DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
ah! so my freedom-loving plants, who grow where they like it, can confirm that borage likes growing with strawberries (but then again, borage likes growing in many places) :mrgreen:
That's the sucky thing about establishing a new garden - you don't have all the desirable seeds in the soil yet. But ust ONE of those you sowed needs to sprout to change that haha, so fingers crossed!

And yeah, I sighted my first slug today too.
To kill them on the spot, you need to cut them in two right behind their "heads". Cut them anywhere else and they'll suffer.
Just a general FYI, not necessary to torture them, not their fault we had to fucking spread them all over the world :evil:
Shit maybe this is why my 'Karma' is so bad ATM, I've been like ISIS to slugs and snails, LMFAO:wall:
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
Green smoothie time!
A handful of greenstuff - comfrey, borage, and alfalfa
2017-05-20 16.20.45.jpg

Enough to make 750ml of green smoothie, of which 250ml were given to this one, unstrained:
2017-05-21 12.49.12.jpg
For being a runt, she's quite cheerful at day 18 :D
Though it's pretty hot in there (23-28°C) whilst quite dry (31-34%RH), she doesn't seem to mind that at all.
Thinking of reducing light time a bit to encourage some stretch, but still on hold on that, since she looks like she's going to preflower soon and may elongate on her own.
Actually I was planning to up the lighting time, possibly even to 24/0, instead of adding further COBs as she grows.
All subject to change should observation dictate otherwise ;)

I definitely will be training her a bit
2017-05-21 day18 (2).jpg

The way it's looking right now I'm going to pinch the bottommost secondaries.
Maaaaybe top at the 5th tier, giving me 8 secondaries, OR leave the main cola and LST a fishbone or a spiral. All depending on how she develops in the next 2-3 days. ;)
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
update @ Conundrum #1
Compost teas vs. blackspot & rusts

As for the compost tea I was making, one of the tubes loosened itself sometime in the course of the night and was swimming on the water surface this morning, so here we are again, with a ton of ciliates and actinobacteria in my ACT.

Whereby what bothers me the most here is that there is no warning smell to go with it this time :(
How will anyone know this has happened without a microscope!?!
It's something at the back of my mind always, how far can we simplify to make it usable by more people..

Anyway, I've stuck the second tube back in, taken out some of the water too, so the aeration effect is larger, and hope that I can turn it around, once again, and now thoroughly pissed off with my teamaking setup lol

It would be direly needed!
Black spot started appearing on the control roses a few days ago, and yesterday I saw rust beginning on one of the roses in the mycorrhized bed.
2017-05-20 15.52.14.jpg

Of the ACTed roses, the red one is showing signs of blackspot on leaves that have some weird damage, possibly from the frosts.
2017-05-20 16.04.03.jpg

So what can we learn from this?

Number one for me is my wonky brewing system. :mrgreen:
With more stable tea, surely a more stable microbial population could have been established.

Very possibly, the microbes that did establish themselves got killed with the extreme change in temperatures.
Because while microbes usually just go to sleep when the conditions aren't good for them (and they can be very particular, so it's quite an everyday thing), if they don't have enough time to bunker up, into cysts for example, they will die, even if they normally could tolerate those temps.

So I should have had some ACT at hand immediately after the melting of the snow, to reinnoculate.
ESPECIALLY because the herd couldn't get replenished from below, from the soil, the soil not having been innoculated (except from what little dripped from the branches above).
I mean sure, use compost tea when you don't have enough compost for all, but I could've at least watered some of that ACT into the soil too :rolleyes:
Which IS what usually is done with the ACT by those using it to remediate and maintain their microbial herds!
Not sure how I got to the plan of treating the above-ground plant parts exclusively - and in hindsight it seems rather hare-brained of me :bigjoint:
When using ACT foliar, spray the soil too!

So that's what I'll do, either with the recovered ACT, or in a few days with a fresh batch, that I'll also treat the cherry with (blackspot is stagnant, at the mo it's the aphids, big fat black ones, niggling), and of course the tomatoes (who however DID get a good liter of compost each into their planting hole).
Starting to go into flower
2017-05-20 16.01.23.jpg
They've doubled in size since getting planted out, but the lower leaves got sunburnt, I was rather ruthless throwing them out there ;)

As a side note, the hollyhocks around the garden are starting to get their rusts too.
2017-05-20 16.02.47.jpg
Here, I do see some resistance in the ACTed ones, where the rust is much lighter (as in, it can't fully express itself?)
2017-05-20 16.03.19.jpg
Looking at that, I get the feeling that it could still be stopped :bigjoint:
Cheers!
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
update @ Conundrum #6
The cycle of living matter

I took my cue for planting the potatoes from our garden senior, who calls the moon phase the "waning shine", which has this magical ring to me, especially as he says it with this sweet dreamy voice haha


Next to regularly sprouted potatoes, I doubled in an experiment with the potato shoots,
2017-05-17 11.10.24.jpg

and yes tis true, we can just break the shoots from potatoes and stick them in soil, thus needing less to no seeding potatoes :bigjoint: We'll see whether there is any difference in performance - growth, health, yield, as they're getting treated exactly the same from here on.

I think it was 2 weeks till they started wanting to grow greenstuff on top.
Nice roots!
2017-05-17 11.48.13.jpg

Both the "clones" and the potatoes got mycos added directly to the roots, or onto the potato in general where they hadn't grown anything rootsy (most of em).

2017-05-17 12.37.15.jpg
Haha, not that one can see much, just the general setup post planting on Wednesday.
The broadbeans are still sprouting (very quickly now it's gotten warmer, we had a spike of 28°C these days), but all in all this bed is set up.
From here, it's occasional, probably around weekly, waterings with fresh smoothies incl. all its fibrous material and that's it.

I'm much less happy with the other soilified bed, the onions were badly handicapped by overwaterings whilst still indoor. And the carrots have yet to sprout - or maybe they have, but some critters furtively snuck out of the mulch and stole em away? :rolleyes:
Worst case I'll just plant more chards there, and winter salads.
 

iHearAll

Well-Known Member
Green smoothie time!
A handful of greenstuff - comfrey, borage, and alfalfa
View attachment 3946440

Enough to make 750ml of green smoothie, of which 250ml were given to this one, unstrained:
View attachment 3946451
For being a runt, she's quite cheerful at day 18 :D
Though it's pretty hot in there (23-28°C) whilst quite dry (31-34%RH), she doesn't seem to mind that at all.
Thinking of reducing light time a bit to encourage some stretch, but still on hold on that, since she looks like she's going to preflower soon and may elongate on her own.
Actually I was planning to up the lighting time, possibly even to 24/0, instead of adding further COBs as she grows.
All subject to change should observation dictate otherwise ;)

I definitely will be training her a bit
View attachment 3946453

The way it's looking right now I'm going to pinch the bottommost secondaries.
Maaaaybe top at the 5th tier, giving me 8 secondaries, OR leave the main cola and LST a fishbone or a spiral. All depending on how she develops in the next 2-3 days. ;)
Are you about to pull a half pound off an auto again?
 

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
I may not be able to bring any of these conundrums to a conclusion.

Per a letter I got 2 weeks ago, I should have cleared the garden on May 1st.
After I had gotten the verbal permission to continue gardening there indefinitely (that is, until the buildings there get torn down, but there are a few people with indefinite contracts not moving out) just last November.

Per meeting with the guy from the housing company this past Friday, I am to clear the garden immediately - as soon as I return the keys to my former apartment.
So I refused to return the keys, and said, OK if you can't be reasonable, you'll have to take me to court on it, I'm destitute so you will have the hassle AND the costs, while I at least get the time to remove the perennials at a time when a NORMAL person would.
Or I'll make a scandal and take it to the political level, and force this actually State-ownedcompany to adopt a more forward-thinking attitude towards the ecologically sane use of their fallow lands...
He smiled and said, "we'll sit that out".
Oh and they would.
There's a monument put up about 10 years ago by the mayor back then, stating "these houses will never get torn down!" and planted an oak next to it.
It was onthe property of the houses that got torn down FIRST. They took the monument incl. oak and planted it into the inner yard of the block of houses that is also going to get torn down, but last. Disgustingly ironic.
I think Welfare State (which is no more no less than "we watch out for each other") is a great idea.
It gets ruined by corruption, $$ interest groups, and sheer stupidity.

Anyway, after some more back and forth, he's going to look into "finding some solution".
It won't be what I want, but I can still go for the gain in time via the legal action they're trying to scare me with.
No way am I transplanting bushes carrying fruit and all that NOW.
You'd think it's a total emergency, but there is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO rush!!!
No one is goingto die or freeze for not having a roof over their heads (and if they do, it's the company's fault, after all, they have like 100 flats standing empty hereabouts rights now)

In fact, the very earliest they can get building on that plot is 2020 - their own official position just recently :(
Totally unnecessary action someone conjured up on the management floor, just because.

Whilst everyone else, the people living there, the people gardening, the people who include our garden in their route to get to work because it's so beautiful and soothes their souls....................

Gosh it makes me so angry to think about it!!
Stick to it. Hope it works out.
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
haha! sure would be a nice counterbalance to my ACT fails :-P
But the Pineapple Express is less explosive, and her designated final pot will hold only 9.5L soil, so I'll be happy if she yields half of that :bigjoint:
lmao stoners :rolleyes: no actually I'll be delighted if she yields a fourth of that haha
I just saw my last PE yielded some 40grams, but of course, I was even more of a noob back then :bigjoint:

So this time, the ACT hasn''t recovered.
Last night it was looking very diverse, not only in terms of different kinds of ciliates, but also on the aerobic side. There were signs of "this once was a good thing" (testate amoebae, most of them dead though, many naked amoebae - very alive, those massive clouds of small flagellates I see in these tipping-into (or out of?)-the-anaerobic stages, even massive fungal aggregates (though lots of the hyphae were either actinobacteria or something anaerobiuc-leaning that then could also be harmful...).
But today, the aggregates are falling apart, almost no more fungi, even more ciliate diversity - based on morphology and how they move. Some zoom around like bees from flower to flower, some do sideways rolls, others go round in fast circles.... fun to watch!

And I saw an active omnivorous nematode, I think, opting to eat bacteria, and playing tug of war with a hypha it would've wanted to eat -- what it looked like anyway to me, at this point in time with the knowledge I have :bigjoint:
Enjoy!
 

iHearAll

Well-Known Member
lmao stoners :rolleyes: no actually I'll be delighted if she yields a fourth of that haha
I just saw my last PE yielded some 40grams, but of course, I was even more of a noob back then :bigjoint:

So this time, the ACT hasn''t recovered.
Last night it was looking very diverse, not only in terms of different kinds of ciliates, but also on the aerobic side. There were signs of "this once was a good thing" (testate amoebae, most of them dead though, many naked amoebae - very alive, those massive clouds of small flagellates I see in these tipping-into (or out of?)-the-anaerobic stages, even massive fungal aggregates (though lots of the hyphae were either actinobacteria or something anaerobiuc-leaning that then could also be harmful...).
But today, the aggregates are falling apart, almost no more fungi, even more ciliate diversity - based on morphology and how they move. Some zoom around like bees from flower to flower, some do sideways rolls, others go round in fast circles.... fun to watch!

And I saw an active omnivorous nematode, I think, opting to eat bacteria, and playing tug of war with a hypha it would've wanted to eat -- what it looked like anyway to me, at this point in time with the knowledge I have :bigjoint:
Enjoy!
40g is still pretty great. So, you have learned to predict the health of your tea and current stage of development through the microscope? I always watch these videos to try and pick out the guys I know a goodies, like the nematode, but I cant say I remember the desired environment if many other microbodies. Clearly I need to learn! For example, flagellates sound like fart particles. ..but living. And im pretty sure im wrong :rolleyes:
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
40g is still pretty great. So, you have learned to predict the health of your tea and current stage of development through the microscope? I always watch these videos to try and pick out the guys I know a goodies, like the nematode, but I cant say I remember the desired environment if many other microbodies. Clearly I need to learn! For example, flagellates sound like fart particles. ..but living. And im pretty sure im wrong :rolleyes:
Predict no, there are too many factors - and as we can see, stuff happens that can ruin it all, even though everything was pointing towards an excellent ACT in the making ;)

What I can, and do, do is to look at samples under the microscope to check on the kind of balance we have in there.
At the moment, in my half-amateur state, and while I'm learning to distiguish the critters (and yes, that does take practice and experience!) I am only making sure I have representatives from each set of microbes, and how much diversity there is.
To have a complete soil food web that cycles nutrients sufficiently to attain all those effects of vigorous growth, invisibility to pests, and nutritional quality, we need bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and microarthropods, followed by earthworms, larger arthropods, and then birds, mammals etc.
soilfoodweb_schematic.jpg

The more the merrier, the more diverse, the greater the likelihood we've got all our bases covered. So it's not rocket science ;)

Also, not many specifics are known, because the necessary research seldom gets funded. Which is also why the research we do find more often than not is overspecialized and has some commercial exploitation in mind (fertilizer/pesticide/bioremediation effects), and not really understanding how the whole system works.
But we DO know alot about how a good soil ecosystem should look in general, and we can differentiate the critters by morphology.

Also, we know about facultative microbes, like actinobacteria or lactobacilli, seeing those means the material being sampled could be going both ways, from aerobic to anaerobic (in my case for example, I then see the remnants of testate amoebae too, who usually occur in successionally advanced soils around trees and shrubs), or from anaerobic to aerobic.
And we know anaerobic critters, like the ciliates and larvae. We know that in general, clear fungi with narrow hyphae and without septae (evenly spaced cell divisions in the hyphal strand) are more likely to prefer anaerobic conditions.
And we know that disease causing microbes thrive under anaerobic conditions, so when we start seeing lots fo these guys in our sample, we know bad things are bound to happen.
Not talking about the occasional random specimen here! Because even in an aggregate made by totally squeaky aerobic creatures, the middle can still go anaerobic when it gets big and dense and oxygen can't flow freely. So a ciliate popping up there and cleaning up the mess is actually a good thing, and that's what we have going on in our root systems too: every little corner of the rhizosphere can have different pH's, different inhabitants mining different nutrients on the plant's request. :D

So if we're trying to make a strong aerobic ACT to boost the aerobic microbial population somewhere, and we see these critters in numbers, we know we're failing. Or if we only see bacteria and a few flagellates, or bacteria and fungi only. Those are usually conditions we're trying to remediate.

And yeah, how the soil ecosystem looks is an expression of the successional stage the soil is at, making that soil good for whatever plants thrive at that stage. For example, as soon as I had gotten my soil aerated (mechanically), thistles stopped growing there - even though there SURELY were gazillions of seeds in the soil.
They just don't sprout anymore.
Here, the most significant indicator is the bacterial to fungal mass ratio, something I haven't ventured into yet, but will be doing shortly. Basically, you count the bacteria in a field of view, and measure the dimensions of fungal strands, to get the masses of each. And depending on that ratio, you can determine what successional stage plant is going to grow well in that.

But there's no fixed scenario, with clear-cut role distribution, that allows us to say, AH! this is clearly eggplant soil!
Variability is too large, with every degree temperature, with every % moisture, different microbes wake up or go to sleep, in different landscapes, climates, even growing the same plants is going to show different specific bacteria/fungi/protozoa/etc etc. So the configuration is always going to be shapeshifty and in constant change.

As I said elsewhere, balance is a verb, and my what a rant this has become, and I don't even know if I answered your question haha :bigjoint:

LMAO at your flagellate associations :D
...because of "flatulence", perhaps?!
They're aerobic protozoans who have these whiplike tentacles they use for locomotion, sensing where the food is, and scooping that food in ;) They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes!
Here's a very large and distinct one I found in my wormbin (this one even has been identified and named ;) )
 
Last edited:

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Predict no, there are too many factors - and as we can see, stuff happens that can ruin it all, even though everything was pointing towards an excellent ACT in the making ;)

What I can, and do, do is to look at samples under the microscope to check on the kind of balance we have in there.
At the moment, in my half-amateur state, and while I'm learning to distiguish the critters (and yes, that does take practice and experience!) I am only making sure I have representatives from each set of microbes, and how much diversity there is.
To have a complete soil food web that cycles nutrients sufficiently to attain all those effects of vigorous growth, invisibility to pests, and nutritional quality, we need bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, and microarthropods, followed by earthworms, larger arthropods, and then birds, mammals etc.
View attachment 3947080

The more the merrier, the more diverse, the greater the likelihood we've got all our bases covered. So it's not rocket science ;)

Also, not many specifics are known, because the necessary research seldom gets funded. Which is also why the research we do find more often than not is overspecialized and has some commercial exploitation in mind (fertilizer/pesticide/bioremediation effects), and not really understanding how the whole system works.
But we DO know alot about how a good soil ecosystem should look in general, and we can differentiate the critters by morphology.

Also, we know about facultative microbes, like actinobacteria or lactobacilli, seeing those means the material being sampled could be going both ways, from aerobic to anaerobic (in my case for example, I then see the remnants of testate amoebae too, who usually occur in successionally advanced soils around trees and shrubs), or from anaerobic to aerobic.
And we know anaerobic critters, like the ciliates and larvae. We know that in general, clear fungi with narrow hyphae and without septae (evenly spaced cell divisions in the hyphal strand) are more likely to prefer anaerobic conditions.
And we know that disease causing microbes thrive under anaerobic conditions, so when we start seeing lots fo these guys in our sample, we know bad things are bound to happen.
Not talking about the occasional random specimen here! Because even in an aggregate made by totally squeaky aerobic creatures, the middle can still go anaerobic when it gets big and dense and oxygen can't flow freely. So a ciliate popping up there and cleaning up the mess is actually a good thing, and that's what we have going on in our root systems too: every little corner of the rhizosphere can have different pH's, different inhabitants mining different nutrients on the plant's request. :D

So if we're trying to make a strong aerobic ACT to boost the aerobic microbial population somewhere, and we see these critters in numbers, we know we're failing. Or if we only see bacteria and a few flagellates, or bacteria and fungi only. Those are usually conditions we're trying to remediate.

And yeah, how the soil ecosystem looks is an expression of the successional stage the soil is at, making that soil good for whatever plants thrive at that stage. For example, as soon as I had gotten my soil aerated (mechanically), thistles stopped growing there - even though there SURELY were gazillions of seeds in the soil.
They just don't sprout anymore.
Here, the most significant indicator is the bacterial to fungal mass ratio, something I haven't ventured into yet, but will be doing shortly. Basically, you count the bacteria in a field of view, and measure the dimensions of fungal strands, to get the masses of each. And depending on that ratio, you can determine what successional stage plant is going to grow well in that.

But there's no fixed scenario, with clear-cut role distribution, that allows us to say, AH! this is clearly eggplant soil!
Variability is too large, with every degree temperature, with every % moisture, different microbes wake up or go to sleep, in different landscapes, climates, even growing the same plants is going to show different specific bacteria/fungi/protozoa/etc etc. So the configuration is always going to be shapeshifty and in constant change.

As I said elsewhere, balance is a verb, and my what a rant this has become, and I don't even know if I answered your question haha :bigjoint:

LMAO at your flagellate associations :D
...because of "flatulence", perhaps?!
They're aerobic protozoans who have these whiplike tentacles they use for locomotion, sensing where the food is, and scooping that food in ;) They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes!
Here's a very large and distinct one I found in my wormbin (this one even has been identified and named ;) )
IMG_37936156715678.jpeg
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Green smoothie time!
A handful of greenstuff - comfrey, borage, and alfalfa
View attachment 3946440

Enough to make 750ml of green smoothie, of which 250ml were given to this one, unstrained:
View attachment 3946451
For being a runt, she's quite cheerful at day 18 :D
Though it's pretty hot in there (23-28°C) whilst quite dry (31-34%RH), she doesn't seem to mind that at all.
Thinking of reducing light time a bit to encourage some stretch, but still on hold on that, since she looks like she's going to preflower soon and may elongate on her own.
Actually I was planning to up the lighting time, possibly even to 24/0, instead of adding further COBs as she grows.
All subject to change should observation dictate otherwise ;)

I definitely will be training her a bit
View attachment 3946453

The way it's looking right now I'm going to pinch the bottommost secondaries.
Maaaaybe top at the 5th tier, giving me 8 secondaries, OR leave the main cola and LST a fishbone or a spiral. All depending on how she develops in the next 2-3 days. ;)
I'm late to this thread!

I wanted to mention that I've been running my veg on a 6 hour on, 2 hour off schedule three times a day. It helps keep temperatures more even and the plants seem to like it.
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
I'm late to this thread!

I wanted to mention that I've been running my veg on a 6 hour on, 2 hour off schedule three times a day. It helps keep temperatures more even and the plants seem to like it.
Heya ttystikk! Never too late :-P
Ah yes, thank you for the reminder, also a possibility, to split that light time up a bit! That just might get added to my mixup haha
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
update @ Conundrum #4
Composting Leaves!

Yes! It finally happened, I started my thermal compost yesterday! :bigjoint:

My heart sunk a bit at first, when I saw that someone was trying to be my hero, and had driven the 3 basketsful of grass clippings I'd asked for over from another yard... no idea which yard exactly, so the quality was more questionable, apart from containing trash (yuck) quite a bit of dry leaves in the mix too.
2017-05-31 09.58.57.jpg

But then I decided to take it as it was, enjoy being princessed like that, make do with the quality the universe delivered, and set about estimating the C:N ratios of my materials.

The clippings, second cut, probably still counting as hi N, but with those dry leaves in? Aand having sat in a pile over night, taking the temps to 60°C and starting to gas off (losing heating power?)...
Then the leaves, half of which, just leaves, the other half being the pile that had collapsed last fall, starting to decompose for real, with a gigantic ant colony in it....

2017-05-31 10.37.55.jpg

So in a wild guesstimate, and pushed to haste by the rising temps of the clippings, I decided to add them pretty much half-half, the green part being not-so-narrow C:N wise, and the browns not-so-wide.
So after establishing the base, starting with browns, I layered them by the wheelbarrowful, and watered them with a genius simple but effective compost pile shower I built for that purpose.
2017-05-31 10.52.07.jpg

About two thirds of the way up, I remembered I could innoculate the pile with some good compost, so I added a layer with 10L of that, regretting not having thought of it earlier, as it's the sensible thing to do when you're not sure of the microbial presence in your starting materials ;)

2017-05-31 11.50.00.jpg

After the pile was finished - and the amount was perfect to use up allll the leaves I had! - temperatures throughout were at 20°C.
2017-05-31 12.40.02.jpg
2017-05-31 13.20.56.jpg

By evening, temps had begun rising, and it seemed the pile was warming from top to bottom.

22 hours later, temps in the top third of the pile were up to 43°C, whilst the bottom middle was still at 29°C.
But this evening, so at ~31hrs, the top third was at 50°C whilst the bottom was at 38°C. But then I got measuring different depths, and saw that in fact, the pile is heating up like this:

2017-06-01_compost-heatup.jpg

Interesting!!!

I was very insecure as to whether I have enough power in the pile to get it to temperature over the whole composting time, and had the garden guy bring me a basket of clipping in reserve, that I could mix in if it didn't heat up, but at this rate, I do think I'll be at 55°C tomorrow morn :grin:
Also, the shower worked so well, I got the feeling I was overdoing it on the moisture, but the squeeze test oozed and yielded a few drops, just like it should at 50%.
Wohoo! :blsmoke:

Still scary! Since it'll have to get up to those temps again at least 2x so the whole pile gets done... or if it gets too dry and I have to turn for water, and I have to turn more often!?!
Trying not to fret and cross those bridges if I get to them
Cheers! :bigjoint:
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
update @ Conundrum #4
Composting Leaves!

Yes! It finally happened, I started my thermal compost yesterday! :bigjoint:

My heart sunk a bit at first, when I saw that someone was trying to be my hero, and had driven the 3 basketsful of grass clippings I'd asked for over from another yard... no idea which yard exactly, so the quality was more questionable, apart from containing trash (yuck) quite a bit of dry leaves in the mix too.
View attachment 3952769

But then I decided to take it as it was, enjoy being princessed like that, make do with the quality the universe delivered, and set about estimating the C:N ratios of my materials.

The clippings, second cut, probably still counting as hi N, but with those dry leaves in? Aand having sat in a pile over night, taking the temps to 60°C and starting to gas off (losing heating power?)...
Then the leaves, half of which, just leaves, the other half being the pile that had collapsed last fall, starting to decompose for real, with a gigantic ant colony in it....

View attachment 3952771

So in a wild guesstimate, and pushed to haste by the rising temps of the clippings, I decided to add them pretty much half-half, the green part being not-so-narrow C:N wise, and the browns not-so-wide.
So after establishing the base, starting with browns, I layered them by the wheelbarrowful, and watered them with a genius simple but effective compost pile shower I built for that purpose.
View attachment 3952772

About two thirds of the way up, I remembered I could innoculate the pile with some good compost, so I added a layer with 10L of that, regretting not having thought of it earlier, as it's the sensible thing to do when you're not sure of the microbial presence in your starting materials ;)

View attachment 3952774

After the pile was finished - and the amount was perfect to use up allll the leaves I had! - temperatures throughout were at 20°C.
View attachment 3952777
View attachment 3952775

By evening, temps had begun rising, and it seemed the pile was warming from top to bottom.

22 hours later, temps in the top third of the pile were up to 43°C, whilst the bottom middle was still at 29°C.
But this evening, so at ~31hrs, the top third was at 50°C whilst the bottom was at 38°C. But then I got measuring different depths, and saw that in fact, the pile is heating up like this:

View attachment 3952780

Interesting!!!

I was very insecure as to whether I have enough power in the pile to get it to temperature over the whole composting time, and had the garden guy bring me a basket of clipping in reserve, that I could mix in if it didn't heat up, but at this rate, I do think I'll be at 55°C tomorrow morn :grin:
Also, the shower worked so well, I got the feeling I was overdoing it on the moisture, but the squeeze test oozed and yielded a few drops, just like it should at 50%.
Wohoo! :blsmoke:

Still scary! Since it'll have to get up to those temps again at least 2x so the whole pile gets done... or if it gets too dry and I have to turn for water, and I have to turn more often!?!
Trying not to fret and cross those bridges if I get to them
Cheers! :bigjoint:
What a fun science experiment!
 
Top