Compost

131°F – a new high for this pile!

122°F again today and I decided to give it a good turn after adding browns, greens, and diluted urine. Then carbon was torn up cardboard again dampened with water, garden straw, and dead leaves – about a bucket in total.

122°F today in the hottest part of the pile. I poked the thermometer around a few spots to check.

115°F – let’s go!

105°F this morning before I started messing with it. I added:

• A bucket full of mustard leaves chopped from the hill
• Half a bucket of torn up cardboard
• Half a bucket of shredded packing paper
• 1/4 bucket of garden straw
• 1/4 bucket of kitchen scraps
• 1/2 gallon of coffee grounds

100°F – The top of the pile seemed dry so I watered it evenly and fairly lightly.

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