COMPOST HELP! White fuzzy stuff/ammonia smell.

So I started my compost in a 5 gallon bucket on 10/18 with the following.

Small branches at the bottom

dried grass clippings

dried tree leaves

green dying leaves pulled off banana tree

adding coffee grounds daily

ash from the wood stove

Napkins/paper cut into pieces

Probably other natural things but no animal by products or food except coffee grounds.

It's moist in there and I discovered powdery white stuff at the top and their is a strong ammonia odor. I tilled it up a bit and added some more green leaf and it maybe had a little bit of residual butter on it, don't ask me why cause I don't know. Seems stupid but I'm pretty sure it was residual butter on some unknown leaf.

Anyway, I'm 100% green and stupid about compost and organics. Ammonia seems like it's rotting which seems normal. Lots of coffe grounds were on top since I been adding all week. It was all moist, not soggy and I tilled it up. So, is this normal? Any advice?

Thanks a million and peace and love to all.

imvho any kind of amoniated smell may mean anerobic, MAKE SURE YOUR BUCKET/BIN CAN DRAIN! super important. Also would like to encourage you to start a red wiggler farm/vermicompost bin for yourself. Sorry if i'm not more hep, i'm tip toeing thru my process atm lol.

@greasemonkeymann

https://www.rollitup.org/t/turning-the-compost-pile.885978/

my heads spinning with all this info lol! i am NOT complaining either

"Ammonia

When a compost pile smells like ammonia, it is giving off excess nitrogen (N) in the form of ammonia (NH3). There’s no clearer signal that it has too much nitrogen in it. This problem occurs most often if a composter has been adding high-nitrogen products.

The short-term solution is to turn the pile or even spread it out to allow the excess ammonia to vaporize. Mixing in brown material can also restore the carbon-nitrogen balance. The long-term lesson is to add less nitrogen in future."

http://www.planetnatural.com/composter-connection/making/materials/

BTW I suggest reading up on using wood ashes. It's done but only in small amounts.

Thanks guys. After turning I let it set a while and came back to add some more brown leaf and some roots from a hempy bucket. I think they were from a cucumber grow but, I don't remember exactly. The ammonia smell was pretty much gone. No more grass to cut so won't be adding much of that to cause nitro probs. Well needed direction to that, thanks hot. Needed the turn thread thanks shrub. Yes, to a newbie who does hempy bucket or bag soil and Chem nutes, the organic thing does seem like rocket science.

Would love to do a worm farm. BTW! Had some night crawlers in fridge from July fishing trip. I set the worms free and added the worm stuff when I made the original batch. It wasn't much tho. Like maybe a pint. Thanks VM.

Checked the turn thread and will do as described. Thanks Shlub.

Wow was i offbase! I sem to be getting worm farms and compost piles confused, and for this i apologize.

hotrodharley said:

BTW I suggest reading up on using wood ashes. It's done but only in small amounts.

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Advice heeded. I only added like a small dust pan of it and don't plan to add more. Only makes sense that it is filler and adds no nutrition since it is just ash. It was on Mother Earth or some site I read up on before I started my compost. Thanks again. All advice from knowledgable posters is certainly appreciated.

VTMi'kmaq said:

Wow was i offbase! I sem to be getting worm farms and compost piles confused, and for this i apologize.

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Yeah man I love the worm farm idea and thought about it for a while. Truth is, I already got all kind of stuff going on, projects, chores, fix shit, job and I'm trying to do this old style, free, like back in the day free. I was inspired to try organics(somewhat by the RIU guys), but because this 70+ year old lady I worked with grows all kinda stuff fruit trees, veggies, house plants or whatever and had all these healthy plants in her office. She gave me a lime tree and other stuff too. Made her own wine lol. I'm a hempy guy but, anytime I did soil I just used bag soil and chem nutes. Before she retired I asked her how she grew so well. She explained that she just put stuff in the soil like coffee and peanut shells or whatever instead of throwing it in the trash. It dawned on me that she was doing organic old school way and her plants looked terrific! And it reminded me of dad and grandpa who were amazing gardeners, old school style, growed up around farming.

So here I am. Giving it a shot. I am still gonna do hempy bucket for short term plants until I understand the organic science. Could take a while, but eventually I want to just do organic for everything.

Peace and love to all!

i appreciate your taking time to explain things.......your being personable is nice, alot here arent, they like to point out mistakes and wait to troll, i have disability that makes remembering things a chore at times, that and getting older has sent me some scares in the last 8-10 years i wasnt ready for. Can't wait to sit back and learn as i go. thank you and same back at ya man!

GrowUrOwnDank said:

Advice heeded. I only added like a small dust pan of it and don't plan to add more. Only makes sense that it is filler and adds no nutrition since it is just ash. It was on Mother Earth or some site I read up on before I started my compost. Thanks again. All advice from knowledgable posters is certainly appreciated.

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not true though man, wood ashes are a damn good source of potassium, not that most organic soils are deficit of that though, more importantly, if your soil is heavy on the peat, the ashes can help neutralize or "lime" the soil a bit to help lowering ph levels.
I add like 2 cups of wood ash to my ENTIRE compost pile, and not even sure I need to, but I do.
I use ash's unburnt sister though... biochar is your buddy, helps counter acidity in the same way ashes do.

I got a few egg shells I will be adding. Not many, I don't do a lot of eggs. Also been collecting the back wash out of my beer cans I'm gonna put in it too. Maybe only 1/3 cup tho. Can I just keep adding brown tree leaves every week? I also have some flower plants I can cut the wilting dying leaf off of and add. I added some paper pieces all cut up and was thinking about shredding some paper bags up into it. I don't eat a lot of fruits, so no peels or anything like that too add. I do have a ton of old canned veggies I could dump in it. Green beans, peas, corn, and other stuff. It's old so throwing a can in it wouldn't hurt anything. How about old pasta? Just trying to work this up for free. I'm thinking about getting into a more "natural" way of growing and getting away from the chems and other products. Nothing against chems, I'll probably still do my hempy for a while. Was thinking about growing some peppers inside.

Anyway, just some thoughts/ideas. Thanks again.

GrowUrOwnDank said:

I got a few egg shells I will be adding. Not many, I don't do a lot of eggs. Also been collecting the back wash out of my beer cans I'm gonna put in it too. Maybe only 1/3 cup tho. Can I just keep adding brown tree leaves every week? I also have some flower plants I can cut the wilting dying leaf off of and add. I added some paper pieces all cut up and was thinking about shredding some paper bags up into it. I don't eat a lot of fruits, so no peels or anything like that too add. I do have a ton of old canned veggies I could dump in it. Green beans, peas, corn, and other stuff. It's old so throwing a can in it wouldn't hurt anything. How about old pasta? Just trying to work this up for free. I'm thinking about getting into a more "natural" way of growing and getting away from the chems and other products. Nothing against chems, I'll probably still do my hempy for a while. Was thinking about growing some peppers inside.

Anyway, just some thoughts/ideas. Thanks again.

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one thing to remember is that it's ideal to have two piles, sorta like the perpetual harvest idea, one's aging, when the other is ready.
So for your question about keeping adding leaves, I did that too, but all you do is "reset" your pile over and over.. once it's "made" it's better to just turn it, and NOT add anything new, unless you do have, in fact, have two piles
most of the things you are talking about adding, do better in a vermicompost.
I have both, but have become more and more reliant on my compost for my mix, rather than wormcastings.
I do probably a 3/1 ratio of compost to castings.
I do think it's crucial to have both though

greasemonkeymann said:

one thing to remember is that it's ideal to have two piles, sorta like the perpetual harvest idea, one's aging, when the other is ready.
So for your question about keeping adding leaves, I did that too, but all you do is "reset" your pile over and over.. once it's "made" it's better to just turn it, and NOT add anything new, unless you do have, in fact, have two piles
most of the things you are talking about adding, do better in a vermicompost.
I have both, but have become more and more reliant on my compost for my mix, rather than wormcastings.
I do probably a 3/1 ratio of compost to castings.
I do think it's crucial to have both though

Click to expand...

Thanks man, I am only getting started really so this kind of info is perfect. I'm gonna go ahead and add more brown leaf and cut some of that fresher leaf and try and fill up my 1st bucket. It settled and is only about half full now. I know I have another bucket somewhere I'll just start a second one too add my dailies to like coffee. Eventually, depending on how well I like this organic style I may just buy a garbage can for any future projects. Who knows, I don't really grow a lot of stuff so I think 2 5 gallon buckets will go a long way for now. Also, I can get worm castings locally and cheap. So, as much as I would like for this to be completely free, I don't really want to bother with a worm farm. So, I may source some of that. I have several months before I am going to use this compost. So, if I have to do any do overs I have plenty of time.

Thanks again for all of your input. This organic thing is really cool the more I learn about it.

GrowUrOwnDank said:

Thanks man, I am only getting started really so this kind of info is perfect. I'm gonna go ahead and add more brown leaf and cut some of that fresher leaf and try and fill up my 1st bucket. It settled and is only about half full now. I know I have another bucket somewhere I'll just start a second one too add my dailies to like coffee. Eventually, depending on how well I like this organic style I may just buy a garbage can for any future projects. Who knows, I don't really grow a lot of stuff so I think 2 5 gallon buckets will go a long way for now. Also, I can get worm castings locally and cheap. So, as much as I would like for this to be completely free, I don't really want to bother with a worm farm. So, I may source some of that. I have several months before I am going to use this compost. So, if I have to do any do overs I have plenty of time.

Thanks again for all of your input. This organic thing is really cool the more I learn about it.

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just remember compost piles shrink, like insanely...
a pile four feet high is reduced to probably 10-15 inches after it composts.
make like three times the amount you think you'll need.
Oh, and wormbins are cheap, and easy as hell to maintain.
you could easily keep one under your kitchen sink, and nobody would know.

greasemonkeymann said:

one thing to remember is that it's ideal to have two piles, sorta like the perpetual harvest idea, one's aging, when the other is ready.
So for your question about keeping adding leaves, I did that too, but all you do is "reset" your pile over and over.. once it's "made" it's better to just turn it, and NOT add anything new, unless you do have, in fact, have two piles
most of the things you are talking about adding, do better in a vermicompost.
I have both, but have become more and more reliant on my compost for my mix, rather than wormcastings.
I do probably a 3/1 ratio of compost to castings.
I do think it's crucial to have both though

Click to expand...

Great advice on the leaf mould. It can take a long time to break down.

FWIW I've ran mixes with 33% EWC as the only humus portion, and I didn't like it near as well. I much prefer a good thermal compost that has been worked a little by worms, but not turned into almost all castings.

Peace!

P-

Pattahabi said:

Great advice on the leaf mould. It can take a long time to break down.

FWIW I've ran mixes with 33% EWC as the only humus portion, and I didn't like it near as well. I much prefer a good thermal compost that has been worked a little by worms, but not turned into almost all castings.

Peace!

P-

Click to expand...

totally, something about the vermicompost that I don't prefer, I think it is the consistency..
too thick if its screened and pure. The castings tend to get a lil "muddy" as opposed to the compost that acts like millions of tiny sponges.
The compost is just the best shit though, it holds water, doubles as sorta like aeration, AND I have it amended with nutrients that are long broken down.
I will never, ever, ever, do a mix without it, without a doubt the number one thing that has made a substantial difference in the plants health, from beginning to end.