Bioverter composting tips
Sharing composting lessons that we learnt from many years of composting with everyday organic wastes. Make excellent compost with our method that doesn’t need mixing or turning.
A composite of mostly plant-based kitchen scraps (cooked or raw) is generally compostable. Examples include:
- Discards from preparing fruit and vegetables
- Limp vegetables
- Bruised fruits
- Egg shells (crushed)
- Coffee grounds
- Tea leaves
- Flowers
- Bread
Try not to add watery substances with your cooked scraps, like sauces.
Be careful of kitchen scraps high in protein such as meat, poultry, fish, and dairy. These types of wastes can rot and stink in rubbish bins. However, they can be composted if cut into tiny pieces and spread thinly amongst other (low-protein) scraps.
Cover kitchen scraps with different wastes to make the compostable mix more diverse and nutritionally balanced. Examples include leafy plant trimmings and non-glossy paper products like paper towels and toilet roll tubes. Use a covering layer about half the depth of the kitchen wastes.
Our extensive trials showed consistently balanced compost nutrition with alternating layers of kitchen and non-food wastes inside Bioverter.
This advice doesn’t apply in full to standard compost systems, which can only handle wastes containing limited types and amounts of kitchen scraps.
Anything that takes too long to break down, or turns into something undesirable. For example:
- Oil
- Fat
- Bones
- Large fruit seeds (e.g. peach, nectarine, avacado, mango)
- Walnut shells
- Dry leaves
- Woody plant parts
- Seeded weeds
- Diseased plants
- Pet faeces
Some of these - like walnut shells, woody materials and dry leaves - can be used as garden mulch, but the rest should be discarded.
Don't put in bags, bin liners and materials marked as degradable. They only break down when sent to an industrial facility which can sustain temperatures of over 60°C.
- Add a balanced variety of compostable wastes to Bioverter at least twice every week.
- Composting is quicker if the waste matter is cut or broken into small pieces less than 25 mm in size.
- Limit each waste input to 8 litres - the capacity of a kitchen caddy - and spread the fresh materials evenly to fill in the corners.
- Don't squash the wastes.
- Add paper and/or leafy plant trimmings to cover the kitchen scraps (see the first tip for more details).
Feed Bioverter in small, regular lots rather than all at once. This ensures a steady breakdown of your wastes into rich outputs. All the goodness in the wastes are captured as compost juice or solids. These two outputs descend into slide-out collectors for separate periodic harvesting.
Compost juice is your Bioverter's liquid harvest. Simply pour the juice into a watering can and then add water - you want at least a 1:1 ratio of juice to water.
Water your veggies, herbs, flowers and plants in your garden with the diluted compost juice.
The compost juice is enriched with soluble nutrients and microbes that are beneficial to your soil. It is similar to compost tea brewed using aged or mature compost. Its usefulness is overlooked as regular compost systems aren't set up to collect juice.
Compost soil is the dark solid matter that descends through Bioverter and is harvested from the collection basket. It can be spread as a top dressing on soil or potting mix. Protect it from the weather with a layer of standard garden mulch. Keep both away from plant stems to prevent collar rot.
Compost soil does not attract pests or pets. It evolves into a richer form and becomes part of the soil, the same way that decaying plant matter does in nature, with nutrients making their own way to plant roots.
We prefer to mature compost in a setting that allows direct use of aged materials (see the next tip).
You can mature harvested compost soil in a 200mm or larger garden pot.
- Place the pot in a shady, sheltered spot, and if possible, partially bury it.
- Put some soil or potting mix in before adding your compost soil.
- Cover with a larger pot saucer to let a different group of microbes do their work.
- Allow 3-4 months (longer in winter) to rest and keep moist in hot weather.
Compost soil refines into its mature form which is a natural superfood for your soil. The maturation process takes time and can’t be hurried. If you generate a lot of compost soil, an alternative to a huge pot for maturation is a repurposed worm tray.
Mature compost has a crumbly texture and smells earthy. You can plant directly in mature compost blended with soil or potting mix.
- Line your kitchen compost caddy with non-glossy paper to make it easier to empty all contents and to clean the caddy.
- Put green foliage or shredded/torn paper in the bottom, before adding kitchen waste.
- When emptying the caddy into Bioverter, the garden and paper wastes underneath can become part of a layer covering the kitchen scraps.
This is a simple way to follow our first tip on layering non-food wastes on top of kitchen scraps. It can also help you to get the right mix of waste types by pre-filling one-third of the caddy with paper and/or leafy plant matter before filling with kitchen scraps.
The basis for a good start in a compost system
