Hand Rotary Sieve Composter

[snooky]

With all the rubbish that there is in commercial compost thought that I may have a go at making my own.To help to this end I have looked at a rotary sieve to sieve out any large bits of wood ,stones ,etc from the compost in my bins.Has anyone in the Forum got one and if so is it any good,pitfalls etc.Would like to know before laying out 50 quid or so.Hand sieving at the moment and a bit of a pain

[Geoff]

I think they are brilliant. Use one all the time for making potting compost. Not good with wet material so never been successful at sieving compost heap to include in the mix though even that maybe OK if you dry it. Early in the year when I have space in the greenhouse I spread out some soil and some leafmould to dry ready for making the first mixes. I say soil, what it usually is is the first trenches from digging greenhouse and tunnel beds, I bag up the first trench or so then add a lot of compost heap and this way the beds don't get higher and spill over the boards. A good mix is 5 parts soil, 2 parts leafmould and 1 part sharp sand. I add base fertiliser, at the moment I am using this https://elixirgardensupplies.co.uk/product/g ... -5-7-5-10/ - my notes on how much to add are down the garden shed but could post them if you are interested - but fish, blood and bone also works. I add lime for growing brassicas and potash for tomatoes and peppers.

[snooky]

Thanks for the info,Geoff.I appreciate that as you point out that wet material might be difficult to pass through it and that it is best used for a potting compost.I seem to to remember that you have posted your bog-standard mix on here before so,yes,it would be good to have your other "recipes"so please post them and I will get busy experimenting.
Like you I use Elixir a good value company and very helpful and very quick delivering customers orders.

[JohnN]

I've had one of the rotary sieves for a few years now. Mine is a Clarke, based in Essex, and I find it sits quite nicely inside my wheelbarrow, which not only raises it to a comfortable height to operate but also allow me to take the final tilth wherever it's needed.

[Geoff]

Here are some notes on fertiliser to add to my post above.

What to use.

JI Base Fertiliser is 2 parts Hoof and Horn, 2 parts Superphosphate and 1 part Potash. This works out as an N:P:K analysis of 5.2:8.0:9.6 but I’ve also seen it quoted as 5.2:7.7:10.0. The Elixir General Purpose Base Fertiliser I quoted above is 5.0:7.5:10.0 so pretty close to the same. The cheaper alternative of Fish, Blood and Bone is commonly quoted as 5.0:5.0:6.5 so a little weaker, particularly in Potash.

How much to use

In the JI formulations there are three levels. JI2 having twice the fertiliser of JI1 and JI3 having three times. Formulation says to make JI1 add 3 kg base fertiliser to a cubic metre of mix plus 0.6 kg of lime, not a very practical way of looking at it.
If you are using a Rotosieve a good way of making a mix is to use a 6” plant pot which is 2 litres as a measure. So 5 pots soil, 2 pots leafmould, 1 pot sharp sand is 16 litres and nicely fills the sieve. For JI1 you need 48 gm base fertiliser and 9.6 gm lime. For JI2 and JI3 you increase the fertiliser, some references keep the lime the same and some double and treble it. The easiest way to add it is to use one of the plastic scoops that come with something like Phostrogen and calibrate it on the kitchen scales.

This always looks a lot of fertiliser but I think I’ve looked up the figures correctly.

PS : Don't understand the text colouring, another quirk of the new format.