Newbie Composting - No heat in my heap

Hi,

I started my first compost heap around 5 weeks ago. I had a lot of old partially rotted wood chipping and added grass cuttings to it along with some bits from the kitchen. After the first week I went to turn it and everything looked great, plenty of steam coming from the pile I thought I was onto a winner. Ever since that first week I have no heat in the pile. I've tried adding water to it but no avail.

Any ideas to get it going again? Should it be covered? I turn it every week, is this too much? I have a lot of saw dust around, should I add it?

 

Same happened to mine recently. I think the cold nights knacckered i?

 

I would give it some water & cover with some Black sacks, this will encourage the worms to come. you could also rip up some paper/cardboard.

 

Composting, waste recycling etc. So many ideas exist about composting. Who is to say, whose idea, theory, practice is right.

Today there are many containers sold for the purpose of composting/compost making. Visiting a friend some time ago, I was given the grand tour of the garden. To be honest. Foe the amount of veg that could be grown there, it would have been cheaper and far less back breaking to pop to the greengrocers. There in the corner stood this large plastic or whatever big dustbin. What's in that Tom? That's me composter. Raising the lid a little........................Pheww!!! The pong. It was like an elsan toilet minus the chemicals. The contents were simply garden waste, kitchen waste, all packed in there. It was nothing but a crap heap, no air circulation ....nothing. As not only a gardener but also a horticultural scientist, I imaginged visiting a campsite and witnessing all the campers porta-pottis being tipped out. A lab analysis might show too much harmful constiuants.

My choice of composting would be. Build up the waste in layers. Add a layer of brushwood. Turn the whole lot over at least once a month, in dry spells , ok give it a watering.

During my more practical days. Even digging, clearing a plot. I'd take out a spit, fill with waste and dig on. Simples. and most affective.

 

@Aidan Mallon you heap looks ok me at the moment and it just needs more layers adding to it.If you can get hold of any carboard,rip it up first soak it in a bucket of water until it is nice and soft (removing any labels,staples and sticky tape first)and then add that to the heap plus non flowering weed material plus any soil or old dead plants that have compost added to them.Non weedkillered lawn clippings are good most fruit and veg peelings but don’t add meat or bones as that will attract rats.I even add the tops of horse tail to mine plus nettles which act as an activator and will speed up the rotting process.Also the most important item to add is worms as they are a must for any compost heap but try not to add too much water or else you will end up with a compost bin full of a slimey mess and the worms don’t like being drowned plus by keep adding water you are cooling your heap down,not something that you want.

You will need to keep turning it so it is best to have two bins on the go if you have room so you can empty one into the other which will be the turning effect.I use one tonne builders sacks with a pole at each corner in the handle loops on our allotment and I find in the summer months it will rot down much quicker than in the cold winter months.

We are only just coming out of winter and into the spring and then summer months so it is only just going to start to get going and quiet often it can take up to six months to a year before you have compost to spread on the ground so you need patience...

 

Thats for the advice guys. I don't have much cardboard to hand at the minute but I'll not be long gathering some up. I don't have anything suitable to cover it at the min but I cut open a big bin liner and covered it with that. Good idea or bad? What about the contents of my office shredder? Or sawdust which I have loads of?

 

Not sure about the sawdust but shredded paper will be good. Brown cardboard too, I tear that up into palm-of-the-hand size pieces. I find I do get much better compost if I remember to include "browns" (dry vegetation, cardboard, paper) as well as "greens" and leave gaps for air and creatures to circulate.

See how you go with your bin liner lid - you may find it getting very damp, or blowing away. A longer term solution could be a bit of old carpet, tacked onto another pallet and hinged on perhaps?

 

The heat is back, I put a timber panel from an old shed over it and it seems to have started to work. It may have been the hot weather that has got it going again.

I'd like to use the sawdust along with shredded paper and whatever cardboard I can get as my browns. Its quite fine sawdust, its bound to be good??? I have a lot of lawn and i'd like to add all the cuttings to my heap so I need all the brown I can get.

 

I have lots of greens (half acre lawn) but i find has much browns as pos which all goes through shedder, then layered into compost bins, if i don't have much brown and lots of greens i will cut grass which get put into bin then when i finish cutting i would tred the grass clipping hard in the bins which will make it heat up very quick then wait a few weeks then stir it up, some times the bin get so hot you can't touch the top and a nice smell

 

I know its hard to tell from a photo but what do you reckon on my compost heap now? I've kept it covered with an old tarp and added water to it regularly. I'm thinking of stopping adding grass cuttings to it for a while or starting another heap. How long before I'd have use-able compost?

 

Are there any Red Worms in the heap, Eden1

 

Eden 1, do you turn it? Do you mix the ingredients well?
Heaps need some moisture but not be too wet.
Keep adding grass cuttings but mix them with bulkier materials or even a layer of garden soil.
I have 3 heaps here and all are hot....is yours hot?
For me compost takes about 12 to 15 months......it is suitable for digging in, for runner beans for example, in 4 months

 

No sign of any worms as far as I can see. There are all kinds of other bugs in it. Would it not be too hot for worms at this stage?

 

Yes I turn it every 1 to 2 weeks. There is a lot of heat in mine at the the minute, as soon as I dig into the top of it the steam is flying out of it.

 

Sounds good to me ...just keep doing what you are doing.