Sounds like it will work since you have mechanical help. Urea added now and then will speed up the composting process. Since the ingredients are so homogenous, it might be beneficial to add soil to inoculate the pile with soil organisms.

I'm sorry I wasn't clearer.
I will be using it as mulch,what I was trying to say is will the needles compost if I keep it damp?
And yes I could add some soil to it.
I'm talking alot maybe 10 good size dump trucks worth.They will be running it threw a chiper,I just hope it's not to course.

lp

Are you going for a half composted type of mulch? Otherwise, at this time of year, you could probably use them as mulch now and most of the N in the needles would be gone before it got warm enough to compost.

You will get some composting action going if piled with just the needles mixed in, but when they are done you will need the urea or some other strong N source. It may be hard to tell when more N is needed. At this time of year the cold might shut things down. I would hold off with water until it looks like it needs it. Nature may water it enough for you. Soil isn't needed to start things going either. All the bacteria needed to start composting will already be on the material.

tj

Yeh I'm going for Half composted mulch.I think they are waiting for the snow to go down,maybe late March before they chip it.
Am I right in thinking if it's producing heat,thats what you want.How often would stiring it be nesesary?
Thanks for the help.

lp

If you get it in late March it should cook ok (maybe). I would guess the chips would have enough air pockets that you wouldn't need to mix until after it had heated up and then cooled down some. Check the moisture then, too. If after mixing it doesn't heat up again, that would be your cue to add more N and/or water (but go easy on the water).

tj

Since you will be using this as mulch why pile it up and expend a lot of time and energy stirring that material up? I would spread it where I wanted it as soon as I could. That said we may get someone come in with the myth that this will "rob" your soil of Nitrogen which wood chips spread as a mulch will not do. There is no research that shows that wood chips, spread as a mulch, will cause the soil bacteria to get really busy and use up a lot of N to the detriment of any plants, but there is good research that does show that a wood chip mulch is a great benefit to soil.

I wouldn't spread it as mulch yet because it will slow the soil warming. Unless it's in already established beds.

I am building raised beds that will be filled compost, once the soil is warm about mid April or June I'll top them off w/ straw that I have in abundance.

We had a freak spring hurricane blow through Long Island, NY two weeks ago and our giant 65 year old Blue Spruce was uprooted. I had the tree removal company cut the bottom 9 feet of the trunk in half for me so I can strip off the bark and make 4 benches, and they chipped the rest of the tree up and I had them leave it for me as a mulch. Is was left in a giant pile over three feet high and 9 feet in diameter. The mix was layers of all wood chips in some areas and lots of needles and twigs in others. I have been separating it as best as possible, keeping the chips as mulch and and the green twiggy stuff as an amendment for my clay soil that is as hard as a rock.

Less than a week after the pile had been sitting there the green areas started steaming (I walked by at night and the cloud of smoke was so vivid that I thought it was my cat sitting on the pile). The chippy areas did not get hot, but the green areas did. As I dug into the pile a fungus (grey/blue in color) was beginning to develop. Now, just over two weeks later the inside of the pile is completely covered in this powdery fungus and when I move it huge puffs of dust blow out (it smells like cotton candy). I LOVE this stuff! I plan to dig down into one of my raised beds and bury it in the lower level beneath the dirt. I put a layer on top of a raised bed that I started last year with shredded leaves and grass clods; that should be awesome by spring 2011.

So far I have been mixing lime into it as I amend the soil, but now I am thinking that may kill the fungal activity. Does anybody know if this is the case? In the raised bed that will be planted this year I will have to add lime because it will otherwise be too acidic for veggies, but for the newer raised beds I can wait until fall to add lime, and in the clay soil the lime was only supposed to help break up the clay particles.

Anyway, this stuff is great as a compost, so I will be adding a bunch into my stupid plastic composter that doesn't seem to work (I think that the lid on it may be preventing the fungal spores in the air from getting inside, so I am hoping this will help). If it works I'll try to get some more from the tree removal service (since almost every single large pine tree on LI was knocked down during the storm).

BTW: This is my first post. I've been considering joining for a while, but this is the first useful info I've had to contribute. This is a great site for all gardening info.