[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: composting & hotbeds

[YankeePerm at aol.com]

Many years ago, when I lived in Western Massachusetts, I would sometimes 
build a hot compost pile in late fall, mainly to disposed of diseased or otherwise 
infested crop residue if any, or to deal with a supply of organic matter 
received too late to till in before planting winter rye.   External temperatures 
were immaterial to the heating of the pile, which would be steaming in extended 
subzero (°F) temperatures.   No turning was required, though I tended to 
build piles to allow for some movement of gasses within.   I could go out at any 
temperature and open the top with a fork to add a bit of compost.   (Our 
animals got most of our kitchen leavings.)

Some years later, when I was co-director of the Community Organic Gardening 
(COG) Project, we were building 'grow frames,' essentially overly elaborate 
hotbed/coldframe devices.   Using horse manure and bedding, we could count upon a 
hot pile for from 6-8 weeks, meaning a pile hot enough to warm the six to 
eight inches of soil we covered it with and keep the air in the 'pod' from 
freezing at night.   The part of the project I worked on was a youth gardening and 
employment project (under CETA if you remember back to the 80s), and one of our 
kids took a tomato plant from our greenhouse and placed it in a pod with a 
pile just built and steaming.   This was the third week in December when we were 
getting night lows in the -20 to -25° F range.   The tomato thrived until May 
when we forgot to close the pod one evening and we got a late hard frost.   I 
was amazed.   Figure on 6 to 8 weeks of heating from a well made compost pile 
before it is unable to offset the cooling effect of bitter cold weather.   My 
piles in Massachusetts never froze all winter, but they were huge.   (I don't 
believe in composting bins--a waste of space in material.   But a hotbed is a 
different matter, and I suppose it is a bin of sorts.)   In a cold winter 
climate, you need to dig all your hotbeds out to pits 3-4 feet deep and place a 
good supply of the topsoil where it cannot freeze.   Then build your hotbeds 
every two weeks or so, cover them with the glazing and plant based on results 
from a soil thermometer.   Once in a while a bed may not fire up, but you'll get 
the knack soon enough so that you have 100 percent success.   Stack surplus 
soil on the north side of the frame (in the Northern Hemisphere), aside from 
what you have reserved to cover your hotbed with soil for planting and 
transplanting.   Ideally, you have a small solar greenhouse to generate seedlings to 
transplant.   Avoid fruiting crops in the short days of winter and focus on leaf 
and root crops.   (Well, root crops do not like the nitrogen levels required 
for a hot bed, so they need to be managed differently.)   I've made hot beds 
as pits (in Massachusetts), as combination pits and straw bale containers (in 
Kansas) and as above ground boxes (in Georgia USA), and they all work.   The 
better insulated the composting mass, the longer your pile warms.   If your 
compost exceeds 140° F, you put in too much nitrogenous material and the pile will 
loose fertility and 'burn out' too quickly.

Hope that this info is of use.   I don't do this anymore as we mainly garden 
in winter where I live now and we compost mainly through trench composting 
which involves very little heat generation.   

Dan Hemenway

PS I never watered my piles in Massachusetts. Melting snow probably made some 
contribution, but of course water is generated by the composting process.   
Oxidation of organic matter yield carbon dioxide, water and energy, as that is 
what we are made of, with bits of mineral here and there added on.   
Combustion of organics always yields water.

In a message dated 5/9/08 2:08:23 PM, LLile at projsolco.com writes:


> 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.
> 





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