Hot Composting - The Berkeley Method

Anyone heard of this or actually use it? I have always produced hot heaps using equal brown and greens in a heap 4 ft square and this method seems to have too much browns in to me at 30 parts brown to one part green.

Hot Compost – Composting in 18 Days

snippet from the above page

"The requirements for hot composting using the Berkeley method are as follows:

Compost temperature is maintained between 55-65 degrees Celsius
The C:N (carbon:nitrogen) balance in the composting materials is approximately 25-30:1
The compost heap needs to be roughly 1.5m high
If composting material is high in carbon, such as tree branches, they need to be broken up, such as with a mulcher
Compost is turned from outside to inside and vice versa to mix it thoroughly
With the 18 day Berkley method, the procedure is quite straightforward:

Build compost heap
4days – no turning
Then turn every 2nd day for 14 days"

Steve...

 

Sounds like it’s only for the very strong unless there is a mechanical means to do all that turning! Not for me, I think.

 

What surprises me about this method, besides the obvious increased workload...is the high Carbon to Nitrogen percentage.

It goes against everything I have learned in practice or even read in theory.

I was hoping that someone here had already tried it and could comment on how good the end result was in use.

Anyone?

Steve...

 

I had a tentative go at it in October. Chopped fallen leaves,straw then 2 bags of lawn clippings,leaves,straw,clippings,leaves.
Left it a few days,turned the stuff as best i could. In reality the middle and top part. Gave it some water,repeat a couple days later.

Put my hand into it and there was some good heat in there . Some rapid degredation going on too.

Had to leave it for 3 weeks end nov-dec and upon checking it it had gone cold,.the end.

The heap has noticeably shrunk and seems to work if you can give it the attention it needs.

 

Many thanks Wee Tam..

Steve...

 

Now there is a good idea to take on board, I really like that.

Steve...

 

Has anyone gone for the hotbin composter? We have been looking at them but £200 is a lot of money to jump into with a few YouTube videos watched.

 

I am sceptical that there is a "magic bullet". It provides insulation in Winter, and the rest of the time possibly keeps the edges hotter to reduce need for turning, but that's about it.

Most people don't have enough material, and it all comes down to right-materials @ right-time, to maintain a compost heap at full belt. Much easier to get hot compost if there is an accelerator source available - e.g. cow / chicken manure - or lawn clippings if used appropriately.

My opinion hasn't been swayed over the years that there are two ways to compost:

Chuck it on a heap, when heap is full start another, wait until first is done. If the size of the heap is fairly big that's probably a year. I have found that can be helped by making a "lid" for the completed pile, particularly over winter, with hay or grass clippings - that provides insulation and stops the top layer doing nothing and generally "sprouting"!

Turn it. Needs a steady stream of material to fuel it, and multiple bins (ideally each smaller than the previous to account for shrinkage as composting proceeds). Empty the smallest "done" bin (e.g. to a "ready pile"), and turn next smallest into smallest. Repeat all the way up to the largest bin. Its easy enough, doing that method, to get phenomenal initial temperatures, and maintain them fairly well, but its a lot of work ... and ... it needs a steady supply of right-materials @ right-time

Running anything large through a chipper will help. Mixing Greens and Browns at the right ratio will help. But that needs enough material to be available, and I think that is the biggest problem for the average family-of-four with an allotment sized plot and similar again for ornamental - there just won't be enough material of the right mix all the time.

 

Thanks for that, it very hard to know where to invest your money sometimes, we are out in the countryside and have cattle sheds up the lane, this leads to vermin so the old type composters that were here when we moved in were basically rat hotels haha, so thought the hotbin being more or less a sealed unit might be better.

 

I have no knowledge, but are they rat-proof? The rats here will eat through anything if they think there is something edible on the other side!

Rats and Compost are somewhat a fact of life I think ... unpleasant as that is.

 

Yeah I think the same doubt anything could keep the little rascals out hahahaha.
I really appreciate you're views, it's great to be open to so much more knowledge, skills, experience and little tricks.