I apologize if some of that message is garbled, but I'm just now learning how to post, and I can't figure out how to edit it. (That was my first post to this website).

I'm just trying to ask if I should leave this stuff in many little piles, or if I should put it in one huge pile, given how big that pile would be.

Somehow, stuff I thought I had edited out of the first post ended up being in it anyway when it got to the website.

Again, I apologize for that. I promise you, I'll master this posting business!

7 acres! I'm officially jealous.

Do you have machinery to turn compost? Like a tractor with a front loader? If so, pile it in layers, in long windrows. Make them about 4-5' deep and 6-8' wide and as long as you have space for. Spray the layers with water as you build the windrows.

This will be the easiest configuration to turn periodically, assuming you have the machine. It will also allow them to benefit from airflow and rainfall.

I agree with Donn- windrows are probably the best way to go. I'm jealous too.

Mix or layer all ingredients together for best effect, IMO, rather than segregating. Not sure if I'd go a full 8' wide. You might try a few windrows throughout the property so that you won't have to move it all so far later.

Where do you live? If it's someplace warm- then I have very different suggestions on how to compost it and use it with much less effort. Since winter is approaching- bigger windrows are the way to go to avoid freezing. Too large of a pile and air won't get in to keep it aerobic and it'll slow down.

Also... shred the leaves if you have a way to do it. It speeds things up significantly. If that's a huge effort- then at least try and get the pile cranking hot. I've composted unshredded leaves quickly by maintaining a hot pile that chomped them up fast.

38133...northeast of Memphis...zone 7

Rasberryflyer, welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, you can not edit after you post a message, only before hitting the submit button. You can type, edit and look using the preview message button as many times as you need to to get it the way you want it, THEN click the SUBMIT button.

I think that I understood your posting O.K. and agree with Donn. So much depends upon you, your goals, physical set up and condition and what you have to work with. Just about anything that you do will work eventually, but it sounds like you want to go ahead and make compost.

If that is the case, and if it were me, I would combine all them, make sure they were moist, turn every week to 10 days to let some oxygen in and check on the moisture. I would NOT be adding any lime to the pile. You can click on the link below, then scroll down a way to the posting that I made to see how I handle similar materials. There are some embedded links in the text in that posting which opens pictures, and the general approach leads to making some very fine compost in 60 to 90 days. Photobucket seems to be down right now or I would post a picture of some of the finished product.
Bill P.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link mentioned above.

How about sheet composting it? Spread all of your materials over your garden area. Try to be even handed, but nature forgives our clumsiness. If you can run your leaves and any course materials through a shredder first, that would be a plus. If your Winter is as wet as mine are, those materials will be breaking down and benefitting the soil all Winter.
I do small sections at a time, but weather permitting and spare time to match...
Fresh air, exercise, tools (hand or powered). It's all good.

Windrows would be the route to go with the amount of compostables you have and the 7 acres at your disposal - which I envy as well...

I goofed big time. I didn't water the material as I built the windrow and I didn't build it anywhere close to where I had easy access water. I ended up hauling water by 200 gallon trailer but that wore thin pretty quick. The material did shrink somewhat, but it didn't really compost.

My fault, I shoulda known better.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:318369}}

Windrows of any size are labor intensive, sheet composting will do the same job in one pass. Specially if you are planning to keep adding material.

I suppose that you speak from experience of doing both opal. I wouldn't think that you would have enough depth or mass in sheet composting to do any real composting, beyond letting it lay there and rot like a lasagna bed. Are you talking about a small, confined area, unlike what it appears Lloyd is working with? And if you keep on adding, how do you plant and what happens to the little seedlings ?
Bill P.

Yes, I'm in zone 7: west Tennessee.

I have both a tractor with front end loader and also a leaf shredder. (Yes, I do use the tractor and loader to aerate my piles, and to water them when needed as well.)

I have completed about, oh, maybe 10 loader buckets full of shredded leaves already. I've been mixing in some of the Starbucks coffee in with the shredded leaf mixture before I pile it up. I also added powdered lime to some of those loaders full of stuff, till I ran out of the lime.

But it is such a large mass of stuff I am trying to compost that I still have plenty of leaves that have not yet been shredded. In case you haven't figured it out already, I'm the county's Official Resident Leaf Thief (OFLT). :)

And every time I head into Memphis, I have a Starbucks Route -- I just hit every Starbucks on that route, and cart off whatever coffee grounds they happen to have around at the time. My husband says I'm the Memphis Starbucks Recycle Queen (MSRQ).

I also have that pile of hot horse manure, and am not sure if I should mix it into the other stuff, or leave it off by itself. I hope to be using this compost around April of next year.

Incidentially, I have already spread some coffee grounds and shredded leaves on top of all but two of my beds and gently raked it into the surface of the soil. (The other two beds had cool crops growing in them at the time I did this, so I haven't laid any supplemental organic material on them yet.)

By the way, thanks for your insight and advice.

Thanks also for tolerating my somewhat garbled first post. I'll try not to have that happen again.

Sheet composting would have been my less labor intensive method that I spoke about in my post above. It really works.

Why do you keep adding lime? It's completely unnecessary and likely doesn't effect the pH of the finished compost (which will be around 7 anyway).

Up to a point the size of you compost pile will only help it "cook" better. The maximum size pile that will digest well on its own is 6 feet wide by 6 feet tall, length is up to you. Years ago when I was actually composting for several acres I did have compost piles that were 6 x 6 x 45 and when built, using horse manure as the green, they really cooked all winter and were ready to spread in the spring with no turning, although much of the outside was not digested. The bacteria that digest your material work much better when the environment they are in is one they prefer and that is easier to reach and maintain in larger piles than it would be in smaller piles.

Hi MSRQ..(I like that!) As you can already tell there are several ways of utilizing your material. Reading your posts I sense that you are having fun with your projects. Good on you!

A couple of questions just because I'm curious. Are you going to have similiar accumulations of materials each year? What is the intended final use of the compost you make? When you say loader bucket, how big is it? Are you intending to hot compost this stuff or letting it slowly break down?

I'm thinking you have the potential of having a little side compost business there. Some people will purchase quality compost and you certainly have the ingredients for making such. When I make batches, I try to use a varied mix of ingredients so I add some of everything I have on hand into one batch. I also do sheet composting because I get hundreds of tons of material and I have the acres, but of course this doesn't yield any compost per say, it just puts OM back into my soil. If you want to have something you can put into a bucket or bag, then sheet composting might not work for you. I have found that experimentation as well as trial and error (lot's of errors) were my biggest teachers. Thankfully, compost seems to fix itself, even after big screw ups.

Lloyd

Gonefishing, I'm talking about experience with both. A large windrow can be moved, turned, etc easily with a bucket loader, not so easy by hand.
If appearance is not an issue then sheet composting like lasagna adding new ingredients as they become available. They will deompose rather quickly after the process begins.

Pt03,

My loader bucket is 5 feet long, and the tractor manufacturer says it can lift up to 1,300 pounds when attached to my 33 horsepower tractor.

I hoe to have this much compostable material (or more) every year. I'm still collecting materials when I have a chance, so I hope there will be even more before I am through.

I use the compost to enrich my already existing raised vegetable beds, and if there is enough, I hope to open up a new 50 foot by 3 and a half foot raised bed next spring.

That's great. It sounds like you have a great vision of what you want to do. As far as building beds (lasanga or otherwise) and gardens, I know little. Having said that, if it was me, I would start windrow composting with what you have by mixing well, adding moisture, and trying to get a high temperature to ensure seed and other bad things that might be there killed off. If I couldn't get this compost "done" by the time you wanted to use it, I would defer using it till next year, keeping in mind that I would be building new windrows each year. This would set up a continous cycle of using mature compost on your beds while having new stuff started for the following year.

If I really wanted to start the new bed this spring, I would be tempted to use the bales you have and maybe scrounge a few more to build walls for a bed to throw everything into. If you mound the material up using the bales as a wall, you would probably get some heat and decomposition in a relatively short time. The bales can be moved to allow the tractor to get at the material for mixing once in a while. A lot would depend on your climate.

I have done sheet, bin, windrow and tumbler composting. Each has its own pros and cons.

As a side note, if you are selling your produce one must be cognizant of undesireable and perhaps dangerous results of using tainted compost. I grow fruit for sale up here and I have been randomly inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency twice now. Food borne illness is taken very serious, as it should be. For this reason, I only put compost I have made to EPA standards on my Saskatoon trees. Canada has some guidelines as well (BNQ and CCME). This means thorough mixing, high temperature, record keeping and a curing period. If I err, I would rather err on the side of caution. For other plants and trees, I don't really think it makes much difference.

Kinda long winded...sorry.

Lloyd

pt03 and gonefishin

You guys are awesome with the pictures. I get equipment envy for sure, but I appreciate the added info pictures provide.

raspberryflyer
It sounds like you are doing great with your first year with serious composting. This is my first year making a major effort also, but with a 90 x 110 foot city lot, my definition of large quantities is different that yours. I canÂt bring home anymore leave until I can shred what I already have.

Do you have to compost all of what you have by spring? I find that I feel like I am wasting time by not composting material as fast as possible, but I wonder if there is a long term advantage in making at least one extra pile and ignoring it until next year (2008) Then I can do the same in 2008, making a new pile in 08 while havig the full pile built in 07 ready to dig into. "Set it and forget it." The time saved from not having to tend to the pile could be spent gathering even more raw materials. An example for you would be to build a 50 foot bed for 2008 by building a 50 foot low windrow now and ignoring it. Does anyone here consider that a waste of raw materials?