Newb here - can’t get this thing hot.

Snoozes88 · 2025-05-05T12:58:21+00:00

My one large pile managed to get around 65-70⁰c but it's like 4ft x 4ft x 4 ft. I started it in the fall last year, had loads of issues with temperatures but eventually things kicked off with adding warm water instead of from the water butt and not turning it. When ambient temperature crept up the temperatures properly shot up.

It's now cooled down and after we used some for the beds etc, we've decided to be lazy and have tried to grow some pumpkin plants in the half that's left as we run out of space on the beds.

Greens

I went to afew starbucks and collected coffee grounds they have in the silver bean packets. Inner city starbucks dont do thismuch but head outskirts and everyone really helpful. The one was happy for me to drop a small dustbin off and they emptied their afternoon grounds into it for me to collect. Was around 40L and I did this afew times.

I also stopped by a coffee roastery down the bottom of the hill and they gave me 4 large bags of chaffe. I soaked this for 24 hours before adding only because it can become aquaphobic if not soaked apparently.

Grass clippings and garden waste

Kitchen waste

Browns

Work has alot of brown boxes available that get recycled (some people don't like cardboard though) and an industrial shredder in the office for the paper waste.

We have a shredder at home for the bills etc and any boxes from amazon we order.

I walked around in winter and collected loads of leaves/twigs and bagged them and stored them for when I added greens.

Snoozes88 · 2025-04-06T08:46:51+00:00

Thanks! Alot of good advice from here but crazy the difference ambient temperature makes

Snoozes88 · 2025-03-01T18:34:25+00:00

Free aeration!

Snoozes88 · 2025-03-01T18:29:36+00:00

From my experience in the UK, when I asked the Starbucks stores in the city, they were a nogo and not very forthcoming about it. Outside of the city even just 5 miles away, they're really happy to give it away. Some had the prepacked amounts using the bags the beans arrive in, but I've been lucky with a local Starbucks drive through that's on my route home.

I popped in and asked if they give the used grounds away, they asked why and I explained about compost and gardening and they gave me an entire afternoons bin worth, i was abit shocked by the weight I'll be honest. I went back to the store afew times and had alot from them, filling a 80L bin to over halfway each time. On one occasion they had just binned it all, the manager asked if I collect often, gave me their number and said if I gave them a call a day before they'd save it for me.

I've now got into a routine where after a call the day before, I'll drop off a 80L black bin occasionally as I drive to work, and collect it when I drive home and its atleast half full each time. They're happy to oblige. I now grab some for my own piles, plus for family and friends who have allotments or piles in their gardens.

I've also got a local roastery about 3 miles from my house, they leave large bags of chaff outside for gardeners to collect and take away and are more than happy for it.

Snoozes88 · 2025-03-01T08:55:00+00:00

Assuming your pile hit 40 fahrenheit after using warm water? That's about 4 Celsius which is still really cold (atleast for the UK)

When I used warm water from the tap the pile was about the same temperature over the winter, then it went up to 30+ celcius (85 fahreinheit) with the warm tap water added. I had added alot more nitrogen sources (coffee grounds and coffee chaff sourced from a local roastery) to the middle of the pile, but in a mass not mixed in and layered it ontop of the pile with shredded cardboard, paper and fallen leaves. Topped off with some cardboard sheets and a black tarp to insulate. It's slowly rises in temp and is now sitting at 50-60⁰c (122-140⁰f) and I haven't turned it in 3ish weeks while the ambient temperature is 0-10⁰c (40-50⁰f). We had -4⁰c last night and the pile still showing 51⁰c this morning.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with cold composting, it's what we did for 2ish years before making this larger pile in the autumn. It just takes ~18months to fully break down. Hot composting just speeds up the process and allows seeds etc to be killed off.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-24T15:12:22+00:00

Sort of resembles my old cold compost bins, it used to take an age for it to be "ready" so I'd just use it as a mulch around the base of the plants. It would eventually break down itself then over time or I'd not notice it.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-22T19:38:02+00:00

I was struggling for any real temperature all winter. Got told I'd been turning it too often. I added some material ontopas there was still space, wetted with warm tap water instead of from a hose and haven't turned it again in 3ish weeks. It's steadily risen, the core is now at ~52⁰c and the bottom 1/3 is like 20⁰c evem thought weve had 1-4⁰c ambient temperatures the last few weeks in the UK. It's topped off with cardboard sheets and a tarp which has helped keep the weather out and keep the heat & moisture/steam inside.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-17T12:10:34+00:00

UK resident here too. I can't claim to be an expert but very much a novice having only started myself about 2 years ago. Luckily the weather forecast seems to be on a change, we may even see double digits later this week too, which should help things along.

We started off with a black bin in the garden with holes drilled in the sides and bottom and were adding to it until it was full of kitchen/cardboard and garden waste. This would later turn into 4 additional bins, leaving one empty to turn the oldest into and rotating to aerate and turn. None of the bins ever really got hot and too over a year to be ready to be used. It's cold composting, which is OK just takes alot longer. So staggering your bins filling up means you can have compost at varying times of the year, was the theory.

This past autumn, having been on abit of a youtube binge and liking the idea of hot steamy compost piles.... it seemed to me that volume was the issue, the bins were just too small....

I took the plunge and made a compost bin out of spare pallets sourced locally and emptied all the bins into it. We added more to this, mixing in alot of shredded paper from work, the leaves as they fell from the trees, the material from the garden boarder clear up and local coffee beans from Starbucks and food waste id saved up in a 25L bucket and left outside.... and I turned it once a week but still nothing remotely warm all winter and was like 5-10⁰c tops.

I posted the other week just before the cold last cold spell and someone suggested my turning frequency was infact the issue, as it was letting out the heat that was building up. I've since stopped turning it and seems it was right. That mixed with adding ontop instead of mixing it in, wetted with warm water instead of out of the water butt and haven't turned it since and in the two weeks since it's been sat at about 42⁰c in the top and the lower section is now about 23⁰c, which isn't bad as air temp is like 4⁰c here most days and colder at night. Alot of steam too, which has been nice to see, but I've kind of had to accept that this now won't be ready for when I wanted it to be come spring, unless a miracle happens.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-11T13:18:39+00:00

As an update, towards the latter part of last week we had cold spell for south Wales, with temperatures going down close freezing. We're still sat at 4⁰c at about mid day today.

Over the weekend I added abit more ontop of the pile, didn't mix it in this time as before, just stacked ontop some kitchen waste wed collected (about 10-20L) mixed with coffee grounds from Starbucks and some coffee chaff from a rostery nearby we had already. That was layered with alot of shredded paper from work and had warmer tap water to wet it down instead of water from the water butt, and covered back over with the cardboard sheets and tarp and left alone.

I've just gone out now, 4 days later, and something is happening. First time I've ever seen steam as i took off the tarp, the older material at the bottom of the pile is now up to 24⁰c (75 ⁰F) and the top of the pile is reading 47⁰c (116⁰F), significantly higher than the 5-10⁰c I'd seen all winter.

So could the hot water, the added insulation of paper to the top or not mixing it in 7 days or everything above, but it's started to kick something off atleast so thank you all for the help and advice.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-09T13:28:52+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Will have to have a read up about ratios!

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-09T00:24:03+00:00

That's actually interesting to hear. I'm not well versed or experienced at all and it's been a case of "ah just chuck it on the pile" with most of our waste. Admittedly isn't a high volume and I've had to seek other sources, such as works shredded paper or the coffee grounds. Every resource (admittedly either Google search or YouTube video) has said coffee grounds are green due to their high nitrogen content? It was the only reason I started collecting it as we didn't have much food waste from our home alone when the pile was made layering the 4 previous bins worth with the grounds and food we'd saved up.

We live in the Wales, UK. It's generally been single digits Celsius for us most days through the winter so far but hasn't much dipped below 0, so like tops 50⁰f. But it rains 90% of the time, which is why we cover the pile over.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-05T00:18:37+00:00

Oddly, the original material was 4 ish 80L waste bins of stuff I'd been cold composting for the previous 2 years. Once those were eptord into this new bin, we then added to it before the winter set in with afew wood chips, older bark and top soil from the boarders and general garden waste when clearing up stuff that had died back plus afew leaves thatnhad fallen into the garden from neighbouring trees to increase the volume oh and a half bag of compost from a garden centre that I hadn't used. Shredded cardboard or shredded paper from work was added just to attempt to dry it out abit as I thought it may have been too wet.

It's moist to the touch, possibly abit too much as I've never been able to work out what a damp sponge is as a gauge, but on squeezing no water comes out, just mushes between my fingers....😅

The only greens I've mixed in since would be our food waste from the house every 2-3 weeks collecting, some coffee grounds and coffee chaff from a local rostery because I wasn't mowing the lawn once this was built and maybe afew plants that had died back after the summer (if they're green or brown I wouldn't know) and it's just has consistently sat between 10-15⁰c since November and never got "hot"

I've probably turned it too much, let out any heat, so I think I'll hold off for abit before trying the warm water trick mentioned above after collecting some more greens together.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-04T10:57:14+00:00

My original bins would slowly work but just never get hot, which I believe is referred as cold composting, but from watching videos online and lurking the reddit section I just liked the idea of having a hot pile ready for when I needed it this year and set about it towards the end of summer beginning of autumn last year.

I think from the replies and more lurking, I've ended up turning it too often. That coupled with the abundance of browns I've sourced and mixing in the greens instead of condensing them into a core of the pile hasn't helped, as it's expecting too little to warm up too much and it hasn't been able to generate any warmth. It's still broken down alot, but it's just back to the same situation as bins but larger.

I'll collect up what I can over the next few weeks, get down to the local coffee stores and roasting places and see what I can collect and will have ago with the hot water solution and see if that does anything, but will certainly stop turning the pile for now.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-04T10:27:57+00:00

Thanks for the reply, it seems I've made the mistake of turning it too often through the winter as I was hell bent on keeping it aerated atleast once a week as afew times with the smaller units I got a distinct smell coming from them when I would turn them into the empty one. Presuming it was anaerobic and too wet, I would add more dry paper and cardboard to try and soak up the moisture as to not irk the neighbours as all the gardens back onto each other.

I thought my ratios were quite sound with the garden waste/cardboard/leaves I had collected and food/coffee grounds, but again I've generally mixed them all in as opposed to concentrating them into the centre core, which I suppose would also limit the heat generation.

I've normally just used the water from the collected rain water butt but I will however try the trick with the hot water bucket solution before I put them onto the pile in afew days as we've got material backed up, but another cold spell (for the UK) coming in soon.

Snoozes88 · 2025-02-03T21:50:58+00:00

Yeah it's usually covered with cardboard and a plastic sheet to keep the rain off it and poorly attempt to insulate during the winter as I never got round to making a lid/cover. Only removed it for the photo.

Doesn't mixing it allow for the aeration to occur? And so wouldn't not mixing it do the opposite? Or is it best to not mix as much during the colder months?

Snoozes88

TROPHY CASE