How to use your Bioverter
Bioverter makes it easy to make and harvest compost. Learn how to get the best results, optimise the benefits for your garden soil, and overcome difficulties.
Feeding
Lift the lid to add your everyday kitchen scraps - Bioverter will do the rest of the composting for you. This do-nothing-else method can’t be matched by traditional compost systems.
Kitchen scraps are generally balanced in nutrition and moist enough for composting if they are mainly plant-based, either cooked or raw. They have more nutrients than garden waste in both range and number, so you can make richer compost from kitchen scraps.
You can feed Bioverter many types of wastes, including vegetables, fruit, bread, pizza, pasta, noodles, rice, crumbled coffee grounds, loose leaf tea, crushed egg shells and flowers.
Ensure that your feed has variety rather than being of one dominant type, e.g. mostly veggie scraps, and that none of your waste is larger than 3cm in size for a thorough use of all waste parts.
Exclude tough bits like corn cobs, pips (avocado and mango), fruit stones (peach and nectarine) and nut shells (walnut). Discard the watery parts of cooked waste.
Bioverter can be fed either daily or a few days apart with what you have gathered in a kitchen caddy.
Spread your feed evenly and fill in the corners. Don't squash the wastes.
Your scraps may differ from day to day. Daily fluctuations in the type and amount is fine as long as there is a good mix of scraps in a week's worth of feeding. This means for example, that you could add extra vegetable scraps one day and more fruit scraps later in the week without disrupting Bioverter.
Bioverter prefers to be fed regularly rather than all at once. Periods of feast and famine have adverse effects on its health, just like the impact on our health.
Feed Bioverter at least once a week if you are using a kitchen caddy. On the other hand, avoid adding more than one caddy's worth in one go!
Tip: Don't overload your Bioverter, limit each feed to 8 litres.
Bioverter takes kitchen scraps as its main feed, but to turn them properly into rich compost, it requires you to add a small amount of carbon waste such as:
- fresh leafy plant trimmings or tip pruning (without woody parts)
- garden mulch that breaks down easily (lucerne mulch and pea straw)
- shredded or mowed autumn leaves (nothing waxy)
- paper towel (food stain is acceptable but cleaning product contamination is unacceptable)
If your routine is adding a plateful of kitchen scraps directly into Bioverter, add the carbon waste after every third or fourth plate of scraps.
With a kitchen caddy, add the carbon waste after emptying a fully filled unit, or after the second half filled caddy.
The amount to add depends on which carbon waste you use:
- 2cm layer of fresh leafy plant trimmings or tip pruning
- 1cm (maximum thickness) layer of lucerne mulch or pea straw
- a fine layer of shredded autumn leaves (barely covering kitchen scraps)
- 2 sheets of paper towel (could already be with your kitchen scraps)
Tip: Add less carbon waste when there is an abnormally large amount of starchy scraps (bread, pizza crust, pasta, potato, noodle and rice) in your total feed.
Leftovers containing protein-rich scraps can be used to feed Bioverter with care. Sort them as follows:
- keep out of Bioverter bones, fatty or oily remains and watery sauces.
- cut into tiny pieces meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products. Spread these pieces of protein food thinly amongst other (low protein) scraps, helping to limit the amounts in each feed.
- divide the size of remaining waste to less than 3 cm, giving microbes quicker access to all of the waste.
Reminder for startup composting: We recommend excluding protein-rich scraps from your feed during the first 3 months of startup composting. Wait until you have completed the switch from startup to routine composting before you add protein food.
Anything that take a long time to break down, or turns into something undesirable. For example: oil, fat, bones, large fruit seeds (peach, nectarine, avocado, mango), walnut shells, woody plant parts, dry leaves, seeded weeds, diseased plants, and dog/cat 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 disposable bags, bin liners and materials marked as degradable. They break down only when sent to an industrial facility which can sustain temperatures over 60C.
Harvesting
Bioverter transforms everyday waste effectively within its insulated space. Put in fresh waste at the top and your two valuable outputs drop into pull-out collectors for easy harvesting.
These innovative collectors are integral to simpler and more rewarding composting. Fresh compost is collected in the upper Basket, while compost juice flows down to the liquid Tray below. This enables separate harvesting, which is handy as the collectors fill at different rates.
Compost juice is Bioverter's liquid harvest. It first appears as a brown liquid in the bottom Tray not long after you start feeding Bioverter, and darkens to a coffee colour soon after.
You can harvest dark compost juice weekly, even twice a week with regular large inputs of kitchen waste. Pull out your liquid Tray and pour the juice into a watering can.
Dilute the juice for immediate use - add water to top up a standard size watering can, or use a similar volume of water and juice for a small watering can.
Water plants, herbs and veggies with the diluted juice as part of your watering routine. You can also water the soil in resting garden beds to improve soil health.
Compost juice is unique to Bioverter, as traditional systems aren’t set up to make and collect it. Fresh juice is enriched with soluble nutrients, humus substances (that gives it the dark colour) and probiotics - microbes that are beneficial to your soil. Diluting the juice doesn’t reduce its effectiveness, but actually assists with a quick and easy delivery of its goodness to more parts of your garden.
Bioverter’s pioneering design ensures goodness in your wastes end up in either fresh compost or compost juice.
Bioverter takes the guesswork out of when to harvest. Compost drops into the collection Basket once it is ready for harvest. Jiggle the basket to have a feel of the amount of compost it has collected.
To take out compost:
- slide out the bottom liquid Tray to access the Basket - see Tip 1.
- pull out the Basket carefully to harvest your compost - see Tip 2.
- put back the emptied Basket - refer to our cleaning tips if it doesn't go right in.
- return the liquid Tray to resume collecting fresh compost and compost juice.
Tip 1: The liquid Tray glides on top of a perforated base plate. You can help to keep the base plate clean by covering it with a piece of cardboard or cloth the size of the plate during compost harvesting.
Tip 2: The descent of compost into the Basket is irregular. Some might hang like stalactites and make it hard to pull out the Basket. You can cut them off with a thin implement, moving it from the sides to the centre. A spatula with a blade 30cm long is handy.
Reminder: Freshly harvested compost has the potential to inhibit rather than promote plant growth. We recommend resting your harvest to create dark crumbly luscious soil, and add value at the same time.
The liquid Tray collects compost juice and the Basket collects fresh compost. They are both pull-out collectors, sliding in and out smoothly when the collection area is clean.
The bottom Tray glides on top of a perforated base plate. You pull it out to harvest compost juice and slide the emptied Tray back into position. The Basket is left alone above the Tray when harvesting juice, and it stops compost matter falling onto the base plate when the Tray is taken out.
During compost harvesting, watch for compost matter falling into the collection area. Covering the perforated base plate with a piece of cardboard or cloth the size of the plate keeps it clean after pulling out the bottom Tray. You can now pull out the Basket to harvest compost.
The Basket sits on runners. Bits of compost can fall onto the runners during harvesting. Clear the runners on the two side walls and the rear wall, to ensure the emptied Basket can slide freely and go right to the back. The liquid Tray will now fit snugly in position.
Optimising
After unlocking the goodness in your everyday waste, Bioverter then captures all useful matter as dark compost and compost juice in separate pull-out collectors.
You can utilise the richness in compost juice right away after harvest. With dark compost, use our tips to get noticeably better results.
By the time your compost descends into the collection Basket, it is unappealing to pests and pets as a potential source of food. However, its nutrients are initially unavailable to plants.
Leave your harvest to rest in a sheltered spot and its nutrients change into a form that plants can use readily. What's more, your crumbly end-product is soil-like and gives you additional benefits:
- it is nutrient dense and works like a slow-release fertiliser
- its ability to retain water makes your soil more drought resistant
- it promotes good soil microbes to help suppress pests and diseases
We suggest two simple ways to rest your harvest so that you can choose an outcome that suits you - create fresh topsoil or soil superfood. The resting process cannot be hurried, so let nature help you transform kitchen waste fully into soil wonder.
Select a garden spot where you want to nourish and enhance the soil. It could be near an established plant, under the canopy of a young tree, or part of a garden bed that's being rested.
Place compost harvest within a shallow depression or a small area (enclosed with makeshift timber, brick or other type of walls). Spread the harvest and cover with standard garden mulch. Protect your harvest with mesh or bird netting to stop birds from going after the garden earthworms attracted to the compost.
Digging your dark compost into soil is not recommended because it could end up competing for oxygen and nitrogen with your plants. Resting compost harvest allows it to evolve into its final soil-like form and unleash the full spectrum of benefits for successful gardening.
You can rest fresh compost specifically to obtain additional benefits through garden earthworms and worm casts.
Set up a worm pop-up with a loose-fitting lid. It could be a large flower pot, a redundant worm farm tray or a bottomless bin. Position it in a shaded spot with its base partly buried (so earthworms can safely move in and out of the pop-up).
Add your compost harvest and cover with a damp cloth. Keep adding and after your last addition, allow your pop-up to rest for a further 8 weeks.
Earthworms burrow their way to the fresh compost in your worm pop-up. They feast on it, multiply and produce nutritious worm casts, while natural microbes turn uneaten harvest into crumbly soil-like compost. The overall mix in your worm pop-up combine to form soil superfood - a wonderful concoction that help you boost your outputs of flowers, herbs and vegetables.
Startup
The continuous transformation of waste into compost inside Bioverter is the result of a series of microbes working in unison from top to bottom. These microbes are set up in your unit during the initial startup stage.
Composting matter piles up while you create teams of microbes to break down assorted kitchen scraps in the pile and unlock all their goodness. The teams expand in diversity and size during startup to build your Bioverter's microbial backbone.
Startup takes typically 3 months, during which you won't harvest any solids.
Once the microbial backbone is formed, your Bioverter begins to make harvestable compost routinely. You switch from startup to routine composting with one small change.
A kickstarter brings helpful microbes to speed up the startup. You can kickstart with a handful of fresh compost or garden soil - just sprinkle it over your first lot of wastes.
Soil from your nature strip is an acceptable kickstarter if you don't have access to a garden. Bagged compost can supply microbes but most of them may be inactive. You could buy compost starters that contain microbes, or simply allow more time for microbes to build up in your Bioverter.
The Basket has a removable base plate which is called the Grille in our instruction leaflet. During startup, the Grille sits on top of the Basket and functions like a cover - it keeps all waste matter within Bioverter's insulated space. You would have set this up to get Bioverter going.
Around the 3 month mark after you started to feed Bioverter, you can switch the Grille to its regular position at the base of the Basket:
- take out the liquid Tray to access the Basket - see Tip 1
- pull out the Basket - see Tip 2
- lift the Grille off the top of the Basket and give it a quarter turn
- slide the Grille down to form the base of the Basket
- put the Basket back in position to collect compost from now on - see Tip 3
- slide the liquid Tray into position
Tip 1: The liquid Tray glides on top of a perforated base plate. You can help to keep the base plate clean by covering it with a piece of cardboard or cloth the size of the plate when switching Grille position.
Tip 2: Organic matter has piled up on the Grille during startup. Some may have lodged in its perforations. Use a thin implement to clear the top of the Grille, moving it from the sides to the centre. A spatula with a blade 30cm long can make it easier to pull the Basket out.
Tip 3: To ensure the Basket slides smoothly on runners (on the two side walls and at the rear wall), clear the runners before pushing the Basket right back to begin collecting compost.
User Queries
The Bioverter team welcomes feedback to expand our knowledge pool. We'll investigate to seek answers and where necessary, carry out trials. Our solutions will be shared as user tips here.
Bioverter produces compost which is excellent food for earthworms. You can easily multiply earthworms by resting your compost harvests in a worm pop-up. At the same time, you'll magnify the benefits for your garden from homemade compost through earthworms.
Earthworms are natural tunnellers, creating deep channels to help water and aerate your garden. Plant roots can extend further along the channels to obtain minerals from your soil. Their activity also loosens the soil and relieves areas where the soil has compacted together.
Earthworms excrete worm casts. They swallow soil alongside organic food, and their casts are clumps of nutritious matter and soil particles. These clumps improve your soil, so build up earthworms to get plenty of them in your garden.
Fun fact: Worm farms use only surface feeders like red and tiger worms. Farmed to produce castings without soil, these worms are unable to improve your garden.
You can feed Bioverter as normal right up until you leave. Composting will keep going at a gradually slower rate as the microbial communities inside Bioverter adjust themselves to a slowdown in food supply.
Just remember to empty both your compost collecting Basket and liquid Tray before you leave to make sure they don't overfill.
When you get back, resume feeding and the compost microbes will come back to life.
There are natural compounds which can cause compost juice to froth when you add water to dilute the juice.
These natural frothing compounds can be found to varying degrees in food such as legumes and vegetables like beets. They will not harm your plants.
Compost flies feed and lay eggs on moist organic waste. These tiny black insects don’t bite or carry disease, but they breed incredibly fast and are a real nuisance in large numbers.
Their larvae favour acidic conditions which comes from adding too much nitrogen waste too often, such as vegetable scraps and coffee grounds. Add carbon waste to begin restoring nutritional balance - neutralising the acidity will wipe them out.
A little bit of seepage is to be expected. You can spray some water on your Bioverter and wipe the area with a cloth or soft brush to remove the dribbles.
However, if your Bioverter is weeping regularly and it is developing a bulge, this indicates that you are adding too much carbon.
We have discovered that your mix can get too sticky and log jammed if there is too much slow-composting carbon matter, such as paper.
Here's how to fix this mix:
- Remove the tray and place a piece of cardboard in the cavity to catch the compost.
- Empty your basket.
- Wearing plastic gloves, pull out as much of your sticky compost as you can reach from underneath. You want to get rid of the blockage.
- If your Bioverter is full, remove sticky compost from above too. Use a garden trowel and a bucket to collect the fresh harvest. Be gentle with the inside walls of your Bioverter. The gooey substance on these walls contains compost microbes that will get your next batch of scraps cooking quickly again.
- Replace any really fresh scraps back into your cleared Bioverter.
- If your Bioverter walls are still bulging after you've cleared the problem, pop a $5 luggage strap around the middle join to get it back in shape.
- From now on, continue to add kitchen scraps but use Lucerne mulch or mown autumn leaves or fine tip pruning as your carbon layer. If you empty your kitchen caddy every day, you may only need to add the fine layer of carbon after every third addition of kitchen scraps.
- The sticky compost that you have removed can be rested in the usual way – you just need a larger receptacle to hold it. It will also take longer to rest. It will be lumpy for a couple of months, but if you keep it in the shade, covered in a damp cloth, it will turn into super dooper compost.
Coffee grounds are a good compost feedstock. Simply add coffee grounds to your kitchen waste but limit the amount of coffee grounds to less than a quarter (25%) of the total waste fed to Bioverter.
Tip: Break up compacted coffee grounds to ensure all is used to make compost.
You could apply coffee grounds as a thin layer of mulch on soil surfaces. Take care to ensure the flow of water and air into your soil isn't blocked because coffee grounds mat easily to form a barrier.
Fun fact: Coffee beans are the processed seeds of a fruit tree. During roasting of the beans to develop coffee flavour, their thin skins detach and are collected as waste chaff. There are valuable nutrients in chaff for your plants.
Coffee grounds and chaff in compost jargon, are opposites - coffee grounds are a nitrogen waste and chaff is a carbon waste. Our trials found a mix of chaff and coffee grounds in a 2:1 ratio has the right balance of carbon and nitrogen. You can add this coffee waste mix as a layer between everyday kitchen scraps.
Coffee roasters generate large amounts of chaff and may be willing to give their waste away. You could help them deal with a waste problem and return more nutrients to your garden by adding chaff to your coffee grounds.