Berkley pile postmortem
Oct. 5th, 2011 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
halifaxearthtechThe Berkley pile has been pitchforked into a raised bed. I've planted it out with a green manure of white clover. My consultation clients had good results from putting sheep manure straight into raised beds and I think I will do this with the rest of them.
After four weeks the pile was still at 30C! It was then that I learned that my thermometer had broken. So I picked out weed plants from the centre and set them aside with the other ever-growing pile of weeds that will be killed off with more fresh horse manure. I think "done in 18 days!" meant done the thermophilic phase in 18 days, with the fungal phase of breaking down woodchips and making the compost look like soil taking the usual 6 months to a year. We'll see what it looks like by spring. This is another reason I might not do it again, I'm not sure it's worth the work except to achieve high temperatures, which is not necessary for horse manure.
After four weeks the pile was still at 30C! It was then that I learned that my thermometer had broken. So I picked out weed plants from the centre and set them aside with the other ever-growing pile of weeds that will be killed off with more fresh horse manure. I think "done in 18 days!" meant done the thermophilic phase in 18 days, with the fungal phase of breaking down woodchips and making the compost look like soil taking the usual 6 months to a year. We'll see what it looks like by spring. This is another reason I might not do it again, I'm not sure it's worth the work except to achieve high temperatures, which is not necessary for horse manure.
