Bobberman
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Cheaply Heating a greenhouse with compost pile!

My greenhouse is heated with only water storage but I want to add another source especially in the dead of winter. My question is other than manure what will heat a straw, wood chips and paper and maintain the heat for a month or more? Should I add leaves? I am considering blood meal. How about urea since its very cheap per pound! The other concern is starting the compost in a 50 gallon drum cut in half long wise! Also a long narrow ditch inside the green house that will then be used to plant in the spring when the compost is completed!

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rainbowgardener
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adding leaves to straw, wood chips, and paper will not help at all, since all of those are carbon rich "browns." To get it composting you have to add nitrogen rich "greens." Check out the greens/browns thread in composting forum. Besides manures, that would be kitchen scraps, coffee grounds (you can get them free from places like Starbucks that sell coffee), grass clippings, pulled weeds and garden trimmings, cotton seed meal, soybean meal. If like me you have access to a pond, the skimmed off duckweed does a great job of heating up the compost pile.

Bobberman
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Wouldn't blood meal work for the green part or urea. Won't the bacteria come from the straw. Do they sell compost starter for something like this!

tomc
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Bobberman wrote:Wouldn't blood meal work for the green part or urea. Won't the bacteria come from the straw. Do they sell compost starter for something like this!
Both bloodmeal or urea will provide nitrogen, yes. If you are very concerned about a viable micro-herd in your hot composts In the greenhouse add in a little finished compost or just plan old dirt.

If you were using an older "hot bed" model you might dig a trench to put manure in. With a taller greenhouse your going to build a box (to fill with compost) and oh a pallet or some such as a counter-top. I might paint the interior of hot-bed or greenhouse black where possible.

Most of mine were more in the model of a hot-bed and the heating came from a whole lot of horse manure.

Bobberman
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Sometimes things are right in front of your nose and you don't see them. I bought the 10 small swimming pools this year and they are perfect use as some small compost containers in my greenhouse. I can even use one for a lid! I will make a few this weekend and let you know how they work. I will put leaves straw and some rabbit droppings to start with! I will check temp change all the time. I will use them to plant in the spring by adding a top layer of soil.

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JC's Garden
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Don't know what size pools you have but...... 4' X 1' stacked on top of each other might put off some heat. One left empty to toss them, one at a time, into a new stack beside the old. Is that what you have in mind?? I like the idea.

meshmouse
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Hey bobberman -

How did your mini-swimming pool compost heater idea work out? I like that thought.

meshmouse

SentencedToBurn
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Hi sorry to revive this old thread, just wondering how long does compost last as far as heating goes? Would it last for just one winter I.e. 4-6 months or would it generate heat for longer than that?

I had a bit of a fail trying to warm my greenhouse with a panelheater - it seems to only keep the temperature about 5C above what's outside, and that's not enough. So I'm now looking at other options and compost heap under the floor seems like a good idea. My concern is though whether the compost will stop generating heat once I get to summer as it'll be way too hot for my plants, as I have to run extraction fans in summer anyway.



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