On 09/04/2019 14:41, David wrote:
On Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:17:42 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 08/04/19 15:46, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

I've turned over a couple of cold composting jumbo bags, and while the
contents have rotted down to a fair degree they are rather wet and
claggy, and fit for a double dug underlayer at the best. Would mixing
in shredded paper do any good, or is it too late and I just have to be
patient.

Be patient. Keep it a bit drier.

Compost heaps seem to exist in one of two states - too wet or too dry.

I opened my most recently filled to the brim dalek composter yesterday
to add a large dead fish (bloody heron!) and noticed the ants are
active again.

From experience they will build a huge colony over summer and chew
everything to a fine compost .

They'll be importing the greenfly next week to collect the honeydew....

Idly wondering if a heating element in the Dalek would raise the
temperature enough over, say, a 24 hour period to kick start activity.

The very expensive very well insulated HotBin uses a hot water bottle to
kick start the heap. Having discovered that, I tried that technique on
one of my heaps, which was almost getting hot, last summer, without success.

Perhaps a pond or aquarium heater?

I assume that it would need a long enough input of heat to give bacteria
or whatever to multiply enough to keep the temperature up.


Cheers



Dave R


--
SRH