Bulking agent amounts with grass cuttings

[pigasus]

In your article on composting grass you say: "Add 1-part bulking agent to each 20-parts grass." That is a 1 to 20 ratio. But you then follow on saying: "Using a typical grass box of 40 litres of grass, you need to add 8 litres of bulking agent." But isn't that a 1 to 5 ratio? Can you clarify this for me please.
Thanks.

[EnlightenedElm]

Hi Pigasus,

Thank you for your post and for bringing this to our attention. Unfortunately the 'add 1-part bulking agent to each 20-parts grass' is a typing error. It should read 'add 4-parts bulking agent to each 20-parts grass'.

Please be assured that we have corrected this in line with the 1 to 5 ratio we suggest in the HOTBIN User Manual and on other parts of the HOTBIN Composting website.

Consequently, we can confirm that for every 40 litres of grass, we would recommend adding an additional 8 litres of bulking agent to ensure good airflow. We would also advise adding 20 litres of shredded paper and/or torn cardboard to help rebalance the moisture content of the grass.

We hope that this helps.

[pigasus]

Thanks for the clarification. But shouldn't the correction read: Add 4-parts bulking agent to each 20-parts grass?

[First Attempter!]

I am interested in this as I have run into major teething problem with my bin. It has not composted despite being left for 6 months! So I have had to put it all back in mixed with more bulking agent. Now I am about to add first grass cuttings in the hope of speeding things up but I am worried about not having right ratio and doing more harm than good!

[EnlightenedElm]

Hi First Attempter!

Thanks for your post.

We are disappointed to learn that the material in your HOTBIN has not composted despite being left for 6 months. If you would like some tailored assistance with improving the operation of your HOTBIN we would be delighted to help so please do get in contact with us at [email protected]

If you add grass into your HOTBIN, we would recommend adding a further half the grass' volume of shredded paper and a further fifth the grass' volume of bulking agent and incorporating them together well. This will help to balance the grass cuttings in the HOTBIN and enable the optimum environment to be created for the hot composting bacteria to work efficiently.

We hope this helps.

Enlightened Elm

The HOTBIN Team