How hot is your pile?

I'm at 150 degrees today. I love this time of year!

I just started a new bin of leaves and was happy to feel some warmth after two days!! Today I added some fertilizer and some pee'd kitty litter. Oh, I will not be sticking my bare hands in the kitty litter half of the bin LOL

LOL - no, I don't think I'd stick my hands in there either.

I had some urea pelletized fertilizer to add but the bucket got rained in over the summer so I'm pretty sure the N is all gone. It isn't seeming to help. One time I got veggie scraps from an organic market and that REALLY warmed it up!! Fall leaves need N and moisture, no doubt, its almost just "math. "

Is kitty litter ok for compost??? You take out the poop, yes? Would it be both brown and green (urea)

thx

I always thought kitty litter was 'verboten'. Recently there has been some info (don't ask me where, Mother Earth News I think) that clumping kitty litter is made from a waste product of phophate/ or is a colloidal phosphate. (I think) I have nice kitties that like to poo outside and pee usually is all in the pan so I only use the pee clumps in the garden. So the clumps would be the N and the P of typical NPK fertilizer.

The kitty poo is already being put in my garden some where I suppose but I never find it. Hopefully my neighbors don't find it either...

after a week or so I am now smelling ammonia from the urea-water part of the bin too. So I didn't lose all the N from that. I am adding water to the bucket of urea pellets and then using that solution on the leaves. I expect it will take some time for the ammonia to convert to something more friendly to the microbes.

My compost bins routinely reach 150 degrees or more in summer, but not in winter. A few days ago both bins were 90 degrees while the air temp was about 50, so it is still active. The weather is too cold for me, I hate the cold. As long as weather allows me to safely get to the compost, I dump stuff on top and walk away. The added "stuff" in winter consists mostly of UCGs from a coffee shop and my hoarded leaves. I don't really flip it or manage it in any way. It's on it's own until spring.

Once the weather warms up, I'll flip it, regulate moisture, and have hot compost again.

Karen

I'm of the opinion that a couple of days at or above 115 degrees will get most pathegons in any good compost pile. I don't have a cat but get a few visitors. We do use all the raw fish skins and bones.....but I put them down deep or in the center of a hot good working pile.

Hello everyone! Seeing your compost thermometer got me all reved up to work outside and "play" with my compost lol! I have 3 bins I made from fencing wire that are filled with leaves, grass and alfalfa. I also have a lot of bagged leaves waiting to either refill the bins when they sink down or to be spread as is on my flower beds. I had a nice morning spreading leaves and pulling a few winter weeds thanks to your thread lol. Here is my thermometer reading from this morning. Like a lot of you, my pile seems to be hovering at the 115 to 120 area since last being filled. Composting sure is a lot of fun and takes the doldrums out of fall!

Here are my bins with leaves in between as well as some of the bagged leaves (I actually have 52 bags of leaves sitting on the sides of the yard). The bins look kind of tacky right now with all those black bags but once I use them this area will look better. I also like to grow stuff in the summer right in the compost in the bins before I spread it in the fall.

Wow, 52 bags!!!!! I'm impressed. Impressed that you have that many leaves but also that you had the fortitude to bag them all up!

lilyfan--agreed--the best way to handle mucho leaves is to grow something like gourds right on top the next summer. I've had good luck with it.
Remember folks--when the steam is coming out the leaves are drying-- my biggest challenge after getting it going with nitrogen, is keeping up with the moisture needs

Hi gardensox - I actually didn't bag them myself, my neighbor across the street had put them out for the county to pick up. A friend of mine who was walking her dog at the time just happened to be walking by when the county guys came by. (you have to call them ahead of time where I live and ask them to come) They thought she only had a few bags and their truck was too full for more than a few. So my friend whipped right over with her dog and asked them if I could could take them They said sure and to call them if I didn't want all of them. Then my friend left a note on my door explaining what had happened. So this put me in a quandary.. I didn't want to take the leaves without checking with my neighbor first but if I waited too long the county guys would be back to take them. So I went over twice to ring her bell but didn't catch her home (young and single and not home much) So I finally took courage in hand and after a half day of work one day, donned my garden clothes and made about 12 trips with my van to get them all up to my compost pile IN THE RAIN no less. All the while listening for the sounds of distant police sirens. What a nut case! I did leave her a note explaining why I took them and telling her I would bring them back if for some reason she wanted me to and thanking her for them. This was accompanied with a Ghiardelli dark chocolate bar. I'm sure she now thinks I am a crazed lunatic lol. I have been keeping my eye on her place while outside working today but again there are no signs of life over there. When I see her I want to walk over and thank her in person so she can see I am indeed normal. (who am I kidding?!)

Today was another leaf and grass bonanza. My other neighbor across the street had her children over mowing her 2 acre tree filled lot and her daughter drove the mower over to my house to dump the shredded gold at my house! I am in piggy heaven!

Here is one of the bins with pumpkin vines and tomatos growing in it from last year.

Here is some of the bounty from one of the cherry tomato vines growing in one of the other bins. These cherry tomatos grew from the tomatos I threw in the pile that were from my kitchen. I was so pleasantly surprised when the vines started growing!

lily your neighbor may (just maybe) think you're odd but you're my kinda gal--choclate bar, nice touch

I have 2 compost bins. The one that I flipped last week was 130 degrees yesterday. The other, which hasn't been flipped in weeks, was down to 80. I flipped it yesterday and fed it a 5 gallon bucket of coffee grounds and filters and some leaves. It will probably heat up in a couple of days.

We having about our 4th Indian Summer here, the temp was in the 60s. I'm loving this. I flipped compost, cleaned all my windows. Days like this are a gift in mid November.

Karen

lilyfantn, I do not find your bags of leaves ( gold ) unattractive. All us gardeners know what they will look like in 6 months. Over ten years ago before I found my source for scraps ( a small restaurant) I would troll the neighborhood after dark looking for black bags full of fallen leaves. Can you imagine my frustration two years ago when I collected many bags and spread them, very deeply over two very large beds. Good job, I said to myself. The next day the gardeners came and I had an appointment so I was not there when they did their mow and blow. When I came home, later in the day I went to the area to put something in the compost pile. Well, they had cleaned out every leaf I had placed into the area. Oh well, now after 8 years they know I am a nut and only remove what I tell them to. We should have a thread about what helpers did to destroy our gardens with misunderstandings.

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
These nice days are a gift.
My goal again this year is to have a net gain in total leaf volume on my property. Last year was no bags of leaves, leave year. plus I gathered some then too. Looking forward to checking today, day before collection day.