In Vessel Composting Machine
Hello! A few members saw the Instagram stories about our composting machine this week (we’re building a shed roof over the machine to help keep snow and ice out of the tracks) and I said I’d share some info about our machine.
And there’s good news if you’re interested in a machine like this for your farm/community! The Natural Resources Conservation Service NRCS (the government agency that brings us high tunnel grants to prevent soil erosion) has re-written their policies to cover grants for these machines, too!
Our machine was partially funded by the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (PPI), a crowd sourcing effort, and by profits from our own farming operation. The new NRCS grant opportunity is an awesome step ahead for farmers who want to improve their composting operations.
The weather is a little nasty today and I’m enjoying some holiday time with my family. I’m spliced in a video that I made for a conference so you can see it in action. We DO use our machine year-round, though. And we’ve learned over time that we can reach our temperature goals inside by using just the wastes from our farm — the leaves we strip from our plants and the weeds we pull mixed together are a good nitrogen-carbon combination for us. We also accept food waste contributions from our local community. And we add that in, too. But the big thing we’ve learned since the video was filmed that was don’t have to be very precise with what goes in.
Here are some more details about our machine.
It is a 20ft-long in vessel rotating drum composting machine.
It uses aerobic decomposition.
It runs on one household outlet! So cool.
This model is insulated, but they don’t need to be! The heat from from decomposition keeps the contents nice and warm. We easily reach temperatures that kill of the diseases that are most problematic for flower farming. We can add plant waste with botrytis, fusarium, powdery mildew, downy mildew, etc. to our machine without worrying that the materials we produce will be unsafe for use on our farm.
Our machine came from Actium Resources It is the “Classic Continuous” model).
You can also find open source plans for a similar machine from Compost for Good. This organization was co-founded by one of our farmers here. It is a great resource!
Scroll to the bottom of this page to view a simple slide deck from a presentation I made. You’ll find some 2022 expenses and a basic cost-benefit analysis there.