A Guide on How to Choose the Top Composter for Your Albuquerque Home & Garden

Have you decided to start composting, but are needing a little help in selecting a composter for your Albuquerque home?  We are here to help guide you! By exploring the options and answering a few of the most frequent questions, you will be ready to choose the best type for you.

Common Types of Composters

Stationary composters

One of the most common types of composters are stationary receptacles. By simply adding scraps of food, grass clippings or other compost items to the top, normally through a hatch that will keep out pests, the waste material breaks down and converts into soil. This process takes several months, but once it is ready, you can extract the completed product from an opening near the base. These types of bins work better when set in soil. The benefit of stationary composters is that it allows you to continue to add your new compost items on top and let the ingredients mature, while at the same time reaping the complete compost soil from the bottom. 

If stationary composters are not often aerated, it can take many months to cultivate.Mixing compost by hand can be difficult, but stirring and flipping assist in speeding this process along. Stationary composters with aeration mechanisms  built-in make this task much easier. DIY composters solve this predicament by creating one or two movable sides. 

Compost Tumblers

Known also as ‘batch” composters, compost tumblers have a lever you turn that causes a drum to rotate inside, or spin the entire compost container. This type of composter outperforms the stationary sort due to the blending and aerating that occurs when turning the tumbler. Inside are cell chambers that can be loaded and sealed, allowing for faster maturing, ready to be added to your garden soil.

With more than one section inside your compost tumbler, you will be able to develop one assortment while continuing to add compost ingredients to another. One of the most preferred designs of dual-chamber composters, is the Jora JK270.

Worm Composters

Vermiculture composters, also referred to as worm composters, utilize worms to turn food scraps into fertilizer, packed full of vitamins and minerals. Worms are often found in regular composters but worm composters contain a much larger accumulation, intended to chomp up all the discarded waste. They may be sectioned to enable you to have a place to add more scraps or they may be continuous.

Food Waste Digesters

A food waste digester is the next best option, if composting doesn’t appeal to you, but you still want to avoid throwing away organic waste. They are designed with a lower bin that is buried in the ground, and an upper bin that absorbs and intensifies sunshine because of its cone shape.The Green Conce is one of the most popular models available. With double walls that heat, and assist in moving oxygen into the bottom section. Because food digesters are partially buried, microorganisms enter through the openings and process the majority of waste. Whatever is left  turns to liquid and absorbs into the ground. This design requires little to no turning because it is made to “digest” the materials you deposit. A food waste digester is also a great idea if you want to add compost, while also eliminating some of the waste that cannot be added to your garden, such as bones or even pet waste.

Countertop Food Waste Processors

Countertop processors are a newer option to become available. They do not create traditional compost, but rather they cut and dehydrate the materials, converting scraps into convenient fertilizer. They are very helpful areas where composting stops during the colder seasons. This enables you to save the fertilizer to use in the spring. They are especially handy to have if you happen to live in an apartment. The fertilizer produced is also odorless! One of the original countertop processors was named the Food Cycler, and was made by the same company that built the Vitamix blenders.