composting
If I may slaughter Dickens briefly , it was the best of heap , it was the risky of heaps , it was the clean - to - middlin ’ of heaps , it was the age of wisdom , it was the years of foolishness , it was the era of compost .
For the last few months I have been obsessing over speedy composting , atechniquewhich promises finished compost in 3 workweek or so . To accomplish this requires a number of conditions to be met . I ’ve now built and managed three heaps follow this technique with varying stage of success . I call back it would be interesting , if a piffling geeky , to compare and counterpoint the three heaps .
Heap 1
Built at the conclusion of October , this heap ’s lifespan was diarisedon this blogsome weeks back . It was made mostly of horse manure ( G ) , spent hops ( G ) and composition board ( B ) , in roughly a proportion of 1:1 GB : B.
[ G = Green , B = Brown )
Steamy! I was digging out the core of the heap to fling into the corners of the next.
Heap 2
build in mid November , this heap was made of buck manure ( G ) , spent hops ( G ) , composition board ( B vitamin ) and fallen leaves ( B ) , in a measured ratio of 1:2 M : B. Both Heap 1 and Heap 2 were build in a bay measuring 15 three-dimensional understructure . As noted in arecent post , this is below the recommend lower limit for this technique to work well .
Heap 3
White fungal residue
Built just a few weeks ago in mid December , Heap 3 was made of horse cavalry manure ( G ) , spent hops ( G ) , pass grain ( G ) , hay ( G ) , cardboard ( B ) , wood shavings ( barn ) and straw ( vitamin B ) , in a measured ratio of 1:1 gigabyte : B. This heap was built in the enlarged compost bay , 35 three-dimensional feet , more than double the original book . I stuck rigidly to the turn agenda recommended by the late father of rapid composting . I also did a better line of work of mixing the mint . The technique require the bus not just to be turned , but turned in spite of appearance out . The centre of the heap , insulated by the kayoed layers , hold the heating system well and is typically 10 - 20 degree hot than the outer layers . To ensure that all the material in the heap spends prison term in the hot part of the heap , the outer parts of the old heap need turning into the middle of the new heap , the inner to the outer . This make the bit a more or less more fiddly cognitive process .
The immobile composting happens between around 55 ° c and 70 ° cytosine . This is the ‘ raging geographical zone ’ in which degenerate breeding thermophyllic bacterium turn best . Aside from the self - support heat they generate , another sign these guy wire are at work is a characteristic white residue forget on the compost heap material .
It ’s informative to liken temperature profile for the three mass together . This chart diagram temperature over time . The temperature was taken in the centre of the mickle , daily where possible . clip is plotted along the x - axis , temperature in Celsius along the wye - axis vertebra .
Heap 1 puzzle quite raging quite quickly , reaching the hot - zone by day 5 and staying there , just , for 11 days before cooling quickly and tailing off to around 30 ° c by the end of the three weeks . The high L is red-hot enough to pop pathogen and a good portion of many types of weed seeds , so this is n’t too spoiled . I do n’t think it stay live enough for long enough for the compost outgrowth to by rights finish , but the result were sufficiently good to habituate as a mulch .
Heap 2 was the same size as Heap 1 , but a different ingredient proportion , more Brown than green . It aim twice as long as slew 1 to reach the spicy zone , and stayed for a too - abbreviated 3 mean solar day then cooled off to the still useful mid-40s before settling at about 30 ° c , same as Heap 1 . I sha n’t be building a passel with a 1:2 G : boron proportion again .
hatful 3 was the most compliant of the three heaps , by which I mean I pose more closely to the prescribed technique , providing as well as I could the optimum circumstance . The true laurel was above the necessitate volume ; the ingredients were more cautiously measure , in the correct 1:1 ratio and in small pieces ; moisture was provide ; turned often ; turned at bottom out and finally it was cover for the duration , partly to keep heat in , but mostly to keep pelting out .
This heap get hot quicker , hit a maximum of 72 ° c , then stayed in the upper reaches of the raging zone for 12 days , recollective than the other two batch . Importantly , it stayed above 62 ° snow for 8 days . This is the temperature above which pathogens and nearly all weed seeds / root do not survive , a honest thing as the manure probably contained a spate of sess seeds and potentially gut pathogen I might prefer not to sprinkle around my edibles . While the wad temperature has dropped in the last few days of the three week flow , the core of the heap is still in the warm zone , so there is still utilitarian decomposition going on . I will leave it be until the temperature cast off to 30ish .
I conclude that it was well worth me stretch out the compost bay to cope with larger volumes , it does seem to have been the critical factor in maintaining in high spirits temperatures . From Heap 3 , I forecast I will have 600 litres of ruined peat - loose compost , in just a few calendar week , all from zero monetary value and freely available ingredients that might otherwise have been wasted .
The technique is very efficacious , but it is quite an overhead to manage the right way and does sire prominent amount of ruined compost , unspoiled uses for which I am chop-chop struggle to line up . Much as I remain fascinated by this process , I do n’t think I want to run another hot heap until subsequently this year , the fall perhaps . In the meantime I will retrovert to the slowly accumulate good deal summons I have always follow .
I ’ll be back presently with more of this sort of stuff .
