TrolleyDriver's Compost Thermometer

Are you still turning Bins 1 and 2?

sanderson wrote:Are you still turning Bins 1 and 2?

I'm no longer turning them. It's been too cold and messy (snow). The ambient temps are better today and tomorrow so I had thought of turning them. But now it's wet outside and I am too busy with other things. Bin #2 looks to be just about finished for this year. It did not heat back up the last time I did anything with it. Bin #1 is still cooking.

There's not going to be much time to do anything significant for the rest of this year. Early next week I have some appointments, then we leave to spend time with our daughter and pick up my Mum and bring her back here for Christmas. After that we will be into the Holiday Season followed by taking Mum back home. It's going to be crazy.

I'm trying to decide what to do with kitchen scraps over the winter. Once the contents of the plastic bin freeze up, I won't be able to add kitchen scarps to it. Mrs TD wants to put them in our "green bin" which the city empties each week. I'm thinking of getting a metal garbage can with a tight fitting lid and put that within easy access to the back door. I would use that for storing the kitchen scraps until things warm up. The problem is that if we get a warm spell (above freezing) during the winter then it may get smelly. BTW I cannot have an indoor worm bin and we do not have space in our freezers for storing kitchen scraps. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I am open to suggestions.

During the winter, I freeze my veggie scraps in a large tupperware container in the freezer.  I use these winter frozen veggies throughout the year for the worm bin.

Readings for Thursday Dec 1, 2016. The ambient temperature is +6C (42.8F) under cloudy conditions.

New Bin #1 - Now at 53.8C (128.8F) which is down from 56.0C (132.8F) yesterday. Definitely cooling down.

New Bin #2 - Now at 10.5C (50.9F) which is down slightly from 10.9C (51.6F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 13.8C (56.8F) which is down from 14.9C (58.8F) yesterday.

Ugh!
I just lost a portion of response because I hit the "wrong button" to check on something.

Anyway, I was just getting to "my 2 cents" on your situation.

Problem is I'm 3-4 "planting zones" below you, I'm 7b.  I really don't know your weather situation.  From where I'm standing you're in the "great white north".... good luck?  everything is frozen now right?  
Here in Virginia we get ups and downs in temperature and by up and down I mean below and above FREEZING, generally we're above freezing on average.  So, for me, at worst I have a week or so where the pile is frozen and I just hold some material in buckets in the garage for a week, which for me means maybe I have two 5 gallon buckets of material saved up before I can get out to the pile and split it open and insert new stuff to the core.
I think your idea of a larger sealed garbage can is good, but you need to watch the amount of "reserve".  A typical "pile/bin" of 1 c.y is about forty 5 gallon buckets.  So, let's say a "large" sealed can is about 30 gallons, that's about 6 five gallon buckets or about 15% of the pile.  I tend to shuffle in additional material to my pile over the winter at about 3 gallons a week, maybe 10 gallons max if weather creates a back-up.  
If there are "windows" for you to be able to add material over the window, i.e. everything doesn't stay frozen solid, I think your larger sealed trash can is a good idea, just limit the amount of "backlog" you allow based on the amount of pile you have to distribute it into.  The trash can getting "stinky" shouldn't be a problem because as soon as the weather breaks and you can insert into your piles, you've done that before it had  a chance to stink, Theoretically  
So, in summary, I think your idea of a larger collecting can when temperatures are low and/or things are frozen is fine.  Just try to gauge the volume of piles you have versus the volume of material you have stock piled.  If I recall correctly you have 3 bins of about 1 c.y. or forty 5 gallon buckets each.  Personally, I'd be a little leery of changing the pile nitrogen content by more than 10% at a time, so let's round up and say a "jolt" is no more than one 5 gallon bucket... well, never mind, you get the idea.  I think for your situation I's recommend two 30 gallon sealed containers.  1 for kitchen scrapes/greens and once that's about half full STOP until you get the second one full of "browns".  That's worst case scenario, really you feed the greens in as soon as you can kind of keeping a cut check feeling on it to judge when you need to add more "browns" and ALL additions stop about 2-3 months prior to wanting "finish" in the working piles.  You just have to start new ones at that point or just pass on saving material.

Readings for Friday Dec 2, 2016. The ambient temperature is +4C (39F) under cloudy conditions.

New Bin #1 - Now at 52.6C (126.7F) which is down from 53.8C (128.8F) yesterday. 

New Bin #2 - Now at 11.0C (51.8F) which is UP slightly from 10.5C (50.9F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 14.2C (57.6)  which is UP slightly from 13.8C (56.8F) yesterday.

Updated temperature graphs as of Dec 2, 2016.

For each chart the left hand scale can be read as either Celsius or Fahrenheit. For Series 1 (the lower line) read the scale as Celsius and for Series 2 (the upper line) read as Fahrenheit.

Thanks for doing the conversions, TD. for lazy people like myself.

Readings for Saturday Dec 3, 2016. The ambient temperature is +2C (36F) under sun and partial cloud.

New Bin #1 - Now at  53.2C (127.8F) which is UP (strangely) from 52.6C (126.7F) yesterday. 

New Bin #2 - Now at 11.4C (52.5F) which is UP slightly from 11.0C (51.8F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 13.9C (57F) which is DOWN slightly from 14.2C (57.6) yesterday. Some more kitchen scraps were added yesterday.

Readings for Sunday Dec 4, 2016. The ambient temperature is +1C (33F) under sunny conditions.

New Bin #1 - Now at 49.4C (121F) which is well DOWN from 53.2C (127.8F) yesterday. 

New Bin #2 - Now at 11.1C (52F) which is DOWN slightly from 11.4C (52.5F)  yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 12.5C (54.5F) which is DOWN from 13.9C (57F) yesterday. Some more kitchen scraps were added yesterday.

Readings for Monday Dec 5, 2016. The ambient temperature is -3C (26F) under partially sunny conditions with chance of snow flurries for the next three days. We got several inches of snow overnight and into this morning. Our son and his wife could not get into work early this morning. It was taking people up to two hours for what is normally a 20 to 30 minute drive.

New Bin #1 - Now at 44.4C (112F) which is DOWN from 49.4C (121F) yesterday. The temp in this one is dropping quickly. I noticed that the depth of the materials in the bin has dropped a lot from when it was started.

New Bin #2 - Now at 10.3C (50,5F) which is DOWN from 11.1C (52F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 10.2C (50.4F) which is DOWN from 12.5C (54.5F) yesterday. Some more kitchen scraps were added yesterday.

Photo in the snow of Bin#2 on the left, #1 on the right and plastic bin further to the right.

Readings for Tuesday Dec 6, 2016. Today is the 59th anniversary of the date when I first stepped onto Canadian soil as we moved from England. The ambient temperature is -0C (32F) under sunny conditions with more snow on the way tonight and tomorrow.

New Bin #1 - Now at 40C (104F) which is DOWN from 44.4C (112F) yesterday. The temp in this one continues to drop drop quickly. 

New Bin #2 - Now at 9.5C (49.1F) which is DOWN from 10.3C (50.5F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 8.6C (47.5F) which is DOWN from 10.2C (50.4F) yesterday.

Readings for Wednesday Dec 7, 2016. The ambient temperature is +3C (37F) under sunny conditions.

I may get one more reading in tomorrow but then I will be away for almost a week.

New Bin #1 - Now at 33.7C (92.7F) which is DOWN from 40C (104F) yesterday. The temp in this one continues to drop drop quickly. 

New Bin #2 - Now at 8.8C (47.8F) which is DOWN from 9.5C (49.1F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 7.3C (45.1F) which is DOWN from 8.6C (47.5F) yesterday.

Looks like two of the bins will soon be down to ambient temperature and New Bin #1 is heading quickly down to the mark.

This will be the last reading for a few days. 

Readings for Thursday Dec 8, 2016. The ambient temperature is +0C (32F) with occasional snow squalls (almost whiteout conditions). Going to get quite cold for the next two days with highs around -5C (23F) and lows down to -14C (7F).

New Bin #1 - Now at 28.8C (83.8F) which is DOWN from 33.7C (92.7F) yesterday. The temp in this one continues to drop drop quickly. 

New Bin #2 - Now at 8.2C (46.8F) which is DOWN from 8.8C (47.8F) yesterday.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at 6.7C (44.1F) which is DOWN from 7.3C (45.1F) yesterday.

One week since the previous reading and the temps are way down.

Readings for Thursday Dec 15, 2016. The ambient temperature is -17C (2F) with lots of snow on the ground and 53 Kmh (33 mph) wind gusts. Low tonight is forecast to be -25C (-13F). 

New Bin #1 - Now at 5.2C (41.4F)  which is WAY DOWN from 28.8C (83.8F) one week ago.  

New Bin #2 - Now at 4.5C (40.1F) which is DOWN from 8.2C (46.8F) one week ago.

Old Plastic Bin - Now at -0.9C (30.4F) which is DOWN from 6.7C (44.1F) one week ago.

I think we are just about done.

Final temperature graphs as of Dec 16, 2016. Last temps were recorded on Dec 15.

For each chart the left hand scale can be read as either Celsius or Fahrenheit. For Series 1 (the lower line) read the scale as Celsius and for Series 2 (the upper line) read as Fahrenheit.

Looking forward now to what can be accomplished when the weather warms up in 2017. 

Santa's Helper visited our local Lee Valley Tools store this morning. I'm pretty sure she picked up a Reotemp Compost Thermometer. Could this be the end of the digital thermometers?

Excited for you. Heck, with the price of your digital thermometers, you can stick them all over the place.

sanderson wrote:  Excited for you.  Heck, with the price of your digital thermometers, you can stick them all over the place.

I've got three of those digital thermometers in different locations in my workshop where I will be doing my seed starting. Think I'll order some more. 

All three bins are reading 1.6C (35F) which is just slightly above the outside ambient temperature.

The height of the material in New Bin #1 has decreased considerably from when it was first created as can be seen in the following photo. The original height was near the top of the 2x6 horizontal piece of wood. My guess is that it is down about one foot.

I wonder if I should be bringing this thread back to life now that I am back into composting.

I removed and sifted the contents of the old plastic bin and the hardware cloth bin. The leftovers from the sifting process are now sitting in one big pile on top of a tarp. That pile was completed yesterday in the evening. I just checked the temperature of the temporary pile using one of the digital thermometers. Our current outside ambient temperature is a measly 3C (37.4F) but the temp inside the pile is 18.6C (65.5F). I think something is starting to happen inside that pile.

It comes as a big surprise to lots of folks that once you aireate a compost pile with some remaining decomposable material in it , it starts to heat up .  very slowly in the first few days then slowly but surely the internal temps of th hep start to crawl to 150 oF ( ish ) so long as the volume of the pile is big enough & damp enough those little bacteria  seem to be able to work & grow new friends several degrees below freezing point .



 As a kid in the 1950's my parents had a small holding on which we kept animals for our own use / consumption  & 2,000 egg producing chickens
  The resultant dung & straw heap seemed enormous to me as a five year old  I guess it was about 20 x 20 x 8 foot high by spring time .

Every spring the local farmer would pay dad for the muck heap . He'd come along with  a horse & cart which his wife drove & with him on his blue & orange WW 2 petrol paraffin Fordson Major tractor with a front loading fork that had iron spud wheels instead of rubber tyres & ship the lot out to his farm .

Once the top two feet of the muck hill were removed the muck below had composted enough to be too hot & uncomfortable to put your hand on a newly opened up section. Yet we never ever turned the muck heap over  for not only would it hav ben hard work it would have been liable to spontaneously catch fire .

Plantoid, Interesting read. Thanks

TD, Sounds like something is happening. Do you have enough raw materials to mix in and start a new cage?

sanderson wrote:...
TD,  Sounds like something is happening.  Do you have enough raw materials to mix in and start a new cage?

I've got stored leaves, coffee grounds and the stuff I picked up at our friends' chicken coop. As well, I've not yet emptied and screened the stuff from 3x3x3 bin. It's gone down to about half it's starting height. So I should have more than enough materials to get both the 3x3x3 and the plastic bin cooking. I'll try fast hot composting in the 3x3x3. The plastic bin is my "go to" bin for kitchen scraps and therefore just sits and does its thing. I may decommission or move the hardware cloth bin for the summer because I need that space for growing veggies. I won't be building a "new cage".

What is that white stuff?