[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: composting

[Lawrence Lile]

It's about time to put another temperature probe in my compost pile.

Last winter I dumped two 35 gallon drums of humanure into the center of a large pile of ground up yard waste from the City Recycling center.  As of January, it was, to quote Joseph Jenkins, "Frozen as solid as a S***cicle"  A month ago I checked and it was above 100F, it should be kicking in really well by now with daytime temperatures in the 70's and 80's.

I understand that watering the pile will help it go, I've dumped rinsewater from the kitchen compost can in there regularly.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org [mailto:greenbuilding-
> bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of YankeePerm at aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 6:40 PM
> To: speireag at gmail.com; greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
> Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] composting
> Importance: Low
>
>
> In a message dated 5/5/08 7:51:31 PM, speireag at gmail.com writes:
>
>
> >      The "hot" piles freeze solid in the winter, but in the spring
> > they heat up and cook.  The current hot pile is just getting into the
> > eighties (F), so it's about to torch off as the thermophiles get
> > started.
> >
>
> I lived in Western Massachusetts where it got as cold as -35 F one
> year.
> Our compost piles in the garden gave off steam all winter.   Building a
> new
> outdoor compost pile in such conditions is another matter.
>
> DH
>
>
>
>