Making Compost Steaming Hot

[BeeWonderful]

Until now I've been largely a lazy composter. We have had a large pile for a couple of years now, mostly just with new things piled on top of the old. I'd love to make my pile hot, and I've begun to turn it every day as well as water it when it gets too dry. I know many of you are very experienced composters.

Any advice for how to get a pile STEAMING hot?

We don't add manure to ours, btw (except from guinea pigs!), nor straw.

[havalotta]

Grass cuttings!!! It will get so hot you will NOT be able to get your hand into the heap but it clumps together REAL tight so it MUST be mixed in with your other goods. Anything green will add heat..leaves veggies organic matter.

[biigblueyes]

BWonderful - to get a hot pile, you'll need to give the pile aeration and pay attention to the green/brown ratio. Are you familiar with those? Would a list of greens and browns help, or were you just asking for insider tips?

[BeeWonderful]

Kind of insider tips, I guess. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the brown contribute carbon, and the greens nitrogen, right? I read somewhere that the carbon-nitrogen ratio should be 30:1. That seems like way too much of the browns to me! And hava's advice to add grass cuttings would be adding nitrogen, correct? I'd love to hear more....! What is the best ratio for a steaming pile?

[BeeWonderful]

Originally Posted by havalotta

Grass cuttings!!! It will get so hot you will NOT be able to get your hand into the heap but it clumps together REAL tight so it MUST be mixed in with your other goods. Anything green will add heat..leaves veggies organic matter.

Thanks! Sounds like great advice & I'll be working on adding some grass cuttings tomorrow!

[biigblueyes]

Here's an explanation of the math to get those ratios from Making a Compost Pile: Essential articles and commentary on compost and the composting process:

Here's an example:
We want to have a ratio of 30:1 in our compost bin but we only have access to the following ingredients:

• dry autumn leaves (C:N of about 50:1)
• kitchen scraps (vegetable & fruit peelings, coffee grounds etc: about 12:1)
• grass clippings (about 20-30:1)
• sawdust (fresh: 500:1, rotted 200:1)

Using different combinations of materials we will try to get close to the magic 30:1 ratio. If we use 1 part dry leaves to 1 part kitchen scraps we would have the following:

• leaves 50/1 + kitchen scraps 12/1 = 62/2 = 31/1 or 31:1

If we use 1 part leaves, 1 part kitchen scraps and 1 part grass clippings we would have:

• 50/1 + 12/1 + 20/1 =82/3 = 27:1. Not too bad. In this example we can add some extra leaves or a handful or two of sawdust to bump up the ratio nearer to 30:1

Turning the piles, or using a rolling composter adds oxygen and speeds up the process a lot. I'm jealous of my friend whose hubby uses a tractor with a front end loader to turn hers. I have a couple of barrels and a large pile that mostly sits there.

[BeeWonderful]

Originally Posted by biigblueyes

Here's an explanation of the math to get those ratios from Making a Compost Pile: Essential articles and commentary on compost and the composting process:



Turning the piles, or using a rolling composter adds oxygen and speeds up the process a lot. I'm jealous of my friend whose hubby uses a tractor with a front end loader to turn hers. I have a couple of barrels and a large pile that mostly sits there.

Thanks!!!!

[sprucetree]

The tip I'll add is Surface Area.

Then it's Turn, Turn, Turn,

Maybe a roto-tiller will help.

[BeeWonderful]

Is it ever possible to turn a pile too much?

Just thought I'd ask ......

Our pile is about 2 meters wide and almost one meter in depth. Behind the active pile, there is a large brush pile. It's difficult to get to the material under the brush, but I imagine there must be some good stuff under there.

[havalotta]

Don't know, but I'd tend to think if it was turned too much you'd decrease the heat that sterilizes and speeds up the decomposition.