Everything is damp and under a tarp in a 7x6x5 foot bin. I’ve noticed the temp gets up to 160 and has
stayed constant.
This pile has horse manure, leaves, kitchen scraps, piss and mushroom substrate.
by Outdoorshenigans
Everything is damp and under a tarp in a 7x6x5 foot bin. I’ve noticed the temp gets up to 160 and has
stayed constant.
This pile has horse manure, leaves, kitchen scraps, piss and mushroom substrate.
by Outdoorshenigans
12 Comments
Damn, that’s pretty impressive. Bout to hit that spontaneous Combustion zone lol. Should be ok, although the hottest mine ever got is a little over 120 degrees. The chicken manure is definitely keeping it piping hot.
It ignites, as I’m French.
you kill off some good microbes but also all the seeds and pathogens that could be present.
You might wanna add some trichoderma or jadam or leaf mold to reintroduce some beneficial microbes.
Or just mix it with some old organic potting soil. Something to reintroduce some helpful microbiology.
China Syndrome. Burns straight through the earth’s crust.
You may draw the sacred sword from within the pile and you become the rightful king of compost
If I understand it correctly, above 160F the diversity of the microbes in your pile decreases as many species don’t survive those temperatures.
Those that do survive will reproduce so rapidly that they will begin depleting the oxygen in your pile, leading to anaerobic pockets which leads to pockets of methane, alcohols, and other things you don’t want reaching high temperatures.
Essentially you ruin the main benefit of compost (microbial diversity) while simultaneously creating the perfect conditions for combustion.
How do you turn something like this? Take it all out and put it back in?
It goes to 161°F
At this temperature, you can bury a whole pig in there and have a luau in a day or two. The pork might have an “earthy” note.
On a more serious note, when it gets this hot you can start a chemical reaction that creates flammable gasses, and a small spark can ignite those gasses. It’s kind of like the spontaneous combustion of a pile of oily rags. It‘s not the heat that lights the fire, it’s a static spark or other ignition source that ignites the fumes. You might want to pull the pile apart to cool it off, then pile it up again later.
Its ruined and you’ll want to put in in a pick up truck and drive it to my house for proper disposal
https://preview.redd.it/8byfty826arg1.jpeg?width=647&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01e78624a34d63d6a893de4ca33392cb6c44c539
If this pile goes over 160 F we all die!
Believe it or not…..straight to jail