Composting

[bpdlr]

So, I get a lot of food waste what with a farm, fishing, foraging and trapping. Also, there's no way to speed up crop growth without rare and costly fertiliser. It's also too quick and easy. So how about composting?

 

Maybe a craftable item requiring some garbage bags, like the rain collector, and some worms, into which you can throw food waste. The more worms the faster the composting process, but the process should take ages, say a month or two, so it can't be used early game to speed up farming. It should take at least 20 food items to produce one unit of compost. Crops could even drop cuttings that could contribute to this - maybe linked to my suggestion to improve farming, pruning could be used to extend the life of crops, and cuttings could be a by-product?

Edited March 14, 2016 by bpdlr

[CaptKaspar]

It's a good idea, but it's been suggested a few dozen times.

 

I did a quick search for 'composting' and had a ton of results. Even think I saw a mod in that search that allows composting. 

 

My best guess is that either the devs don't want to make farming any easier by adding a self-fueling boost to farming that composting would add or that they just haven't gotten around to adding it yet.

 

If you have a bunch of rotten food, put it on a zombie and burn the zombie. You can do this with all items you want to 'trash'.

Edited March 14, 2016 by CaptKaspar
typos

[ShuiYin]

8 hours ago, CaptKaspar said:

It's a good idea, but it's been suggested a few dozen times.

 

I did a quick search for 'composting' and had a ton of results. Even think I saw a mod in that search that allows composting. 

 

My my best guess is that either the devs don't want to make farming any easier by adding a self-fueling boost to farming that composting would add or that they just haven't gotten around to adding it yet.

 

If you have a bunch of rotten food, put it on a zombie and burn the zombie. You can do this with all items you want to 'trash'.

Let me check if all the component in the vanilla game is available to create your own compost. I know that there is a lot of rotten food and worms are also in game. Sandbags are in and fertilizer is already a game component. Ill put this on a future planned feature in the PZ Vanilla Patch

[King jjwpenguin]

Well composting takes more than just rotten food, worms, and a bag. You need to keep it aerated, keep it moist, add eve parts brown and green components (as in nitrogen and carbon rich components) Then you also have to let it sit around 6 months so possibly a good 1-4 weeks pz time. Then on top of that it needs to keep warm and more. If that wasn't enough, plants may not even like or do well with the fertilizer and if too much is applied it soaks into the ground and most isn't ever used by the plants. Plus later if farming becomes harder or overhauled it would make it fair.

[King Kitteh]

5 minutes ago, King jjwpenguin said:

Well composting takes more than just rotten food, worms, and a bag. You need to keep it aerated, keep it moist, add eve parts brown and green components (as in nitrogen and carbon rich components) Then you also have to let it sit around 6 months so possibly a good 1-4 weeks pz time. Then on top of that it needs to keep warm and more. If that wasn't enough, plants may not even like or do well with the fertilizer and if too much is applied it soaks into the ground and most isn't ever used by the plants. Plus later if farming becomes harder or overhauled it would make it fair.

 

Uhhh, really? I have a compost bin and I just throw food scraps in it, or bury the food scraps in the garden. I don't really need to do much, I even think worms crawled into it on their own accord. It's definitely not aerated, it's just a large black cylinder.

 

I actually buried half a rotten pumpkin in my garden to decompose, and now I have a bunch of pumpkins growing . That compost was fresh btw.

 

Although I do live in Australia, so it's pretty warm all year round. Maybe composting is just easier.

[King jjwpenguin]

2 minutes ago, King Kitteh said:

 

Uhhh, really? I have a compost bin and I just throw food scraps in it, or bury the food scraps in the garden. I don't really need to do much, I even think worms crawled into it on their own accord. It's definitely not aerated, it's just a large black cylinder.

 

I actually buried half a rotten pumpkin in my garden to decompose, and now I have a bunch of pumpkins growing . That compost was fresh btw.

 

Although I do live in Australia, so it's pretty warm all year round. Maybe composting is just easier.

The heat does play a part however just adding some scraps dont always do the trick. I know that sometimes they add the carbon or nitrogen but dont form a Really good compost. I like in Nevada so its also pretty hot out here (besides 3 of the 12 months) and heat doesn't do it alone but much rather it needs more of a balanced mix and well maintained compost.

[King Kitteh]

1 minute ago, King jjwpenguin said:

The heat does play a part however just adding some scraps dont always do the trick. I know that sometimes they add the carbon or nitrogen but dont form a Really good compost. I like in Nevada so its also pretty hot out here (besides 3 of the 12 months) and heat doesn't do it alone but much rather it needs more of a balanced mix and well maintained compost.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're using compost for. I thought it was just a handy source of nutrients from rotting food. My "food scraps" are mainly things like bananaskins, teabags, eggshells, peelings from carrots and such.

 

Why does it need to be composting for so long? Also I'm guessing when you said aerated, you just meant that it needs aerobic bacteria, which my compost probably has.

 

Perhaps there is some fundamental difference between fertilizer and compost, I'll do some more research. :/

[King jjwpenguin]

4 minutes ago, King Kitteh said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're using compost for. I thought it was just a handy source of nutrients from rotting food. My "food scraps" are mainly things like bananaskins, teabags, eggshells, peelings from carrots and such.

 

Why does it need to be composting for so long? Also I'm guessing when you said aerated, you just meant that it needs aerobic bacteria, which my compost probably has.

 

Perhaps there is some fundamental difference between fertilizer and compost, I'll do some more research. :/

Composting is a long process of tuning your generic food scraps and such into a dirt like substance able to be spread over plants for a simple boost like fertilizer but also easily absorbed and natural, Fertilizer from my understanding uses a different process to be made and also is typically made from chemicals and non organic means. Also composting is made by the breakdown of stuff by bacteria that uses air and moisture and produces heat as an off product. Fertilizer... well you know about as much as i do there.

[bpdlr]

Well us English are proud of our gardens, and my mum has a compost bin. It's just an old barrel with the bottom cut off. Food waste, grass cuttings and other garden waste is put in the top and covered, but it's still aerated as the bottom is occasionally dug out to provide a bit of extra fertiliser for the garden. It's an ongoing process, but it seems to provide enough for a small garden. Worms don't have to be added but I thought it would be a good addition, as they do thrive there - they usually migrate from the soil below. 

[King jjwpenguin]

1 hour ago, bpdlr said:

Well us English are proud of our gardens, and my mum has a compost bin. It's just an old barrel with the bottom cut off. Food waste, grass cuttings and other garden waste is put in the top and covered, but it's still aerated as the bottom is occasionally dug out to provide a bit of extra fertiliser for the garden. It's an ongoing process, but it seems to provide enough for a small garden. Worms don't have to be added but I thought it would be a good addition, as they do thrive there - they usually migrate from the soil below. 

well thats why you typically dont have an open bottom and have holes in the side instead.

[bpdlr]

21 minutes ago, King jjwpenguin said:

well thats why you typically dont have an open bottom and have holes in the side instead.

 

Not really, the worms help to aerate the compost too.

[bobchaos]

9 hours ago, bpdlr said:

 

Not really, the worms help to aerate the compost too.

And the worms have a full life cycle in there: they eventually add themselves to the compost while a new generation keeps on aerating! While composting doesn't have to be complex for home gardening needs, @King jjwpenguin is correct that optimal results require a lot more attention than just throwing bio-waste in a bin. See here for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost

[King jjwpenguin]

On 3/25/2016 at 4:46 AM, bobchaos said:

And the worms have a full life cycle in there: they eventually add themselves to the compost while a new generation keeps on aerating! While composting doesn't have to be complex for home gardening needs, @King jjwpenguin is correct that optimal results require a lot more attention than just throwing bio-waste in a bin. See here for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost

Thank you. I have researched and composted more than most people since i was a kid and my grandpa had a small garden. I learned all about what makes it compost and the science. Plus starting a garden now and actually trying different things. apparently adding rosemary into the mix leave a pleasant fragrance as it breaks down. Then again about 1/5 of my compost included rosemary herbs and twigs. Well the more you know.

[King Kitteh]

Can I use the people I kill as compost? Gotta keep working that green finger y'know?

[Teesee]

2 hours ago, King Kitteh said:

Can I use the people I kill as compost? Gotta keep working that green finger y'know?

I've always been told that meat and even meat-eating animals' dungs are not good for composting and can even be dangerous if you use some compost made with them (possible bacterial diseases). So I wouldn't do it

[King Kitteh]

Just now, Teesee said:

I've always been told that meat and even meat-eating animals' dungs are not good for composting and can even be dangerous if you use some compost made with them (possible bacterial diseases). So I wouldn't do it

Bacteria Disease + Pipe Bomb = Bio Weapon. Pls add new biology profession so I can inflict bioweapon on bees and make zombees.

[Teesee]

Ho God... I hope you're joking xD you'd actually have to EAT what the pipe bomb contained to get sick. If pulverising manure at people was so effective as a bio weapon, I guess Sarin gas or Zyklon B wouldn't exist xD 

[King jjwpenguin]

16 hours ago, King Kitteh said:

Can I use the people I kill as compost? Gotta keep working that green finger y'know?

No because the chemicals in the human body would kill the composting bacteria. So all you would do is hide a corpse in trash.

[Erkinwine]

I like this idea, and it also works with a suggestion I wanted to make - a worm bed.

 

I was thinking it would require food-stuffs (rotten or otherwise), some dirt (probably the same 4 squares as goes into a sandbag) and a crafted item similar to the rain barrel. Of course, let's not forget the worms (probably about a dozen) and about the time it takes to grow a crop. The result would be a regular supply of worms for fishing.

 

Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems the most time-consuming part of implementation would be the animation and it wouldn't seem to throw off balance and it fits the game concept, as does the above idea of composting.