Compost by spring

Chucknbob · #1 12/02/12, 06:39 PM

So I built my composter about a month ago (about 3x3x3) out of old pallets. I filled with leaves and grass I cleaned out from around my barn. I've refilled a couple times (it packs down over the course of a couple of days). I live in south Ohio, so we do get winter.

My question is, if I keep stirring will I have compost by spring? Would it speed anything up if I added a bottle of compost microbes from the garden store?

I know it's a late start, but we just bought our place.

george darby · #2 12/02/12, 07:23 PM

better late than never ,sounds like your pile is high on the carbon side of the carbon/nitrogen ratio so will be a cold slow compost pile ,the good news is u wont loose as much volume in the finished product . might heat it up with some table waste or manure just keep making those piles and u will get the benifits most of my composting is done in the field amazing how coarse of a material can be plowed under with a moldboard plow and be so nice and decomposed when it apears next year.find some horse stable manure and top dress your garden area for the first year boost u probably need .

Paquebot · #3 12/02/12, 09:13 PM

If it's shrinking in short order, that means that it's working and excess moisture is now being vented into the atmosphere. There's no commercial stuff that you can add right now to speed it up since the temperatures will soon be dropping. What you should do now is aerate by turning it one time before winter arrives. More or less flip the pile so that what's on the outside now will end up in the inside. It will go through another heat cycle and when it's done it will then simply be aging or curing between the end of that and using in the spring. Then you can either plow it under or till it in.

Martin

edcopp · #4 12/02/12, 09:37 PM

The rain that we are having right now should help things along.

Paquebot · #5 12/02/12, 09:54 PM

The mention of rain reminded me of more advice. If the pile is working now, you can add more cleanings from your barn and then put a plastic cover or it. The rising moisture from the core will keep everything damp under the plastic and allow bacteria to work right up to it. Or, use what I have draped over the top of a compost pile right now, a deer hide!

Martin

bennypapa · #6 12/03/12, 09:09 AM

Bacterial decomposition of organic matter uses carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, water, temperature, and TIME. To some extent you can make up for lack of one ingredient with others.

If you are short on time you have to make the most of the other ingredients. In order to know what ingredients you need to alter you have to know what is going on IN the pile.

Temperature is an easy variable to monitor and tell you a great deal about the health of your pile. Get a cheap analog kitchen thermometer and a couple of lengths of pvc pipe that fit one inside the other. The thermometer has to be able to fit through the larger pipe. When you turn your pile (good advice BTW if you don't have time to wait) put the larger pipe (usually 1-1/2" or 2" ID) in the pile with the end in the center. I usually put it in horizontal. Attach the thermometer to the smaller pipe and insert it. Now you can get temp reading in the middle of your pile. The temp rise/fall over time will tell you what is going on IN the pile.

While your turning it, make note of the smell and moisture content. Squeeze a handful. If it drips more than a couple drops, it's too wet. If it isn't damp, too dry. If it is slimy and smells bad it is too high in nitrogen. Not getting hot, too low in nitrogen.

Forerunner · #7 12/03/12, 09:19 AM

^^^^

Ana Bluebird · #8 12/03/12, 09:21 AM

For myself, I don't think too hard on my compost. I just stack mine up, maybe throw a little dirt from the garden on it, and by spring it's ready to spread. I used to have three bins like yours and throw the compost from one to the next to stir it. I did get quicker compost that way. But when the bins rotted out, I just went to making piles. But I know many serious composters that make it a science project---they really seem to think it fun! Maybe I'm missing something.

geo in mi · #9 12/03/12, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ana Bluebird

For myself, I don't think too hard on my compost. I just stack mine up, maybe throw a little dirt from the garden on it, and by spring it's ready to spread. I used to have three bins like yours and throw the compost from one to the next to stir it. I did get quicker compost that way. But when the bins rotted out, I just went to making piles. But I know many serious composters that make it a science project---they really seem to think it fun! Maybe I'm missing something.

I don't think you're missing much, except that a hot compost heap/pile/bin can help kill off any pathogens or weed seeds that are in the materials. For nutrients, they will be in either the composted OR uncomposted materials --they don't bleed out or escape as gas--which will be attacked by hungry microorganisms whenever they hit the soil. With not quite finished biomass, you may lose the immediate effects of what the dying microorganisms produce....Nitrogen--but it will soon catch up with the normal decomposition rate. If you are using manure, it's almost the same thing, however the animal urine that you collect and stash in the composting materials will nearly instantly convert(again, by microorganism activity) because the N in urine is in a more convertible form than that in the fibrous biomass.

For me, too, the composting process is a year round thing, and it may get somewhat turned as I dig the burial holes in it for fish head offal...... I generally build next year's pile in the fall, out of a clover and turnip compost garden, then add the fish to it in the following summer. I use it the following spring, a year later (one pile is always being built up....and one is used). For the OP, that might be a way to go in the future.

geo

#10 12/03/12, 11:19 AM

Here is the perfected easy way you compost..EnjoY!

#11 12/03/12, 11:19 AM

Here is the perfected easy way you compost..Enjoy!

#12 12/03/12, 11:20 AM

Here is the perfected easy way you compost..Enjoy!

[url=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a-JqApyMaP4]

#13 12/03/12, 11:31 AM

Here is the perfected easy way you compost..Enjoy!

YouTube

#14 12/03/12, 11:32 AM

Oh crap...sorry for the endless copied post.

Paquebot · #15 12/03/12, 11:37 AM

The main thing is to not "over-think" it. You only have a 3x3 area and have been stirring. You want to use it next spring. And what you have the most of now would be barn cleanings. With many sources saying 120 days aging for manure use in a vegetable garden, top it off now and let it cook without adding more. If not covered, continue the stirring to aerate it and work the outside layer into it. If covered, leave it alone and it'll be ready when you need it in the spring.

Martin