This graph shows the temperature against time/date of a new heap that included a slurry of pelleted chicken manure, as explained in this earlier post. There is a gap in the data near the top of the graph – Richard had an upper limit of 70C on the data logger which he swiftly raised as a result!! You may notice that the rapid rise of temperature to danger point happened at approximately 5.30 am on a Sunday morning. Yes, this meant that Joanne woke Richard at this time to tell him, “the heap is going anerobic!!!” (very worrying and could cause a fire!) so we rushed up to the farm to turn it…!
overheating compost heap, turned in the morning at about 6amheap contentsHeap had gone down about a third (it wasn’t loaded to the top before, down to about the first set of holes probably)Close up of outsideShowing inner core. It really was hot!detail of photo above.Turning the heap
New heap declared, using about a third of a 20kg bag of pelleted chicken manure dissolved in water to a liquid/slurry, to see if raising the N will help with the fade problem that affected heap 160901
We used only about 3/4 of one wheelie bin of wood chip so mental note to only prepare one next time for the black plastic composting container!
Allocated transmitter AT with fresh batteries today (for monitoring temperature).
all the materials collected with the team10kg of pelleted chicken manure dissolved in water, about 7 kg used
Other materials:
Some sweetcorn and mostly french beans – 4 wheelbarrow loadsNettles and comfrey: 1 wheelbarrow loadGrass and clover with some nettles: 1 wheelbarrow loadShredded evergreen leaves from Joanne’s old allotment neighbour, Rob’s, clippings: 1.5 wheelbarrow loads usedCrew: Josh, Glennis, Richard and Joanne chopped beans & sweetcorn laboriously using spades and shears!Deployment of the chicken crap, which was then lightly mixed in with a garden fork
The whole heap was pressed down and then insulated with two lengths of black plastic above heap, and another length wrapped round fairly loosely to allow airflow. Used mist sprayer to wet all except pre-soaked woodchip and the chicken shit slurry.
Although the temperature profile wasn’t up to scratch this heap has rotted down well, so it was turned into the small container to free up the big container for the next heap. Temperature sensors were reallocated to heap 160910 but box AS retained and long probe inserted, second probe is set to monitor ambient.
The end result of this turn: we moved the heap to our smallest compost bin as it had shrunk down so much.Before this second turnWe carefully took out the middle to ensure that a part of the heap that had not been fully heated in the centre had its turn.We wrapped the heap up in mypex woven weed control plastic to insulate it, ensure plenty of space for air flow.
The temperature of this heap was still falling back so more urine added Thursday 8th, 1 part urine to 3 parts water, total volume approx 2 watering cans.
The temperature of this heap was falling behind so urine added Wed 7th, 1 part urine to 3 parts water, total volume approx 2 watering cans. Thanks to members of our Community Supported Agriculture Scheme for generously supplying the urine (some particularly dedicated members even bring it to the farm from home!)
This heap turned Tuesday afternoon. Used fine mist on the spray to rewet some of it
Composting bin removedDetail after top layer removedSeparating the different sections of the heap to ensure all parts get heated in the centre at some point.Detail of above.
50% grass and clover with some nettles and comfrey
50% wood chippings.
Approx 15% N but estimated from the grass clover mix at about 50% grass, roughly equal mix that and green leafy (including relatively high nitrogen comfrey and nettles) and woodchip.
This was seeded with (very small!) soil samples from Staverton Thicks, Rendlesham forest and Captain’s Wood, all old, well established woodlands. We did this in the hope of introducing a wide soil food web to our heap, and subsequently to the soil. When we looked at these soil sample from the woodlands under the microscope they were certainly far richer in soil life than the soil at The Oak Tree at the time!
shredded evergreen shrub leaves
So the heap was made up of :
30% green leafy shredded conifer leaves
30% grass, clover nettles & comfrey
40% woodchip
Shredded conifer foreground and grass and clover background
Good initial progress but this was not sustained. Perhaps this should have been turned on the first Monday, rather than the Tuesday
Compost heap temperature profile: both probes were in the centre of the heap.
Review of what went wrong with this heap…
What happened – did well in reaching temperature, so sufficient N to get there, but no staying power. Possible causes:
Exhausting N by turning a day late?
Poor mix with insufficient N in the first place due to a lower clover to grass ratio than assumed?
possibly there is something too woody in the evergreen leaves?
possibly would have benefited from additional insulation to be able to turn earlier to avoid exhausting nitrogen?
I made a couple of NDVI images of the beans which had been greatly improved using compost compared to those grown without. The principles of NDVI as based on that
Generally, healthy vegetation will absorb most of the visible light that falls on it, and
reflects a large portion of the near-infrared light. Unhealthy or sparse vegetation reflects
more visible light and less near-infrared light.[ref]Understanding the NDVI PDF[/ref]
Knowing that, it’s possible to see in the NDVI image that the compost-grown beans do seem to be reflecting more IR relative to visble light, I find this easier to qualify from the greyscale image Continue reading “NDVI investigations of compost-enhanced crops”
Last year we made compost and compost extract for use in the polytunnels. The extract was also looked at with the microscope. Most of the compost after making extract was used in polytunnel which has tomatoes in it. These look healthy and were praised by another local gardener, but there’s no control. However, we did have a control on the extract applied to the beans in another polytunnel.
If you look at the picture at the head of this post, on the RHS of the picture is the control. This is what we would have grown normally.
in the middle on the top you can just see a blue ribbon which is where application of the compost extract stopped. On the left are the plants where compost extract was applied to the ground, it ran out at the blue ribbon point. Same plants, same time planted, and the same set of seeds. The difference in vigour, height of growth and yield is remarkable and clearly to be seen. Continue reading “Remarkable win on beans with compost extract”
Sad day, I used their RF modules for farm telemetry and they were great products at a good price. I have a fair stock of their XRF and RFu micros and bought a few of the latter and a bunch of boards in their closing down sale. But I’m sorry to see them go, and support and data are going to be nonexistent now. London Stock Exchange RNS announcement
They’re still on GitHub as Ciseco, the original company, though I guess how long that will last is questionable
