Size of pile 3′ wide by 3′ high minimum. It should ideally be 1 cubic metre plus and 1.5 metres high.
Ratio of 2 parts brown (carbon) to 1 part green (nitrogen)
Green – e.g. grass clippings, animal manure, urine, green leaves, green weeds without seeds, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds Brown – e.g. straw, wood ash, shredded cardboard, fallen leaves (run a mower over these to shred them), wood chips, fibrous stalks. Meat, fish can attract rats etc.
Put ‘activators’ in the middle of compost heap to start off composting process. Activators include comfrey, nettles, yarrow, animal, fish, urine, or old compost.
Temp of pile – 55 – 70C/122-165 F
Leave the pile for 4 days then turn every 2nd day for fourteen days to aerate it/get the outer parts turned inwards. When turning the pile, water it. The material should be moist but not wet i.e. when squeezed in a ball, a few drops of water come out – like a squeezed out sponge.
When the compost is ready (worms have finised off the process/worm castings very good), cover with a tarpaulin to prevent rain/snow etc. leaching out the minerals etc.
How to Make Compost in 18 Days Using the Berkeley Hot Composting Method
Regular composting, also known as “cold composting”, involves placing a variety of organic materials in a compost bin, enclosure, or even just in a large heap, and leaving it there until it breaks down several months later. It’s a very slow process and typically takes 6 to 12 months. It can be sped up by turning the compost, that is, moving around the material at the bottom of the heap to the top and vice versa to mix it up and get more oxygen in there, but it’s still a long wait.
The other approach to composting is “hot composting”, which produces compost in a much shorter time. It has the benefits of killing weed seeds and pathogens (diseases), and breaking down the material into very fine compost. In contrast, cold composting does not destroy seeds, so if you cold compost weeds, any weed seeds will grow when you put the compost into the garden.
Cold composting does not destroy pathogens either, so if you put diseased plants into your cold compost, the diseases may spread into the garden, hence the common advice not to (cold) compost diseased plants. The other issue with cold composting is that you end up with lots of large pieces left over in the compost when the process is completed, whereas hot compost looks like fine black humus (soil).
One hot composting method, the Berkeley method, developed by the University of California, Berkley, is a fast, efficient, high-temperature, composting technique which will produce high quality compost in 18 days.
Compost is the very best food you can give to the plants in your garden. However, making really great compost requires the right mix of ingredients. In this video we demonstrate how to create that perfect recipe from the ingredients you have at home. You’ll see the compost mix being created, find out what materials to avoid, trace how the compost heap progresses as it ‘cooks’ and discover how to fix common problems.
Aerobic compost part of video starts at 2:15!
If you have a backyard garden then you could probably use tons of compost to fill up your beds and supercharge your plants. Here is how to make great compost in 30-45 days with nothing but leaves and grass!
Compost is the backbone of your soil. It adds nutrients to your soil and creates optimal soil structure to grow healthy plants. You need at least two bins which are 1x1x1 metre in dimension. Only by creating a pile to a metre high will it reach 70 degrees to cook the compost. You need to collect… 1 nitrogenous material: kitchen scraps; lawn clippings; chicken poo; animal manure; blood and bone; sheep pellets 2 carbonaceous material: dead stuff like trimmings from the perennial garden which are now brown; dead weeds; straw; egg cartons (which have air pockets and therefore allow bacteria and fungi to survive); newspaper (always roll up into balls to contribute to aeration) 3 activators: specific weeds or herbs like borage, stinging nettle, yarrow, tansy, chamomile; coffee grounds Layer them up 30 parts of carbon to 1 part nitrogen remembering that egg cartons and newspaper are 100 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen; straw and sawdust are 500 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Water in well, and cover with a tarpaulin. It’ll be ready in 2-3 weeks.
I explain green and brown ingredients, using coffee and other wastes including roots of perennial weeds and blighted leaves. What size pieces to add, what temperatures you need and may expect. How long to leave heaps before turning or using, I show you compost in different stages, of varied age and moisture content. For more detail of the turning process see my four minute time lapse
Learn How to Make Compost. Compost is a mix of organic matter such as leaves, brush, kitchen scraps and manure. Composting is the method of speeding up the decomposition process and controlling it to improve the quality of garden soil. This helps plants grow stronger and healthier without the use of synthetic fertilizer. Add “browns” to your compost such as dry grass and leaves, brush, twigs and wood chips. These provide the necessary carbon. Then add “greens” such as grass clippings and fresh leaves or kitchen scraps to provide nitrogen. Manure is optional. Meats, fish, oils and dairy products should not be added because they attract animals, break down slowly and make your compost pile smell bad. As the material decomposes, heat will be generated. Ideal temperatures inside the compost pile should be between 90-160 degrees F. The compost pile also needs to be kept moist but not too wet. Turn your compost pile weekly during the summer and monthly during the winter to introduce air and help it breakdown more quickly and ready in 3-4 months. This video was created by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Starr County in collaboration with Gladiator Television Network in Roma, Texas as a part of the Growing and Nourishing Healthy Communities Grant provided by USDA.
Time to make another compost pile. We are going to do it in the Berkley 18 day compost method. We have done this before but not with these materials and whether. Hope you enjoy and learn a thing or two.
Learn how to decompose compost faster with 3 tips for setting up perfect conditions. And how do you know when compost is ready? We’ll show you what to look for in finished compost. REQUEST YOUR INVITE to Foundations of a Happy Garden https://learn.gardensthatmatter.com/p… PART 1 – Composting 101: What to Put in a Compost Bin https://youtu.be/nrbTcYMQXyY PART 2 – How to Build a No-Fuss Compost Bin https://youtu.be/YOeFty_e3Qo
This start to finish tutorial on composting will walk through the basic rules of composting. Composting is SO easy! I will hopefully show you just how easy it is to get super high quality organic compost in just a few months. It will address the carbon to nitrogen ratio, how long composting takes, things to compost, how hot does a hot compost get, when to flip a compost pile, how often to flip it, and when to know the compost pile is done cooking and is ready to be used on the garden! We also discuss the difference between hot composting and cold composting.
How to properly start an aerobic compost heap – instructions and ingredients included. Only in arid climates this style of composting would be the second most important element.
Otherwise known as aerobic (oxygenated) composting. Backyard composting for the small backyard garden. There is work involved in turning the pile often, but in exchange the compost is finished much quicker. This method also produces richer material and doesn’t reduce as it hasn’t converted from anaerobic back to aerobic. This video is of my first aerobic compost effort, the latest one from this year I recorded nearly every minute of every turn and this video series can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
We get asked all the time why a compost pile is going cold, or not even heating up and this video will help to hopefully fix that problem for good.
In this video I talk about how I manage and store my finished compost. I am storing it because I plan to use it for compost tea in the near future and I don’t want it to be exposed to rain water or anything that would leach the minerals and nutrients. Also I want the bacteria to stay alive and to continue finishing the compost.
