Evening coupe, wow,you certainly are a glutton for punishment. I wouldn't say that if it were not for heroic extent you are going to overall in improving a rather large expanse of soil around your place. I would never think about turning a pile that was still hot unless I was bored for lack of something to do. How did your gardening and landscaping go this summer?

If by the Berkley Composting Method you are referring to the paper written Professor Raabe there is sopme good information there and some not very good misinformation. The professor needs to go back to Sir Albert Howards "An Agricultural Testament and relearn proper composting techniques.

When to turn compost is always a bit contentious with some holding firm to the concept that turning is not necessary to those that hold equally firm that compost must be turned periodically to be properly digested. Sir Albert taught that compost should be4 turned when it started to cool down, after peak temperatures were attained. That, in my experience, would be about 3 to 4 days. However, good research at the Rodale Institute has found that turning could be done more often and good compost can be made in 14 days with a very aggressive turning schedule. Apparently Penn State has removed the paper that describes this method.

kimmq is kimmsr.

Hiya klem. I hope you've been doing well. We temporary lost the property earlier this year. Our residency having been up in the air required me to strip the hay mulch, close down the beds, hand level and grade my existing 5,000 sq ft. As soon as I got that done, they agreed to our terms and we closed on the property a couple weeks ago. I was able to have small patches of veggies to enjoy.

I'm cool with the change. the garden was too big. I get to start over with permaculture. I'm presently adding swales and berms for erosion control which the May rain so helpfully made apparent. So, yeah... starting over means lots of compost! I originally had six piles (all at a mass sufficient to burn) and have combined them down to three. Getting ready to start some more.

I don't have compost bins and the Oklahoma winds are tricky. It requires much more time, but I've learned how to pile it to make use of the most surface area within the pile to get hot.

I'm doing sheet mulching this time.

Hiya Kimmsr

That makes complete sense. I went to the link you suggested last time when I had become lazy. After reading that I went through a progression of links that landed me on the Berkley method. I'd read about it before, but had not put it into practice. In fact, I've read Sir Albert's info, but that was a long time ago and I had completely forgotten all about it.

Your response makes sense because I'm getting various reactions based upon the density, moisture and, especially, the ingredients. My piles were all "too hot" in the beginning and even took on a faint foul smell after doing everything exactly the berkley method. I'm more interested in them being hot than anything, so I didn't think much of it.

But now that they are still hot (not warm) when I sometimes turn them, I'm beginning to wonder if the turning is not too soon. That being said, for the most part, they need to be turned frequently and rebuilt with a slight pack because of the wind's potential to dry them out.

Thanks again. I'll review Sir Albert and take on an intuitive approach.

bon

Good read, but far too dry for composting. It's got me thinking maybe I should do more to incorporate the native clay than just letting the shovel bite in a bit when I turn where I'm composting in place, at least.

If you are going to try for hot,fast composting, you need to control the air, moisture and nitrogen content carefully or it will start rotting.

Sir Albert Howard died before I was born. I'm pretty sure there's been research done since then on optimal fast composting. Aggie grad students need dissertation material.

Jon, I can vouch for that. I have great Oklahoma soil. It's a deep brown, almost black nutritious soil, but heavy heavy clay. when I got started i would double dig in one spot, throw in my kitchen scraps, toss in a few browns I had on hand (not much), bury it, wet the entire area, cover immediately with cardboard and/or mulch. In the summer i would keep the area moist. Usually, within a week the bugs and microbes make it ready. I've done this in the fall to overwinter with leaves in addition and I had the greatest management-free corn this side of the Mississippi. 3-5 ears on each stalk.

Hard work, tho. I'm doing the same this fall, but not double digging.

lazy-gardens, turning multiple piles every two days provides ample opportunity to monitor the conditions. :D My first pile is almost completely composted.

Read it and just bought his book. Thanks!

Steve Solomon appears to believe that Sir Albert Howard developed the concept of composting all by himself, but what I read was the he learned about composting and soil health from the native peoples in the area, the Hunza's. Sir Albert learned these practices and then applied them at Indore for several years before writing about them.

Lazy gardens, one advantage of books is that you can read what someone wrote a long time ago, and sometimes learn from them. There has been a lot of research on composting done since Sir Albert wrote about it, some of that research good and some particularly bad. Sometimes it is necessary to go back to the source to determine which of todays researchers are doing a good job and which are not doing anything worthwhile.

kimmq is kimmsr