I have been dabbling with a variety of
composting methods lately. I made some giant, woodchip heavy, static piles two years ago. Last year I played around with a couple different forms of anaerobic composting followed by heavy aeration, as well as some vermicomposting. All of those produced mixed results and (although if I owned my own
land and could dedicate a goodly sized plot to
compost I would definitely make use of large static
wood heavy piles) none of them gave me the benefits of using up my kitchen/garden scraps in a timely manner while producing good quality
compost. This year, the technique I am pursuing is the more traditional aerobic compost piles with turning every 10-20 days using bokashi fermented kitchen scraps, mostly sun dried (we live in the fog so 'sun' and 'dry' are relative terms)
yard waste, potting soil full of rootballs, saw dust, and any other things I can get my hands on. I have just turned my current pile for the 4th time and while I am starting to see some good results there is still a fair bit of uncomposted material and there are pockets that smell like they have managed to remain anaerobic. I always break up any clumps like this that I find and also try to break up and scatter any heavily innoculated clumps.
Now my question is, those of you who make these aerobic piles, how many times do you turn them before you find they are done? Does there come a time when you turn it a final time and just leave it for however long until you need it?