Never before has our 1X1 meter compost bin been so warm. We must be doing something right.
After a tip on this board, we got ourselves a compost aerator that shows the temperature inside the compost as well. It's fun. Purple is cold and pink is warm.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/fergina/volkstuin/airator1_resize.jpg)
Before it's put into the compost
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/fergina/volkstuin/airator2_resize.jpg)
We just leave it sit in the bin
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/fergina/volkstuin/airator3_resize.jpg)
Pull it out to get some air in and check the temperature, this is good and warm.
looks like u have sum hot sfuff there :)
nice and warm mmmmmmmm
I bought one of those compost aerators with my naughty seed order which arrived Saturday morning. Took it down the plot - my compost was a bit smelly (not a lot) and wet, so relayered it with newspaper.
MV,
Did you cover it to keep off the rain we are getting at last?
Phil
We usually cover it to keep it from drying out. A couple of buckets of canal water when it looks dry-ish inside. Compost can be quite moist. If it doesn't work, it's usually too dry in my experience.
We don't worry when it's not warm (and up till now, ours has never been really warm), it just takes longer but you'll get good compost anyway but it may take up to a year when cold.
I'm in a bit of a quandry as my current heap has warmed up -but I'm still adding stuff. Should I just keep adding to it, or stop and start a new heap?
Jeremy
We just keep adding chopped up stuff on top as the heap is shrinking, every couple or three weeks we mix a bit.
We have the dalek things and the lid stays on - maybe we had been overdoing it with the recycled tea.
wish my compost was warm. I bought one of those aerators but the compost is so compacted I couldn't get it down very far. too much grass I think. I know I should take it all out and include some shredded paper when I put it back.
MM
Same happened to me MM. I used a post hole digger to make a hole in the middle to stick the aerator in. I keep adding stuff and pull the aerator up every now and then (and push it back in) to keep it from compacting too much.
thanks ina
Finally cleared out what was in the new zealand type bin system - mainly rubbish, and started a new compost heap, layering it. Checked it at the weekend, and my tip went pink ;D - I hope that is hot composting then.
That's great, when it's pink it's warm, maybe even hot.
Ours cooled off, we added more fresh stuff and now it's hot again, sinking in fast. It feels wonderful to finally succeeded in getting the compost to heat up.
The 3 ingredients required for compost are:
1. a good mix of greens ("live" vegetation) and browns (straw, dead leaves, shredded newspaper/cardboard)
2. moisture
3. Air
Tales of heaps that require a pneumatic drill to get an aerator in obviously don't have enough of 3. Soggy heaps have too much 2
The qucikest way to get compost from a given set of ingredients is to turn the heap frequently, this:
1. add air
2. mixes the undecomposed with the composted
3. evens out the moisture
4. allows you to see whether the heap is moist enough and add water/dry material to adjust the balance
Daily turning is the ideal (and why tumbler bins work so quickly) but weekly is great and monthly better than nothing
Phil
I turned the compost in my black dalek last night - I didn't need a purple aerator to stick in it - I could feel the heat coming straight out of the top!!!
Black daleks get hot every time the sun shines on them. I never turn mine; I just shove the stuff in one year, and take it out next spring. It works, I just have to pick out the odd dock root which is still showing signs of life. The first year or two I had to pick out bindweed as well, but the really big roots are all long gone.
Robert,
If you have enough bins, that is the way to do it!!
For those with more compost than bins we need it to compost in less than a year - hence expense on more bins or effort!!
Phil
I've got four, and anything over goes on the latest soil mountain. I'm finally keeping it in the bins this year, so hopefully once I've dug over a section which has reverted to jungle, I can cover the latest one and won't have to build any more!
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on July 01, 2005, 08:05:48
Black daleks get hot every time the sun shines on them. I never turn mine; I just shove the stuff in one year, and take it out next spring. It works, I just have to pick out the odd dock root which is still showing signs of life. The first year or two I had to pick out bindweed as well, but the really big roots are all long gone.
I guess the sun heat helps but I understand that the real composting heat is generated by the composting process itself, no matter what the weather does.
I have three bins. Usually one I'm currently filling, one that's cooking and one I'm using. At the moment one has manure in, one is cooking and one is half full. The done stuff is in a bag.
I've never had the compost heat up. I rarely turn it (although every time I empty a bin, I dig one of the others into that one, and when I have nothing else to do I dig the newest stuff to mix it). But it still only takes about 6 months or less to rot (I do have to pick out the chunky bits!). Have no idea how that happens!
As I mentioned before, mine never got hot before but it still composted, it just takes longer, which I don't really mind. Still, it's fun to have it hot for a change and see that it really can do it.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on July 01, 2005, 11:40:27
I've got four, and anything over goes on the latest soil mountain. I'm finally keeping it in the bins this year, so hopefully once I've dug over a section which has reverted to jungle, I can cover the latest one and won't have to build any more!
I have four too. One at home and three at the lottie. I hope to operate a similar bone idle policy to Robert. Not got enough compost at the moment though - one is full of couch grass & perrenial weed sods and there are a few piles of these around the plot at the moment wating for me to move them ::). Only have a few weeds, bits of cardboard etc in one of the others on the lottie. The one at home is about two thirds full having been completly emptied early in the season and stored in plastic bags on the lottie until it was used. No doubt, as soon as I become established, the compostables will mount up.
Quick question for you... Can I put bread scraps in the compost bin?
NO
Oh?
They attract rats.
Oh!
Thanks.
Quote from: Kepouros on July 03, 2005, 01:26:27
NO
In my experience, one word answers to gardening questions tend not to fully answer the question.
Whilst there is a danger that food scraps will attract vermin, it depends on what and how much else you put in the bin. There's a good article in this month's Organic Gardening on how to compost anything other than the very basic material. It points out that if you surround items like bread with lots of other material and/or you have a hot bin, there is no problem.
Phil
I found a slow worm in my compost bin yesterday - she was absolutely beautiful - made my afternoon!
Excellent - much better than my rats - which ate all my worms leading to my compost not being anywhere near so quick or good quality this year.
Rats wouldn't stand a chance against what I think are horseflies in my horse manure.
They've bitten me pretty successfully.
Noone warned me about this particular problem with horse manure. All anyone said was to leave it for a year or more until it had decomposed.
Now I expect someone is going to tell me that horse flies hibernate.
Ooh Missus...
TB,
Horseflies feed on blood and so wouldn't normally waste their time with your horse manure (no slight intended) unless, of course, your heap is surrounded by tasty horses (or gardeners)
Seriously, I have not come across "man eating" flies in compost/manure before, only the annoying little ones.
Phil
Are the flies large brown things? If so, they're probably dung flies. I get hundreds congregating every time I spread some rotted grass cuttings, I just don't know where they come from.