How to make Hot Compost - Step-by-Step guide
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2021
- One of the absolute best things to add to our garden beds is at your finger tips AND completely free: Hot Compost. However, without a step-by-step guide it can take months and multiple attempts to get it right. In this video, we consolidate all of our 18 months of learnings into one step-by-step guide to successfully build a hot compost in your very first attempt!
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Excellent video! I completed my pile 3 days ago, just checked it two days ago and the temperature was 80 degrees, checked it today and it was at 160 degrees! Yikes!! I turned it as much as I could, and added some browns because I only have 1 bin completed and I really thought it would take longer lol. An hour later and it is down to 145 degrees. I hope I can keep it from being too hot, I am so stoked to have beautiful compost for spring! I love your passion for this, science is really cool sometimes!!
Amazing! I'm SO happy to hear your pile is COOKIN'!! And I've got some good news for you! Don't worry too much if your pile goes above 160F. How come? Because that is only one point in the pile. So while it might be a little bit hot there, as you move the thermometer further and further out (similar to the Earth's core), it will get cooler and cooler. So in reality, there will probably be even more of your pile sitting between 120F - 160F which is amazing. Let me know if that makes sense! :D
@@MindandSoil Thanks for the reply! My pile was really hot to begin with, but now that our weather is just around freezing I assume that it is normal for it to have cooled right down. We'll see how it turns out in the spring!
@@michelle7371 Hey Michelle! This is a great question! And actually, the outside temperature doesn't have too much of an impact on the temperature of the pile. The reason being is because the heat isn't coming from the sun/air, but rather from the microbial activity in the middle of the pile. So, if your pile got hot then you've done amazing. The reason why it is cooling down would either be because the microbes have ran out of oxygen inside or it's simply done cooking! I find that the pile usually heats up for about 4-6 days before running out of oxygen - at which point I flip it. But after 2-3 flips, I find the pile just doesn't heat up quite as much - and this is because it is simply done cooking! At that point you could start putting it in your garden, but I usually try to time it so that it can just rest and further decompose for about 60 days before going into the garden :)
@@MindandSoil Interesting! It has only been a few weeks since I started the pile, but I did include all of the contents from my old composter as well as new browns and greens. Surely it isn't done cooking yet? Should I give it another flip?
@@michelle7371 How many times have you flipped it? I find that after about 20 days it is past its point of cooking and begins to cool down - regardless of any more flips. Additionally, what does it look like? If it's looking dark chocolatey and uniform, and was as hot as 145 degrees as you mentioned earlier on, then it could just be beautiful compost at this point! It happens a lot faster than we'd think :)
I'm pleased that I'm not the only one who is so completely convinced by all the things you're saying! I suspect you'll be interested to learn about my compost journey. It'll likely warm your heart. I hope so!
Back thirty years ago in Wyoming, I started building compost piles, and failed a number of times, mostly because the piles were too small. Apparently I was committed, because I started studying the process. A friend lent me his copy of Rodale's Complete Book of Composting. It changed my world! I probably read it cover to cover. (If you haven't seen it, it's a thick book, dictionary size. Then I started a compost pile in the fall, when everyone in town was mowing up the fall leaves and cutting their lawn for the last time.
I drove my minivan around town, and hauled home the bags of leaves and grass clippings, which people were happy to give me as they were working in their yards. They were even happy to help me load the bags in the van! Rodale's Guide convinced me to visit my mom's ranch, where I collected a bale of rotten alfalfa hay and filled the back of my poor minivan with a load of fresh(ish) cow manure. It was an unpleasantly smelly 2 hour drive home from the ranch visit!
I started two huge piles, roughly a six foot radius, four to five feet deep, at first. I used a length of woven-wire fencing, and formed a cylinder by connecting the two ends to each other. I bent hooks into the wires on one end, so I could hook the two ends together. When it was time to turn the pile, I would simply unhook the fencing, peel it off the sides of the compost pile, set it up again right next to the pile, and start forking the pile back into the wire cylinder.
After building the piles, I added to them regularly, a mixture of kitchen scraps from home, and all the food scraps and coffee grounds produced by a local coffee house. They would set their buckets of waste outside the back of the shop, and I would collect it each evening. It amounted to roughly two buckets each day. I would add them to the compost pile every day by scraping out a hole in the top of the pile, and dumping the buckets in, then cover the hole. Those big six-foot diameter piles allowed me to work my way around the piles, dumping in food waste, and I could go for a couple weeks before I was starting to dig into the same hole twice.
I didn't bother mixing in the food waste at first: I simply waited to mix it into the pile thoroughly until I turned the pile. I was raising and butchering my own rabbits at the tie, and I composted all the rabbit innards and carcass scraps as well.
Adding so much waste into the pile every day allowed me to keep those piles hot all through the long, cold Wyoming winter. In the spring, I had a huge supply of really beautiful compost. I used it to improve the soil in my small backyard garden, gave away lots of it, and used the excess to simply spread on the lawn and under the trees at home. All these years later, the yard at that home still thrives after all the compost I added.
At one point, I built an enormous compost pile at the ranch for mom, by cleaning out the manure from a small cattle feedlot she has at the ranch headquarters. I piled up the manure with a loader tractor into a windrow that was twenty feet wide and ten feet tall, and probably fifty feet long. I never turned it. It sat there for several years before mom started using it in her garden and spreading it in her orchard.
When I married a woman who likes to keep her horses indoors at night, it seemed natural to incorporate the manure into my compost piles. The manure supply really upped my composting game: I no longer use a pitchfork to turn my piles. Now I have my own loader tractor! Mine isn't as big as mom's, but it's a lot more maneuverable! I built a retaining wall at our home in Wyoming from old railroad ties, sturdy, so I could use it as a back-stop while loading the tractor bucket. I can just push the manure right up against the wall to push it into the bucket, without damaging the wall.
Now I've developed an efficient barn-to-garden composting operation at our new home in Colorado. I built a composting area midway between the barn and the garden, up against a long railroad tie retaining wall cut into a hillside. Each morning, a wheelbarrow load of manure from the horses' stalls gets dumped against the retaining wall at the west end. About once a month, I use the loader to consolidate the freshly-dumped collection into a pile. Every couple months, I turn the four to five piles in the compost yard, all the same day.
I start at the far end of the retaining wall, nearest the garden. That's where the oldest compost will be, ready for use in the garden when needed. I'll start by turning the oldest pile, and moving it farther east toward the garden end, right next to where it sat before. Then, I turn the second-oldest pile, and move it eastward too, into the place I just moved the oldest pile from. And so it goes as I move westward along the retaining wall, turning each pile eastward into the position I just moved its older neighboring pile from. When I get to the newest piles, I sometimes spread them out on the surface of the ground about 24 inches deep, mix them up and break up the horse turds by driving the tractor back-and-forth over the manure, then lift it all back into a pile in line with the others along the retaining wall.
I live near Denver, Colorado, where our climate is very dry. I find that I often need to add water when I turn the piles. That was true back in Wyoming too. But as long as I maintain the moisture levels and turn the piles regularly, they get hot enough to kill weed seeds, and stay that way for most of a year before I use them in the garden. I used to check with a compost thermometer to assure that the piles got hot enough. Now I trust my instincts. I can tell when I turn a pile whether it is hot, and they nearly always are, which means they've been steaming away for a couple months since I built the pile. In a sense, I feel like my compost is ready to use when I turn the older piles and they don't heat up again.
Those piles respond so immediately to an influx of air after turning, that they will reach their highest temperatures within a couple days of turning and adjusting the moisture level. Then the piles will hold that temperature for a sustained period, and start to cool down very slowly, with the temperature dropping at a pace that relates to their relative balance of carbon and nitrogen food sources available for the bacteria. As the piles get older, I suspect that the carbon supply outlasts the nitrogen, so that the bacteria lose that perfect balance, and the piles heat up less as the piles get older.
Jordan, I was intrigued by the results you saw in your soil testing. I wonder now if my nitrogen levels might be lacking in some of my beds that are nearly 100% compost in a deep layer. I may try tilling or double-digging some of that compost into the soil below as your soil-scientist friend suggested you do in your experimental bed.
Like you, I've studdied Charles Dowding's no-dig methods, and incorporated them into my garden. My main garden plot occupies the former site of a large, round, above-ground swimming pool. The pool had been gone for years, and the patch of sand that the pool sat on had grown in with weeds and grass and even a few small aspen tree saplings. I took Charles' advice and simply laid out a couple layers of cardboard, right on top of the sand, which would lie atop the natural sandy soil, with occasional layers of clay.
After laying out the cardboard, I simple shaped my garden beds and pathways by spreading compost where I wanted beds and mulch where I wanted paths. Since I was starting with a circular patch of ground, I got playful with the garden layout and created a pleasing geometry and pattern. Much of the garden design arose from the obvious placement of a curving path across the center of the garden, dictated by the garden gate location and an existing curving pathway in my perinnial garden next door. After drawing that curving path through the center, I drew out some parallel beds, and realized that the layout was accidentally looking like a stylized leaf design. So I ran with it, and shaped the beds with curved edges to play up the appearance.
I enjoy looking down on the garden from the deck on our home, so I can enjoy my artwork as well as the plants growing in the garden. I was entertained when a friend visited with a drone recently, and I was able to see the garden from high above, and from various angles. I saved his footage, and may include some of it in a future youtube video!
Wow! This story is amazing :) What a compost journey! Loved some of the comedy relief sprinkled into this one! So encouraging hearing stories like this about people putting in this kind of effort into having a healthy soil base and garden.
Keep enjoying your beautiful garden you created and thank you so much for sharing this story with us!
Best composting story ever!
YASSSS. I can't tell you how much starting a compost pile has helped my plant babies, as well as cut down on our waste! Healthy soil is everrrrrything. Healthy soil is liiiiiife.
Truthhhh! Nothing like a hot cup of joe and turning the compost pile to start the day 😎🤣
First thing I’d like to say, your videos have simplified this subject for my ADD/ADHD brain lol. I love your channel. Back story for me is that when I was a teenager, I tended to my mom’s small garden and I did enjoy it but always wanted to do a compost garden which was not my moms style (she did a bagged garden soil mix from Menards). Now that I have my own house I’m so interested in doing gardening on a much wider scale and using only 100% compost, my biggest challenge and question for you (and anybody who can help me with this) is when should I start my compost? Mind you I live in IL so if I want to make a compost pile should I start now so I can garden next season or should I start next season and when it’s ready I just start planting? Can anybody help me with this? Like I said I love how simple and energetic you are with gardening. Keep on keeping on man!
This was a great first impression of your channel and I can’t wait to see more. I stopped by after getting g my first compost to get hot. This will never get old :)
Shoot! I wish I had seen this video a year ago!!! You explained it so that I finally get it!! No wonder it’s taken months for my compost to be created.
This exactly the video i’ve been searching for, perfect stuff! Liked and subscribed!
Thanks for this.
It's actually the best video I've seen on composting.
Thank you thank you thank you so so so much for this video information. Not complicated like others ❤❤❤
Great compost chat. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching :)
Just love ur gardening videos. Thanks for ur videos !
Keep it up !
Ah thank you so much Abdul!! Where are you gardening and how did you come across us?! Thrilled to have you gardening with us!! :D
excellent job! thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching :)
Great info... thanks !
Yeow! Appreciate that!!
Awesome and beneficial video simply put and well explained thanks
Awesome video. Amazing to close the loop on the waste cycle. Scouging is 1 of the best part and our neighbors love it !!
Haha love it!
Thank you! So easy to understand, one question during de 60 days after the cooking do you flip it? I live in the tropics of panama in central america it is very humid from april to december
You don't need to flip it during that stretch unless you smell it beginning to smell like rotten eggs (as that's a sign it's going anaerobic)
Hello as a newbie to gardening and composting I thoroughly enjoyed your video. I would like to know if I only used cardboard and coffee grounds would that be sufficient. Thank you and I'll wait for your response
Thank you, very nice and very useful❤️
My pleasure Sabina!
Great video!! I just started a little indoor compost the other day. Can’t wait for warmer weather to come so I can set up a larger one outside
Absolutely!! It's a real joy the hot compost pile, something so calming and therapeutic about turning it every now and then! The simple mindless work :)
excellent! I shared this to my gardening group, "WV Yarden Lovers" as 30 day compost made easy. Thank you! i listened for years to various youtubes and yours is clear and concise! Great Job!
Awesome feedback! Thanks for watching :)
Awesome info!! It's really helpful to get the pieces as small as possible and to build as big as possible.
1 small thing that has helped a ton was buying a Manure/Hay Pitch Fork. I can flip the pile in less than half the time and the longer handle makes it way easier on my back ;)
Thanks again for sharing Jord 💪🌱🌱
Absolutely! I use something similar for flipping my piles :D
Actually, I don't recommend chopping up the materials as small as possible. It's my experience that's totally unnecessary.
Depending on how much original material has that high surface area to mass ratio, it might take a bit longer to get started but once the pile is going and if you can maintain high temperatures, it'll all break down without manually chopping everything up. Of course, if someone wanted to do all that extra work it wouldn't hurt the process but IMO it's unnecessary.
First of all, I would like to say that it is a great explanation. We collect the manure and straw residues of the goats we raise in the corner where the briquette walls of my house intersect in Turkey. I know that it will have a compost effect even if it stays there for a year, but I will go and apply everything I learned from you. For water, I will use well water, not tap water. I think the only thing missing in this compost is carbon, which will be covered by straw residues. After all, I'm not a professional. Anyway, if I remember, I can share the results here in a few months. You are doing great work Mr. America 😂😂😂
Glad you enjoyed it! Appreciate you sharing all this, love your process. Thanks or watching :) Also I'm a Canadian!
I have tons of oak leaves but very little nitrogen sources other than leaves from unwanted plants, weeds and kitchen scraps. My cats litter is wheat so that goes out minus the feces.
Thank you, Jordan. Very informative video. Do you have to have all the material read when you start the pile. I have been building up the material slowly over a few weeks. Adding new material every couple of weeks. I can see the older material cooking. Just wondering if I should keep adding new material as and when I find it?
Realy good. I'm Brazil and make compost in my farm. I use in many plants and i heve good results. Tanks for explanation
Glad to hear it! Thanks for sharing :)
100th like! Thanks for the education I'm doing it this week. Love your set up. I just have pallets to work with. Wish me luck!
You got this!! Pallets will work perfect as they are measured perfectly to the size you need. Fill it up with the materials outlined in the video and you'll be good! Let me know when it's starting to heat up!! :D
I am learning to compost this year and I have experienced and done just as you have said. I'm a soil nerd. It has been so successful. I also do vermicomposting, so in the late stages of the composting I add red wigglers while the pile finishes.
I also plant a winter salad garden into a finished pile in September and arch PVC pipe before covering it with clear heavy plastic. It thrived under 1 1/2 feet of snow. The greens were crisp and delicious. The leaves cannot touch the plastic or they will freeze.
I like your compost bin design. I have arthritis and am looking for an easier way to flip a pile. Thanks.
Yessss love love love that Nancy!!
Well that was fascinating! I feel motivated to set things up for fall clean up. Thanks:)
Woohoo! Love to hear that! Any questions you know where to find us :D
Great video, just what I needed to improve my compost! I'll have to build the bins and am wondering if it's better to have a closed or open bottom compost bin. Thanks!
Either works but you may want to consider going closed (either on cement or wood) so that no little rodents (i.e. rats/mice) can get into the pile from the bottom!
Hi! love you video. I have built our compost pile from pallets (three cubby areas for compost) i had on hand, but it is open in the front. should I add removable wooden slats in the front or keep it open? even though our compost area has three sections, I really dont understand what the three sections are for. I understand the general process of how to compost, but how do i keep it going with constant kitchen scraps? our compost will be a community compost bin for our co op with kids bringing their scraps when they have some to bring. what is your opinion for how to handle this process? and please exp[lain the purpose of the three section compost areas. thank you.
Thanks for the informative video! Really love the idea of trying hot compost as we have a garden compost bin that we got from the city of Vancouver and it just takes so long for everything to break down and hasn't really worked for us. Being in the city we don't have the space to do such a large compost pile so would using the existing compost bin container we got be something we could use for this?
Hey Sandra! You can absolutely get compost decomposing faster in a smaller setup as well. It will never be as fast as this because the heat is what causes the really fast breakdown and that comes from the volume. But what I would recommend doing is buying a compost aerator and turning your compost with this about once every two weeks to month. With the aerator you basically spin it in to the bottom of the pile like a screwdriver, and then pull directly up to pull material from the bottom up. Do this through the whole pile (probably 15-20 probes per round) This will help things break down more quickly, not stink, and create smaller particle sizes! Here's an example of a compost aerator that would work: www.rona.ca/en/product/tumbleweed-compost-aerator-000090c-330773300?viewStore=41450&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=1756707049&cq_con=68416298293&cq_term=&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=u&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&&cm_mmc=paid_search-_-google-_-aw_smart_shopping_generic_online_exclusive-_-71700000064310791&gclid=CjwKCAjw682TBhATEiwA9crl37fJlgFA2OxzLKwL-HDayQGt26YIputtvU2jsYBBkdAuxz11HHuCnBoCv7UQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Excellent video, thanks. After getting my ratios right, I've been able to get smallish piles (in a plastic compost bin) up to 115 -130F, with peaks to 140. That is with getting the bin only 1/2 to 2/3 full. I don't really have the space or time for a 4x4x4, but it is possible to achieve decent temperatures with smaller volumes. I am fanatic about material size, so keeping everything small with a garden chipper or a lawnmower may be helping. Do you suggest adding anything else to the compost - eg. biochar or rock dust? I've seen suggestions from both Karl Hammer and (very recently) Charles Dowding to use some form of rock dust to broaden the nutrient value of the finished compost.
Great question DK! If you have some ruck dust or minerals on hand as well as biochar then absolutely add them in. The more goodies in there, the better - and like you said - especially if it's smaller particle size. What I am starting to do is after it has cooked & cooled (about 60 days), I am then working in some of my old soil from containers so that it gets mixed in and rejuvenated before putting it back to use in the Spring ahead. Additionally, the particle size on all of this is super fine so it really increases the volume of new usable compost :D
Would you recommend adding Bat Guano as part of the mix in a compost pile?
We are ears for you to tell us about the biology of composting.
Really useful and especially good for a longer video. I'd suggest that, unless you particularly need the compost quickly, carving the nitrogen pile and running over the leaves, although useful, just takes energy. Yes it will be pennies at the most but if you're able to just pile it all up and let time and nature do that job for you. Just takes a bit longer, that's all, but once it starts heating up then that opens the flood gates. The microbe flood gate. Go microbes! Go, my pretties...
Totally fair! And yeah it definitely is a bit of work, why else do you think I got some helping hands?! 🤪
Great informative video Jordan! But, majority of urban gardeners have plastic dome style composters and hard to get this term. I got success to get to this temp, but it hold only a few days and cool down after. However, I found if flipping over whole pile, it helping to brake materials faster anyway and yes, about a month later you can use some part of your compost. I'm dreaming to get a space to build my composter from wood pallets, but it's just a dream in urban area. Cheers!
Thanks so much for the comment Olga! Yes - hot composting is definitely a bit more challenging in an urban environment! The quickest way to get finished compost in an urban setting would probably be with a worm farm as the amount of space needed is only ~2ftx2ft and they eat through a feeding in about 10-14 days! Have you given worm composting a try at all?
@@MindandSoil This is my next project, but didn't decide which way to go, I mean what container to use. Some people recommend just 5 gallons buckets, but some recommend just a plastic bins. What would you suggest?
@@OlgaVCR great question! My biggest recommendation here is to not focus on the structure (ie tote vs 5gal bucket) but rather focus on what you're trying to promote. Which is upward movement by the worms to the next layer of food, leaving the layer below primarily just worm castings that you can harvest. So, with that objective in mind those two options are essentially they exact same so long as you have multiple layers and holes drilled in the bottom for the worms to climb up - the only difference then is just the size of each option :D! I have preferred totes, but that is because I have a garage with enough space for them :). If you're tight on space, then 5 gal pales will work best. Now my one secret tip is that when it comes to bedding I highly recommend using a primarily finished compost or even just garden bedding opposed to cardboard/newspaper. I find it's much better from a moisture regulation perspective!
Unrelated - but how did you come across us?!
I wish I could lend you a bit of land for your pallets, and for a garden space, too, Olga! I live way out in the country with a gigantic compost yard, set aside just for handling compost with a tractor. I would gladly spare some space for your pallets! Sadly, I suspect my space is not near your urban area!
Great video! Thank you so much!! 🙏 I do have a question, if you wouldn’t mind sharing some advice? Once I’ve established all the layers, can I continue to add waste etc to the pallet bin, or do I move on to create a new bin from scratch? In the meantime, where would I store all my kitchen and garden waste before I get to build that new bin? Mega thanks for your help. 🥺👩🌾
Hey Aussie girl, hi from NZ😊 I have 3 seperate piles, one hot composting, and one carbon pile and one nitro pile. Once the hot compost is finished you simply start again!
is it realistic to think you might insert drain pipes in the pile and circulate air through them to heat a greenhouse? Or are you just going to mess up the tubes flipping it? After the second flip, can it stay hot for a 90 day period?
Would be interested to see a more detailed look at your compost structure, how the panels move around. Also surprised that you have a wood floor, I would think that would rot out
Hey Cate! That's a great idea. And there are actually some changes that I would make to this one if I were to do it again (my parents were the lucky recipients of me being the guinea pig and there's is built in an even more useful manner 🤣)
Please please!! I love the effectiveness and I'd love to hear what you'd change!!
Hi Jordan, I admire your beautiful helpful work. I have question for you. What do you think of the Tumblr Composting unit? as I have mid sized yard In the city
So glad we are able to be helpful! It is a great option if you need a smaller scale composting solution
Thank you so very much, and your compost structure looks Awesome. By the way; how long does that structure last? Cause right now I using a chicken wire, that I am not so crazy about.
My pleasure!! It lasts many years - this is now three years old and it's in perfect shape still. And if any of the wood rotted out then I can simply unscrew those pieces and put new plywood in :) so none of the structural beams are really even impacted by that stuff
will this break down this way over a cold winter in Canada?
you just made my day.... where were you when i was 20? so fun to watch a nice young jock full of so much energy slogging about in the garden... unfortunately have lost my place with garden etc and no opporunity for such things... though i admit, even at my best i never had rhat kind od stamina... ended up getting a couple of plastic compost boxes and just dumping all the kitchen waste etrc in...Way bfore the boxes mummy used to jut go out and bury the kitchen stuff.. and in the winter just dump it on the frozen garden at the back - wild animals would forage... would see pheasant, raccoons, rabbits birdies... I see now why you can put all kinds of stuff in and then cook it to kill pathogens crap seeds etc...great project But what about everyday kitchen stuff?
Haha - better late than never! Sorry to hear that you don't have a garden at the moment - where are you based?
And in terms of kitchen scraps two fold: some into the worm farm and others just into a black bin to slowly/passively decompose before then adding it to the hot compost pile when I am ready to make the next one :D
@@MindandSoil native of Toronto, transplanted to Vancouver (ya the tropics of Canada)
I must try this! One question I have is do you think I need to build some kind of containing structure to achieve the 4X4X4 pile? If I just layer this on the ground I know it's going to form more of a mound with the sides sloping downward, not as high as 4ft. Thanks!
Awesome question! You absolutely do not need a structure - my first Hot Compost Piles (HCPs) were just on the ground pushed up against the fence! I really like having the structure to keep it a bit more tidy. For a really cost effective (Free!) option you could take 3 pallets and simply connect them together to create three walls to fill within! And then if you wanted to have multiple holding bays you'd just add those on to the next side :)
Your hot compost pile will operate much better if it has sides than if it's just a cone shaped pile on the ground. You can do the mathematics but it's not necessary.
The important concepts to understand is that the pile has to be large enough that about a foot or so of the outside of the pile serves as insulation so that an aerobic bacterial heat furnace is created deep at the center of the pile.
In a big cube... let's say 4x4x4 then you might be able to build a furnace about 2x2x2 in size.
But in a cone shaped pile that's 4' in diameter and maybe 3-4' tall, you have a furnace the shape of a cone that's maybe 2' in diameter and 2' tall at most. The size of that cone would be less than half the size of the cube with walls.
Question about making things smaller. I do not have any of those power tools. So would it still work? I am assuming it will only take a bit longer to decompose if I do not break things up into smaller pieces. Oh. Thanks you for the very clear and useful instructional videos. I have find all your videos extremely helpful. I just overwinter my pepper and eggplants 2 weeks ago. It is awesome!! The only thing I need to do is fighting off the aphids in my eggplants. It is a bit harder to blast them off the eggplants.
Thanks so much!! I'm thrilled to hear this. How did you find our account? If you have a shovel or spade you can use that to break up any of the bigger pieces. It really just comes down to more manual power going in place of the machine doing it but both options will work well :). Any sharp edge will do the trick! And don't worry if you can't get them too small, it will break down and compact really nicely!
For your eggplant with Aphids - try this: 1L Water, 1Tsp Neem Oil, 2-3 drops of Dr. Bronners dish soap. Mix that in a spray bottle and then spray it directly at the aphid (not misted but rather more of a jet stream from the spray bottle). Let me know how it works - I've been having great success with it!
Thank you Jordan - excellent! Question would you include peat moss and or vermiculite in compost? Straw? I have very sandy soil on gravel with no clay at all. Beautiful soil but does not hold water at all.
Love it Mercia! The organic matter will hold lots of moisture so adding compost will definitely begin to help that. And then you could also add vermiculite as it does a great job of retaining water. However, if it is already high in sand then I would be inclined to just go with 100% compost to get as much organic matter in there as possible!
@@MindandSoil Thank you Jordan. Looking forward to getting my compost thermometer, and finding out where I am at. Started this compost in the summer, and have been adding to it. Also was lucky enough to be able to order one of your kits on Saturday for garlic planting - you-hoo to the Russian Red - as wasn't able to find any this year! Thanks
@@merciamckitrick1352 Amazing! Yeah make sure that pile gets nice and big and it should start to heat up!
There have been many attempts to avoid the labor of turning the pile including aeration tubes in the pile but IMO not one design can produce the same quality compost as a properly done hot compost by turning the pile multiple times.
Amazing instructional video Jordan, working on gathering my ingredients now! Can we add amazon brown boxes even though it has ink on the side? Does ink contaminate our piles? Have a soulful and soil full day.
Oh absolutely! I use all my boxes at the bottom of new raised beds to block the grass and then over time they decompose. They will break down even more quickly as part of a HCP!
@@MindandSoil thank you
Most inks today are organically based so will break down like the paper. You'd have to go back to about the 1950's when some heavy metals like arsenic was an ink ingredient.
I have been burning wood in my pit. Is pot ash good for compost ?
Could winter time be the cause of pile not heating up?
Great video…I’m a little late for a question but.
What if you added more nitrogen in layers at 2nd turn?
Would it heat up again? I’m gearing up to build a 3 compost bin roughly 4x4x4. Thanks for delivering in a clear and detailed manner!!
Butch! Amazing question and never too late to ask! Please do ask any questions on any videos at any point. And you're spot on! Adding more nitrogen throughout the process will give it an extra bump in heat. So if you notice that your pile is only getting to 80F/90F then when you go to to turn it have more nitrogen material on hand (fresh manure, coffee grounds, grass clippings) and layer those in and you should see another bump!
The proper answer probably should be that despite that process of adding "greens" to the pile, it should be unnecessary. If the materials aren't fibrous, I can't remember seeing a "green" material that won't break down fairly quickly so unless your ratios of browns to greens are very lopsided, I doubt your pile operation would be degraded. But, if your ingredients are close to correct at the beginning, your pile should have sufficient "fuel" for your microbial activity to do its work properly and shouldn't need more. But if your question was slightly different to ask whether the process would be hurt by adding more "green" materials containing nitrogen, I'd say sure you can do that without harming the process.
I save up urine in gallon milk jugs and pour some into the pile when turning…really gets it cooking again!
Question for you, Jordan! 😁
If I'm just 'cold' composting in a rotating barrel, do I have to worry about seeds in the food waste? Is that all gonna sprout?
Should I be trying to keep all the orange, pepper, tomato etc seeds out?
Can I include uncooked potatoes in my compost without fear of them taking over?
I'm not sure if the 12-16 weeks in the dark barrel is enough to kill off the seeds.
Yes - seeds will definitely not burn off and therefore have a likelihood of germinating when they are put back into the garden. With that being said, even with Hot Composting a lot of seeds don't burn off because they could be sitting on the far outside which isn't hot enough. So I always have lots of volunteer seedlings - and some have been very pleasant surprises that I've kept and allowed to grow! What's most important is just that there aren't any seeds in there that you wouldn't want or wouldn't be able to easily weed out or any roots that could start growing again (i.e. Mint which can become quite invasive - I put that in the municipal greenwaste bin)
@@MindandSoil Do you use an app to differentiate weeds from pleasant surprises? Or just experience :-)
@@MindandSoil Yes, my neighbour planted mint - thought she was crazy. Apparently Dill can get crazy quick too.
Brilliant guide thank you so much. Here in Denmark most of the local landfills recycle the garden waste by turning it into compost that everyone can then take for free. It was still a little warm last week when I was there and smelled weird. Not rotten, just weird and a little unpleasant. Color was almost black and it looked great. Do you think it is safe to use already or should I just leave it under a tarp for a month or two before using, even if the hot process had stopped when I got it home?
Great question! I would say if you have the opportunity to let it sit and cool for 4-6 weeks that would be great. However, if you are planting into your beds right now I wouldn't be afraid to put it directly into the beds! So really it depends on where you're at with your season and how urgently you need it :D
@@MindandSoil It is not too urgent for its main purpose which was as "hole filler" for the 100 tomato plants that I am growing outdoors this year. Also wanted to make a potting mix with 25% compost for repotting the tomato seedlings, but didn't have the nerve and up getting some commercial stuff that. Thanks for the answer!
I don't think anyone would describe the odor of good compost "unpleasant." It's more the smell of a forest.
Unpleasant odors are more often associated with "bad" anaerobic bacteria, not the "good" aerobic bacteria that's part of a proper composting process.
The anaerobic bacterial process is sometimes intentionally done like fermentation or bokashi.
If you found foul smelling compost at your local operator or landfill, it would mean that they probably aren't storing the compost correctly.
I would recommend aerating the foul smelling compost by putting it in a large open container or a pile in the shade and turning it a few times over 2 weeks. That should be enough to not just kill off any "bad" bacteria but also repopulate with "good" microbes of all types and should then be as good as when the compost was brand new.
@@tonysu8860 Well, she just did !
Just wondering does the compost need to be in the sun or can it be in a stable undercover?
Hey Jordan I am working hard on this right now. I had someone give me a couple bags of rotting apples. Would you recommend as a nitrogen? Also I have some leaves I pruned but they're drying out - turned to carbon? Cheers thanks for the help 😀
Amazing Korri!! Yes I would consider the apples nitrogen. Additionally, I would consider putting them in a 5 gallon pale (or any kind of bucket) first and then smashing them up with a shovel a bit to get the particle size a bit smaller before popping them into the compost. And then yes the leaves would be considered a carbon source. You're doing it!! The biggest challenge with a hot compost pile is getting the volume of organic matter needed. You can also go to your local community garden and see if they have extra greenwaste from their gardeners that you could take, to cafes to get coffee grounds (nitrogen), sports parks and golf courses for leaves (carbon) and grass clippings (nitrogen) and grocery stores for old produce waste (nitrogen). Woo!
Apples would be fine but probably not for their nitrogen content which is more typical of greeneries like live or recently deceased plants.
But apples are high in sugars which is what the microbes would love.
One more question, and this pertains to pumpkins! I have 11 😂 I was gonna do the pail and shovel technique and smash up but my compost pile is 2 weeks in, my tumblers are full and I don't think it would fit in the bokashi bin. Is there somewhere you essentially store nitrogen material until you're ready to use it? I'm sure the mold is gonna take over so I'm hoping to do something with them asap!
You can just put it in a small spread out pile until it's time to build a pile! Just try to keep it spread out so that it doesn't begin to heat up :)
Do you happen to have a template for the graph you track your temps on? I'm sure I can make one in excel, but if you already have one...
I don't actually! I just keep a piece of paper and mark Day 1,2,3 etc and then the temperature :)
I am just wondering if you can start this process now....in mid September? My zone is zone 7-8.
Absolutely!! This is a perfect time to start a hot compost pile!!
Hi I could use some help some help. My leaves are turning yellow and I have a fly problem.
Do you suggest two flips a week or a month?
How should the structure be built and maintained?
Great information! Unfortunately I don't have a big garden anymore, BUT I do have a garden apartment. I have 2 small garden beds by the entrance to our building so nowhere to put a 'traditional' compost pile and I've been thinking of getting a rotating compost turner that I can hide behind the hedge around our patio. I seem to produce a lot of kitchen waste (we eat a lot of veggies) and I can get grass clippings from the yard maintenance guys once a week. There also seems to be an endless supply of cardboard boxes in our community recycle bin so I think I can get all the supplies I need. Have you tried adapting to a smaller scale by using a rotating compost bin? Your comments would be appreciated.
Judy that is the perfect approach! You want to keep the inputs the same (as you outlined above) but just scale down the size based on your living environment. I love the tumblers because that helps keep the pile active (and actually is a lot easier than turning the pile with a pitchfork). When you do buy your tumbler, make sure you buy one that has two chambers. This way you can stop loading it with new organic matter, begin putting all new organic matter into the second chamber, and the first chamber will then become finished compost that you can put to use. Once it's put to use, chamber 1 is empty again and you can stop putting into chamber 2 and put everything into chamber 1.
@@MindandSoil Thank you!!! Now I just have to find a dual tumbler that fits my budget.
I just grabbed one from Canadian Tire for $109 :)
@@MindandSoil That's a great price. That one at CTire has 2 chambers but they rotate together at the same time. I was wondering if it would be better to have one with 2 chambers that rotate separately? Is it better to have one chamber that would sit without rotating for a couple of days while the compost 'cooks' while I'm adding fresh goodies to the 2nd chamber. Does it matter if they are being rotated together more frequently - one with fresh goodies and the other with cooking goodies? (Sorry - it's hard to explain eloquently when talking compost)
@@judyp8302 haha not a problem at all I know exactly what you mean. No, it doesn't matter if they are rotating at the same time. What's of more importance is that once the first chamber is mostly full that nothing else is added to it and that it can just finish composting. And during that time any new material starts to get added to the second chamber :)
Can I mixed my coffee grinds directly into my bed along with potash?
Do you have to worry about weeds in the nitrogen content and what about adding ashes?? Great video. Thanks Jordon
Definitely add ashes! Think of it as a carbon source. In terms of weeds the school of thought is that at 120F the pile becomes thermophilic and burns off weeds and seeds. However in a backyard setup the centre will reach 120f but the outsides will be much cooler, even with flipping I think it's just tough to get large enough that all of that burns off. So I would say expect some weeds and volunteer seeds from any backyard hot compost pile!
Wood ash is also high in potassium. It should be composted rather than added directly to the soil (it could make the soil too alkaline).
@@monte68x I'd also put the wood ash first through a compost pile before adding to the garden!
How much compost do you get out of 4x4x4 in the end?
Do you leave it covered after the 30 days?
How much water should you use. Though the whole process?
Once, the pile decomposes and cools down; say after 30 days, can I add earthworms to the pile to decompose the compost furthermore and increase the nutrients in it?
have you ever added bio-char ?
what do you do if you have chicken manure and sawdust mixed to gether
Superb! If you puncture your pile with a rod in a dozen places or so, wouldn't that give the microbes the oxygen they need. Reasoning for that in my mind is that the composting process consolidates the materials from the "stick-like" material to compacted nugget-like material and chokes off the air.
Hey Lee! This is a great question! There absolutely are compost aerators that you can poke into the compost pile, turn, and pull that do a level of mixing the pile and introducing new oxygen. My concern there would be that certain areas would get oxygen while other areas that didn't get poked might end up further compacting and turning anaerobic. I can't say with 100% certainty whether or not this would happen, just my hypothesis. Outside of that, I find flipping the pile to be a really enjoyable therapeutic element of gardening (something peaceful about how mindless it is) so I'm fine putting in a little bit more effort there!
@@MindandSoil I love the way you created a dual bin so flipping the pile is really so much easier than hefting all that wet stuff. Brilliant
@@leeackerson2579 Yup! I really love that setup for both its aesthetic and function. The only change I would make is rather than having 3' tall chicken wire panels between each I would do 3x 12" slats. That way you can take them out one by one (as the full 3" chicken wire panels can get stuck when the material is pressed against it)
I find it hard to keep stashes of green and brown layers and instead just throw food waste/leaves/woodchips from the chicken coop when they become available. Would it be better to keep things separate to add all together like you have done or do you have some tips for continuously adding materials and watering/turning once in a while? The compost from last summer still isn't fully broken down...
Totally hear ya on this Jessica! So I keep all of my kitchen waste and yard waste just in those classic black composting bins until I'm ready to build a hot compost pile. Then when it's time to build the Hot Compost Pile I try to really load up on tons of materials. I spend a few days doing this. A great option has been going to the local community garden to get extra greenwaste from them (although this has resulted in some mint and other weedy plants ending up through my garden, but alas!), leaves from the different sport parks, grass clippings from the golf course, and coffee grounds from the cafe. There's lots out there, just gotta get a bit creative to make it happen. But then I have finished compost in about 6 weeks time :D
@@MindandSoil Utilizing different sources for compost generation may be problematic. When foraging for my food garden compost additions, I try to not use material that may have been chemically treated. I would not source grass clippings from golf courses or public fields for that reason. Insecticide/herbicide treated material added to my compost is NOT something that I want fed to my food crops! Doing due diligence on the ORGANIC merits of material used is critical to the quality OR NOT of your garden produce! 👍😊
@@keithnotley2440 It's a great point, Keith, and I was actually chatting about it with someone this week. With any chemical compounds, do you have any feel for how they are broken down through the thermophilic composting process? I was wondering about this
@@MindandSoil As you have previously acknowledged, not all areas of the heap attain full thermophilic temperature. Also, not all compounds will necessarily break down easily and I feel the risk to one's health is not a viable option! There are plenty of resources available that can be expected to be organically safe. There will always be conjecture on the theories of potential toxic contamination, so I prefer to err on the side of caution and choose to be selective in my gardening practices! 😀🍀😀
@@keithnotley2440 Really appreciate you taking the time to write this up Keith!
Just one observation: I see the compost box has a floor. Wouldn't it be better if there was contact with the ground?
I'm not 100% sure - if it was on the ground then insects could more easily get in and out, and I venture to guess that they would be most inclined to go in given the amount of organic matter in the pile. I personally just like having it nice and tidy and it makes it easy to scoop out :)
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
How do you build the boxes?
That's a great question! My younger brother is a carpenter so he whipped them up kind of on th3 spot. However, if you go to my personal instagram (@jmara09) you will see a Highlight for Compost Facility and that will show you the steps we took - and then the measurements will just be custom for your space! :D
I was so hopeful that I would finally find a UA-cam video that describes doing hot composting properly.
Unfortunately, although this video gets a lot of things right, there's obviously problems that prevent the pile achieving maximum optimum temperatures which should be just below boiling water, so hot you can't stick your hand in the pile for long without experiencing plenty of discomfort.
The first hint that something is wrong is the compost you displayed in your hand in the beginning of the video. A really successful pile would leave nothing identifiable but I see twigs and leaves plus other small clumps of matter. A pile that achieves very high temperatures would obliterate everything including branches up to about 2" in diameter, leaving only a heavy jet black powder, which is the color of pure carbon. Also, you didn't mention how your compost might smell, but it should also have its own unique, woodsy smell like in a forest. If you can identify any of the materials you originally put in your compost pile, what you see is not completely broken down.
A comment about sufficient temperatures... A temperature of 120 degrees F or even 140 degrees F might kill off pathogens if the temperature is sustained long enough but if you worked in a restaurant that would not satisfy health code where 160 degrees is considered the minimum standard to ensure food safety from pathogens like e. coli and salmonella. There's a formula for killing pathogens at less than 160 degrees F, but it should be far safer to just make your pile temperature rise above 160 degrees. This can be important if you're putting green manure, meat or meat byproducts in your pile and there is a possibility of using your compost to amend soil for crops intended for human consumption. Although the chances of causing a health outbreak is tiny, why take a chance if you know how to address the problem properly? Just don't add materials that can introduce pathogens to your pile or ensure the temperature rises over 160 degrees F.
As for why you're not achieving high temperatures at least up around 180-190 degrees or more...
It's not because your pile isn't large enough. As you've discovered, the pile has to be large enough to provide insulation for the microbial heat furnace at its center. I've found that 1 yard cube is the minimum required size so your 4x4x4 should be sufficient.
It looks like you probably are wetting own your pile properly and wetting each layer as you turn it. Although there is a lot said about not being too wet, I've never found that to be an issue, too much wetness will generally drain itself of excess water and it's far more common for a pile to be too dry than too wet.
I notice your pile enclosure has a floor, and there are different opinions about doing that. I've found that building a pile directly on the ground can better allow bugs and earthworms to populate your pile in its later stages but may need a wire screen if vermin get into your pile by burrowing. Your raised floor shouldn't have that problem.
Some things I think may be lacking in what you're doing include...
Covering the pile with a tarp. You may think you're trapping steam and heat but you're also degrading air circulation both from the top and by convection through the sides and bottom by not allowing heat to rise and even escape Although I haven't tested what you're doing, I suspect there is more negative than positive to covering your pile, and if your pile is hot enough you should never be concerned with rain or even snow on top of your pile. Just think of any moisture from the skies that soak into your pile just means you don't have to add so much water to your pile the next time it's turned.
Your thermometer may be too short. Are you sure you've poking that thermometer all the way down into the very center of your pile which is more than 2 and maybe as far as 4 feet from the outside of the pile depending on the angle? If you're taking readings only about a foot from the outside of your pile, your interior temperatures might be a lot hotter and you might be turning your pile too soon.
You really need to turn your pile every week over 90 days. It takes that long to do hot compost properly, and that's a lot of manual work unless you use power tools. The first turn might take just a tad longer sometimes (10 instead of 7 days) but once it gets going, you should be able to keep temperatures high until a little past the 2nd month (about 9 pile turnings). The last 2 pile turnings might not be very high temperature but you really want all the microbes to complete their work. Over the past 2 weeks, if your pile is on the ground you might find small insects and earthworms invading your pile and that's a good sign... That what you've created is so attractive that creatures of all types are finding your compost really nice to live in.
Speaking of microbes, in your video I remember you repeated a common misconception about the microbes that populate at high temperatures in your pile are the same as what remain when the pile cools. That's not ordinarily true, typically microbes exist in relatively narrow temperature ranges so although you want to promote the microbes that decompose at high temperatures at first, when your pile cools you'll want a different population of microbes that live ideally at ambient temperatures to repopulate your compost and will carry over to the plants your compost will be assisting.
Otherwise, as I mentioned earlier this video is fairly good hitting the high points what should be done to do hot compost.
Are you trying to take over his channel ?
Everyone loves a know-it-all to come along with an unsolicited critique!
Get a life tony. Best common-sense talk and video around. And I've been composting many different ways for 60 years.
Can you add whey to get the lactobacillus into the pile?
Oh wow I'm not sure on this! I haven't heard of adding Whey to a compost pile before. But, I am a huge proponent of experimentation so I would definitely give it a try to see if it gets you the results you're looking for - either way you'll emerge with lots of learnings!
Whey is as good as any other "food" for the bacteria to feed upon, populate and decompose the other materials.
As for the lactobacillus, I'm pretty sure they'd be killed off at the high temperatures of a proper hot compost process.
But I could always be surprised. Bottom line though... Lactobacillus probably has no value to any plant so there's no point to trying to cultivate it in compost unless you intend to eat it directly (And don't. No one should eat dirt or compost).
I have way more material than 4 x 4 feet. I hope if my pile will be bigger, it won't turn into an atomic bomb
Haha! Thanks for watching :)
That would depend on the critical mass.
All videos to date say carbon then nitrogen 😂 does it make any difference
Ok so finished usable compost in 30 days? DEFINITELY not!
Do not listen to this man. He does not understand the biology of composting.