I get various things sprouting in my pile occasionally... I turn them back in... more greens for the pile.. yeah. Often times I will dump old bird seed in the compost pile. It will sprout for a long time in there...

If you have a lot of waste now & want to reduce the volume of it keep a hot pile going for as long as you have the energy for it or as long as the weather allows comfortable gardening. If you have more space than energy, just add layers. When I have a lot of material I prefer to add to the sides to build a long pile keeping it at least 4' wide & tall by however long you have materials to build it. Building a pile wider than 5-6' makes it too much work to turn & the outer parts don't actively compost anyway. If you build your long pile you can turn it all to the left pulling middles out & the outer parts inside the pile. Then your next turn is to the right & so on. It's a great workout to turn compost piles & a pitchfork helps. I've used a hoe as well sometimes after at least 5 turns or so it gets easier because the materials are smaller. Either way, turn left & leave it for a few days or a week, then turn it right the next time. If it doesn't keep heating after a turn or adding moisture you'll need to add more greens in whatever form you have available. It seems like 100% leaves are slow to compost, but if you've shredded them & mix with the green grass clippings it speeds up. Use what you have around to cover it like a tarp, upside down old carpet, wet cardboard, feed sacks, or burlap bags. Again it's either energy, time or space that limits your composting projects.

Probably won't make any difference in most piles. If you had a pile only of used coffee grounds and shredded paper, it might be a good idea. But my main 'brown' consists of finely shredded leaves, and I doubt that adding a few scoops of finished compost would speed things up. When I mix up a batch of matched fresh grass and or coffee grounds with finely shredded leaves, the core temp. zooms up to 150 to 160F in two to three days. Adding a bit of finished compost never hurts. But if you feel your mix is not heating up as much/fast as you expect; the answer may lie with another factor. Mix of greens and browns Freshness of greens Need small pieces Moisture too wet or dry Pile too small to retain heat.

I use a machete or hatchet on a tree stump or old wooden cutting board to reduce vines and tough stalks to pieces I can turn with a pitch fork or broadfork. A sharp spade works too, on ground you dont mind chopping up. I also find its easier to chop as I go, snipping vines with the nippers as they go into the bucket rather than piling vines and having a tangle of them. The nippers get sharpened more often but sharpening is easier work than turning the compost or chopping. Salad bite sized leaves and twigs will break down very quickly. I like one hot compost near the kitchen yard for kitchen scraps and weed seeds. Its worth the chopping. Even in the larger compost, large leaves and stalks can block air and water and slow the process. Its pretty hard on the mower to use it as a chopper.