Boosting Our Compost Bin And Tumbler with a Compost Starter

I'm adding this entry to my [garden diary] to mark the date when I added this Jobe's Organic Compost Starter to our active bin and our tumbler in the Spring.  If you're not familiar with a compost starter, here's a good overview of what they are and what they do.

There is some competing views on the value of a compost starter or booster, but if you believe the claims and buy one with 'microbes', then your compost starter - like the one above from Jobe's - is cultured to speed the decomposition of the materials in your pile.

There are a bunch of people who say that they don't really do anything - but for less than $10, I figure...it can't really hurt, right?  It contains no synthetics and is made up of things that you can buy at a garden center like Bone Meal, Feather Meal, Potassium, and manure.

I used this same product last year, but I don't think that I posted about it in the garden diary.

Here's the listing on Amazon (note...this is NOT one of those affiliate links.  I don't participate in the affiliate program and earn no $$$ from any clicks) that lists these features/benefits:

• Organic compost starter with Biozome; Speeds up the composting process; Ideal for compost piles
• OMRI listed for organic gardening by USDA; Certified organic means no synthetic chemicals
• Jobe’s Biozome…the proprietary microorganism archaea that aggressively breaks down organic material for faster results

They also recommend that you reapply this stuff every six weeks or so - which is news to me.  I believe that I dumped the whole bag in last year at once, but will change up to doing it (at least) twice this year.  Once now in mid-May and again around the 4th of July.

This is the second enhancement to the compost bin setup that we have in our far backyard - with the passive aeration system with perforated pvc pipe that I installed a week or so ago.  Right now, I've left the front of the bin open, but intend to use these snips (below) to cut a few of the pieces of fencing to allow for the front of the pipes to kind of protrude out the front of the bin to allow for air to enter to help speed the decomposition.  

I don't run a compost thermometer, but that's something on my radar - as a way to make sure we have the right cocktail in the bins - knowing that I don't usually bag my grass clippings, but believe that's a way to acclerate some of the 'cooking' as it were.