Make hot compost by mixing my trimmings with civic compost?

markqz 9/26/2019, 2:34 pm

It's a long title, I know.

Due to chronic water shortage, I don't have enough organic material to create a hot compost pile.

I had just enough home-made compost to make my first SFG, though I knew the temperature never got much above the mid 90s (F). Still it seems to be working, with only a few weeds popping up -- and they might have blown in.

But we had a civic event recently where we could take away as much compost as we wanted. It's made from all the shredded backyard green waste. That compost was still hot to the touch as I shoveled it into barrels for the trip home.

Because it's made of backyard waste, it's probably not as nutritious as my own compost. I was thinking I could make a new compost pile out of my home anaerobic collection and the civic compost. That way there would be enough matter to jump start a hot pile, and there would be nutrition for the next SFG.

Is this naive, or might it just work?

markqz 10/12/2019, 3:19 pm

It might be working.

Two days ago I mixed up the free compost with my half bin of collectings. I was able to fill the compost bin nearly to the top. Today I dug in. It's a bit dry and I need to water it more later. But the temperatures I was able to catch with the IR thermometer ranged up to 142F, which is a lot higher than before.

**sanderson** 10/13/2019, 1:41 am

I didn't think it would heat up that much!!

dirtywerk 10/18/2019, 11:36 am

You could call/email your county extension agent to see if that office has any information about the local municipal composts, where it can be used and what needs to be added for the different applications.
One way to keep your compost wet is to reuse water from washing dishes, clothes and yourself. My neighbors did that in 2010-2011 when a bad drought gripped Texas. They used a submersible sump pump to drain the water from sinks and tubs into 5 gallon buckets. The water from the clothes washer was run into a surface mount drain pipe that went thru the exterior wall to a 250 gallon plastic tank that was drained using a garden hose at the bottom. Just don't use antibacterial soaps when reusing the water for composting and gardens. Regular soaps won't hurt anything and will help the water to penetrate deeper into the soils and compost.

Bill

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Make hot compost by mixing my trimmings with civic compost?

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