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| (Yes, those are chickens checking out the compost pile for any tasty bugs that might have fallen in.) |
I’ve been walking around with the IR thermometer a lot recently measuring insulation temperature, etc.
So I happened to have it on me when I walked past the compost pile. Since hot compost is a good thing both to kill off unwanted microbes and weed seeds as well as to decompose the plant matter, there is an ideal temperature for compost. (Too hot and it will burn itself out and possibly catch fire.)
The hottest point I measured was around 63C. This puts the pile pretty much perfectly in the desirable range of 50C-60C.
We’ve been collecting leaves and other organic materials for quite a while and got behind on the shredding. But since the composting appears to be working quite well, I’m interested in getting caught up again.
(The pile of unshredded leaves and branches is on the right.)
Now that we are spending more time on the land, we can begin planting trees and landscaping. Homemade organic compost will come in handy.