After the hot middle of the thermophilic compost sustained a temperature of 160 F for 24 hours I turned it at 5 am.
After finishing my coffee, I went outside and prepared the area to turn the compost. I used a tarp to place the top part of the compost and top sides of it on it. This is because I wanted to then take the hot middle and place it in a new cage on the bottom of the pile.
I had to use a 5 gallon bucket to transfer the hot middle to the new cage/start of the new pile. With each bucket I am breaking up materials and ensuring there are no clumping with materials that can reduce oxygen and encourage anaerobic conditions and organisms. You can see actinobacteria in the picture above. It is a white ashy looking organism not to be confused with fungi. Breaking up clumps will help reduce the actinobacteria with each turn. Actino bacteria is ok but just will reduce mycorrhizal populations and really is only desired in early successional plants like kale and grasses.
The smoke is not too bad today here in Eugene, Oregon. Even though there is no Sun, it helps with managing moisture levels with no direct sun hitting the pile. I should be able to squeeze a handful of compost and see A drop of water.
Just an hour ago or so this pile reached 160 F. This means I have 24 hours before I need to turn again. So far so good for this thermophilic compost pile that I need to successfully do in order to get my compost certificate from The Soil Food Web School!
Ahh it's for a certification. I'm curious though, are you planning to apply this for biocrusting? Because the microbes you need seem similar to the ones needed for biocrusts
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I need to look this up and see if it's applicable on a small scale OnO
Cuz I hate the inorganic urea my mom uses as a plant fertilizer
https://www.soilfoodweb.com/
Ack-the course is so expensive 😭
Tell me about it! The knowledge from it priceless really
Looks like I'll be doing my own research on this because yours isn't small scale anymorrreeee
I believe this is like what I once read. You can use this process to create compost manure, right? I remember that after separation and maybe covering them up for some time, the heat comes up. Wow! This is wonderful. One of your pictures even shows the heat-smoke emanating from the compost.
Welldone, @dynamicgreentk
I used 5 gallon buckets to measure out everything. I used 40 of them total. The manure is considered high nitrogen; the more fresh the higher in N it will be. I used 15% High N (manure) for the pile.
Wow, I see a lot of effort here, man! You are doing well. Now, I think I might be considering going back to some of my secondary school books then. 😁
The soil food web school has a great youtube library!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSAU5ludwNyqMHBaR1ZfheQ/videos
Oh my! Thank you very much. I will definitely go through it.