How to Make Hot Compost (Start to Finish)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- Join @jacquesinthegarden and I as we make the first pile of compost here at the Epic Homestead, going over all of the elements you need to consider. It CAN be overwhelming, but we'll offer a few suggestions to simplify the process, as well as discuss materials you should and shouldn't add to your first pile.
00:00 - Intro
01:10 - Key Components
04:36 - Surface Area
05:35 - Layering Pile
10:53 - Final Layer
IN THIS VIDEO
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The first time I got a truly hot pile working, and could not recognize nearly any trace of the original material in the dark brown fragrant soil that resulted, was magical! It's worth attempting just to marvel at the transformation.
It's absolutely marvelous when you get it right!
I'll share my experience with you on my most glorious pile to date. So home made bio char added to the compost pile has scientifically shown that it increases the pile heat by about 20 degrees or so if I remember correctly, it also absorbs and converts the ammonia being released and the converted form is good for soil life. I did an experiment pile this year using fallen white sapote, jack fruit, rough chopped sugar cane, various dried fruit tree leaves, and any kitchen scraps I had while building the pile up for a few weeks. I didn't chop the sugar cane up more than one chop between rib sections since the jack fruit is so fibrous and will also take a while to break down. I didn't know what to expect from this pile and about half way to 3/4 way to the completion of the process I wasn't very confident at all, fast forward to now though and I've got the darkest most fertile looking hummus compost I've ever created. I feel like the slow break down of the sugar cane combined with the slow break down of the jack fruit helped to create some extra benefits because I'm usually happy with my results but this looks like something out of a processional's pile.
Im so motivated right now...😊😊
Scrap paper, toilet paper rolls, and tissue also are good to add to the bin when you are struggling to get enough brown. The rolls help add pockets of air too!
A tip I'd recommend is adding a 1.5 inch PVC pipe with small holes all over in the center to make sure the water is being well distributed all the way to the bottom
Good call :)
That’s a great tip so happy I was able to see this.
It will add air too.
Johnson-Su bioreactor, which is similar to your idea, to produce your own on-farm or allotment biology.
Thank you for the awesome video! Is there additional information on why you there are 4 bins side by side? What’s the methodology there? ☺️
I've worked in the produce department of a large North Carolina grocery store for over a year, and as such have ample access to scraps and cardboard for my dad's compost. I regularly take home corrugated cardboard and cut them up into small squares into 13-gallon trash bags, and whenever he needs greens I just go through the waste in my department's back area, and voila!! For the most common greens I get are cabbage leaves, corn husks, bel pepper shells, and asparagus trimmings. Sometimes broccoli stems.
While camping I taught my boys how to make a compost pile to stay warm. They were blown away.
Wow
You can also run over your fall leaves with lawn mower to chop them up. This is most helpful if you have a bagger attachment for the mower.
As a note... if you have a bagger attachment, don't bag ALL your grass clippings. Your lawn needs some mulch love, too!
I do a super lazy 3 year compost system. 1 to build a year, 1 to let digest a year and the third pile I use that year. rotate. easy. chickens occasionally take a scratch through it but I dont do anything to it otherwise.
I just started gardening this year, and decided I wanted to try my hand at composting...except I don't have a lot of money, so I'm following some other youtuber's tip of using a 32-gallon trash can with a bunch of holes drilled in it. Haven't actually gotten it set up yet, so I'm both excited and really nervous about doing it wrong and attracting pests (which is what my boyfriend really does not want happening!). Here's hoping! Thank you for making an actual step-by-step so I could get a feel for how it all works!
I dont even have a farm what I am doing here in 12 am
Get a farm. You deserve it broski
Last year I just buried my greens in the soil, and honestly my garden didn't seem to suffer for it. However, I asked Santa for a leaf vacuum and mulcher and I am so excited to finally have enough browns for a proper compost!
When I used to live somewhere I could have a compost pile, I started one but I had really poor sandy soil underneath it and after a couple of weeks nothing was really happening in there so I went over to a section of the yard where I had healthy bioactive soil and dug up a few shovelfuls and I made sure to get a bunch of earth worms in there too and dumped it all into the middle of the pile and that really seemed to kick start it...within a few weeks I began to be actually be able to feel the warmth coming off of the pile (in the cold mornings in autumn it would literally be steaming!)
One thing I'd be careful about composting though is potatoes, even just the peels...If you get a bit too much 'eye' in there they could take off...My compost pile became a potato pile sometime around the third year I had it going... Great for the potatoes but not so much for my beds as they wanted compost too.
To get enough browns, I go to the local park to gather sycamore leaves, as they fall to the ground year-round. Those cardboard food trays are also a good source of browns. I live in So Cal, too.
I was gifted a bucket of half composted material from my neighbour's pile to get mine started. Worked a treat!
I bought the compost thermometer and I'm really glad I did so I can monitor my pile instead of just guessing if it's working. I've been succesfully keeping it between 140-150°F, watering every fews days, and flipping once a week which is all I have time for. That's also usually when the temp starts to dip and tells me it's time. Going well so far, though all I have to use as my browns is fallen oak leaves, which are resisting breakdown and i don't have a chipper shredder or even a lawnmower to speed the process up. Its okay though. I'm patient. As long as I can see that the temp is where it needs to be I'm fine. 😊
Well at least now I feel less bad about so many tomatoes going in the compost lol. This year when my parents were doing their spring leaf cleanup, I asked for a few bags of leaves. Then I took them home and mowed over them with the lawnmower bag on. Great way to get a lot of brown material and it put all those leaves to good use!
I found by accident pop helps break it down faster. I started pouring what was left in the cans over the compost. The microbes love the sugar.
One very interesting method I've heard about was putting in a bottle the urine you'd, err, "release" first thing in the morning and splashing that on your compost pile. The reason for using that particular urine is because it has stayed in your body for hours while you're sleeping and it has absorbed all kinds of enzymes and stuff which helps it break the materials the pile is made of, allegedly.
I just built my very first compost bins/bays so wish me luck! I built a two bay bin with each bin 4x4x4 feet. I only made two bays because I have a 3 foot wide by 8 ft long and 2 ft high bin right next to my garden where I kept leaves in for making mulch. Thank you for simplifying this for me, it's a little intimidating as a beginner.😊
A big thing most people don't truly understand is how different the brown:green ratio can be with the actual carbon:nitrogen ratio of the same pile. For example, wood chips being sometimes 600 carbon to 1 nitrogen, one may use half of their pile with this, and then (often convenience and availability of it) throw in some green grass clippings as their "nitrogen" source. This would make a 1:1 brown:green ratio but all of what is considered "green" is still mostly carbon, just simple more nitrogen than the "brown" material. So in this scenario half of it being super high carbon wood chips (600:1) and half being green grass clippings (20:1) the 1:1 green:brown would also be 310:1 carbon:nitrogen (I may be making simple mistakes with the final ratio here, but obviously you get the main takeaway).
Sometimes, just for sheer availability and the fact that fresh grass clippings has a mostly ideal ratio, I've made compost piles with only grass that heated up QUICK and very hot for passively heating greenhouses, granted it would have a huge nutrient diversity.
Of course there is no totally right or wrong way, but just from my personal experience having a lot of my materials grinded, and using a lot of soft grass clippings/foliage that mattes easily as you showed, I also do not layer them. Even when separating it while creating the pile, it often will matte in some areas not visible from the outside and having a pure layer seems to me like more of a potential block from the bacteria and air flow to make it through the pile
But, as always, there's so many variables for the lazy man to pay too much attention to. Freshly grinded wood chips dumped in huge piles from arborist, depending on the type of tree and amount of foliage, can heat up immediately without any added green material. Possibly the overall size and texture of each particle (being shredded chips, etc) made it SO aerobic, that it can maybe get away with much less nitrogen initially.
I would like to see more people sharing their compost "recipes" - or basically a more replicable way for good compost with less variables. I have many of my own, with notes
Glad I saw this comment. I recently had trees trimmed and chipped and the pile in my driveway got literally too hot to touch in the center within just a few days (before I could move it). I would assume that's because there were some greens mixed in from the foliage, as you said. Thinking about separating it all into a few smaller piles and seeing what happens if I just keep it moist as we move into spring and summer.
I just chuck all my compostable into and pile and hopes it works
Best compost activator: Urine.
When I would visit farms as a kid we were warned not to pee on the hay and straw bales because they could get so hot (from bacterial activity) they would catch fire.
Great video! I use the corkscrew compost turner so I don't kill the 100s of red wigglers in mine! Looking forward to seeing the results video!
Great job guys!!
Here in Australia 🇦🇺 I make hot compost piles every year in winter!
My favourite part is getting the thermometer out and testing the ° .
It’s so exciting to watch them get hotter and see them at night time and in the early morning steaming against the cold weather 💚
My second favourite part is the mushrooms that pop up all over them as they cool down. This is how I know they’re allllmost ready to use!
My vegetables and sunflowers LOVE it 😊
PS, leaf litter is always one of the best ingredients to add to your hot compost, there are no other ‘browns’ like it.
Charles Dowding uses is hot compost to start seeds in the winter. He's a mad genius.
Hi. Cool video. You've done Bokasi, now compost piles. Why not combine the 2 and you will get it heating up and ready in a fraction of the time. Do your bokashi as usual (organic waste and bokashi bran layered, then left for a few weeks) and then after your bokashi is "done" add it to your pile where you added food scraps like in your video. The fermented bokashi mix will add that extra bacteria to the mix and speed things up.
Interesting that you can get so systematic about it. I just threw everything into the same compost bin and got some OK compost material out at the end, but I'll try to be a little more "managed" about it next season. Thank you!
No nerding in my piles. I watch the mix but it is more like "some of this" and "some of that". I have been doing fantastic compost for 25 years! I have 5 bins and at least one always is full of browns ready to add to the mix at any time. LOVE your videos. Thanks for not making it hard. Just go for it.
Thank you for refreshing me how easy is really starting compost, perfect timing for me when I’m getting ready to start cleaning the garden, is always fun watching your videos apart from the much knowledge you guys share ❤
You bet!
How's your compost pile going?
I just love how much fun you two have!
This is so awesome I just love composting. I Garden in California zone 9B and have learned so much from your channel. Thank you for continuing to make these helpful videos. 🧡❤️💜💙💚
I have used and abused (left outside all seasons) that same thermometer for years and I love it! I also use it for checking my soil temps in the spring to see when I can start planting.
It's amazing to watch again and again
As someone who has tried making fancy compost many times I have learned climate is the factor that is normally left out when discussing ratios. Here in the northeast the easiest thing to have happen is the pile gets too wet if it’s a small one although if you can shelter it that helps obviously. But I would say dry climates actually have the advantage at small scale
Many people are unaware that some state governments have programs to give out free composting bins to home owners as it benefits the trash system to have people home composting. Perhaps a free bin might help? Worth a quick research to see.
I don't worry too much at all about my compost. At the end of the day, all my compostable waste goes into compost. Therefore, it all goes into the compost. I do try to layer it, and shred it. But if your ratios are off, it will be slower, but the microbes and fungi will fix it over time. If you go into a forest, the forest floor is going to be mostly brown fed, but it does generally decompose within a year. If you are putting to much greens, it will get "funky" so I spread it out and dry it and "brown" it a little before I add it. My wife goes around collecting grass clippings so we do this a lot. In the end, the fundamental principle I have is to not put things into the garbage.
I'm going to try this and the coop. Always good stuff. Now I just need to get this Homestead!
Great video. I read some articles and other videos recently and they made it sound too complicated. This was fantastic
Save all your Amazon boxes for browns. Put them through a paper shredder first.
Pushing stuff into the wood chipper with flip-flops; love it 👍
A 50lbs bag of equine bedding pellets is a great source of browns.
You guys are hilarious!!!
Compost fun with Kevin and Jacques.
Thanks for the tips👍🏻
Thank you for a great video. It has made a big difference in my compost to give things a good chop before putting them in the bins. I realized that my problem is that keep adding to all the bins instead of rotating them. Right now they are all nearly full. I won't have good compost until spring. Next year I'll fill a couple at a time, and let them work away then fill the others.
"I'm [we're] not hitting excel to calculate the volumes..." proceeds to provide said excel chart for all of us at home.
Yall are a great team thank you for the awesome resources!
I make several yards of compost each year with leaves and grass clippings from a 1/2 acre lot. I do a bag of grass and a bag of leaves at a time, so 50/50, but I mix it thoroughly; I never layer. It breaks down much quicker. I keep it hot all summer by adding grass each time I turn. This adds more nitrogen as it's used up, to continue breaking the older material down. Mowing the leaves also picks up dirt, which will jumpstart the bacteria. Those thermometers are great! I have a nice one by Cootway that is colored for easier reading.
Thanks for the video, nice to see the new compost system in action.
I’ve never made a compost pile all at once. I’ve always just added material as I go so it takes a few months to fill the bin. It would be fun to try making the pile all at once, seems like it would compost faster that way.
4:20
"i'm not hitting excel..."
4:23
Show chart made in excel 🤣🤣🤣
But seriously, thank you for the video. I have a compost pile that I started with basically extra cow manure that a friend brought me when I started my raised beds a couple years ago. I added some stuff to it here and there the first year, it never got very big, I didn't water it like I should, etc. It's there, and the stuff at the very bottom seems to be really nice compost, and there's still worms in it, etc. But this year I'm dedicated to doing my garden right all around, and that includes compost. So now I'm here to learn lol.
Collecting grass clippings every mow, have a pile of browns from last years garden sitting out there beside the compost pile (and a bunch of sod I dug up for my new garden bed this year). Now I just have to learn how to actually do it? Can I put the browns in it now or do I need to wait and layer them in as I get more greens? can I throw old sod (dug up about 2 weeks ago) into the pile as well? Or will that just turn it into a grass hill? etc. Looking for the answers to all that now.
Awesome information.
Thanks for this!!!!
Thanks guys ! Helpful stuff.
Man, I want a gardening buddy. Thanks for the tips!
loved this video ! i live in nh and we have tons of leaves i have a mini pile right now but will create a larger one.
Hello, great job! Thanks for sharing this video! Always believe in yourself and keep doing what you love, good luck!💗
Could you recommend books or other resources on composting? Actually, would love to see a video with recommended books on various aspects of gardening... including container gardening, of course 😉😉😉
Thank you! Awesome video… you answered a lot of questions!
Glad it was helpful!
Are you going to be rotating the pile? I'm finally getting my own epic homestead! So I'm a couple years behind you, so I can finally build the garden of my dreams. Thank you for teaching me so much along the way
I'm either adding to or turning one of my piles almost every day. If you have the room and the materials, it will get addicting, so be forewarned, LOL!
Nice chop!
I buried a dense mat of wood shaving caked with duck poop deep in my raised bed. After having to dig up and move the bed there was a solid block of mycelium in its place! Largest zucchini you could imagine grown above it and it kept producing late past the time it typically tapered off with the cold.
I loved the start of the video where you came out of the corn field. LOL
that is a beautiful compost bin, just gorgeous. i think i would have eaten that zuchinni, though.
Never hold back your gut reaction to laugh at Kevin when he says something corny (“cool fall day” 😂), Jacques.
finalllllly, bee waiting forever for this video
LOVE you two!!!!!
Best idea ever
Organic cement lol really cracks me up
I've been doing the lazy man way but trying to perfect it more. Thank you for this
Add molasses to the center of the compost if it isn't heating up properly. I usually add greens (nitrogen) inside a black bag and add molasses to it. Then I put the bag where the sun hits it for like 3 days or so. Open the center of the cold compost and add the "molasses salad" that is inside the black bag and cover it with browns (carbon). It should start heating up soon.
Alfalfa pellets work great too. We often add them into the soil when getting ready to plant, so we have some on hand. Had some that got damp and smelly, so we dumped them onto the leaf pile and holy cow it cooked down in a matter of weeks.
did Keven ever talk about the painting on the concrete wall behind them? very beautiful!
It heats up a lot quicker with more moisture as you add the different components. The compost at the 1st turning should be that of a wrung out sponge, if not, needs more H2O.
I prefer to cage compost, it is a lot easier to turn the pile properly from a cage as apposed to a bin. I guess there many ways to compost just as there are many ways to garden.
Enjoy your videos.
You two are too dang funny with your machete skills 😂😂😂
I like how kevin says “ Let’s be reasonable, I’m not hitting excelling, making a spreadsheet”, immediately shows the excel spreadsheet***😂🤙🏽
i personal have made a couple compost bins out of wood pallets. and everything that i have that is organic will be thrown on those piles, from kitchen scraps to dead animals to grass clippings. have done that for 10 years and it works like a charm.
Perfect!
I had to laugh, you two are such boys! Love the energy of your vlog.
What does Jacques mean when he says it takes a long time for sunflower stalks to break down? When I used to be able to grow sunflowers, I would cut most of the stalks down; but, I would leave standing those that still had flower heads with seeds. I would cut the stalks into manageable sizes, about 5 or 6 inches long. Then I would bury the stalks in the garden among the fall flowers. By May, any stalks that didn't get buried, were hard like wood from a tree; but, those that were buried would crumble in my hand.
Red wigglers help with breaking down materials; but, my favorite are the black soldier fly larva.
ty plant daddy. cant wait to build my "apt compost" helpful tips
You got this Olivia
I’ve been doing this a few years.
Just start with grass clippings then a layer or greens.
I add browns as it comes.
I do have to put more brown in there though, the rain and heat have been kicking it’s butt.
Cool episode. I will most definitely be trying the sugar in compost tip. AZ desert farm has no water to share except grey water from waste. #Keepupthegreatwork
Instead of a wooden or pallet compost box, I just take a length of the 3' wide wire trellis mesh and make it into a 3' diameter circle, hooking it around onto itself, set it on the dirt and fill er up. When I need to turn the pile, I can just unhook it to open and let it all fall out and use it again in a new spot, putting the pile back in to compost more. Or sometimes, I just lift it up and let the pile fall out the bottom. I've even just turned the whole thing upside-down and kept it going. I'm sure I look funny rolling my wire mesh compost piles around 😂 but hey it works great, easy to aerate and water and cheap.
For browns, I tear up and add all cardboard packaging instead of putting them in recycle bins or garbage... everything from toilet paper rolls to cereal boxes and pizza boxes. I also add all used coffee grinds, eggshells and banana peels and all non-greasy kitchen scraps. Also, besides old flat cola, can put in old flat beer or molasses. I even put in the used water after boiling potatoes or hard-boiled eggs. We barely ever even have trash to put out at the curb.
I used to absolutely hate the huge deciduous tree on my property but it is now a very big help filling my compost bin, until I use all of its leaves and have to find more browns.
Can you pls do a video regarding slime mold? Thanks!!!
WHOA -
Where did you get those wooden boxes to hold the compost? I love how the wood slides into place with no nails and etc..
I watched a video about someone using the heat that their compost made, to heat their house! I completely forgot who made the video but it was pretty interesting and i'd love to see more people try it out! Do you know anything about heating a room or home from your compost bins heat?
Thank you so much. I see the mistake I've made and will correct in the morning
When do you typically turn it over into a second bin? I have a 3 bin system that I just built (pallets), but I'm not sure when I should be turning. I've been sitting between 120-140 for some time with occasional cool down days.
The chickens would have LOVED all that squash. :(
Excelent video, i have a question. Its okey to water with some LAB? Or just watter is better? Thanks! Sorry the bad english
When you build a compost bin with wood slats, do you have problems with the wood rotting out over time?
So you guys were making me a little nervous with the chipper and the machete. Kevin still has all his fingies, right?🤪
I just went ballistic on my hubby, putting all the fall leaves that he raked in our front yard into the trash can! I made him dump them out and shovel them into the compost pile. lol He won't do that again.
I’ve never had a hot pile. But I read that a cold pile is still good nutritionally, it just takes a long time. I’ve gotten good compost. Our tomatoes always seem blighted by the end of the season, so no diseased plants in the compost, yes?
Were you referring to Espoma compost starter? I'm wanting a compost bin inside my greenhouse to help warm it up physically and was wondering if something like this might work.
Love the video! So much great information!
Do you need to worry about any pests going into the compost pile? Such as a plant that has mealybug on it? Could you add it to the compost bin, or would it be better to get rid of the plant (such as putting it in the green toter to be taken away) so that pests don’t spread?
If it hot composts properly (hot enough for long enough) then it’s supposed to kill all the nasty bugs and microbes
Did the line "back to the pile" trigger a South Park flash back for anyone else? Just me? 🤣 Fr this was a great video!
alright i'm getting excel and calculating stuff. i'm sure you could amend with ash or pure carbon
Lol when Jacques emerges
I am doing the lazy compost. I don't really stress too much about ratios because I don't have the time. I add shavings from the chicken coop, hay/goat poop in my last pile (first time I had any heat in my compost was from this), some garden waste, and kitchen scraps. I have two fairly large piles that I let sit for six months before using. We have a tractor that I use to scoop it up and then drop it to get oxygen in it. When a pile is done and ready to use I move it to the garden area, that way I only have to have 2 piles. My issue is that it doesn't really get hot. I haven't had to purchase any compost for about 2 years now.
takes a tad longer but I do the same. Never actually built a big pile at once. I just keep adding . Heat don't work the worms will 😂🌱🌱
Before when I had one I just added kitchen or grass and the covered whatever I put it with leaves paper cardboard and wet it then through a black tarp over it. I’d mix it everytime I added something and it worked fine. I didn’t have any critter problems though. Is there any real wrong way??
BRUH the hit marker 😂😂😂
Can blood meal or other high nitrogen fertilizer be used in place of green plants? My yard is heavily wooded so I have a ton of carbon but virtually no nitrogen.
Hey...I have horses and feed them #2 Alfalfa (it's green when we get it). How dry does it need to be before it's considered to be brown?
I literally chuck it as it comes in LOL lazy but not, once I've tossed enough to make a layer ish of green I toss browns and flip around once a week or so...anything that isn't fully broken down by winter(zone 4b) gets buried into my beds for next season 😊
That takes up wayyy too much space for my back yard. I've been trying a few different methods that are more on the temporary or collapsible side than permeant structures like yours. Last season was by far my most successful compost yet. Last month I tried an experiment that was inspired by Big Bird from Sesame St. I pruned a lilac tree that had become seriously overgrown and was left with a massive pile of branches. Since I had already exceeded my gardening budget for the season I wasn't willing to keep the stuff around until my new budget and cash is too tight right now to pay the fees for dumping the material. So what does this have to do with Big Bird? I made me a giant composting nest out of the pruning from the tree. So big that I need to find more tree pruninings or branches to finish it off! Eventually the twigs and branches will decompose, but I know that I'll get at least 3-4 good seasons out of this thing. And to turn it, I have one of those spiral compost turners that you showed in one of you previous videos. So now I have a bird's nest big enough to contain about 2 yards of compost!
I recently bought a compost bin. I was wondering if you can compost toxic plants, like delphinium.
📍 sprinkle a shovel of good soil between layers to kick-start microbes in the pile.
Are the 5 bins so you can build more piles? For a small garden could I get away with just 1 bin?