Kitchen Garden Forum

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Has anyone bought or used a compost tumbler. Are they as good as claimed ie. make compost in 21 days. I am thinking of getting one not new of course, so I am anxious to know if they are effective
Answers please
Brenjon

Must admit I'm thinking about the same thing but not sure whether to commit as they are expensive

Chap had one as a present a couple of years ago, I notice it went into the annual skip we have, though I never spoke to him , I guess that might answer you question.

Unless you add and rotate every day I'd steer well clear.

As for turning them after rain, well!

I found on the one I got when someone was chucking it out that the contents stayed soaking wet and stuck at the natural bottom. This was because the heavy lid had a 2" gap round the base and drainage holes from the actual bin inside that rim, so rain on the bin ran down into the lid, through the holes and kept the material wet.
The "tea" in the lid went everywhere when the bin was rotated as there was no practical means of harvesting it and it really really stank.

Perhaps the ones made like a Tombola drum would be better?
Drum is horizontal rather than vertical.

I have one. It sort of works. Yes - can get very wet and heavy in the bottom and be difficult to turn. I have 3 other bins and I tend to mix things around between them. A horizontal one would probably be easier.

Not to ignore the results that Colin Miles had, I discussed this with Charles Dowding some time ago. He has a small commercial veg & salad business and is very keen on the use of compost (see http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/ for more details). Having visited his gardens I can vouch for the fact that they are very productive (whether or not you agree with his no-dig approach).

He'd tried a number of composting methods, including a tumbling composter. At the time, his own experience was that he got more reliable results from the more traditional methods. This was despite the fact that the theory of tumbling composters all seems to be most promising.