Compost

94°F

78°F on the new compost pile this morning. With the inputs I added this week, the pile is about 3′ by 2′ high. Still could use more inputs.

60°F in the warmest part of the pile. Ambient soil temp in other places of the yard is 48°F. Since starting the pile on the 8th, I’ve added a few more kitchen scraps and cardboard. And today I added more cardboard, about 10 gallons of used coco coir based potting mix, and half a bucket of cut up tomato plants, and some watermelon rinds.

NEW PILE. Didn’t have quite as many inputs as recommended to start a hot pile, but I needed to use the kitchen scraps we’ve been saving up. With those, plus used coffee grounds, torn up cardboard, leaves, etc, this pile is starting off around 3′ x 3′ x 1.5′.

For the old pile – I moved it out of the geobin and into a little 5′ x 2′ x 16″ tall pit I made with a chicken wire border. I expect it will cool immediately to ambient soil temps and in further breakdown fungi will become more important.

85°F – Yesterday was at 100°, so this huge of a drop in one day, and the shrinkage I’ve noticed in the last few days, tells me the pile is in a different phase now. I turned the pile and confirmed very few remaining kitchen scraps.

The leaves put in over the last few weeks have not broken down much at all because they are carbon heavy and break down by fungi rather than bacteria. I expect them to be around for months.

I added

• 1 bucket of cardboard torn into ~1.5 inch squares
• 1 bucket of garden straw
• 3 cups of coffee grounds
• 3 cups of kitchen scraps

I don’t think this will reheat the pile. But it does add structure and space for oxygen, which should decrease anaerobic risk.

I want this pile ready by March or April. So the plan now is to stop adding greens, to only add browns if it develops a moisture problem, and to turn only every few weeks. Basically I need to mostly leave this one alone.

Starting a new pile requires a lot of inputs and is more difficult to get going well in cooler weather, so I’m trying to figure out the best way to do that now.

100°F – I can see the pile is shrinking. It doesn’t smell bad, and I don’t think the rain has drenched it too much. Lot’s of cardboard covers it. As I understand it, shrinking at this stage with this temperature means decomposition is happening well.

106°F – It rained last night and today. Predicted to rain for a few days. I covered the pile further with cardboard.

110°F

110°F

110°F

108°F – Because we’ve had several days around the same temp, I decided to give it a turn. I added two buckets of dried leaves, some radish plants, and a few cups of spent coffee grounds.

112°F

113°F

108°F

100°F

105°F | Ok, I went as long as I could stand it and decided to mess with the pile. I wanted to give it a few days to see if it would jump up to the coveted 120°F to 135°F range, but it did not. And I had a few bags of kitchen scraps sitting in a 5-gallon bucket out there needing to be used. I took this opportunity to cut up the big pumpkin we grew, and two small ones.

I chopped everything up well. I moved the pile to one side of the Geobin to expose the bottom where I put down a couple layers of cardboard. I did the same on the other side. It’s possible some of the heat has been leaking out of the bottom, but researching this a bit makes me think that probably has not been a factor. Added the cardboard any way, and it gave me a chance to see what’s going on in the pile.

Fortunately, I didn’t see too many big pieces of material. That tells me I did a decent job of cutting things up as I threw them in, and that stuff is being broken down well. I added straw, dried leaves, all the pumpkin chunks, kitchen scraps, and more of the spent coffee grounds. Lastly, I added a small amount of urine diluted with about half a gallon of water.

It’s good to see the size of the pile be a legit 3′ x 3′ now, or maybe 3′ wide and about 2.5′ tall. By the time I was done and put the thermometer back in, it was down to 80°F, which is a bummer, but I really wanted to add all this stuff and see if we can get it past that 120°F mark we always seem to be stuck at. Time will tell.

111°F

110°F this morning. I moved the thermometer just a little bit and it went up to 114°F. So it’s basically maintaining the same temp for 4-days. I’m torn. I want it to jump up to that very active range of 120°F to 135°F but as I understand it, it’s best to wait a few more days to determine if this is actually a stall. If it stays under 120°F for 3 more days, I think I’ll cut up the other pumpkins I have along with kitchen scraps and bunch more dry leaves, etc.

116°F

113°F, smell dampened