Are you a hottie?

camprn wrote:Yup that's true!

by the way, I put very very little dried blood in this pile. Maybe a pint. Most of this heat is generated down below the line where I started using it because I didn't have anymore grass (nitrogen) to cut and toss in with the leaves...

I also ran out of grass to add to all my leaves. Memo to self to start collecting grass earlier in the season next year.

This is my third attempt to post this with a picture. I built most of this compost pile one day (and could barely move) and finished it up the next. It has been a few days and today I moved some of the compost aside and got my hand close and felt a lot of heat. I went and got my meat thermometer (and camera), put it inside a ziplock, squished out all the air and zipped it close. I then wrapped the plastic around the stem so it would have good contact with the compost. I pushed it in and watched the temp go up for about a minute. Sorry it's a little blurry. I got close but didn't want my camera too close. Zooming in wouldn't get a clear picture at all.
It's almost at 140 degrees! I am a hottie officially, yay!

Tree leaves are about half down around my house...I've been making passes with my Honda Quarda-cut mulching mower every few days and adding to new compost piles...layering shredded leaves with horse manure and plant tops (beet, carrot, brocolli, cauliflower) from the fall garden. After hydrating the layers, my pile is steaming within 24 hours. I'll try to take some pics this afternoon.

Here are a couple shots of my compost pile(s). Here is the pile I built yesterday layering shredded oak leaves and horse manure (made another run to a local boarding facility and took home a pick-up load), then ran the water sprinkler on it for a while (it's finally raining today).


As you can see, another layer of leaves has fallen and I need to fire the mower up again soon. The blue tubs (cattle mineral tubs) contain finished compost, and the tubs help contain another compost pile that has been going for a few months.

Lovely looking compost heap as well as a decent supply of leaves to help make it beefore winter sets in ( We had 3 inches of snow on some of the local hills last night @ 100 ft above sea )

I think I'm a hottie!! I started my compost pile on Wednesday and just took the temperature of the pile and it's at 140°, outside temp is 67°. I'm so excited!

Hottie indeed

I think I'm off to a bad start with my compost. I have had my pile for about 2 weeks. It's a mixture of leaves and food scraps. I plan to make the pile larger today with more leaves and grass clippings as well. What else can I do?

My pile is about 56degrees. It's 28 degrees outside. I'm def not a hottie .

grass clippings will help...it's the proper balance of greens and browns that will get your pile cranking.

I am using aged horse manure, kitchen scraps, garden scraps, and shredded leaves and my temp is only around 100. I may need to turn, add more green and moisture.

Are you temping the center of your pile? Do you have enough green stuffs? Manure? Cornmeal is a quick cheap booster, as are alfalfa pellets, and blood or bone meal. Don't be afraid to use coffee grounds and the used filters, tea/tea bags, and toss in those egg shells too.
Do you have enough mass? 3x3x3 is the suggested minimum. Moisture is key too.
You do have some cold outdoor temps, and those sustained cold temps do make it harder to heat the pile, but it is achievable.

RoOsTeR wrote:Are you temping the center of your pile? Do you have enough green stuffs? Manure? Cornmeal is a quick cheap booster, as are alfalfa pellets, and blood or bone meal. Don't be afraid to use coffee grounds and the used filters, tea/tea bags, and toss in those egg shells too.
Do you have enough mass? 3x3x3 is the suggested minimum. Moisture is key too.
You do have some cold outdoor temps, and those sustained cold temps do make it harder to heat the pile, but it is achievable.

I'm temping pretty close to the center. My mass may be a bit short, so I will add more mass today. And I'm adding moisture whenever I add food scraps. I'm using coffee grounds, tea/tea bags, and egg shells too.

I don't have manure. I could get some, but I feel pretty reluctant too. I've read about needing a tetanus shot, possibly passing herbicides through the manure, and needing to wait 6 months to use any compost with chicken manure (which can be too acidic?), so I decided I was out of my league handling manure. Maybe I'm over thinking it?

Would I pick up blood meal at the nursery?

For cornmeal, do I just use what I have in my pantry? That's OK?

gardenertaylor wrote:For cornmeal, do I just use what I have in my pantry? That's OK?

Absolutely! I use ours right off the shelf at times.


Blood and bone meal can be found at your garden center. Feed stores carry 50# bags of alfalfa pellets for cheap...like under $20

Manure. That's a call only you can make. I don't add any of our horse manure within 30 days of shots, but that's just me and any other times, it's fair game. Same goes with the cow manure. I never medicate our chickens so it's always good to go. I am probably too cautious however, and have plenty of manure to be picky as to when I take it and when I don't. Heat and the composting process probably gets rid of the medication, but I have no proof either way and like I said, I can be picky Using manure is your call, however I would say you're compost would be the all the better for using some.

Thanks Rooster! You rock you hottie!

A gardener who deals with living soils would be precautions to have an up to date tetanus vaccine no matter if there is any possibility of manure in that soil or not. It only needs updating every 10 years and is the best prevention.

Here is a reasonably good article Risks of Tetanus Infection Lurks in More Places than just Rusty Nails

I use lots of poultry and sheep and horse manure and litter in my compost piles. My spring routine is to clean the chicken coop into a pile in the garden. After the pile has heated a couple times (3 weeks later) I plant all my squash in it. I take out a couple buckets to supplement anyone I think needs the boost.

So I think if you have access to manures use them, unless you are vegan or have other reasons not too.

Now something I wonder if I over think on..... Has any one ever asked and/or seen evidence of lingering herbicides in alfalfa hay pellets? Hay is a big source of that getting into our compost, it does not have to be fed first.

I added a lot more mass to my pile yesterday, and the temp went up 10 degrees overnight. I hope that means it's on track. And that was with forgetting to add the cornmeal, so I can still do that in a couple of days too to give it another boost.

And I can't understand why no one else seems to understand my interest/fascination with compost. A friend told me today that I can talk to HER about it, but if I'm not careful I may start losing some friends. heehheeheehheeeee

Good article on tetanus Turan. It shows how important it is to get our tetanus shots every ten years.

Gardenertaylor I think most of us here understand your fascination with compost! So just keep coming back and letting us all hear about your experiences. We all learn from each other and cheer each other on!

gardenertaylor wrote:I added a lot more mass to my pile yesterday, and the temp went up 10 degrees overnight. I hope that means it's on track. And that was with forgetting to add the cornmeal, so I can still do that in a couple of days too to give it another boost.

And I can't understand why no one else seems to understand my interest/fascination with compost. A friend told me today that I can talk to HER about it, but if I'm not careful I may start losing some friends. heehheeheehheeeee

With all New Square Foot Gardning methods and good composting you can soon grow large numbers of better ones .

It's official! I'm a hottie! My pile climbed from 66 degrees yesterday to 136.7 degrees today!

so gratifying . . .for my first time making compost . . .

Yay, congratulations!

I just picked up a compost "cage" from our local extension office...it's a vinyl coated metal 1 1/2" metal mesh, 42" x 42" x 30" ht (30 cu ft.).

I was getting just over 100 degrees with my pile style...layered this new bin with aged horse manure, kitchen scraps, garden scraps, and shredded leaves...added water and am getting 110 degrees. Here you see a new layer of carrot and beet tops, along with a few broccoli leaves. This has more mass than my piles on the ground.

My pile is cooking! 155 degrees today and I mixed it up today for the first time. I rather enjoyed the full steam and earthy smell in my face.

So, now what? I continue to mix it up every few days and eventually it will become compost. In the meantime, do I continue to feed it more leaves and grass? I notice the level of the pile went down a several inches when I turned it. Should I just keep adding food scraps? Or do I need to maintain the size of the pile with more than food scraps?

Thanks!

I think you have a couple of options...you could keep adding compost to your pile so things are continuously beeing broken down, then halting sometime before spring so it is finished before you need to use it...or you could compost in batches...letting one batch completely finish with the initial ingredients, then starting new batches when you have more material to compost (this ensures that you have batches that are 100% composted before you need them...new batches would be ready for use every few weeks or so). I am doing a bit of both.

landarch wrote:I think you have a couple of options...you could keep adding compost to your pile so things are continuously beeing broken down, then halting sometime before spring so it is finished before you need to use it...or you could compost in batches...letting one batch completely finish with the initial ingredients, then starting new batches when you have more material to compost (this ensures that you have batches that are 100% composted before you need them...new batches would be ready for use every few weeks or so). I am doing a bit of both.

This is why I like a 3 bay system of composting.

landarch wrote: I just picked up a compost "cage" from our local extension office...it's a vinyl coated metal 1 1/2" metal mesh, 42" x 42" x 30" ht (30 cu ft.).

I was getting just over 100 degrees with my pile style...layered this new bin with aged horse manure, kitchen scraps, garden scraps, and shredded leaves...added water and am getting 110 degrees. Here you see a new layer of carrot and beet tops, along with a few broccoli leaves. This has more mass than my piles on the ground.

Very nice bin and your pile is sure nice looking!