From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Ohio

Well here i go again talking about compost piles, Mine just dont seem to want to heat up, I have sprayed with Molasses one to two times a week and I have everything I need Mixed into it but No friggen Heat, It dont seem to wet or dry. I turned it yesterday and today after work I dug the center out and it felt like a ice cube. Maybe my pile is to big, I could probably make four or five 3"x 3" piles out of my big pile, but I have another pile about 4'x'4 and its cold in the center too. I even have pipe with air holes stuck down into the center.

I tried this to see if i could get it going, I added 2tbl of urea and 2tbl of black strap Molasses per 2 gallons of water and sprayed it all over the top of the pile, I then turned it and sprayed again. I used about a gallon on this pile and thought to myself id better not add anymore before I ask how much is to much. Think this is enough and it will heat up now?

Brooks

12/9/2004 6:25:25 PM

Puyallup, WA

Ambient temperature as well as the "proper mix" of greens and browns is equally important. My piles cool off in the winter as well. In the Spring when I add some grass and mix things up, they will warm up once again.

12/9/2004 6:44:56 PM

Joliet, IL

stan is right. while shredding leaves this fall, if
you come across a brown yard waste bag full of fresh grass
clippings, it was a lot warmer than the bags of just leaves.

12/9/2004 6:49:40 PM

Roanoke Il

mostly you don't have enough nitrogin for the micro organisms to feed on. your carbon ratio is screwed up.for a good comost pile you need 3inches of green 1 inch of dirt 4 inches of brown.. green being cow manure grass clippings ect brown being hay leaves corn stalks paper wood shavings saw dust ect.mix in some blood meal more grass clippins fresh cow maure any fesh manure would work.. that should reduce you carbon ratio and get those little micro's going

12/9/2004 6:53:54 PM

Thats kinda weird. All I have for compost piles are carrot tops. They decompose like mad. After we harvested them within a couple of days the piles were steaming. My Dad threw some out on the field and it looked like a fire it was so hot. If you can find carrot tops they decompose really good.

12/9/2004 6:59:42 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Throw a bag of chicken manure into the mix.
She'll heat right up.

I just use the coffee grounds myself and all seems to be pretty good.

That chick poo will do the trick though.

12/9/2004 7:48:28 PM

Columbus Ohio

I used Urea last year in my piles. I put about a handful for every 10 pitch fork loads. It heated up very well and stayed ot even when it was 20 outside.
I bought urea from the local nursery. It was 5 for a 5 pound bag. So I asked the purchaser and he found a 50 pound bag for $18
It pays to ask.
John

12/9/2004 8:28:20 PM

Follansbee, Wv

First, grab a handful of your mix and squeeze it. If water drips out it's too wet. If it doesn't have a moist feeling, it's too dry. Once you determine that the moisture is correct, do this: Get some fresh horse manure, build a compost screen if you don't have one. Screen out the sawdust bedding from the manure (this is important, as the sawdust will keep your ratio off) your looking for mostly bisquits, or road apples, if you prefer. Pile 8-10 cubic feet of sifted manure by itself. Cover it lightly so it doesn't get rained on. Let it set for 2-3 days. Then check the center of the pile. It should be warming up nicely. Use the center of the manure pile to jump start your compost piles.
Your problem is that most, if not all of the decomposing microbes are either dead or dormant. All the urea, molasses, and whatever won't re-activate them if the temp is too low. By using fresh, sifted manure, you are giving new microbes (in the manure) a good habitat. Once you have a population of them built up (hence the heat) you can transplant them to your piles. Then cover and insulate your newly renovated piles. Ta Da...a hot pile in the winter time :)
Your not far from me Brooks. If you need a source for horse manure, let me know, I can take you to my source. I need a load myself.

12/9/2004 9:15:33 PM

South Western Pa

This year is the first time I achieved a “hot pile”. Some of the things that helped me this year were; 1) I have a cover over my pile, air can still get to it but rain can’t so I don’t have a big soggy cold mess. 2) I mixed my greens and browns together, did not layer, I think the more contact the better. 3) I’ve turned it often and add water if needed, no soaking from the top anymore.

I just got a compost thermometer yesterday and my pile was 150 degrees. It’s been cooking for a month now and I’ve been adding new coffee grounds every week.

My pile is just shredded leaves, coffee grounds, and water, no compost activators or chemicals. It’s about 4’x4’x4’ surrounded on three sides by straw bails.

Hope this helps some.

Mark

12/9/2004 10:08:23 PM

South Western Pa

I forgot to mention I ran my leaves through my shredder first. I think this also helped.

Mark

12/9/2004 10:12:40 PM

Key West, FL

man, this one guys compostpile I was at, when I was raking leaves, was he had gone over the lawn which was COVERED in leave and there was part grass clippings and mostly leaves, that thing was hot and it had only been setting for like a day!!

12/9/2004 10:53:15 PM

Key West, FL

me tiping is goood

12/10/2004 12:17:43 AM

Follansbee, Wv

I agree with Mark. There is absolutly no need for chemicals, boosters, or any of that. A good pile will heat up. Keep in mind though, that it is easier to heat up a new pile than to re-activate an old one. I speak from some experience here. My logic is this: A new pile, with fresh materials, will have some microbial activity in it. The building of a pile provides a better habitat and allows the microbes to multiply faster. An old pile that has gone cold is, for some reason, inhospitable to microbe activity. Hence, the microbes die. Without adding fresh materials to the pile which contain a new supply of microbes, it is very difficult to re-heat the old pile. It is also important to make sure the reason for the original microbe extinction has been corrected. Often times it's too much water, other times it's a lack of nitrogen bearing materials. Many people new to composting will unknowingly use too few greens. It may look fine when you first mix it up, but is really deficient. The reason I suggest fresh, sifted horse manure is because it will have a good microbe population, and is also a good nitrogen source. Urea, and store bought chicken manure, are good nitrogen sources, but have no microbe populations. So it's like you are renovating the apartments, but not bringing in any tenants. In the summer time, adding urea and such helps because the microbe populations are higher and more active. It's a different story in the winter though.
By the way Mark, good job on your pile! You are doing it exactly right.

12/10/2004 7:50:29 AM

[email protected]

Every bit of advice on this thread is good.

Add more greens.

12/10/2004 12:43:39 PM

Ohio

Where i gonna get more greens??? I can see me out cutting the grass in two feet of snow,lol How about corn stalks? I can get alot of that, but it takes along time for that to break down and hard to get in small pieces. Cow manure is a green right? Im doing everything to a T And its just not heating up, I cant figure this out, I have covered it up, I have turned it i have done everything but eat it. The cow manure wasnt new stuff , maybe its that?? Should i go down over the hill and get me a garbage can full of chicken chit?

12/10/2004 4:02:45 PM

Ohio

Monte, next time you come over to the mall stop by my house, my numbers in the book. I want you to put your magic to this pile.lol

12/10/2004 4:04:11 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Yo Brooks, if you got everything right and it's not underwater I would go along with nitrogen as being the culprit...but like it sez even if you add nitrogen the bugs that are dead or dormant will take awhile to get going again! turning it every three days doesn't help....need to get a warm spot going to start em up..take the smoke stack out until you get it started...add some urea and compost accelerator...it will burn some holes through the snow! LOL

12/10/2004 5:33:07 PM

Ohio

Alex, Its warm! but not Hot and thats alot better then yesterday of being cold. and its been raining all day too, I covered it up with a tarp. That urea is helpingggggg. "Yeaaaaa Babyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

12/10/2004 7:35:27 PM

Ohio

Thanks everyone

12/10/2004 7:36:26 PM

South Western Pa

Just one more note on this, coffee grounds are considered greens, high in nitrogen and already ground for you. If you have a Starbucks nearby they give them away. This time of year few people are asking for them so I usually walk out with a couple of bags. Today I went by two Starbucks and probably got 50+ lbs of grounds.

Mark

12/10/2004 10:40:45 PM

South Western Pa

Plus coffee grounds are weed seed free and most likely pathogen free since they've had boiling water run through them. Sorry to harp on coffee grounds.

Mark

12/10/2004 10:43:02 PM

Puyallup, WA

The worms love those coffee grounds. A bit "acid" however.

12/10/2004 11:02:19 PM

Roanoke Il

If one adds coffee grounds or pine needles or things that are acidic wood ashes from a wood stove are a great sorce of potassim pluss help bring things back in line where ph is conserned.

12/11/2004 6:06:52 AM

Cologne / Germany

Good ideas. The only problem is to get all that stuff in large amounts since most people consider the things a pumpkin grower is looking for to be garbage. They usually ask "what do you need my grass clippings for" or "why do you want to collect my leaves?" or at least "if you plan to do something illegal, don´t expect me to help you".

If you go to ask for something other people consider to be "pretty unusual", you are suspicious. Or you need so much time on your hands to invite everyone to give a lesson about how to grow big pumpkins. They sure don´t believe you, so in September you are suspicious again because you grow such unusual things in your patch.

ROFLMAO. Anyway you´ll find some truth here - many people are pretty much paranoid nowadays.

12/11/2004 7:38:33 AM

Montoursville, PA

Just harness and hang a bucket on the back of Bossie. In due time you have the poop as close to the cow as possible.

The more you mix various manures the better the mix will yeild high quality compost. When you get into making tea the high quality of the compost will be recovered by providing high quality liquid compost. It only needs to be at 120 to 150 degrees for a few days to yeild the good stuff. This quality can be rightly called compost tea. All others are cow manure tea or whatever animal tea containing less valued and possibly more dangerous elements. Nothing wrong with animal teas but we need to know the difference and how to use them.
....You can not extract what has not been created there by bacterial conversion in the high quality aerobic compost pile.

12/11/2004 2:58:25 PM

Butler, Ohio

Hmmm...got lots of ashes every day from wood burner....I'm a coffee-holic and i can get plenty of goat and horse manure from the in-laws...i should start me a good compost pile.

12/12/2004 9:25:11 AM

Butler, Ohio

One quick question though, I grew alot of hot peppers last year, mostly habenros, I pulled all the plants up after the first frost, some still had unripened peppers on them and started a kinda half a@@ compost pile. Question is will the hot peppers have an adverse affect on my pile?

12/12/2004 9:28:57 AM

Long Island,New York

Midnight...pretty much everyone here gets shit from the inlaws.

12/12/2004 1:45:52 PM

Follansbee, Wv

Hot peppers will have no ill affects on a compost pile.

12/12/2004 7:18:12 PM

Oakland, CA, USA

This has been a really informative and helpful discussion! So, okay, say you (or, in this case, I) make the pile well, but then go and let it get totally soaked by rain and have a dead, waterlogged pile: is there a quicker or better way to go about getting it going again than just turning it every couple days to help it dry out evenly, keeping the rain off it, but letting air in on the sides? I've got a big, round, pierced plastic composter my neighbor gave me. It's almost full of a mix with an awful lot of soil mixed in with plenty of greens and a fair amount of twigs and dry material (I was trying to use the GrowBiointensive-style of composting). I'm gonna hit the hardware store tomorrow and buy a tarp to cover it and probably some 4" ABS pipe to drill full of holes to make vent stacks/vertical french drains to help dry the pile out (I'll put them in when I turn the pile again). Any suggestions (aside from "keep the rain of it, stupid", haha)?

Thanks for all this great info!

Erin.

12/13/2004 3:41:32 AM

Follansbee, Wv

Erin,
You have two options for your cold, wet pile. First, you can spread the contents out over the garden and let it dry out. Second, you can add more dry materials to it. The large soil content will hamper the drying process. Contrary to popular belief, the addition of soil to a compost pile is not necessary. Since your bin is nearly full, spreading the contents is probably your best bet. If you do spread it, keep it covered when it rains, and uncovered when it's dry. I don't know what the weather is like in Palo Alto. Is it usually sunny? Once the contents dry out enough, put it back into the bin. One of the reasons I like my home made composting bins is that I design them with an open side, which makes it easier to maintain and turn them.
Whatever you decide, you need to get it dried out quickly. If your pile goes anaerobic, it will begin to stink, I mean REALLY stink. Once that happens, it's hard to stop it. Good luck :) {and keep the rain off it, stupid ;)}

12/13/2004 3:21:17 PM

Follansbee, Wv

Oh, and Brooks, I'll be in your area this coming weekend. You got mail.

12/13/2004 3:22:28 PM