Can a compost bin have too much wee?

Ferdinand2000

I have started up my second compost bin (a Dalek), as the wooden insulated 1 x 1m x 600mm bin is full.

I'll have added two or three layers of greens and browns by the start of next week to give me perhaps  the first 18" of depth, and I was wondering the above.

Can I add too much 'activator' to be beneficial? Is a couple of gallons too much?

Just another of Ferdy's Flappy Questions, exploring the limits of my very limited knowledge.

Cheers

Ferdinand

bertrand-mabel

Bob Flowerdew on GQT Radio 4 is always talking about the benefits.

Lyn

Can you reach the top of a Dalek. are you a very tall man? 😀

Ferdinand2000

Lyn said:

Can you reach the top of a Dalek. are you a very tall man? 😀

Either

a) Exhibitionist with a stool.

or

b) Man with a bucket.

Take your pick  . 

I am also slightly concerned that my November Greens for the compost heap are appearing a little tough. May have to trim some shrubs early.

Lyn

a) then 😀. Just thinking about mine, but we are very secluded here. 

josusa47

I think if the wee is running out at the bottom, you've added more than enough.  It's best used fresh - within an hour - because as soon as urine is exposed to air, the nitrates start to turn into ammonia, which is less useful to plants, and smells nasty.  (Though IMHO if you can bear the smell of comfrey tea, you can bear anything.)  Adding freshly-voided urine to a source of carbon inhibits ammonia formation.  I learned all this from a jolly little book called "Liquid gold - the lore and logic of using urine to grow plants."  Every organic gardener should have a copy.

Ferdinand2000

In the autumn I get by dose bunged up, so smell does not apply when I am in isolation on my own.

But I have the answer I need. Thanks.

So if I borrow an animal from Twycross Zoo to wee on my compost heap, I need a camel newly returned from a holiday in the Sahara rather than one that has been on retreat in the Lake District, or an elephant.

Elephants are great when you need to get a drawstring through a pipe, as long as you can make it sneeze at the correct moment and maintain a seal (air seal, not a nautical seal).

But an elephant has a 5 gallon bladder, which would wash away my composting Dalek, whilst a camel generates as little as 1 litre of somewhat concentrated pee per day if it has been in a drought, or one gallon in a more normal environment.

Camels it is, then.

Thank’s all.

Ferdinand

Biglad

A night on the sauce @Ferdinand2000?

Ferdinand2000

That is an outrageous allegation . 

There are at least two glasses left in my bottle. It is, however, a rather poky Cote du Rhône, which went excellently with grilled lamb skewers and roast courgettes.

 

(How did it get to be 1am?)