Composting
A Compost Pile Under One Cubic Metre Will Never Get Hot
Hot composting needs about a cubic metre of material; smaller piles compost cold, which is slower but perfectly effective.
The heat in a hot pile is metabolic waste from thermophilic bacteria. Whether the pile reaches 55-65°C depends on the ratio of heat-generating volume to heat-losing surface area. Below roughly one cubic metre, that ratio is unfavourable and the pile stays near ambient.
Cold composting still works — it simply takes six to twelve months instead of six to twelve weeks, and it does not reach the temperature needed to kill weed seeds and pathogens. If your bin is small, keep diseased material and seeding weeds out of it.
Put this into practice
- Composting CalculatorWhat ratio of greens to browns does my compost need?
More facts like this
- Turning Compost Is About Speed, Not SuccessEvery heap eventually becomes compost. Turning it changes twelve months into three, and that is the whole benefit.
- Leaf Mold Isn't Compost — It Breaks Down by a Different Process EntirelyPiling up leaves and calling it compost misses what actually happens — leaf mold decomposes through fungi, not the bacterial process that drives a hot compost pile.
- A Worm Bin Fails Most Often From Overfeeding, Not UnderfeedingThe most common reason a vermicompost bin sours and smells is too much food added too fast, not too little.