Karen - I have to ask because so many confuse the two, but are you sure this was straw and not a bale of hay?

I don't do any temperature monitoring in my piles so I can't help with that aspect of your question but I have never seen straw get "wet and slimy" - hay yes, straw no. Perhaps your pile is just too wet? Also, in my experience with using straw its lignin breaks down much faster than that in leaves - even mulched ones.

That said, if the rest of the product has good color and little or no odor there is no reason why it can't be spread in the garden beds now and allowed to continue decomposing there over the winter. That would free up a bin for your use.

Dave

digdirt,
I expect that if it had been hay instead of straw, she would have noticed more heating and perhaps smell with an overload of nitrogen from mixing wet grass clippings with hay.
As for the straw sticking around longer than leaves, it all depends on the types of leaves. Around here most leaves are pretty tough and long lasting but something like maple would probably vanish quickly in the bin.

Karen,
If it otherwise looks good and smells good, some little bits of straw in your compost are not going to bother you plants. The only dangers of having recognisable "browns" mixed into your soil is that they may still need more nitrogen to help finish the break down process. Hence they may bind some nitrogen, just keep an eye on your plants and if they show signs of nitrogen deficiency, give em a boost with a little liquid feeding of some good organic nitrogen source. I've started to grow comfrey for that purpose.

I expect that if it had been hay instead of straw, she would have noticed more heating and perhaps smell with an overload of nitrogen from mixing wet grass clippings with hay.

Good point tclynx but only holds true if it was "green" hay which I assume Karen would have recognized as hay and if there wasn't enough of the other browns such as paper and cardboard Karen uses. Old dried hay bales are often sold and for those inexperienced with the difference in appearance, could easily be mistaken as straw. Even some vendors don't recognize the differences.

At any rate, given all the "is this straw or hay" posts that crop up here (pun intended ;) and the way the terms are mistakenly used interchangeably, it is a fair question.

Nitrogen binding is only a problem if mixed in with the soil so that is why I suggested just spreading it out on the garden rather than mixing it in or leaving it in a bin over the winter.

Dave

Hi Karen

Sure looks like straw to me. I have used several types of straw in my composting, mainly barley or wheat, and have found that wheat decomposes faster and easier than barley. I would recomend against flax straw as it seems to never break down. Haven't used much straw from oats so I can't comment on that. I wouldn't hesitate to use compost that still had visible straw still in it especially if you got those nice high temps to kill any seeds or fungus that came with the straw.

Lloyd

Just a point of clarification - leaves have lignin too, although probably not as much as straw.

-Diggity

Nice pictures. Straw has an added benefit in compost, it helps entrap air in the compost which in turn helps keep things aerobic and composting nicely. Especially good for those of us who do continous compost instead of turning the pile. That said, I'm in FL and straw isn't very common here as it isn't a large grain producing state.

I can't say for certain if leaving it in the bin would produce a better product. The truth is, time is what produces a better product so the difference between spreading it out or leaving it mounded up for the same amount of time probably makes very little difference. If you are really curious about it, you could probably do a little experiment. Leave half of it in the bin and spread the other half in the garden and then compair results come spring.
If you do this experiment, please let us know your opnion come spring. (Compost curing on ground or in bin-which is better.)

LLoyd: Usually, since using straw instead of leaves, it doesn't get those nice high temps. It generally tops around 130.

tclynx: Manybe I will do that little experiment. But there are so many very knowledgeable people on this forum, I was curious for some expert opinions. I often sit in awe at the great body of knowledge held by the great wackos here.

Karen

Karen - no offense was intended by asking. Hollow centers is straw and this sure looks like straw to me too. ;) Nice pictures!

As for leaving it vs. waiting for a superior product. I can't say that would happen. But to be fair I admit that I think most tend to leave their compost in the bin/piles too long. Sheet composting works, so do lasagna beds (another fancy name for sheet composting) so letting it "finish" in the garden rather than in the bin is just as good for the compost and better for the garden's soil food web. ;)

Dave

I mulch with straw and it breaks down pretty quickly in contact with the soil. I would not hesitate to spread that around my garden, it looks lofffly! :-)

FWIW, chopped straw would compost much faster, if you have a way to chop it next time.

Cheers,
Michelle

I'd use such material in my potato bed, just as it is. It looks perfect for potatoes.

I routinely use straw as layers in my lasagnas and they take a full year in that environment to break down.

If I actively manage straw in the compost pile it can decompose in a couple months. This requires lots of coffee grounds and turning.

Dave: No offense taken. I was just trying to make the point that I have no knowledge of farm products, like hay or straw, having been a city slicker all my like. I only know what I read.

Michelle: After the first few cycles, I did start to chop up the straw some. Before adding to the bin, I throw it into a 32 gal. garbage can and go at it with a weed wacker.

I was thinking about the bin getting hotter this cycle. The only difference is there are a few dead leaves in this batch, though not many. A lot of local trees are suffering so much from the extreme heat and drought this summer, if not watered enough they are shedding some leaves already. My next door neighbor's dogwoods look like crap. This one is adjacent to my side yard.
{{gwi:306676}}

When my husband collected grass clippings from this area, there were quite a few dried leaves in it. The rest of the clippings had a very few leaves which had blown into our yard. That brings me back to the theory that the carbon in the straw is slow to break down, providing an insufficient supply for the immediate composting process to carry on as efficiently.

Aren't I just always full of questions? or full of something else...

Again, thank you for all the input.

Karen

I forget if yu said anything about moisture. COuld the heat be due to it being recently watered, when you added the leaves?

I can't decide if the first pictures look dry.

Hi Karen

Here is some long lasting barley straw. I let my compost cure for a long time and it did eventually disappear but you can see it still retained it's yellow color even after 150+ for over 10 days.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: Maturing compost

The surface is a little dry now. I took the lids off in hope of the predicted rain on Saturday night. At long last we did get 0.9" of rain, then the surface was pretty wet. I left the lids off until I took that picture today. I tossed the top a little before replacing the lids.

Holding enough moisture has been a problem this summer. In August the local temperature was pretty consistently 90 to 100, and our yearly precipitation deficit over a foot. I've been watering the top every couple of days and flipping the whole thing every week or two, adding water throughout as necessary, to keep moist enough.

Karen

Lloyd: Thanks for the picture. Your straw looks much finer and smaller than mine. How long has that compost been sitting after the 10 day hot cycle?

Karen

Karen, it had been shredded and it was in a mix of leaves, straw, pine needles and other stuff. I had to go back to last years records to find the dates and temps.

It went into the tumbler on June 25th, and was 73F after filling and watering. On June 27th it was 154F and had settled, so more shredded stuff was added. On July 9th the temp was down to 120F and falling so the contents were placed into the curing bin.

So it had been in the tumbler for 15 days and in the curing bin for 12 days when that picture was taken and the straw still had the yellow color. By the time it was used this spring, there were no signs of the straw. It will disappear, it just seems to take a while (even shredded).

As I said earlier, I would be comfortable as long as some high temps had been achieved. 130F is a good temp as far as I'm concerned (if there are no hi risk materials being added).

Lloyd

Lloyd: Thank you. I was just curious. I didn't mean for you to have to look up exact dates and temps. That's very kind of you.

I have seen some of your past posts with photos of your sophisticated tumbler.I looks much more efficient at turning and aerating than me out there at my small bin with a fork! And since my straw is just roughly chopped with a weed wacker as opposed to yours being put thru a shredder, I would expect your straw to break down faster than mine.

Again, thanks.

Karen