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does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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Posted by
rmontcal 7a (
My Page) on
Thu, Nov 10, 11 at 21:02
| It occurs to me that in a forest, or a jungle, it is usually only browns.
But maybe I'm wrong.
Nature has plenty of time for cold composting. It is only us humans who need hot composting to hurry up for the next planting season! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| I would doubt it.....for mother nature to get enough greens and browns in the same place at the same with enough moisture.... I read/heard something years ago. It was it takes 1000 years to produce 1" of topsoil (in nature) I figure with hot composting, stealing all your neibours bags of leaves, raiding local coffee shops of there UCGs....we humans should be able to knock a feww years off mother natures time frame. |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| i would be thinking no as well, unless the situation was after a big storm and lot of material piled up on top like a pile. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| All organic matter contains both Carbon and Nitrogen n varying amounts, tree leaves freshly fallen have a C:N ratio of about 40:1, so theoretically if that material were to pile up in a large enough volume hot composting could occur in nature. Since the material, naturally, seldom accumulates in large enough volumes the conditions for hot composting are not there, so seldom does hot composting happen in a natural setting. |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| On rare occasion after severe storms, as mentioned above, especially when high winds plus shallow water deeply windrow the green leafy debris. I've only read of it. I've seen deep windrows of dead debris in marshes but can't recall personally seeing green debris. |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| There is an Australian bird that composts to keep eggs warm. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Bird That Composts
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| Bob, that's really cool (warm)!!!!!! NT |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| Poop. Death. There's your greens. I'm expecting a deer head any day at the Brewer dump. I've been pawing into piles pretty fast until hunting season started. Now, I'm a tad more cautious. 13 pumpkins.
2 bales of hay.
8 contractors' bags of leaves 'n grass. That's just today. Unless you want to get depressed, I wouldn't even ask! about yesterday. Rroyd, you and Jon, please! no pictures. |
more on the bird that composts
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| I was interested in the linked article Bob 64 provided and found more on the Alectura lathami (brush turkey). The guys do all the work! Think y'all will enjoy reading. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Brush turkey and his compost nesting.
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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- Posted by pt03 2b Southern Manitob (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 13, 11 at 18:19
| "It seems that females choose their mates according to how well they build and look after their mounds, inspecting all males in the area and observing their behaviour before making their choice." That certainly explains a lot, right Jon? ;-) Lloyd |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| You both must have gotten the two best girls in the area. My ex-husband won my heart with a one ton load of chicken manure and a freshly poured anchor. |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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- Posted by pt03 2b Southern Manitob (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 20, 11 at 22:39
| Not being a water kind of guy, what the heck is a "freshly poured anchor"? Lloyd |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| It sounds like maybe he chained poor annpat to a big hunk of concrete? I hope not! |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| Alligators also make what are basically compost piles to keep their eggs warm. I believe I've read that the temperature even determines whether males or females are hatched (they must have a different system than our xx vs. xy). |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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Lloyd--"freshly poured anchor" On my future husband's and my first date, I mentioned, in the course of conversation, that I'd had a sailboat filling up my boathouse for about 15 years because I didn't have an anchor for it. When my ex- showed up for our second date, he'd built a square form, poured concrete in it, put an eye bolt on the top, and arrived with it, still curing, in the back of his truck. That was in 1985. I still use the anchor.
Also early in the courtship, my husband showed up one day with his dump truck full of chicken manure for my garden. That was the final straw. I was smitten.
To this day, I have regular, awful nightmares in which I'm driving around in my ex-husband's dump truck, which, it starts to become apparent, I have stolen from him.
It's been years, but I still miss that dump truck. |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| yes.termites also compost wood pulp underground. |
Here is a link that might be useful: journeytoforever
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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- Posted by feijoas Temperate New Zealan (My Page) on
Thu, Nov 24, 11 at 23:17
In case anyone wishes they had a brush turkey at their place...
they drive my Aussie friend insane by uprooting entire gardens, chasing kids/dogs/stock and eating all the unripe bananas.
I'm still impressed by their compost-heated incubators, but I don't want one at my place! |
RE: does hot composting occur very often in Nature?
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| Seems that natural depressions in the landscape can hot compost when leaves fall in there. I've got about 2/3 of a cubic yard of shredded leaves in a bin out back. With air temp around 50 degrees the center of that pile was at 140 degrees. |
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