Composting Anyone?

[cajoledcruiser]

We will be living aboard in the near future, and I am interesting in trying to grow a few vegetables. One of the complicating issues, as I see it, is replenishing and maintaining healthy soil. Has anyone had any success growing veggies on board, and possibly composting?
Thanks, Linda

[skipmac]

Hi Linda and welcome to the forum,

This is a question that comes up periodically and you can find several previous threads on the subject with the forum search function.

Bottom line, most veggies take a good deal of space and a few months before you get anything to eat. Also, if you're on the ocean the salt air is a killer for a lot of plants.

Growing a few herbs and spices could work but I really can't think of many vegetables that would yield much to eat for the time and space it would take.

[skipmac]

Oh and composting. To get from food scraps to soil would also take some weeks. To break down the scraps most quickly you would want to stir the mix frequently, keep moist and aerated. If you're constantly adding fresh food scraps to the same batch of compost you will be mixing this with the stuff that's composting so always have chunks. If you set up so you add new scraps to the top and take compost from the bottom it's tricky to get the scraps to compost quickly.

If you plan on living on board in the Caribbean there's generally lots of local produce available at the markets.

[UNCIVILIZED]

For greens onboard, I think that there are generally 3 ways that folks go. Although I'd surely be interested to hear about more. But to my knowledge, there's:
- Storing
- Sprouting (which is a great one, albeit somewhat underused)
- Harvesting from the sea. I need to do some studying on this, but there's a LOT o' greens in Neptune's Realm which are great.

On the composting thing. I can't say that I've studied on it, but when I dated a gal who had a ranch, she told me that their manure needed to be "turned" (mixed maybe) for a year before it was okay to use as fertilizer.
I gather that the length of time, & the "turning" (aeration) was to let the bad (unhealthy for humans) bacteria, die off, & the good bacteria grow.

And in the US at least, I'm thinking that human manure isn't even allowed to be used as fertilizer... but, that be one which would require some researching... were I interested in trying it, which I ain't.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

For greens onboard, I think that there are generally 3 ways that folks go. Although I'd surely be interested to hear about more. But to my knowledge, there's:
- Storing
- Sprouting (which is a great one, albeit somewhat underused)
- Harvesting from the sea. I need to do some studying on this, but there's a LOT o' greens in Neptune's Realm which are great.

On the composting thing. I can't say that I've studied on it, but when I dated a gal who had a ranch, she told me that their manure needed to be "turned" (mixed maybe) for a year before it was okay to use as fertilizer.
I gather that the length of time, & the "turning" (aeration) was to let the bad (unhealthy for humans) bacteria, die off, & the good bacteria grow.

And in the US at least, I'm thinking that human manure isn't even allowed to be used as fertilizer... but, that be one which would require some researching... were I interested in trying it, which I ain't.

I don't think the OP was talking about using the "compost" from a composting toilet to grow food. At least I hope not. Food growing compost is made from plants and maybe some non meeting eating critter manure. I suppose one could make some on a boat but it is going to take up space as will the plants.

Using human waste for growing food is not allowed in the US. In NC, sludge from sewage treatment plants can be spread on fields growing non human food products and is regulated.

We thought about using a boat shower to turn into a grow room for plants. Errrrr, let me be specific, veggy plants to eat. There is a chain of garden stores in NC that sells garden supplies, beer/wine making supplies and equipment as well as hydroponic systems for growing indoors.

It seems that most of the their customers are looking to grow in small spaces and that their stores are near or in university towns...

You can grow quite a bit of food with hydroponics in a small space. The biggest issue is having enough light. The biggest problem with the garden shower idea we have is light. Running grow lights would be expensive power wise. Even LED lights are using huge amounts of power. One of the smallest LED lights I saw was 90 watts and they have them up to at least 600 watts! If the boat has to generate that power from fuel, you might be growing some expensive veggies.

At least the LED's don't generate heat like other light types.

If one 100 watt light will work in our hypothetical shower grow room, running 12 hours a day, means you need over a kilowatt of power. There are reflective, insulated, panels at the store I mentioned, that are designed to work in a closet so they should work in a shower space. But I would think you would still need more than one light since you would want to maximize food production per square foot so you would want to have stacked plants which is almost certainly going to take more lights and thus power.

I have thought about having a hatch build in over the shower but that is another hole in the deck... Not sure I like that idea....

If the boat is traveling outside the US, some countries will are likely to take the soil, seed, and plants when checking in. With hydroponics you might have to get rid of the plants and the media but you could clean that up before check in and maybe save the media if worth saving.

Later,
Dan

[sparrowhawk1]

It's impossible to have a garden on a boat. And there are no YouTube videos on making worm bins for composting food scraps into the best possible soil.

[onestepcsy37]

Stick to sprouting, unless you have a 60'+ multihull.

Sent from my SCH-I200PP using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

It's impossible to have a garden on a boat. And there are no YouTube videos on making worm bins for composting food scraps into the best possible soil.

Oh it's quite possible to have a garden on a boat. Fill half your cockpit with plants for 2-3 months and you can grow enough lettuce and tomatoes for a couple of salads. Fill the other half of your cockpit with compost bins and you can make enough dirt in 2-3 months to grow another salad.

Of course if you actually go sailing with the boat then all bets are off.

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Oh it's quite possible to have a garden on a boat. Fill half your cockpit with plants for 2-3 months and you can grow enough lettuce and tomatoes for a couple of salads. Fill the other half of your cockpit with compost bins and you can make enough dirt in 2-3 months to grow another salad.

Of course if you actually go sailing with the boat then all bets are off.

Reality check. 8" of aft end of cockpit for planters. Small to medium waist basket for worm farm. 1 month first harvest baby greens.(thin out) After 3-4 months, continuous kale , Swiss chard and green onion for about 2years. Everglades tomatoes produce indefinitely. Mine took 9months to really produce because I did not cover them when in a storm. But now have enough to feed trolls. Mabe not round the world but my kale n swiss chard flourished on my trip from Maryland to Florida. PS I have some chives that are indestructible.

[Kestle]

Sparrowhawk,

Could you provide a few more details or pictures?

Thanks...

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by Kestle

Sparrowhawk,

Could you provide a few more details or pictures?

Thanks...

I go into the details with photos on the thread growing food and the thread growing plants onboard. Seems like the best search word to use is gardening.

[Waterrat10]

Red worm composting is the way to go. As Sparrowhawk says greens are very simple. Sprouts, and herbs would all be very doable. Tomatoes, peppers and most heavy feeders would be more difficult and probably not worth the time, energy or space but that depends on your motivation, time and space. My house and garden are filled with all sorts of plants. I am sure that if I ever do cruise long term at a minimum I would have a Pothos hanging in my cabin. Good luck.

[sparrowhawk1]

When I sprout I put the roots that I cut off into a paper bag and let them dry out and then sprinkle them on my garden as mulch. This helps cut down on evaporation through the soil and eventually break down to be very rich matter

[jkindredpdx]

Now that my composting toilet is operational, I'm thinking of using Vermicomposting (a.k.a. Composting with Worms) | Composting 101 to speed up decomposition in my secondary compost bin and including organic waste. Thinking step three will be 36" x 6" planter for greens and herbs.

[BobH260]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

And in the US at least, I'm thinking that human manure isn't even allowed to be used as fertilizer... but, that be one which would require some researching... were I interested in trying it, which I ain't.

My understanding is the composting or digesting of meat or human waste has to be done at high temperatures in order to kill pathogens. It has been done for years in Millwaukee, they sell their sewage to gardeners as "Milorganite", Milorganite | What is Milorganite?

Bob