Compost Heap Turning September 12th, 2012

Some pics of our compost heap! (pile was moved from the center to rightmost compartment of our three bin system).

Top picture is the compost heap prior to moving (with a few shovel fulls of material removed from it.) The heap has seen very little in the way of maintenance for well over a month and actually became somewhat dry. Surprisingly, there was still some warmth in the center. As you can see from the middle picture, particle size is still fairly large and there is a good number of worms and insects in the material. Bottom picture is the compost heap after transferring to the rightmost bin of the compartment (it was thoroughly moistened during this process.)

Some links on composting:

http://extension.usu.edu/waterquality/files/uploads/PDF/agwm01.pdf 
(The above link discusses oxygen, C:N ratio, moisture, temperature, particle size, time on the composting process.)

An interesting point in the above link is that moisture is needed in the pile for microbial activity, but too much reduces oxygen availability also needed by the bacteria for the decomposition process.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/compost/process.cfm
 (link discussing composting using longer intervals)

Will update the progress of the pile in the future.

RJ