Compost: Berkeley 18 day [hot] method

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I turned my pile yesterday - whew!  Fresh damp cow manure makes a HEAVY pile.  It finally, slowly inched up to 130 and then was dropping.

Resting temp when turned yesterday afternoon was 80 but it's climbed back up to 100 this morning so we'll see when I need to turn again.  

Whew!  I'm out of gardening shape, turning that pile was hard work, LOL!

garden muscles are the best to have, builds vegetable character.

has55 wrote:

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I turned my pile yesterday - whew!  Fresh damp cow manure makes a HEAVY pile.  It finally, slowly inched up to 130 and then was dropping.

Resting temp when turned yesterday afternoon was 80 but it's climbed back up to 100 this morning so we'll see when I need to turn again.  

Whew!  I'm out of gardening shape, turning that pile was hard work, LOL!

garden muscles are the best to have, builds vegetable character.

Either that or more likely turns you INTO A CHARACTER, lol!

Audrey, would you do another Berkeley in the winter? I think I will stick to the 9 good months. The hybrid pile I have going (gone) is just to weird for me.

Good question. I think next winter I will build large, cold composting piles from late fall on and simply let them break down over time so that I have bacteria dominated compost (Berkeley) and fungal dominated compost (cold composting) which will add the maximum nutrients and variety into my gardens.

Since I have the room to do that easily, it really depends on if I can learn the patience required to not see a pile and want to turn it, LOL!

Current temps have crept back up to 110 degrees. It's like Berkeley in slooooow motion :-)

I like that idea, bacterial Berkeley and cold mold. Now that I know I can collect leaves from some of my neighbors, I would like a winter leaf mold pile. Surely, on or 2 turns during the winter would be okay.

So I called a local Starbucks and they bag the used coffee ground for people to take. Its first come first serve bases. I made contact with a local horse back riding ranch for horse poo. I can have a much as I want just have to help clean the stalls. My in laws property backs up to woods so theres plenty of leaves for the taking. And I have a little more than a 5 gallon bucket of fruit and vegetables scrapes from the kitchen. Now for my question do I need more fruit and vegetables scrapes before I start a pile or will what I have been enough? I am going to make a 3x3x3 pile since this is my first go around with this method.

mischief, the composting team will chime in on setting it up correctly, but I'm impressed with all your hard work of gathering the material and the blessing of having some of it  right at home. that's great, awesome!

Hopefully Camp and Audrey will also chime in.

My thought is that lots leaves and horse poo, with a bit of veggies and Starbucks, will do. 6" layer of leaves topped 1-2" of poo (with a touch of veggies and Starbucks), water well, repeat, ending with a layer of wet leaves. Build it within 24 hours. Day one. There after, turn every other day starting on the 4th or 5th day. 7 times.

has55 wrote:mischief, the composting team will chime in on setting it up correctly, but I'm impressed with all your hard work of gathering the material and the blessing of having some of it  right at home. that's great, awesome!

I meant mschaef, but spell check kept changing it. I didn't catch it in time.

Thanks Sanderson for the advice. I'll give it a go hopefully this weekend.

Has55 mischief works just as good. Some that know me would probably say fits my very a little to well. Lol

Once you get to know the materials that you'll routinely have available you'll get a sense of what works. Just like Sanderson mentioned with her particular layers of certain depths or sizes. It's a pretty forgiving process and if it doesn't heat (and it's moist and had good air), you need more nitrogen or greens in it. If it's stinking you probably need more browns or carbons.

Also, this compost calculator someone posted elsewhere on this site is a very handy tool:
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwaste/fileshtml/organics/compostcalc.htm

To make it as simple to calculate as possible, I just use a particular unit of measure such as a 5 gallon bucket and enter "1" or however many buckets for that item. Find your material or if it isn't listed go look online and find the carbon to nitrogen rating of it and pick something close to that ratio.

It will automatically calculate the ratio of your pile and you can see if you're low or high in carbon or nitrogen until you get to the right ration which is best about 25:1 to 30:1

That may sound complex but really it isn't!!! You'll get the hang of it very quickly and I warn you in advance that checking the temperature of you hot compost pile is a very addictive behavior

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:That may sound complex but really it isn't!!!  You'll get the hang of it very quickly and I warn you in advance that checking the temperature of  you hot compost pile is a very addictive behavior

+1

I forgot to add that I add a little bit of blood meal to a couple layers to make sure it "heats up."

has55 wrote:

has55 wrote:mischief, the composting team will chime in on setting it up correctly, but I'm impressed with all your hard work of gathering the material and the blessing of having some of it  right at home. that's great, awesome!

I meant mschaef, but spell check kept changing it. I didn't catch it in time.

mschaef wrote:Thanks Sanderson for the advice. I'll give it a go hopefully this weekend.

Has55 mischief works just as good. Some that know me would probably say fits my very a little to well. Lol

can you believe it. I picked the wrong quote.
try it again.

Pride goeth before the fall. The dried leaf - fresh seaweed - fresh horse manure - Starbucks compost I built on Feb 22 did not take off. I don't know the exact reason but there are 2 possibilities. One, the pile was only about 28" high. The leaves just kept compressing as the seaweed and manure layers were added. Second, the leaves compressed so much that it was basically a wet block. I added more leaves to this pile than I have to any other pile.

So, March 3, I took everything out and "fluffed it up. DH bought some alfalfa hay, got some more pooh and Starbucks, and I rebuilt with nice airy layers of hay, all the way to 36" inches. Today it is 140*F. Tomorrow is 1st turning, so I will see how it goes.

I like the alfalfa hay because it breaks down faster than baled bedding straw in a Berkeley pile. I also like it because it doesn't compress like leaves, so I will use both hay and leaves in the rest of the piles.

If everything settled and was a wet mass you did the right thing. By turning the pile you put into it a most important ingredient, O₂.

Information from a book,  The Compete Compost Gardening Guide, by Pleasant and Martin.  Fascinating to me for exploring many details of composting in my humble opinion, good pictures too. I keep this next to my Sq. Ft. Gardening books. 

What might be helpful to you is Chapter 3:  Where it describes a Hot Hospital Heap (similar to Berkeley 18 day)

"Some very good compost activators can be found at the feed store."  Call ahead to see what is available.
cottonseed meal
dry dog food (corn and soybean meals)
rabbit feed (alfalfa pellets)
poultry feed (soybean meal)
soybean meal- My personal experience with this is Wow.  The pile was smoking rather fierce.
canola meal
organic fertilizer (a blend of meals)

Look for protein content at about 16%.
Bypass feeds intended for pigs, which often contain fats.

LM, Thanks, Nice list. I have been using a bit of blood meal, even in the pile that fizzled.

Well... I have built two compost piles for this spring.  One is the largest pile I have ever made and I won't be turning it every other day or I would have no back left, LOL!  It's made with a little bit of everything including alfalfa, hay, straw, fresh cow manure, llama manure, chicken bedding and will get coffee grounds mixed in when I have them from our church coffee shop as well as kitchen compost waste as it occurs.  I will simply poke large holes in the pile when I need to aireate (sp?) it.  I won't need it until fall so I'll let nature take its course with just a little help.

Small pile (roughly a standard 4 x 4 x 4 size)  I'm turning this on a normal Berkeley schedule.
 

H U G E pile (I didn't even measure it, but it was about 1.5, 2 cubic yard trailers plus several wheelbarrow loads of fresh cow manure).  For perspective, that wheel barrow is quite a large size one.



It's so good to see a pile cooking again after the winter!

Audrey,  Thank you for sharing.  Can you post a photo of the finished product, maybe from a prior pile?  Thanks

PS: I found a half of a horse shoe the last time I turned my pile! How it got through 6 turnings I don't know.

I don't think I've ever taken a picture of the finished product!  I'm always too anxious to get it out into my garden, LOL!  I'll post one when the smaller pile finishes.

I must apologize.  I tried multiple times to upload pictures of how I make compost in less than 2 weeks.  I did find the link to the Youtube garden expert where I learned to do it.

If I did it right, follow the link below to see how to beat the Berkeley Method.  As I previously mentioned, we use nutritional yeast, unsulphured molasses, and blood meal in lieu of beer, cola, and ammonia.

Usable soil in 7-10 days

Razed Bed wrote:I must apologize.  I tried multiple times to upload pictures of how I make compost in less than 2 weeks.  I did find the link to the Youtube garden expert where I learned to do it.

If I did it right, follow the link below to see how to beat the Berkeley Method.  As I previously mentioned, we use nutritional yeast, unsulphured molasses, and blood meal in lieu of beer, cola, and ammonia.

Usable soil in 7-10 days

I've seen that in your other posts - and I thought I remembered seeing pictures (am I imagining that?!)  Pretty cool.  

In past years I would probably do that, but now I'm not in urgent need of compost so I can slow down and let nature do a little more of the work.  The physical part of the work is important for me as I am a professional artist and spend most of my day sitting at my art desk or my computer.

Finally built the 1st Berkeley pile of 2015. Shredded dried leaves, shredded alfalfa hay, dried horse manure, produce, 33 gallons of City compost (screened for the pieces of wood), 3 beers, 1 cup molasses, 2 quarts spoiled milk and 1 cup total of blood meal.
Built Sunday night, Aug 2, base temp 80*F, the same as the MM in the beds. Tonight, Aug 4, it is 140*F. I made a mistake in thinking we were going out of town on the 18th, it is the 14th. So, again, I will not be able to get the total number of turnings done on the correct days.

Who got the three beers, you or the compost?