When a compost pile won’t heat up, one of the most likely causes is skimping on green materials. To process your brown material for quick composting, use a leaf shredder or a chipper. The smaller the brown material is, the easier for it to decompose.

To speed up decomposition, chop them into smaller pieces. Brown materials include other dry yard waste products that are high in carbon, such as hay or straw, weeds that have been pulled and left to dry in the sun, and wood debris like fallen branches, twigs, or sawdust.Įven cardboard, plain white or brown paper (nothing colorful or shiny), human hair, dryer lint, and natural fiber fabric (such as denim, cotton, silk, and wool) can be shredded and used as brown materials. However, many other scrap materials from your home and garden are similarly high in carbon, so you don’t have to wait until the leaves drop. Dead leaves have a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen, making them a perfect bulk material for your pile. Brown material is high in carbon and low in nitrogen, so it serves as the primary energy source for the microorganisms that convert your yard waste into compost.Īutumn, when dead leaves are abundant, is a great time to create compost piles. Add Brown Materialsīrown material will make up the majority of your compost pile. Vegetation wants to decompose, and microorganisms want to help, so you just have to create the conditions to let nature take its course.įollowing this recipe will help you raise the temperature of your pile, ideally to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, killing off pests and speeding up your time to completion by months. To make hot compost you need five key ingredients:Īlthough balancing these ingredients is the key to a hot compost pile, you don’t need to worry about precise measurement. There are actually kitchen appliances that allow you to make compost FAST right in your own kitchen – check out the Lomi. Heat generated from the compost pile is a result of a thriving bacterial population, which you may influence by using the right ingredients.

You can start a hot compost pile any time of year because weather conditions do not directly build-up heat. For more info see our disclosure statement. We pride ourselves on keeping our articles fair and balanced. This does not impact our reviews and comparisons. The key is turning up the temperature.įortunately, raising the temperature of compost is easy, in any growing zone, if you know the recipe.ĭisclosure: We may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. If you’re running short of time, and can’t wait more than a few months for good quality compost, you’ll want to speed up composting. Worse yet, compost that stays too cool will preserve living weed seeds, insect eggs, diseases, and other pests you don’t want to add to your garden. While you can make compost slowly - throwing y ard waste and kitchen waste in a pile and walking away - it may take a year or more to fully decompose. It takes a long time to finish, and even with patience, the texture will still be pretty chunky.

Compost is a valuable addition to any garden, but an unbalanced and untended compost pile is like a stew left simmering on low heat.

Speed up composition screenium