tomorrow with food waste. I always leave some worm poop to get the organism to eat the food quickly and attract the worms to eat them. In my long beds I have three buckets. I will experiment with two beds adding catholes without the buckets and monitor the results.
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Post  OhioGardener 9/24/2018, 11:37 am

has55 wrote:I will experiment with two beds adding catholes without the buckets and monitor the results.

It will be interesting to see your results.  Last winter I dug deep holes in the beds and buried the kitchen wasted and coffee grounds in them. This spring when I started preparing the beds for planting, I could not find any evidence of the kitchen waste except for a few coffee filters that had not been full consumed.

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