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| I've always gone in for hot composting, shredding as much as possible to achieve this. Even after 24 hours, my heap of green and woody waste, heats to 60-65 degrees, a lot of moisture is given off, and (somtimes) it can smell quite rank. Obviously a lot of Nitrogen etc is escaping.
Contrast this with a much smaller amount of shredded garden waste, a builders' small rubble-sack for example. The contents will warm a little in the centre, but the amount is too small for sufficient heat insulation. After a day or so, the contents develop a not-unpleasant 'musty' smell, indicating that some decomposition is taking place. But this differs from the initial smelly results from hot composting.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| If you're getting a bad smell, you're doing it wrong. Either you've added ingredients that don't belong, or you have too much nitrogen. If you get the right balance, there will be no nasty smell. That smell is the smell of nitrogen being wasted. Add more carbon, and you'll bring the pile into proper balance, and it will heat up properly. Could also be too much moisture - turn the pile, add dry material, and cover to protect it from rain. |
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| Remember that it's not a 50/50 mix of green to brown that you're after, but rather want to be more carbon (brown) heavy. FWIW, I almost always start w/ too much brown. I can always add more nitrogen as needed if I see the temp not getting where it should be. Never had a smell problem, and the piles are close to the house & my wife has a very sensitive nose. |
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| Without a Shredder, my amounts of woody material would be substantially less. The majority of garden waste comes from prunings etc, which are generally Nitrogen-rich to start off with. Small tree branches are harder to come by. My heap starts off fairly wet, because the heat dries everything out even from a wet state. After a couple of weeks, the whole pile has to be thoroughly forked over and re-wetted in order for it to continue. But conditions must be right if it reaches 60 degrees in 24 hours from scratch. I never get any putrid or Methane-type smells. Even so, the flies love it; during the summer they laid masses of eggs on the top boards where it was damp. The contents of the bin are covered with coffee sacks, plus a wooden lid, which is raised to let moisture escape. |
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| If a compost pile has an offensive odor that should be telling the person making that compost there is a problem. An odor somewhat like ammonia indicates too much Nitrogen is being lost while a putrid odor indicates the pile is too wet and anaeorbic bacteria are at work digesting the material, ie. there is too little air in the pile. 60 degrees C is about 140 degrees F (we all probably should remember to use the designations for the scale we are using) is about right for good digestion but can still be anaerobic. The material to be composted needs to be just slightly moist, not damp, not wet. It took me several years to learn what was enough moisture for proper composting. |
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| If my pile was just "slightly moist" it would, most probably, dry out in a few days. But my conditions must be fairly good to achieve a good rise in temperature from a cold start. Any bad smells eventually 'compost out'. Over the years, I have read differing accounts of how to compost manure. Some that high temperatures are beneficial in order to kill off any unwanted elements, whilst others say that Nitrogen loss is not a good thing, and must be prevented by wacking the heap with a shovel in order to compress it. I saw a TV programme showing how Mushroom compost is produced. The huge pile of Manure and Straw was wetted over a period of 5 days by a guy with a fixed type of Fireman's hose, directing the water in a wide arc. The excess water that ran off was pumped back into the heap. After the 5 days, the heap would then be formed into windrows where the composting process would begin 'proper'. |
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- Posted by emgardener 9 BayArea CA (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 14:33
| Interesting question. What would be the difference in nitrogen content between: 1. Properly hot composted material. ???? |
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- Posted by tropical_thought San Francisco (My Page) on Thu, Nov 29, 12 at 23:26
| Someone answer the question what makes more nitrogen rich compost? Hot or cold methods of composting. People are getting hung up on the smell part. This is an easy question. If you have a huge amount of kitchen stuff and you put that in with mixing with browns sure that would smell, but one has a lid to the bin so when closed not smell will escape. |
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| From what I've read, it is not the method of composting so much as doing it correctly whichever method is utilized. Lloyd |
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