[yaxley]

Hope i have posted in the correct place was wondering as most or if not all of us have a compost heap or heaps do you cold compost or hot ? ...

[angelavdavis]

If you are like me and you add stuff when you can - perhaps a layer or two at a time, then you cold compost. 

Hot composting is where you are able to stack a whole container full at the same time - so it gets really hot which is supposed to kill off weed seeds, etc.

[compostqueen]

It's good to do both but they are different jobs. The usual one is the filling of the bin gradually, as normal. The hot one is where you have a stack of materials ready to hand all in one go and you put them in the dalek or a heap.  

[willp]

I have a combined approach

For a hot heap, I store stuff such as veg scraps, chicken bedding, newspaper etc. seperately until I have enough to get a good sized heap going. ( I think that for hot composting, size really does matter)

I tend to do this towards the end of the season when there is a lot of  greenstuff to add and I have a summers worth of trimmings.

It`s quite easy to get a good blend that will heat up fairly well at least initially.

Over winter, I`ll bury my compost material ( mostly kitchen scraps at this time of year ) into trenches on the plot. A Bean trench is not just for beans!

This composts cold and is a lot less hassle than managing a heap.

Will

[Salmo]

It is difficult to get a small heap hot enough to kill weed seeds. My bins are a metre square and the same high.

I add things as they come until the bin is getting full and then turn it into another bin. This mixes it well and helps it to break down. I usually do this when I have fresh green material, such as brassicas or lawn mowings, that I can mix in as I go which will heat it up.

[mumofstig]

A couple of shovels of fresh manure mixed in always seems to get it going, but I'm still not sure that I can ever get it hot enough to kill weed seeds 

[angelavdavis]

I am trying sheet composting this year - where you simply dig a hole in a bed that is due for planting later in the season, and fill it with composting material, then cover it and dig the other half of the bed and do the same. 

It will hopefully save me having to build lasagne beds or turn compost and cart compost around the plots.

I drown my weeds or put them in a dalek composter with the occasional shovel of fresh chicken poo to try to raise the temperature.  I don't know for certain if these approaches work, but I don't seem to have a massive weed problem. 

Having said that, I don't have aggressive stuff like marestail on my plots thankfully - just couch and bindweed - and wouldn't chance composting it at all (as I don't brambles unless they are shredded and dried out first). 

[mumofstig]

I am trying sheet composting this year - where you simply dig a hole in a bed that is due for planting later in the season, and fill it with composting material, then cover it and dig the other half of the bed and do the same. 

I've always called that method trench composting  and thought sheet composting was leaving stuff on the surface to rot there?

[angelavdavis]

I am sure you are right Mum, hence my explanation  .  Some call lasagne gardening sheet composting too, but I just like seeing people's faces when you start talking about lasagne gardening 

[Christine]

I suppose I'm a cold composter mainly because I rarely have the right combination to get a really hot heap going. At the moment I am still receiving fresh chicken poo which can't be used till very well rotted so trenching is out.

[devonbarmygardener]

I'm a cold gradual compost builder.
Chicken day tomorrow - more poo for the bin

[Welsh Merf]

What are your opinions on the old plastic council-supplied daleks for composters? I've been given two by a friend, but my father tells me that the compost tends to get soggy in them.

[mumofstig]

With the lids on thecompost doesn't get soggy
Just make sure if you're putting in a lot of veg peelings or lawn cuttings to mix in some paper/cardboard as well. Most of the time sogginess is what you've put in rather than the container, and I think the daleks warm up nicely if we ever get a bit of sun   

[devonbarmygardener]

What are your opinions on the old plastic council-supplied daleks for composters? I've been given two by a friend, but my father tells me that the compost tends to get soggy in them.

I've just moved both of mine and some of the compost at the bottom was a couple of years old and none of it was soggy.
If you put a good mix of stuff in them - not too much cut grass as that can go slimy - you shouldn't have a problem.

I put in peelings, grass trimmings, woodshavings and poo from the chooks, waste veg or dead stuff from the lottie, a bit of shredded paper, egg shells, dead cut flowers that don't seed - a good mix

[Welsh Merf]

Lovely jubbly - thanks for that!