Laser6328 wrote:


True but it wont hurt. I always include a shovelful or two aof dirt when
I
add leaves to my pile. That way I am introducing innoculants. I have
noticed that that it very important to getting the pile cooking.

Ed

I have a pile presently working that consists principally of purchased straw
(I'm out of tree leaves already) and grass clippings. It also got some wood
chips and a bucket of kitchen waste. In less than 24 hours (without any
sort of intentional innoculation) it went to 165 deg. F. At the 30 hour
mark it was fully 170 deg. F. Over the course of about a week it dropped
back to about 150 deg. F. where it held for a few days. It has now held
steady at 135-140 deg. F. for a full week. When it drops to ~100, I'll turn
it. The inclusion of large quantities of straw, and thus the assurance of a
constant supply of oxygen, seems to have had a very positive impact.

Newcomers to composting have enough to do just learning to get the
moisture / oxygen balance and the carbon / nitrogen ratios right.

I just want to encourage the original poster to keep her money in her purse
and use locally available bacteria. A shovel of dirt or a fork load of old
compost won't hurt ... but are 'belt & suspenders'.

If you just stack stuff in a corner and wait, you'll get compost.

If you'll mix nitrogen-bearing materials, carbon-bearing materials, water
and air, you'll get it faster.

If the pile is between 3' and 5' in each direction, you'll get the finished
product still faster.

If you get all of the steps right, you'll get the pile I referenced above.
(I have two other piles that are doing fine, but not as well as that
one ... they can't all be gems. One is still too small and the other had
too many grass clippings, not enough tree leaves and almost no straw. As a
result, when the monsoons came to SE Michigan, it couldn't cope and went
sour. I've turned it once (ewwww ... stanky!) and it's better. I'll
probably turn it again today and add more straw and it should be fine this
time.)

Adding innoculants to a hot pile may hasten matters by a few days, but the
bacteria needed for decomposition are already present and just need
suitable conditions to multiply to useful numbers. As shown in the example
above, the time advantage of innoculated vs un-innoculated can be
considerably less than 24 hours. The pile was 165 deg. F. in about 20
hours. Since anything north of about 130 deg. F is golden, how much time
could I have saved by innoculating it? Six hours? Eight? Having the compost
ready even eight hours faster just has no value to me. If I could shave a
week off, I'd be interested. If I could shave two weeks off, I'd smile and
possibly even reach for my wallet. But mere hours? Nah.

Stuff decomposes just fine in the fields, forests and waterways without any
help from innoculants, layering, mixing or other complicated voodoo. That's
something that we tend to forget ... our intervention isn't required at
all. All we buy with all our work is time and a sense of personal
accomplishment. For me, and probably for you, that is sufficient. But we
mere humans are simply allowed to "play along at home" ... we aren't
essential to the plan.

Why spend money to make things complicated if the end result is going to
happen the free and simple way? After giving her the general drift of
making compost piles at home I just wanted to encourage her to strike out
on her own and leave the 'patent medicine for compost piles' alone.

Please take nothing I've said as being intended as personally hurtful.
Obviously your way works for you and I don't contend otherwise. In fact, I
make about 1/2 my piles that way. As long as I don't have to spend money or
considerable time to do it, why not? A forkfull of dirt from beneath a
former compost pile can be heap big powerful medicine to a new pile.
Actually, that dirt, steeped as it is in compost tea, should be sold by the
4 ounce bag at boutique prices.

I just wanted to steer her clear of an unneccessary expense and needless
aggravation on her first pile. As of the second pile, she'll have all the
innoculant she needs for the rest of her life.

That said, when I take my hobby website commercial, I'll be selling small
bottles of a foul smelling concoction for innoculating compost piles. Some
people just gotta do things the hard, expensive way and who am I to
interfere with that?

When I do, though, I think I'll make the label design positively reek of
'patent medicine show'.

Bill