Compost Interrupted

A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning up the garden, getting ready for my spring planting. It was the perfect time for starting a new compost pile. I finally managed to get a successful hot compost pile last year with The Permaculture Consultant 's method, so that was the plan. I cut all my greens 1/4 to 3/4" 18 buckets full. Then I went back and watched the video again, and discovered I turned it around. I needed 9 buckets of greens and 18 buckets of browns. I didn't have that much carbon. So the compost was put on hold until I could get my carbon material. During this time life got in the way, and more time passed then I intend. It rained at some point.
Now I have two bins ( I don't have enough 5 gallon buckets, so I measure with the bucket, and use a couple of bins to hold the greens.) 1/3 full, (they were both totally full) of stinky muck. I have enough browns now. I'm sure I will have to cut up more greens, because my ratio will be off.
My question is can I still use the green sludge in the bins? It was a lot of work cutting up all those greens, and I don't want to start over, at the same time I don't want to sabotage my new compost pile.
Thanks     https://youtu.be/STRqfk1VGwA?si=REXQSvsDIun2ntYu

Personally, I would use the sludge.

You know what it is made up of, the carbon will balance out the excess moisture, and the worst thing that may of happened is you lost some of the nitrogen content from your greens from sitting.

Once it is all combined and starting to process, your compost will tell you what it needs.

I love William, the Permaculture Consultant! His dad, Billy Bond is great, too.

The problem with the sludge is that it is basically anaerobic. It isn't beyond hope, it just needs major aeration over time. I'd add it to fresher greens and browns as you're building your compost. If you add it in small amounts, the surrounding carbon materials will absorb a lot of the moisture and allow it to start breathing again. You see what William does when he turns his compost piles...toss it up in the air and catch it again repeatedly on your fork as you're turning it. Good hot compost, even if you're learning a "quick" method, is still allowing nature to do what it does naturally. It's okay to go slow when things go wrong. You're still going to end up with improved soil. Add the slime when you need moisture. Aerate it real good when you're flipping your pile. It'll be fine, just not as fast as you might like. If your compost stalls, you've still got a great big pile of goodness that just needs jump started with green manure or clean manure if you can get it. Though with all of the negative developments in recent years, I'd hesitate bringing in outside inputs unless you're 100 percent sure that they're clean and free of gick.

Jim

And Jen, just today I turned a William Bond two ingredient hot compost pile for the eighth time! It had some hiccups similar to yours, and I'm happy to report that... I don't have to turn it again. Once it goes through this final thermo cycle and cools off, it'll finally be ready to make compost tea out of for the summer, and it'll go on my garden beds in the fall after final harvest. I'll be sowing buckwheat into it to overwinter and next spring, I should be the owner of one awesomely improved row garden. Don't give up, just keep turning it, checking it, and feeding it when necessary.

Jim

Jen,  Throw all of it on the ground.  Who cares if the ratio is not perfect--the ground will take care of the imperfections.  Sure, it may not get perfectly hot, but just sitting and decaying on the ground will do wonders for the ground.  And if you get the browns later on--even better, your greens will now be heavily inoculated with goodies from the ground!




Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:Jen,  Throw all of it on the ground.  Who cares if the ratio is not perfect--the ground will take care of the imperfections.  Sure, it may not get perfectly hot, but just sitting and decaying on the ground will do wonders for the ground.  And if you get the browns later on--even better, your greens will now be heavily inoculated with goodies from the ground!
Eric

What Eric said ^^. Compost is like a bad haircut. The cure is to wait two weeks and comb it out.

While I do realize that composture is a calling for many, and a religion for some, the overarching, abiding Truth is that Nature doesn't have five-gallon buckets, and would likely scoff at the idea of using them. I've been making compost for over forty years, and have learned that there is a (very) wide margin for error, and that margin is usually identical to the dimensions of your composting bin.

My philosophy, based on decades of doing just about everything wrong at least twice (and still not learning my lesson), is to put compostable materials in the bin as they make themselves available. Sometimes that's a season's worth of green pumpkin vines, and sometimes it's a truckload of autumn leaves or a pile of sawdust. Whatever shows up goes in, gets stirred up with whatever came before, and waits for the next rain (or a five-gallon bucket of grey water). Worms optional, but preferred.