Re: [compost_tea] compost courses
With respect to temperature and water in compost - the story isn't as simple
as repesented in the e-mail, I suspect.
135 F is not "real good" temps, in my opinion. To get the heating needed to
maintain temp through an overnight cool period, you need to get temps into the
145 to 155 F range. and you HAVE to maintain compost above 131 F for a
minimum of 3 days, and then be able to turn the pile and maintain above that temp
for a minimum of 3 days again, in order to kill weed seed, human and plant
pathogens.
To make finished compost in 6 weeks in a commercial composting operation, you
have to have compost moist enough to get temperatures in the 155 range.
In backyard ocmpost, you need to get the compost temp above 135 for at least
10 days, with one turn in the middle there. So, temp has to get above 135.
Please recognize that you don't add water by putting a hose on your compost
pile.
You need to add water to the pile when the compost is being turned. If you
add water by soaking the pile you end up with a sodden mess, and many of your
nutrients leaching out onto puddles outside the pile.
The best bet is to cover the pile with rain-repellant fabric. Plastic, if
you don't have anything else. Tarps work. That way, you don't lose the
moisture that was in the green materials and vegies you made the pile with. You
don't run into problems with too much rain sogging the pile.
In dry areas, you HAVE TO cover the pile or it dries out. Once you allow a
pile to dry out to the point the material is bone dry, just start all over. You
aren't going to wet-up that pile and be successful. You've lost the biology
you needed, and you need to add fresh.
OK? There is even more to the story than what I've covered here, but that's
what the composting classes are for....
Elaine
Received on Sat Sep 04 2004 - 07:06:38 EDT
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: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:28 EST