It's no hard and fast rule, but you shouldn't really add any new stuff to your already partly matured mix.
Which is why mine rarely get hot - but I have no other option but to add new to old. Still get fairly decent stuff tho..just takes a bit longer.
Indeed @Chris-P-Bacon, and not everyone has room for umpteen bins either, or the amount of stuff to put in it. The bigger your site, the more material, generally, you'll have to add to it though. It also depends on what you grow. Slower 'cold' compost is generally regarded as better, but you'd have to do an in depth experiment to see if that's the case Interesting watching the winter episodes of Beechgrove recently. Like me, George clearly hasn't been doing it right [according to a poster on the forum] all his gardening life either, because his compost doesn't get roasting hot
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Fairygirl, I brought this up recently, but was ignored. Charles Dowding, who seems to be the guru on all this sort of stuff, says that heaps that get too hot are less good, because their microbial content is destroyed.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
You don't. You just scour the internet to post up things which support your beliefs. Given it was you who claimed you couldn't make compost as it was too cold and wet where live you'll be the last person anyone would believe.
No-one has stated their method is best. The thread is a good natured one to get people talking, doing and showing. For some reason (which we all know) you seem to want to try and de-rail it whenever you're bored and have nothing better to do, which unfortunately seems quite often.
The content of N,P and K in most animal manure, is actually very low, about 1,1,1, so maybe not as good a feed as you think, but never let science spoil a good story. And yes I do add lots of it to my soil. punkdoc said:
@Fairygirl, I brought this up recently, but was ignored. Charles Dowding, who seems to be the guru on all this sort of stuff, says that heaps that get too hot are less good, because their microbial content is destroyed.
Where is the scientific evidence? If it were the case, it doesn't matter to anything ever! That's why it's best ignored. No matter how much you want to try bringing it down to your miserable level, making your own compost is a positive experience. Because there are pros and cons to every method and there are a great many methods. Hot composting is quick and people have put the heat to good use. It makes more use of a small space, turnover is much higher. IF it is somehow of a vaguely less nutritional value or whatever, then put a bit more on, it's as simple as that. If you make some quick hot compost and then set it aside with a cover over it for a few months until needed who is to know what is going on in there now? You certainly don't and nor does Dowding. I do know that a great many worms move in though. You seem to forget that manure based composts are slow release. So again, whatever the nutrient value is, is offset by the fact you only add it once per year and the plants use the food all throughout the growing season.
So instead of concentrating on the downsides of anything, take a more balanced approach and weigh up the advantages too.
You don't. You just scour the internet to post up things which support your beliefs. Given it was you who claimed you couldn't make compost as it was too cold and wet where live you'll be the last person anyone would believe.
No-one has stated their method is best. The thread is a good natured one to get people talking, doing and showing. For some reason (which we all know) you seem to want to try and de-rail it whenever you're bored and have nothing better to do, which unfortunately seems quite often.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
None of us know nothing. None of us know everything.
This thread was started by MikeOxgreen on this premise, and tries to be a place to share experiences of composting huge amounts in large gardens, small scale small garden systems, and lots in between.
None of us know nothing. None of us know everything.
That's why we share what we do, what works for us, what doesn't. There will be hundreds if not thousands of forum readers with many and varied conditions, climates, available space etc. and hopefully they can relate to someone's systems and methods on here.
There are glitches in most composting systems, at the least a sort of standing still of material, it refusing to move on. At worst the occasional rat trying to gnaw away at the structure and content. But please don't be put off. Best of luck to everyone who may have been inspired to start composting by this thread. Don't let the glitches put you off, there's good stuff to be had in those bins and heaps. 🙂
The point is no one has tried to decry compost making, just the opposite in fact, but sometimes facts are important. Also it is such a pleasant thread, that @MikeOxgreen abusive post to me, has been removed. Some people just don't like being disagreed with.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
To me, everyone's experiences and views are interesting.
My own composting is relatively small-scale (small suburban garden) and relatively cool. Bin 1, the one that I'm adding stuff to as it's available and mixing up a bit each time so it's not in separate layers, is running at high 20s to low 30s celsius, so maybe 20 degrees or so above ambient, but not hot. It's full of worms and other small wiggly creatures. Bin 2 is currently empty ready for bin 1 to be turned into when it's full and stops dropping by much. Bin 3 has what was in bin 2 until last week, which still had plenty of worms etc in it, turned on to the top of what's left of the previous batch. All of that was given a good wetting and aeration so it's dropping down again, partially physically compacting under its own weight and partly still rotting down slowly. I take stuff out of that one from the hatch at the bottom as and when I want it, to sieve for adding to compost or to use as is for mulching, but in the meantime it continues to break down slowly.
I don't need my composting to be particularly fast, I just need a steady turnover, and I don't have the time or energy to be turning a whole binful frequently, or to shovel out and use a whole binful at once, so this system works for me.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
Slower 'cold' compost is generally regarded as better, but you'd have to do an in depth experiment to see if that's the case
Interesting watching the winter episodes of Beechgrove recently. Like me, George clearly hasn't been doing it right [according to a poster on the forum] all his gardening life either, because his compost doesn't get roasting hot
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Given it was you who claimed you couldn't make compost as it was too cold and wet where live you'll be the last person anyone would believe.
No-one has stated their method is best.
The thread is a good natured one to get people talking, doing and showing. For some reason (which we all know) you seem to want to try and de-rail it whenever you're bored and have nothing better to do, which unfortunately seems quite often.
If it were the case, it doesn't matter to anything ever! That's why it's best ignored.
No matter how much you want to try bringing it down to your miserable level, making your own compost is a positive experience.
Because there are pros and cons to every method and there are a great many methods.
Hot composting is quick and people have put the heat to good use. It makes more use of a small space, turnover is much higher.
IF it is somehow of a vaguely less nutritional value or whatever, then put a bit more on, it's as simple as that.
If you make some quick hot compost and then set it aside with a cover over it for a few months until needed who is to know what is going on in there now? You certainly don't and nor does Dowding. I do know that a great many worms move in though.
You seem to forget that manure based composts are slow release. So again, whatever the nutrient value is, is offset by the fact you only add it once per year and the plants use the food all throughout the growing season.
So instead of concentrating on the downsides of anything, take a more balanced approach and weigh up the advantages too.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
None of us know nothing.
None of us know everything.
This thread was started by MikeOxgreen on this premise, and tries to be a place to share experiences of composting huge amounts in large gardens, small scale small garden systems, and lots in between.
None of us know nothing.
None of us know everything.
That's why we share what we do, what works for us, what doesn't. There will be hundreds if not thousands of forum readers with many and varied conditions, climates, available space etc. and hopefully they can relate to someone's systems and methods on here.
There are glitches in most composting systems, at the least a sort of standing still of material, it refusing to move on. At worst the occasional rat trying to gnaw away at the structure and content.
But please don't be put off.
Best of luck to everyone who may have been inspired to start composting by this thread.
Don't let the glitches put you off, there's good stuff to be had in those bins and heaps. 🙂
Also it is such a pleasant thread, that @MikeOxgreen abusive post to me, has been removed.
Some people just don't like being disagreed with.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
'a sort of standing still of material, it refusing to move on.'
'the occasional rat trying to gnaw away at the structure and content.'
😥