Back in early September (2023) with the help of Deniz I built a three-bay composting system to see how it would go, having had only partial success with my previous composting efforts. Once it was built I immediately started to fill it up with dead choko vines and trimmings from the live one, dead leaves and trunks (?) from the banana circle, grass clipping, kitchen waste and whatever other organics I could lay my hands on. There did seem to be some decomposition, but I was not sure how much.
For Christmas my lovely wife gave me a compost thermometer, which meant I could now use measurements rather than guesswork! The measurements said I was getting some decomposition, but the temperature was at best only a bit over 40°C in some parts and around 30°C in others. For the decomposition I was looking for I needed to get to at least 50°C and preferably over 60°C. I decided to add some water and then use my hay fork to do some aeration. Even that didn’t seem to have much effect, so I decided it was time to turn the entire pile into the next bay!
I have also been getting a build-up of banana stuff and rather than add it to the top of the original pile, I decided to make a new one. Anyway…
I grabbed my hay fork and proceeded to heave forkfuls of decaying matter from the first compost bay into the second. During this process several things started to become obvious –
- The decomposition which had occurred was somewhat uneven. There are several areas, particularly toward the lower and inner parts of the pile that were decomposed quite nicely, while others had barely decomposed at all.
- A lot of the banana leaves and stems had barely decomposed at all because they were still very dry. I figured that the bit of water I added plus natural rainfall would be enough but clearly this was not the case.
- It was bloody hard work! One of my more common observations about life can be summed up thus: “I am getting too old for this crap!”, however, in this case it may actually be true!
So what to do?
Once it became obvious that dryness of the organic matter was a problem, I hooked up a hose with a sprinkler gun to one of the tanks and every couple of forkfuls of organic matter I transferred into the new bay got a liberal sprinkling of water. I did this especially over the drier bits. I also shook things around while transferring the pre-compost so that the pile had plenty of aeration all the way through. I also cut up the larger banana leaf and stem lumps somewhat to increase the surface area.
I think that this time there will be enough air and moisture to ensure that we get a good rise in temperature and better decomposition but only time will tell. At least now I have my faithful compost thermometer to help me monitor the situation.
The day after all this work was carried out, the compost thermometer registered 60°C in the centre of the pile, continued to do so for a week or two afterward. Other parts of the pile registered down to around 50°C. From there it took a few days for the centre to slowly drop to 50°C. At the same time the height of the pile had dropped about 20cm to 25cm. At the two week mark after the previous turning I ‘fluffed it up’ with the hay rake, rather than a full turning and most of the material appeared darker and damper as the composting carried on.
The Adventure Continues!
