To Compost or not to Compost that is the question...

3x3 of leaves and etc. is about the right volume to start a hot pile. If you want to do anything smaller, it will rot away, but more slowly, probably won't get hot enough to kill off much of anything like seeds or bug eggs, and far more will be lost.

I'm not caring how much is lost in a certain fenced-in area out back. I'm just dumping scraps on it. We generally get lots of rain in the fall, which washes away nutrients. My naturally rotting kitchen scraps will help right the balance a little. In a few weeks you could never tell where I last dumped scraps. In spring I'll be planting there again.

@Sanderson:
  My Avatar, well, there's a story there and it's best enjoyed over a nice bourbon or a beer.  Hold on.  O.k., I was actually going to answer this in the "Senseless Banter" forum/thread, but I couldn't find it.  So... I guess I'll just clog this thread up or maybe an admin can cut and paste this somewhere out of the way.  This has nothing to do with compost, unless you want to count that IF I could have swung "harvesting" the leaf muck from this area it would have been an "o.k." compost material (run-off area from road, so hydro-carbons and such possible)
Anyway, I'm a civil engineer, that photo was from a work related project and it's one of my favorites.  There's a whole story that goes with it, but I'll try to keep this short.  I was called in on a drainage problem.  I'm actually standing in the middle of a big concrete ditch.  The ditch is submerged in about 2' of muck.  If you look real close in foreground, just in front of me and slightly to the left (picture left), you'll see dark "squarish" shape, that's one edge of the concrete ditch.  Behind me and picture left just in front of the closest tree is a drop inlet with a typical grate top.  Can not see, under 2' of muck, but I found it.  Testament to the importance of maintenance and the power of mother nature to just completely over take and smother our feeble man-made attempts at "control".  
I was called in to look at the drainage problem, there was also some erosion problems with where the drainage was now flowing (not pictured).  Anyway, all I saw was a big bog.  No indication of man-made structures at all... except for the end of this 4' diameter metal pipe about 50' away from where I'm standing.  You look up the pipe and all you see is darkness.  That's odd, where's the other end?  Why is it there?  In my younger days I would have grabbed a flashlight and just walked right up that pipe.  Now... well, I got a flash light... and I inched my way up the pipe.. after each inch I had to to calm myself and force myself to take the next inch.  I never made it all the way to the end, I chickened out, but I got close enough to see tree roots hanging down from the top of pipe to bottom and see and hear water trickling down top to bottom... ahhh.  
The drop inlet was at the end of the pipe, leaves and debris had built up over the grate and a tree had even started growing in that muck and debris and sending roots down through the grate in their quest for more water and nutrients.    I could go on with some of the other experiences of that, but I'll stop there, besides my bourbon is getting low.  

I set up some chicken wire as a catcher  and blew all the loose leaves towards it .
Once most leaves were at the wire I changed the blower in to leaf suck & mulch mode and sucked them up in just a few minutes  ...no more carrying a vac that gets heaver by the second around all over the back yard.

So far this year I've managed eight trash bags of compacted mulched leaves ..judging by the look of the trees i may get another six or seven then I'll be as happy as a sand boy .
For they will become leaf mould within two years and then get added to my home made compost when it's being put in the ANSFG beds

OK, zmoore, very helpful info. I have never done a hot pile, just traditional Rodale type composting. I did buy a tarp, 'cause I wanted a camo tarp....lol

I will stick a whole butch of the leaves on my pile and give it a good turn. Then maybe stick some more leaves back for the spring. Not sure where, maybe next to the other pile?

Ever since I joined ANSFG I've been experimenting and playing at seeing what works well for compost for me as I have a bust up back and various other joint problems etc.

Some types of leaves break down much quicker than others .. For instance Quernus Quernus ( True English oak ) take several years to break down if they are not mulched first .
 I found that out when I used them in my hot composting piles .

The cold piles that have been turned over only once a year with them in have taken nearly five years for the majority of them to break down into usable material  , I'm using it for the first time this autumn

Wow, plantoid, no idea the leaves took so long to break down. I filled my re-purposes window boxes last spring with 1/2 leaves and topped with MM, and by the time it was potato harvest, the leaves were gone. But it was summer....warmer temps.

Ugh, I almost had this done and then lost it to "draft" after preview.  Well, here we go again.
Score Materials:
Was out Saturday morning helping my daughter set up for a Girl Scout yard Sale.  I was close to the Local Starbucks, so when I was done I took a chance and stopped by, SCORE! Coffee grounds (plastic bag full).  I had some coffee grounds, shredded paper, banana peels from work (small bucket), so once I got back home I ran over to neighbors and got a few buckets of horse manure to "round it out".  It's an all "green" mix except for sawdust with horse manure, but I had just added a layer of leaves last week, so why not.


Dump Materials:
I opened the pile up and was greeted with warmth and steam.  Steam just doesn't photograph well.  Anyway, I then dumped my materials into the middle.


Mix Pile:
I didn't flip the pile this time (too lazy and it was raining a little).  I just mixed the stuff up in the middle and tried to pull some stuff from the outside edges into the middle.  Rooting around I discovered the hair I added from a couple weeks ago hadn't broke down much and was clumping, tried to spread it around more and break up clumps.  


Cover Pile:
That's my camouflage tarp per Yolo's suggestion.  Not a good picture to show it off.  While I was rooting around I noticed some of my leaves were dry, apparently I didn't soak them enough last time.  So, since it was raining anyway, I left the tarp pulled back to let mother nature soak the pile for me a little. 


I can't believe how much I enjoy this.  I mean, it's just a pile of rotting stuff.  Somehow it's kind of fascinating and "fun" to play with.

Yep, "fun" is the right word. I added some more grass clippings and chopped leaves to my flower bed compost pile yesterday. Today, Starbucks and horse manure.

I've  found that lots of brushed out dog hair hair in a pile takes quite a while to break down whether it's a damp or dryer pile ......... hot or cold .
So in the end I took the balls of hair apart and very  lightly sprinkled them across each layer of material on the heap , that worked well .

No new pictures to post
I turned my pile this weekend and did add some more coffee grounds from Starbucks.  Pile was "warm", but had cooled down significantly. I left exposed (uncovered) last week to let some rain in and didn't get it covered back, so got a little too much rain.  Not so much that it started stinking on me.  It should be "moist" enough for now.  So, I threw in some more coffee grounds (that should warm it up a little), turned it, and covered it back up.  I only noticed one earth worm while turning.  
Anyway, wasn't looking too bad.  I came to this thread in part to get an idea for "start date", I didn't really note that down.  Based on previous post dates I'm going to say this pile was officially underway on October 26, but that includes some leftover compost from the summer that was already partially decomposed.  So, I'm at about the 3 week mark"ish".  Been fortunate so far with unseasonably warm weather, but cooler weather seems to be starting to set in now.  I'm just curious to see the progress over the winter and get an idea for time and then compare that over spring and summer with other piles. 
Anyway, still having fun in a weird sort of way.

Are you able to stop adding to this current pile and start a new one ?
That way you'll have usable compost for your beds in a few more days ...

 Lot's of folk  fail to do that and wonder why their pile never gets finished in a reasonable time

Covering the pile with a slightly breathable tarp helps keep heat in , ammonia in .
The slight trace of ammonia helps  feeds the bacteria that breaks the heap down , the tarp also keeps excessive rain water out.

I think I need to do a second pile too. My pile never seems warm, ever, but it is decomposing things and turning into black gold from the bottom up. When I turned it this weekend, TONS of big wigglers. I covered them lightly, I think they are diving deep to make it through the winter here. Didn't want the birds to eat my helpers!

I think I will start a Pile Jr. for next year, and tarp both for the winter. I have never tarped the pile before, but scored a camo tarp from Walmart!

Zmoore wrote:
Anyway, still having fun in a weird sort of way.

Me too, means I'm a real wierdo....


I added tops to these 2 so called bins, just four tie downs and I can remove them for moisture if needed. With all the veggies I add, moisture seems to be added with them for as soon as I chop them up their juiced...

Jimmy cee - I have been contemplating putting a shed over the top of my compost piles also.  How about a rain gutter attached to the top and a rain barrel to collect the water.  I really need water for my compost piles in the summer and my city water has chlorine so I try to collect rain water whenever I can.  

I bought one of those Auger ground anchors (40 inches tall and 4 inch diameter auger) from tractor supply and tried it out today.  It does not work real well with a fresh pile.  The auger portion gets all tangled up in the leaves/pine straw.  But when used in a partially decomposed pile it works real nice.

I have an interesting thing happening, I planted a squash in August and it just didn't seem to sprout and I forgot about it.  Suddenly in mid October it starts taking off.  I was going to pull it several times as there just isn't enough time for it to produce.

But it's a stubborn little cuss!  After two freezes it's still alive and I realized I think it's because the compost pile is right next to it and is keeping it warm enough to live.  So today I constructed an A-frame around it with 6 mil plastic and then a mylar survival blanket over that.  Just for fun I'm going to see how long I can keep it going.  I'll just keep that pile fresh and hot.

I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow. 

It did get me thinking.  This pile is about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide.  If this works, I could actually build a hoop house over hillside and the pile next year and maybe grow things that need it a little warmer.  I can just lift up the side to reload the compost.

As hubby says, my wheels are always a'spinnin'!

Isn't that true!

yolos wrote:Jimmy cee - I have been contemplating putting a shed over the top of my compost piles also.  How about a rain gutter attached to the top and a rain barrel to collect the water.  I really need water for my compost piles in the summer and my city water has chlorine so I try to collect rain water whenever I can.  

I bought one of those Auger ground anchors (40 inches tall and 4 inch diameter auger) from tractor supply and tried it out today.  It does not work real well with a fresh pile.  The auger portion gets all tangled up in the leaves/pine straw.  But when used in a partially decomposed pile it works real nice.

Maybe because that's the way I did it, a removable top is a good feature, especially if your just making one.
We have chlorine water that I use in my compost pile when needed, direct from our incoming line. Hasn't affected any living beings in my compost, zillions of worms live there.
Although as I mentioned before my discarded veggies are loaded with moisture, I find I need very little water..
Why not just go with the removable top, it helps keep the hot sun off also.

To the left higher up the hill is the a frame which is constructed of 2, 2x6 gridwall panels zip tied together horizontally.  The plastic covers the plant/a-frame and the compost pile to the right.  It is covered in plastic and then covered with a second layer of mylar survival blanket material.

All the other zucchini and squash plants died except this one and another set of spaghetti squash that have been being covered.  I forgot to cover them last night but they were perhaps 40% covered and survived somehow!

Tomorrow I'm going to grab some fresh cow poo and straw and put two more wheelbarrow loads on top of the compost pile to cook.

Is that frost on the ground?

Do you think I should harvest the sweet potatoes in the totes? The vines are still alive.

sanderson wrote:Is that frost on the ground?

Do you think I should harvest the sweet potatoes in the totes?  The vines are still alive.

Yes, that's frost.  We had a heavy frost last night an light frosts a couple times earlier this week.  

I harvested my sweet potatoes this week.  I can't do the curing process, we just eat them as is and have been quite happy with the taste.  We had one of the newly harvested ones for dinner last night and it was great!  

If you haven't had a frost you don't have to harvest them, they'll keep growing.  The plant I harvested last night had slugs on a couple of the potatoes and had I not pulled them they were fixin' to feast on them.  One plant produced about 15-20 lbs of potatoes.  I haven't weighed them yet, they're drying off in the wheelbarrow so I can knock the dirt off and bring them in.

Thanks. I'll hold off. Can I dry mine outside on a table in the sun, or do they have to be in the shade?

Getting back to the composting topic, I use City water for composting and for watering. We are periodically chlorinated but it doesn't seem to bother anything, including the red wigglers.

Me too. No problems at all.

My two cents on chlorinated water:
I'm personally on well water, but I work with municipal water.  Regular chlorinated water from the tap is not a problem.  You can drink it   "Dosage" is small enough to not be a problem and when exposed to air it dissipates quickly.  Occasionally they may treat a section or area of water line system by adding additional chlorination to the line in areas where water has gone "stale", normally in a situation where water usage on a line is down and the water sits in the pipe too long before being used.  Still not a problem, still within human consumption tolerance, but it will smell stronger.
The only problem I can think of for chlorinated water (besides some sort of disaster at the treatment plant) is from pools.  Much higher concentration in part because people do things in pools that they shouldn't , not for human consumption for both of previous reasons.  Also, can at least stress plants.  Pools aren't supposed to be drained onto the ground, but if you've ever seen it and it happens to be in a grassy area, grass nearest the point of discharge will turn light yellow and it will expand out in a sort of "plume" from there.  Chlorine still dissipates fairly quickly when exposed to air, it's just strong enough at release point to at least stress plants.  
Anyway, chlorinated water from tap fine, from pool not so much.

My city (Ottawa, Canada) uses chloramine instead of chlorine in the water supply.  Here is what they say about it (assuming one can believe what government says):

Q. Is it okay to use chloraminated water on plants, vegetables and fruit trees?

A.  Yes. The small amount of chloramine present in the water should not affect plants of any type. Beneficial bacteria are generally protected by the soil in which they live.