[BML]

I see two types of compost makers about.  The first are plastic bins with an opening at the bottom and the second are made from wood slats with gaps between them.
Which is the most effective?

[Hermit]

I just have a pair of boxes, open to the ground made from pallets. One being used and one rotting. I have just emptied the rotted side into my veg beds and turned the half rotted one into the empty side. I now will start to fill the empty one with peelings et all over again.Works well for me. These new compost bins are fairly new stuff, at one time everyone just made a box type affair, so if you have a corner out of site I would go for a homemade jobby and spend the money on something you cant make

[bloomer]

they do different things

the black ones use the heat of the sun to speed the process along if you get the mix right they can be very fast.

the slatted ones are a bit slower but you can do bigger volumes and are more forgiving if the mix isn't correct.

for either version you need at least 2 heaps and ideally 3, 1 for filling, 1 to turn it into and 1 for maturing/using.

you fill either version for as long as you need till its full even after a few days (initially the volume decreases rapidly) when its full leave for a few weeks then turn the whole pile top to bottom into heap 2, leave till a nice consistent colour and texture, use on garden...

i have 3 of the black ones but prefer the wooden ones I have used at clients properties, if I had the space it would be wooden ones every time for me...

[deepinthewoods]

theyre two different composting methods, anaerobic (the plastic bins) and aerobic, (the wooden ones) i prefer open wooden composting, i think it fixes more nitrogen.

[bloomer]

lol we all said the same hermit just types faster!!!

[BML]

Many thanks but a supplementary question.  Last year a rat popped its head up in a black plastic bin that had no bottom and I had to wait a day or so before the wife could summon up the courage to put anything else in the bin.  Now I lay two layers of small mesh chicken wire down where the bin will go.
Surely, the wooden slats type allows rat’s free access.

[bloomer]

unfortunately that's correct

rats and compost go together, either use baited traps nearby or just keep a shovel handy and smack the buggers!!!

[Hermit]

OOps sorry forget you southerners get mammals like rats, moles and foxes. We should not have them here but the occassional rat has been known to turn up in imported big bales.

[Plantoid]

If you put cooked food or cooked liquids ,  meat , bones or  fat of any kind or meat eaters feecees  in the composter bins or the pile made from pallets  vermin will home in on it and try to get it..

 Lamping with a .410  is useful in these cases but that's another story

[Lesley Silvester]

In the days when I used plastic bins, I was all set to empty the contents of the half-rotted one into my bean trench.  Took the lid off and dicovered a very dead rat curled up in the top.  It went in the bean trench as well.  Waste not want not.

[Odin]

I got the girl friend educated into making compost and set up the black plastic composter that arrived, I think by the council with one of its initiatives to reduce the size of the bin collection. (This is all at her old house). Any way, she liked to sit on the old washing machine in the porch at the end of the day with a roll up and a brew with the door open admiring the view. One day last winter a black rat appeared with a white chest. It seemed to be living under her shed and feeding from the compost. We did stop 'feeding' the composter for a while to discourage it but she would never kill anything. She seemed to think that the rat was probably an escapee or released because of its colouring. Also the house was next to arable land and it was not unusual to see creatures foraging in the autumn and winter months that had come from the fields.

[Plantoid]

I've been trying to educate myself about manures & composts etc for the last three months .
As said there is aerobic and anaerobic actions .
 I think I've got this right ..my head is full of all sorts of things at the minute , plus the memory probs and dyslexia are playing tricks on me ....check out the web site address I've given just to confirm things.
.
Even the Dalek bins can do aerobic composting , all you do is keep an eye on the internal temp and when it starts to drop to 85 oF or so   remove the bin cover  and refork the mix back into the bin thus aireating it , giving it a spray of water every now and then ..if you have Garrotta compost maker add a bit every now and again  , The  contents will start to reheat up to 158 oF after about three days . The bacteria  need the  air and moisture to compost the matter , this is good for top dressing or digging in.
 
The plastic Daleks  help keep the humidity & heat in the contents thus making for a quicker composting providing you " turn the pile " every 14 days or so even in winter. the pile stops heating when the composting is complete .

Anaerobic decompostion  is a slightly different process whereby there is not so much oxygen , the gasses given off are different & the contens decay  much cooler and much slower.

 Open piles lose heat and dry out so tend to be much slower & they tend to use the anaerobic process where by mould spores mainly break down the matter , this type of  material is good for digging in but not not top dressing
 
.
 There are some basic rules as per the nitrogen to carbon rate of materials that you  put in the composters or the compost heap   I think it is in the region of 1/3 nitrogenous material to 2/3  carbon  ( straw or brown plant stuff . But do check it out if your interested in making a premium compound compost .

 I'll see if I can  find the reasonable not too  scientific  report I read a while back for making composts , it dispells many a myth .

Here it is ..
www.composterconnection.com

Today I've been given copyright permissions to copy and paste from the site but feel most of you would like the complete  set of information  .