Questions on my compost pile

[cmist]

So I have a compost pile out in my front field that's close to being done.

I added finely choped tree leaves, various ferns, weeds, grass clippings,
sticks, kitchen scraps, egg shell, self found crab shells, a soil mineralizer product, & kelp meal.

I did get the compost pile up to temp. for a few days earlier on in the composting process.

recently, I added some alfalfa meal and I thought it was odd that it didn't
heat up. even more recently I added crab shell meal, and neem seed meal to the pile (2 days ago) and I havn't noticed any heat yet.

are there any obvious reasons that my compost pile isnt heating?
I've heard that as a compost piles near the final stages of breakdown, they become more fungal dominant. and I noticed the large sticks/branches in the pile are decomposing at a extremely fast rate.

Is it possible that b/c the pile is more fungal dominant atm maybe I'm not seeing an excelerated "heat up" b/c of deminishing bacterial presence?

would adding an ACT tea to the pile work to heat up my pile by increasing the presence of bacterial decomposers?

or would it be somethign more along the lines of not enough greens/nitrogen in the pile? (which would b hard to assume being that alfalfa meal is obviously high in nitrogen)


I don't really know too much when it comes to composting so any incite or speculation would be greatly appreciated.
thanks.

[Halfway]

The obvious question would be "is there enough moisture", so my apologies if you are on top of it.

I have noticed finished piles are somewhat slow to consume new additions, but I normally put the finished product to use immediately.

Is it buried enough? Is there enough carbon or nitrogen ratio to get it cooking? Outside temp?

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know how your pile is set up, but lack of air or lack of water can slow the composting down and keep it from heating up. If you turn it well, aerating it, and water well until everything is damp (not soggy), it is likely to heat up. If the weather is dry enough to water the garden, I water the compost pile too. In my current weather, I am not gardening, but still when I add a bunch of dry leaves, I add a couple buckets of water too.

But not to worry, if it never heats up, it will still compost. Finished compost is mostly uniform texture and you can't see any original ingredients that you put in and it has no odor or maybe just a little fresh earthy scent. If you have finished compost like that, then it is finished and it doesn't matter whether it ever heated up on the way to getting there.

I never purchase anything just to put in the compost pile, just doesn't make sense to me. And my compost pile mostly doesn't heat up very much, warm but not hot. I think it's because I don't have much that's very high nitrogen to put in it, no manures or anything. Sometimes I skim the pond and put the duckweed from the pond in it. That is apparently high in N and the compost pile heats up like crazy for awhile then. Anyway, whether it heats up or doesn't, I still have finished compost, which is all I care about.

[cmist]

thank you for your replys.

Yes my compost pile has sufficient moisture and aeration.
I spread out and turn the pile once a day, and daily I address the moisture as well.

The carbon to green ratio also is on par to my knowledge.

that being the case, is it possible wut I hypothesized with finishing compost piles being fungal dominant possibly being a valid line of thought?

also - the heat up doesn't nessicarily matter for the finsihed product.
but are there any other reasons you want the pile to "cook" ?

does the heat reduce or eliminate unwanted pests aside from weed seeds and such? ? like certain nematodes - insects - etc?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Yes my compost pile has sufficient moisture and aeration.
I spread out and turn the pile once a day, and daily I address the moisture as well.

No time to warm up if turned daily.

Eric

[cmist]

this sounds like a reasonable thought.

Ill try not turning for a number of days and see if there is a temperature elevation.

Thank you.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes my compost pile has sufficient moisture and aeration.
I spread out and turn the pile once a day, and daily I address the moisture as well.

No time to warm up if turned daily.

Eric

absolutely agree. When I said that about turn and water, I didn't know what you were doing. Especially if you are spreading everything out, you are dissipating all the heat. It needs to build up.

[cmist]

ya makes sense.

Btw when I been spreading it out, it is in an effort to allow more surface area for the compost to dispell some of the extra moisture in it when its been raining recently etc.


thanks again for your insight

[ElizabethB]

Just how thin are you spreading it? You need some depth for it to heat up. During spring/summer/fall I turn my pile once maybe twice a week. I water it every day or 2 iunless we have rain. It just sits over winter because even in south Louisiana it stops cooking. I do add fresh rabbit manure to my pile in season. Makes it hot and does not have to cure. Not during winter though. Just toss kitchen scraps in every day or 2 and leave it alone until it starts to warm up in March. Thats when I start turning and adding manure. I add manure 3 or 4 times during the cooking seaason. spreading you compost out may be your problem you may not have enough depth to produce heat. Too much surface area.

[toxcrusadr]

You said in your original post that the pile was close to being done. What I would do is start another pile rather than adding more greens to heat that one back up. The main reason to do that is that compost continues to slowly decompose for a very long time, so the longer you leave your pile with out using the compost, the smaller the compost gets. When it looks done, use it so it can benefit the soil and plants, and start another pile.

[rot]

..
Some folks monitor the temperature of their pile and when the temperature starts drifting down from peak temperature they turn the pile over and wait for the next peak temperature which trends downward from there.

Typically in that scenario, one is assembling their pile or bin all at once. I would continue to add some scraps and so on early on during the first few turns but at some point, if I want finish product, I stop adding and just let what I've got finish meanwhile starting another bin nearby.

A long time ago I remember reading that some study determined through experimentation that optimal rate of turning was once every 4 to 5 days. I think there's too much variation in feed stocks and climate to make such a broad pronouncement. I have found for the way I do business, that turning once a week works just fine. I would start with about 17 cu ft of raw material and get something more or less finished in about 3 months.

A good easy to read reference, tutorial (from Florida):
https://sarasota.ifas.ufl.edu/compost-info/

to sense
..

[toxcrusadr]

And for those at the other end of the spectrum who aren't in a hurry to get compost at all, you don't actually have to turn a compost pile at all. I'm into a maintenance mode at my house - my soil is pretty good, I don't collect bags at the curbside anymore, and except for a few big hot batches when materials are available, I don't go out of my way to make compost quickly. Everything I produce goes in, and compost comes out a few months later, usually with one turning along the way.

Bottom line, whatever works best in your situation will be fine.