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Ohio

I have a enormous yard and have been been raking leaves for the past three days and putting them on my compost pile. I have been spraying my pile with molasses about once a week.
I have a pile of leaves about 5 feet high and approx 15 feet long piled and smashed down tight ontop of a huge pile of 6 month old manure,(cow,horse chicken and rabbit) 6 large garbage bags full of egg shells,3 large garbage bag full of coffee grinds and a large bag of peat moss.(I can get all i want from work. (prison)
I have so many leaves now piled ontop I cant see my manure,My neighbor is even bringing leaves from his yard and dumping them there. The leaves hes dumping are shreaded up by his riding tractor before he dumps them, mine isnt. My yard isnt even close to being done raking yet, I have about another big pile of leaves left like i stated above not counting what my neighbor has left to bring over and dump How long do you think it will take for this pile to be ready? Is there such a thing as two many leaves?
Mostly all my leaves are maple,with no walnut. Any information you can give me so this pile can decompose faster would be put to good use.

Brooks

10/24/2004 5:10:17 AM

Cologne / Germany

Brooks, I would not use leaves that have not been shreaded up before. Most of them need a long time time to decompose, they won´t be of any value for next year´s patch that way. I bought a leaf shredder 2 years ago to solve the problem. Works excellent. The small pieces tend to decompose fast and keep the soil fluffy after tilling in.
I´m not sure about using "too much", it´s just OM, but a soil test in early 2005 might tell you.

Ingo

10/24/2004 5:46:48 AM

KENTUCKY

If you can turn the pile often all winter (every week or 2) and mix the leaves with all your existing maure, eggs, etc. that will definetly speed things up. I do that all winter on a much larger scale with a tractor and loader. By spring it all will be black powder ready to go into soil!

10/24/2004 7:58:30 AM

Follansbee, Wv

Your problem is going to be that there is too much carbon and not enough nitrogen in the pile. Shredding the leaves does help, but you still have a "greens" deficiancy. The manure you have could be considered a green if there is very little bedding mixed into it (ie. sawdust) and if it hasn't already composted too far. Coffee grounds are a green, so that's good. I'm not sure where peat falls in the C:N area. Your pile, as it currently is, will decompose but it will take an extremely long time, possibly years. A good rule of thumb for quick composting is 2-3 parts greens to each part browns (measured by volume, not weight). If you can remove enough of the leaves to obtain a 2-3:1 green to brown ratio, it will help a lot. Then mix the remaining pile together very well, make sure it is wet enough, but not soggy, provide a chimney or two to allow air into the pile, and off it will go. What I do with all the excess leaves I end up with is bag them and use them as insulation around the compost bins to keep the piles warmer longer into the winter. Then, come spring I have a ready supply of browns to start composting as soon as I cut the grass for the first time. Since I am now also into vermicomposting, and the wife refuses to allow the little fellers in the house, I intend to use a large pile of leaves (with a very small amount of grass clippings mixed in) to insulate my worm bins. The very slow decomposition should generate enough heat through the winter to keep the worms alive until spring.

10/24/2004 7:59:59 AM

Ohio

Oh,I forgot grass clippings, i have lots added to that pile too., Im going to cut the grass tomorrow for the last time and i ought to get atleast 10 garbage bags full.Im going to figure out a way to shread them leaves, Ill probably just use the lawn mower.

Floh, Last year i added leaves only to just my growing area at this time of the year and tilled it in. Then tilling again in spring it was fluffy like you are talking about. Is it ok to add them to the patch like this?

Ky ,so you dont shread your leaves then? I hate the thought of taking them off that pile and shreading them. There is alot of leaves there,lol

Don, So what u read so far is that i need to add more greens then. Im going to leave this pile alone and start another one after i shread the leaves and add more grass clippings.

I thought my pile would have started to heat up by now but it hasnt,its because i need more greens is why right?

Is there some kind of fertilizer i can add to spead it up?
What about lime?

Brooks

10/24/2004 7:37:09 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

Blood meal..or urea if you wanna get really rough on the worms and bacteria

10/24/2004 7:52:07 PM

Ohio

Southern, whats urea? and does the blood meal break it down faster? I have only seen this in 5. lbs bags.

10/24/2004 9:48:59 PM

KENTUCKY

shred leaves, If you can it will speed up the breakdown ALOT!! But, if you can turn pile very often (every week or two), and as Monty says about the greens into the pile as well, it will be fine by growing season next year if you start it in the next month or so!

Good Luck

10/25/2004 5:35:12 AM

[email protected]

Brooks,

Urea is 46-0-0 a synthetic & all soluble Nitrogen source. Too hot for most people to apply without overdoing it.

Blood Meal is about 11-0-0, a natural organic source of Nitrogen. Too slow for best results in a compost pile but much harder to get wrong. It's also the most soluble of the organics so Kyle is probably being wise to recommend it.

10/25/2004 6:53:19 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

Thanks Steve...you woke up earlier than me for a change :0)

10/25/2004 6:56:27 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

Plenty of compost accelerants on the market too...I believe that most are just innoculants but I could be wrong...they heat it up quick though..

10/25/2004 7:47:36 AM

[email protected]

Oh yeah. There are many bacterial based innoculants available. They all help if the piles ingedients & moisture constent are correct. Otherwise the bacteria die.

Unsulfonated Moleaases is sometimes an igredient in the better preperations or it may be added seperately. The sugars help stimulate the microbes.

Cutting leaves up with a mower, leaf loader, etc help to expose more surface area so the composting is faster. Somehow Mother always finds a way even on the unadulterated forest floor, so while it's better to chop them up, the pile will still work.

Balance those browns & green & blend properly & no amount of supplemental ingredients will be required. Composting isn't rocket science. Even bad piles will slowly correct themselves in time no matter how hard we try to screw them up. LOL

10/25/2004 8:36:23 AM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Tremor, isn't there a more natural source of urea? Depending on how cold it is outside during the winter, it might not be very easy to "apply" it. But, would the method I'm thinking of work?

10/25/2004 10:25:27 AM

Follansbee, Wv

Another thing to consider, if your pile isn't heating up, is proper moisture and airflow. If a pile is too dry, the bacteria will die. If the pile is too large, airflow may become a problem. In the case of the latter, you may find that the pile becomes rather smelly. This is caused by anaerobic bacteria growth. The pile will still decompose, but phew! It will also take longer. As Steve said, even bad piles will break down, but if it's rapid composting you're after make sure the big three are correct 1. C:N ratio, 2. Proper moisture, 3. Proper airflow.

10/25/2004 10:31:06 AM

Ohio

Thanks, I didnt know that about adding chicken manure to a compost pile with saw dust. I did add a big bag of my daughters left over hamster bedding,(god rest that Little stinkin B&*^*erds sole ;-). That stuff is almost like saw dust. I think Ill hold off on adding any more chicken Manure.

10/25/2004 10:33:30 AM

[email protected]

Brooks, Chicken manure isn't "bad". It smells that way for the same reasons marty just indicated: Aeration. It's too dense for aire to get at. So it turns anaerobic. Mixing it with coarse sawdust adds some much needed carbon to balance the heavy Nitrogen which is good. But the sawdust also holds air spaces open to keep the good (aerobic)bacteria healthy.

10/25/2004 11:20:12 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

In most compost piles we add all the dead stuff and hope it decomposes..if you use sawdust figure on urea or guana to add the nitrogen needed to decompose...sawdust is 500 to 1 and more with the carbon / nirrogen ratio so solid urea may be necessary...worms be damned at this point just trying to get the sawdust usable...separate pile not in the patch....however when the sawdust crumbles in your hand you can add it back and all that nitrogen will be returned to you...along with the OM....just my personal experience not something I have facts on.

10/25/2004 6:45:09 PM

Colorado Hail, CO. Elev. 5,900 FT

Here are some of my main composting links to get all the info you'd ever need! If you can't learn a grip from these few, I have many,many, others....

http://www.citygardening.net/compostinfo/
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http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/hort/g06220.htm

http://www.mastercomposter.com/


http://www.journeytoforever.org/compost.html

http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

http://compostguide.com/


http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MG323

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/GARDEN/07235.html

10/25/2004 10:38:29 PM

Ohio

Thanks everyone!!
I just spent 3 hours yesterday weed eating my leaf pile into a small powder, My wife looked at me like I was nutz when she seen me weed eating a huge pile of leaves. I tried the lawn mower but this was a real slow process. I found that if you use a weed eater and tilt it to a certain angle the leaves wont fly all over the place and stay in one spot like mixing something in a bowl.I did find out the hard way however you definatly need safty glasses.LOL

Marc, Thanks for them links!
Brooks

10/26/2004 9:36:23 AM

Oz

you can use a bottomless garbage can as a "blender pitcher".

there is a commercial leaf mulcher,,,toro i think

10/26/2004 9:42:52 AM

Cologne / Germany

I use a leaf shredder no longer available on the market. Bought it as an odd lot at ebay for $80.
http://i23.ebayimg.com/03/i/02/6f/59/8b_1.JPG
These companies are stupid. No usual shredder/mulcher will treat leaves that way (they usually clog with leaves) and still it´s one of the best sources for OM in fall.

10/26/2004 12:03:53 PM

Utah

some leaf blowers are also leaf mulchers.

10/26/2004 1:10:40 PM

Cologne / Germany

have a leaf blower/mulcher also. Good to clean the sidewalk, nothing for what we want to do here-:) In particular if the leaves are wet (mine are wet most of the time in late October)

10/26/2004 2:23:09 PM

Hilpoltstein, Bavaria, Germany

I bet you don't have a Stihl or Viking leaf blower, Ingo. The cheap ones are of no use...

Martin

10/26/2004 6:36:52 PM