12d • General discussion
Compost Adjustments
Can I add material to a “hot compost” after it’s already started??
Some ideological composters will say absolutely not, or that if you must then it “resets” your flip count (we generally want 3 flips to get everything a chance in the middle to get “cleaned”). The idea being that fresh material may not get the thermophilic treatment that we’re aiming for with the remaining flips.
But the real answer is once again “it depends”.
My pile is up to heat, but just barely in some places, and I’m anticipating that the temperature will drop slightly over subsequent flips. What to do?
I’m going to add fresh plant material that doesn’t have any seeds.
I can do this because I understand what the heat is for. Heat does 2 things - kill weed seeds and clear out potential pathogens.
So if I’m not adding seeds or potential pathogens, we haven’t actually violated the rule.
So what I would avoid is adding more animal manures, funky compost buckets, feathers, or anything you turn your nose up at.
So because my new material is fresh, clean plant material, I won’t be resetting my flip count, and this is critical to minimizing the necessary oxidation and loss of carbon creating a pile - but more on that later.
#growmicrobes #soilhealth #microbes #compost #soil
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Compost Adjustments
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