Tomer from Karkur

[Tomer]

Hi Hamish
be glad to send-the-blend.. just this morning i made a batch that i will be giving my orange tree, which is showing some stress signs.
i have it in hebrew so the translation will take a wee while, but you'll get it.
i like the way you do things

[Tomer]

Hi Hamish
sending you some photos of the gray water system. basically it's 2 bath tubs filled with gravel & water plants (there are bathtubs under there), after passing through a fat seperator, and then continuing to water a tree or some papayas. for the shower i use the banana circle, which in my case is a papaya-pumkin circle, where the water pores strait out into a hole in the ground filled with compost and mulch. they love it..
but hey, all this came from down under, the revered bill mollison...

[Tomer]

Hi Hamish and Everyone
i attached a file explaining how to improve the soil in your garden - well worth the effort!
hope you think the same
Tomer

[Hamish]

Thanks for all that info Tomer - very interesting. I am looking at buying some land with a small house on it with no access to town sewerage so making use of waste water like this will be important to me - thanks again - I will study your photos

[DaveOponic]

Tomer, very interesting mix. Not really necessary for me as I live in Brunei, hot, humid, tropical conditions. I do a fair bit of composting and I build compost tumblers from recycled 200 litre PVC drums. I have sold quite a few of these to make some pocket money.

One of the most effective compost accelerators I use is Chicken poo, readilki available here as Chicken is a staple.

I also scrape leaves and rotten debris off the floor of adjacent jungle in front of my house. This rotted down matter contains probably most of the microbials you have described ... not sure about lacto baccilus though... there are certainly no shortages here of fungi, bacteria and bugs as there may be in a drier climate... you are in Israel right?

Dave

[fishfood]

Dave your area sounds nice we would all love to see photos of your area and your projects [compost tumblers ect] [ we all love photos]

[Tomer]

Hi dave
yup, in the holy land.. i'd love to visit brunei. i love the south east asian region, but world politics and religion still have their say, i'm afraid. but we are traveling to Papua New Guniea in a few weeks...
like you said, in the tropics you can probably plant a broom stick and it will sprout.. in our climate the earth needs all the help it can get, humidity being the toughest challange, as it is hot & dry and water isn't abundant. this is even more a challange because my wife has a knack for tropical plants and fruits (olives, grapes and figs don't really do it for her..). now is our 4th attempt at growing a mango tree. oh well.
those tumblers sound very interesting. i had a few people asking me to make them compost bins but i admit i just shacked up an airy box and explained the right way of building the pile. some more 'high-tech' info will be great...
now i'm attempting to put together my first aquaponics system, still deliberating the equipment and piping. when i recieve Gary's manual that shuld set me on the right track, i assume.
the microbial mix is also great for greywater systems, so maybe give it a try one day.

[Tomer]

Hi Hamish
working on a sketch for the greywater system i have. will send it over soon
tomer

[Hamish]

Hi Hamish
working on a sketch for the greywater system i have. will send it over soon
tomer

Thanks mate - looking forward to seeing that

[DaveOponic]

I made a compost tumbler for myself as we were having problems with monkeys and other animals raiding the compost heap for leftovers. I looked at a few designs on the web and decided to use PVC pipe to make a light strong base. A few people started asking me if I could make one for them. Since last year I have made and sold about 20 of these. the PVC drums are easy to come by and have usually contained biodegradable detergents.

The "composta" takes about 4 weeks to produce a good dark mulch that I use on the lawn, in seed raising beds and on pot plants. We don't have any garbage collection service in our kampung, so I try and recycle as much as I can. We have a lot of leaves with a backyard full of fruit trees, durian, rambutan, mangoes, starfruit etc.

Dave