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| Composting Tomatoes - Photo: Flickr |
There are five problems that can arise when you are composting. All of the issues are relatively easy to troubleshoot and fix. During your routine monitoring of the pile keep a look out for signs of a problem and try some of the suggested solutions listed below.
If you see a swarm of flies around your compost bin chances are you have not put enough brown food (leaves, twigs, hay) on top of your kitchen scraps. The kitchen scraps are very inviting to fruit and house flies, make sure you don’t leave them exposed.
Your compost bin has a bad smell. The most likely cause is not enough air is getting through to all parts of the compost. Give the compost a good turning and add a bulky substance such as woodchips or sawdust. They are bulky and create pockets where the air can move freely.
If you find that your pile is very dry, add some moisture in the form of water. You should not soak the pile, just enough to get it wet. If the pile is continually drying outlook at other factors such as location and what you are adding – you may have to move the bin to a less sunny location or add more wet scraps (fruit and vegetable waste).
Your compost pile seems to be working (it is moist and warm) but only in spots. Either your pile is not large enough or you are not rotating it enough. Make sure you are regularly adding new scraps and are rotating the pile every second day.
Like the problem of flies, if you have pests visiting your pile you need to make sure you are covering all kitchen scraps thoroughly. Moreover, do not add any animal products such as meat or bones.
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