Homemade Compost: What"s Hot and What"s Not?
Making compost may seem a little complicated and involved.
There are ratios, temperatures, sizes, and allowable inclusions to consider.
There is also hot composting versus cold composting to consider.
What's hot and what's not when it comes to homemade compost?Here are some answers.
Hot compost is also called fast or active.
Basically, this means that the pile of compostables, or raw materials, is microbially active and working.
In other words, decomposition is taking place.
This raises the temperature of the pile, enough that you can feel it if you hold your hand over the top of it.
Depending on the weather, you might also see steam coming from it.
Thus the name, hot.
Cold compost is referred to as slow or passive.
Decomposition is still occurring, but at a much slower rate.
Temperatures within the pile are more moderate.
You will still get compost from a cold pile, but like the name says, it's a slow process.
The average time is about one year, from the time you build the pile, to the time you will get finished compost.
What are the differences between hot and cold composting?Why choose one or the other? Time is the first factor.
A hot pile can give you finished compost in as little as two weeks, depending on how much work you put into it.
With a little less work, you can still get valuable soil amendment in about five weeks.
Compost tumblers and commercial bins make less work for you.
Much of the labor involved is from turning the piles, in order to mix the ingredients.
Tumblers allow you to do so easily and quickly, resulting in a hot pile and finished material much sooner, with a lot less effort.
The second reason is that the hot temperatures kill off unwanted organisms.
This includes weed seeds and other invasive plant material that might otherwise spread from one place to another when you apply finished compost.
A third reason to have a hot compost pile is so that you use up the nutrients while they are at their peak levels.
When you leave compost sitting around for a while, the microbes that are living in it start to die off, because they no longer have plant material to break down.
Your compost becomes less and less desirable.
The whole reason you are making compost to begin with is so that you will have more nutrients to be available to your plants.
So why bother if you end up with a weak end product? Those are some of the facts about hot and cold homemade compost.
Take all the details into consideration and decide what to do in your situation.
Then get composting!
There are ratios, temperatures, sizes, and allowable inclusions to consider.
There is also hot composting versus cold composting to consider.
What's hot and what's not when it comes to homemade compost?Here are some answers.
Hot compost is also called fast or active.
Basically, this means that the pile of compostables, or raw materials, is microbially active and working.
In other words, decomposition is taking place.
This raises the temperature of the pile, enough that you can feel it if you hold your hand over the top of it.
Depending on the weather, you might also see steam coming from it.
Thus the name, hot.
Cold compost is referred to as slow or passive.
Decomposition is still occurring, but at a much slower rate.
Temperatures within the pile are more moderate.
You will still get compost from a cold pile, but like the name says, it's a slow process.
The average time is about one year, from the time you build the pile, to the time you will get finished compost.
What are the differences between hot and cold composting?Why choose one or the other? Time is the first factor.
A hot pile can give you finished compost in as little as two weeks, depending on how much work you put into it.
With a little less work, you can still get valuable soil amendment in about five weeks.
Compost tumblers and commercial bins make less work for you.
Much of the labor involved is from turning the piles, in order to mix the ingredients.
Tumblers allow you to do so easily and quickly, resulting in a hot pile and finished material much sooner, with a lot less effort.
The second reason is that the hot temperatures kill off unwanted organisms.
This includes weed seeds and other invasive plant material that might otherwise spread from one place to another when you apply finished compost.
A third reason to have a hot compost pile is so that you use up the nutrients while they are at their peak levels.
When you leave compost sitting around for a while, the microbes that are living in it start to die off, because they no longer have plant material to break down.
Your compost becomes less and less desirable.
The whole reason you are making compost to begin with is so that you will have more nutrients to be available to your plants.
So why bother if you end up with a weak end product? Those are some of the facts about hot and cold homemade compost.
Take all the details into consideration and decide what to do in your situation.
Then get composting!
