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By Perry Droast
The Backyard Gardener
Newsletter #1
About two weeks ago, I added quite a bit of new material to my working compost pile. I trimmed the star jasmine on a trellis near the swimming pool. I shredded all the trimmings along with a healthy pile of old dry leaves I collected from the area. Believing I had a decent mixture of brown and green materials that would balance each other out, I layered the material in and then proceeded to ignore the pile for over a week.
That was a mistake.
When I got around to adding the kitchen scraps for the last week to the pile I discovered my pile had developed a non-healthy stench. Sort of a cross between ammonia and something entirely more foul. Not only that, there were large patches of a white substance mixed in.
If you’ve never experienced either of these phenomena in your own compost pile, you haven’t composted long enough. Or maybe you just don’t ever get enough green material high enough in nitrogen to take the pile out of balance. Or even better yet, you balance your pile properly all the time. Any hints or tricks you use to better balance your pile between green and brown, let me know and I’ll share them with the entire TenPoundTomato family. And I’ll credit you properly too.
Embarrassingly enough, the ‘stinky pile’ syndrome has happened to me many times in my 28 years of composting. I’m not proud of it. I do accept it as just being part of the organic gardening experience.
Fortunately, I’ve developed a strategy sure to bring the pile back into balance quickly when this happens. Before we get to the solution though, I’d like to explain briefly how and why a compost pile gets out of balance and starts to stink in the first place.
Three main reasons a pile gets stinky...
- Not enough air: The inside of the pile literally runs out of oxygen. The healthy aerobic bacteria that help speed the decomposition process require a lot of oxygen to thrive. That’s one of the main reasons to turn a pile inside out regularly.
- Too much green – not enough brown: The pile has too much nitrogen and not enough carbon based materials. In plain English, that means too much green stuff got mixed in without enough brown stuff to compensate. For instance, if you mow the lawn and add the clippings to the pile without also adding some compensating brown materials, like long dead leaves or shredded paper, your pile often heats up too fast.
- Anaerobic bacteria take over: When that happens, one of two scenarios plays out rather quickly. Or in the case of my pile both happened at once. The pile got so hot, in some areas the aerobic bacteria start to die in large numbers, creating the white areas in the pile. It also turned anaerobic (decomposing in the absence of air) and the pile started to stink. It smells so bad because the anaerobic bacteria release very smelly gases trapping them into the pile. These gases aren’t released from the pile until you decide to turn it.
The longer it sits, the worse it stinks by the way. One of the least agreeable aspects of this, at least for me, is that it seems like all the flies in the county descend on my pile as I turn it. It’s a good thing this only happens once every few years. If the neighbors come over for a visit during this turning process, they’ll probably question your sanity and the legality of having a compost pile in your backyard too.
Compost piles are legal…even if they do stink once in awhile
Thank God compost piles are legal, and the flies leave once the outside of the pile dries out a little bit. After the outside dries out, the stink is only on the inside of the pile and not floating over the fence into your neighbors backyard.
Here’s how to fix a stinky pile
The strategy I’ve developed through the years takes a little energy, a little shredded paper, and a little time. The easiest and fastest way to help your pile regain it’s aerobic balance is to add air and brown materials high in carbon and low in nitrogen. There’s really only one way to get some more air in the pile. That’s to turn it inside out. It’s a lot easier to do this than it sounds. Grab your gardening fork and dig in.
As you move your pile from one bin to the next, or one spot to the next, fluff all the materials by breaking up all the clumps. Once you get a layer fluffed up spray it down with some water unless it’s too wet already and then spread some shredded paper on top of the new pile and wet it down too. Repeat in thin layers of no more than an inch of old material mixed with some dry leaves, shredded paper, or sawdust. I spread the paper shreds in very thin layers, barely obscuring the layer below. Repeat until the entire pile has been turned and re-layered.
Essentially, you need to get a lot of oxygen (air) inside the pile along with some brown material to offset the nitrogen.
So how often do you need to turn the pile, once it gets stinky?
I would recommend no more then three days apart. Better yet, turn the pile again in two days, at least the first time. Then every three days for the next couple weeks. As long as you add some brown material each time you turn it, the pile should re-balance quickly. Who knew you’d actually hope more junk mail would show up in the mailbox so you can add the shredded paper to your compost pile. You’ll know the pile is rebalanced and aerobic again when it doesn’t stink when you turn it. A properly active compost pile will smell earthy without being offensive. Your compost is almost finished when the pile stops heating up so much after you turn it.
Once it stops heating up, keep the pile moist, although you don’t need to turn it anymore. By keeping the pile moist, you keep the bacteria alive within the pile. After the pile sits for a couple more weeks, I recommend finding a spot in your garden to use it right away. The active bacteria help continue the decomposition process and make the nutrients available to the plants in your garden.
If you must keep it for a while without using it, continue keeping it moist and keep it covered. Covering it serves two purposes, to help it stay moist and to keep the rain from washing the nutrients away.
My pile is back to normal now
By the way, my pile is almost back to normal, not smelling bad when I turn it, yet still heating up nicely. And I can’t tell what most of the contents were originally, so after it sits for a few weeks, I’ll find a nice planting bed to fertilize.
As always, if you find any mistakes, have any comments to add, or just wish to share your thoughts, please email me and I’ll be sure to respond.
Happy composting and gardening,
Perry Droast – The Backyard Gardener