Thanks.

It is amazing how much heat is given off! I just started a new batch yesterday and in less than 24 hrs it’s 116F in there. Typically, it climbs about 12-15 degrees/day until 160F is reached.

I don’t have a front-end loader and fill my bins with the wheel-barrow and ramp method. After some trial and error testing, I found that adding a few gallons of water with the garden hose after each bin deposit is critical to starting the process.

In a high energy pile, it is not unusual to see pile temperatures as high as 160 degrees F. This is a good thing for destroying parasites, pathogens and weed seeds in the mix but, in fact, lower temperatures in the range of 110 to 120 degrees F is a desired range for efficient composting.

To cool the pile down, we increase the airflow into the pile to drive off excess heat. The challenge is that we also drive off moisture, which can compromise the process if the moisture content drops much below 50%.

The secondary stage of composting (referred to as “Curing” or “Maturation”) is predominantly a cooler fungal driven process. During curing, the fungi are working on the more resilient forms of carbon – typically cellulose (hay) and lignin (wood).

For cold climates, we recommend constructing bin walls with insulation in the core. This can be done in several ways but a simple technique is to sandwich a layer of foam board between two sheets of 1/2 inch plywood.