compost piles

Oka so i started my first compost pile about 4 weeks ago i have it about 14 to 18 in' tall . i built a 3x3x3 bin the pile resides in .

So i just added a lot of new layers monday , and i finally got it heating up . i plan to make the pile about a foot taller in the next few weeks

Not that im in any rush and its not a big deal , im just a little curious on how long the whole process takes and how often i should turn it .
Just trying to learn all i can

All input welcom ,,, gracias !

THC

Turning is to increase oxygen which speeds the breakdown. When the interior heats up, oxygen it consumed faster than before it heated up. Once temps begin dropping in the center it means the amount of oxygen entering the pile is less than the amount required to sustain the current decomposition rate.

Turning is to get the undigested material on the outside of the pile into the inside of the pile where the bacteria are most active. A properly constructed pile should never need to be turned just to get air inside.

If you want to be really aggressive about turning you need a compost thermometer to monitor the internal temperature and you turn your pile just as the temperature starts to fall from the peak. However, some assumptions can be made about that and some people just plant on turning their compost every 3 to 5 days until all the material in the pile is digested.

I may turn my 4 x 4 piles once or twice as I am building them up, mixing the bottom stuff up a lot but once they are over 2 or 3 feet high there is simply too much material to easily turn so I don't, anymore.

When lots younger with much more energy turning was not as much of a problem, but today I need to conserve energy for other things.

BTW, you can do cold composting....turning only when you have matter to mix in...not as thorough....depending on what you want to achieve. At least your scraps are not going into the dumpster!!! YAY!

thanks for breaking that down for me ! very helpful

I totally understand the minimum turn process you like to stick with due to your frugalness of energy lol im sure the wifey appreciates this on a late night from time to time

Lol

I havent turned at all yet & my pile is a few inches under 2 feet .
So im just gonna turn once or twice getting that excess material on the sides in the mix then hopefully it will be good to go to by the time i have all the material layered on .

Are bugs in my pile a bad thing ? ive even seen a few ants ?


i'd also like my soil to be used for some cannabis production if you have any tips on that

To keep ants out of the pile....cover with plastic.Keep compost moist to deter ants. Ants prefer warm dry areas and may seek out your compost bin if it provides a dry area to shelter them form the weather.

As long as your compost is fairly broken down, you can mix with soil for your cannabis grow. What really gets plants....manure or compost that hasn't degraded and is considered "hot". Plants suffer then.

My compost pile is about 3'x6' and I throw stuff on my compost pile year round even in the winter when there's snow on it. Around May, I will dig up my compost pile starting from one end and screen it through 1/2" hardware cloth screen I built. The stuff that doesn't make it through the screen goes back into the compost bin and the screened compost gets used in the veggie garden and around the yard. I keep throwing stuff on top of the compost pile all summer and toward the end of Sept I dig it up and screen it again to spread over the veggie garden.

The compost pile is really mostly composted by worms (cold composting) and very low maintenance (I never turn it over) other than the twice a year digging/screening.

I don't do any turning and have gotten some great results.

Some commercial composting facilities have these giant diesel powered egg-beater looking machines. They will turn a whole windrow 200 yards long.

The way I understand turning is that it is to make sure that weed seeds are killed, for example in a pile that is running at about 160 degrees F.

Since I don't care about killing weedseeds and I do care about my time, I don't bother.


In my own piles they have gotten up to about 130 F and then back off.

Personally I think that is good, when they slow down the heating to maybe the 80 degrees F. That way they offer a nice warm-but-not-too-warm place for the worms, who move in en masse and assist big time with the composting process.

That is one thing I would add, to make sure you are on a ground where the red-worms can crawl into your pile.

Any ideas on composting dog feces? I've read it's a no-no, because of possible parasites that could make their way back onto our food. Eg. if you compost and some compost gets onto the vegetables. As our dog craps all over the garden already, as long as I don't dump compost straight onto the vegetables I don't really see the fuzz?
Why is dog feces worse than chicken, pig or cow manure? Because those animals generally are blasted with antibiotics? I mean our dog gets his deworming pills every half year or so.
It's just a lot of dog shit and it would feel like a waste to throw it all away. It's not even a big dog, medium sized labrador-border collie cross. I have a friend with two danish dogs that filled a 100l barrel quite rapidly, imagine the food potential in all that crap...

I could compost the dog feces seperately to mix it under the soil to prevent contamination if it really is a problem... I know farmers have to inject the manure into the soil now rather than spray all over so there might be some truth to it but that could be part of the "paranoid public opinion being abused to ramp up costs for small businesses" game as it is played out so much nowadays... Scare the public to hell then impose freedom limiting laws.

dog shit can be composted like any other type of shit. it is just hot and can carry harmful microbes. once its properly composted thpugh its ok to use. its the process of composting it not the finished compost that most try to avoid

mine are rings built with chicken wire... I don't turn them . I do add a bit of nitrogen now and then... the worms move in after the heat goes down and finish the work for me

My biggest challenge was keeping out bugs and ants as well as producing enough material to add to the compost…