Are you a hottie?

Your right it does depend. I usually get somewhere between 50 to 75 % shrinkage before it is all done.

Boz wrote:Your right it does depend. I usually get somewhere between 50 to 75 % shrinkage before it is all done.

My pile looks like 25% of the original size as I used mostly leaves and grass clipping. So I have to work backwards to determine how big a pile to make this fall and as long as I keep it in cubic feet it is very simple.

I have two 4x8 SFGs and think I should need 20 cubic feet of compost per year???

My 4x4x8 pile from last fall ended up about 4x4x3.5 this spring.

camprn wrote:My 4x4x8 pile from last fall ended up about 4x4x3.5 this spring.

That shoot my 25% theory but I had two bins and they are slightly different in size; perhaps I should re-measure but am looking for how much to make next year.

But how much do you need to add every season? I know Mel says put in a few trowels of compost in each square each time you plant but how much do you or others put in? Remember this is my first time. My plan is to add the compost on top of my gardens then work it in the spring however I need to determine how much compost I need for my two 4x8 gardens...

floyd1440 wrote:That shoot my 25% theory but I had two bins and they are slightly different in size; perhaps I should re-measure but am looking for how much to make next year.

But how much do you need to add every season? I know Mel says put in a few trowels of compost in each square each time you plant but how much do you or others put in? Remember this is my first time. My plan is to add the compost on top of my gardens then work it in the spring however I need to determine how much compost I need for my two 4x8 gardens...

Make as much compost as you can, you will always want more than you have. When I replenish my beds I usually add at least a wheel barrow full of compost to each 4x4 box.

Floyd you have 64 sq ft. I have similar - at 80 sq ft. Last year in the fall I collected something like 80 bags of unshredded leaves, some yard grass, table scraps, garden scraps, probably 200+ pounds llama manure, and about 2-3 or more bales worth of straw and hay, and other small odds and ends. Fortunately most of the items are added here and there. It is enough this year for all the needs of boxes, including replenishing and topping off multiple times, added some to the 4 flower window boxes, compst added to two outdoor pots and a couple indoor plants, and used a small compost pile just to grow 2 pumpkin vines out of, and it looks like maybe some compost will be left over after the fall gardening to store over winter. I want to expand my garden and use compost for the non sfg areas, but more importantly I need to commit time to "compost care". The gardening part is nearly pain free. Tending the compost piles, meaning 3 piles of 3 cuft each, is where I find blocks of time are needed for for old fashion garden sweating.

..forgot to mention the 40 or 50 # of starbucks coffee grounds also added to the compost.

I just hit two Starbucks a couple days ago and picked-up 5 large bags of coffee grounds...gives a nice color and texture to the compost pile...makes the neighborhood smell good too. I added them to a pick-up load of aged horse manure and bedding material (another post). I think I'm a Hottie of this morning.

I second making as much compost as you have room for...use it to replant, fill settling boxes, and build new boxes. I plan on making another run for manure and bedding material this weekend.

I measured my compost bins and have determined that they will hold 3.2 cubic yards of material and I fortunately have a bunch of leaves around; pine needles to but they are difficult to break down in a short time but maybe over the winter?

With 27 cubic feet per cubic yard I think I will have plently even with 50% decompostition. never composted over the winter so do I use a blend as I used in the spring or go with more browns and let them break down over the winter then add more greens in the spring? Need to shread better to get more surface area this time....

my county extension agent told me to add browns (shredded leaf litter) and moisture throughout the winter and the compost pile should keep doing it's thing. I just signed up for a 2 hour composting class offered through the county estension service...its on Oct 22.

It just doesn't make sense to add browns and not greens. What is different about winter that would require browns but not greens. Leaves need a certain amount of greens (nitrogen) in the compost pile to decompose.

I think the info was specific to my existing compost pile...I just added a pick-up load full of aged horse manure and that should supply all the needed nitrogen through the winter...I would just need to add leaf litter when the leaves start to fall and keep the pile at a good moisture level.

In our climate, one should probably have the compost pile juiced with goodies before winter sets in (eventhough we didn't really have winter here in the midwest last year).

My office has a ton of shredded paper, and I have found that it really seems to ignite the pile.
I buy only recycled paper for the office so most of the paper is recycled to begin with.
It just seems that a pile requires SOOOO much more browns than greens.
I have been using alfalfa pellets to provide my greens when there are not enough from my kitchen (and garden wastes). They really get it going, and are very cheap.

Boz wrote:Rooster
All three Starbucks in town will give you grounds. The best time I have found is between 10:30 and 11 AM. In the winter I can get about 50 lbs a day. The store on the North end is usually the best one. I also hit the local Wendy's for their salad scraps, mostly lettuce. Unfortunately their are other people that that hit these places and then I come up dry darn it.

I've hit up several of the local Starbucks and scored gold each time at all of them. I've GOT to get my piles going this weekend!


We need to see some of those who've been achieving "hottie" status lately

:theuseless:

rooster, is that a new emoticon?
It sure is cute.
Where to you get new ones?
I am currently at 135 with my pile, but you said you were looking for NEW HOTTIES.
After all once you have been there it all just seems blasé

As I mentioned earlier in this thread I built my pile July 6th. 3 times since then it has dropped below 130 and all I have done is water it and the temp shoots back up to 145+ within 24 hrs and stays there for a week or so.

The next time it drops I plan to rebuild the pile and also start a 2nd pile.

My pile has cooled down and today I had a closer look at it and it is beautiful. All black earth and hundreds of red wiggley worms.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will turn and sift the pile and save as many wiggleys for my new Wiggly Hilton, then dig up my potatoes and start my new winter pile with the compost that is left from that box.
I have several garbage bags of dried green grass and with my usual 30 garbage bags of leaves this fall, I should have a flying start provided I shred the leaves which I missed doing last year.

GWN wrote:rooster, is that a new emoticon?
It sure is cute.
Where to you get new ones?
I am currently at 135 with my pile, but you said you were looking for NEW HOTTIES.
After all once you have been there it all just seems blasé

GWN, this one has been here for a long time: :theuseless: I need to look into why it's being shrunk down so small. It used to be much larger...
The camera one I just picked up off the www and added it to my photobucket accn't. It's not part of our smiley's here.

I am currently at 135 with my pile, but you said you were looking for NEW HOTTIES.
After all once you have been there it all just seems blasé

Lol, GWN how do I word any reply to this without getting myself in trouble

Lol, GWN how do I word any reply to this without getting myself in trouble

Such a diplomat.....

I stuck the only thermometer I had in a plastic baggie last night and buried in one of my smaller compost containers (approx 2'x2')...after about 1/2 hour I took a reading of 110 degrees. Can someone educate me on what to expect in terms of temp readings? I would probably get higher readings in my big pile.

Chances of rain for the next three days which should help the SFG as well as hydrate my compost piles.

RoOsTeR wrote:
We need to see some of those who've been achieving "hottie" status lately

:theuseless:

Yes sir! It is a little hard to see through all the pumpkin vines though.

Turan we seem to have matching compost piles, I have mystery plants growing out each end of my compost pile. I assume that they are all pumpkins,

yolos wrote:It just doesn't make sense to add browns and not greens. What is different about winter that would require browns but not greens. Leaves need a certain amount of greens (nitrogen) in the compost pile to decompose.

My limited composting experience I did not use as much greens as I should have to begin with so I will add more. I added a lot of pine needles, which take time to break down, so I will shread those more but use more leaves instead as they did not break down completely this summer however I am hoping that time will help break down these ingredients over the winter. Now lets check my math.

I have 2 bins. They are 40x40x48 inches giving me about 153,600 cubic inches total. Then I calculated 46,656 cubic inches per yard giving me about 3.2 yards of material.

Sound correct?

RoOsTeR wrote:
We need to see some of those who've been achieving "hottie" status lately

Here is mine today at about 11am





This time I added milk (about 3 gals raw goat milk) yesterday about noon when the pile was less than 120. I have done nothing else to this pile other than add water(no rian since april and it has been hot) since I built it July 6th.

The smell goes away in about 24 hrs, I have no problems with it attracting rodents (my dogs get them) and I get fly parasites to deal with the flies around the goats anyway.

GWN wrote:My office has a ton of shredded paper, and I have found that it really seems to ignite the pile.
I buy only recycled paper for the office so most of the paper is recycled to begin with.
It just seems that a pile requires SOOOO much more browns than greens.
I have been using alfalfa pellets to provide my greens when there are not enough from my kitchen (and garden wastes). They really get it going, and are very cheap.

Around 80 % of browns apparently if most of the composting sites are to be believed which makes sense to me for the browns are already half way broken down materials