Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

well, the tree loppers have come and gone - and I have a pile of woodchip etc ready to start a compost heating system!... All i need now are some fittings from 'B', which only come in a day or so...

And here it (well, they) are...
I made a fair sized heap right next to my shade house, practically next to my one bath tub.. then decided that I would make another as a backup - if they work then I will pump water through both, giving it more time to heat up I hope. You can make out my little system through the shadecloth)..

In my other thread ( http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... 6&start=60 ) I have posted a pic of my system showing where I will be placing a compost heap right up against 2 of my bath tubs - as they are metal they should transfer heat well, and they will reduce the ammount of air movement around the bath tubs, lessening the 'wind chill', which is sapping the warmth right out of my little system!

Good idea for the wind, AM, that will help heaps, even if you don't get much actual output from the mulch

I will be measuring the temp of the heap every day for the next week... the last time I had a pile of newly mulched up palm tree it was smoking hot within 24 hours, but that was in late summer... thinking this paile might take a bit longer to get going.
The temp after constructing the heaps today was a cool 13 C...

Well, I manageed to get my third mulch pile up and running today.. see pics of it at ( http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... =3130#3130 )
I measured the temp of the mulch I used to make my compost heaps yesterday and the themometer read 30 C! A 17 C jump in 24 hours! not bad! As I was building the third compost pile up against my ponds I measured the temp of the mulch I was laying and it also read 30 C ( I used my pond themometer which measured my ponds at juct over 20 C)... well, I put it in again to get a second reading as I went to fetch another barrow load of mulch, and forgot to get the themometer out - so under all that mulch is my poor themometer (bought from the Warehouse for $2, so no real loss I guess)... I have a second one which I will use to monitor my system to see if there is any increase in water temp...

Am, give us a daily temp if you can. How long do you expect the heat production to stay up?

What sort of heat can be had from grass clippings?

grass clipings heat up quick! withing a 24 hour period they got hot... but you would need a lot of them to be of any good, pluss they rot down quickly too - best to mix them with woody and other leafy items to maintain the heat for longer...

as for how long the heat would last, about 2 weeks with no interfearence... if, after one and a half week you rake it open, remove half, and add new material (including stuff like shredded paper, plant clippings, law clippings etc), mix it all and pile up again... it will take a day or so to restart, and you have heat again!

This could work..............and it would hiver me an excuse to cut the grass more often, i think its comming up on 12moths

teh only thing that I can think of that would stop grass clippings being great for this in a closed system, is that weeds would ineviably grow in the mulch pile, as not the whole depth of the pile gets hot, for the weed seeds to be killed, the pile has to be metres high and turned over regularly. Plain tree mulch I think in a closed system would be more desirable. Outside, it wouldn't matter, weed seeds are in the air everywhere anyway

all depends on what you will be using the finished compost for... I use it in the bottom third of my potplants and cuttings,so seeds hardly ever make it to the surface to become a problem.

half your luck Am. I piled grass clippings over a metre high right round my house and in my garden beds and I grow my outside vegies in 90% pure decompoosed grass clippings (10% approx sand) and the plants love it, but the weeds are a never ending problem. The only compost I have ever done where I had no weed problem was a pile of grass about 3 metres high by 6 or 7 metres long which I turned over periodically with a tractor (technique copied from the place I used to dump my clippings). It was a cracker batch and after 12 months of stink as it decomposed, I now grow ferns and palms in it, and have created a little microclimate in one section of my yard where they thrive, in nearly totally grass clippings. It's amazing stuff.

yep, grass may rot away to almost nothing, but what is left behind is gold - same as for palm mulch - when rotted right down (for at least 12 months) you are left with a FANTASTIC soil improver as it holds a great amount of water and plants love it! We sold some at our Sprinig Fair last year, and not even a month later a lady rings up wanting more - she said she could get anything and everything to grow in it.

Hmmm, so the heat subsides after a month?

Would mixing it with some wood chips to keep it "light and fluffy" and then maybe dosing it wiht a good helping of compost worms once it has stopped producing heat work well?

I love the info that comes out of here. (Onyas )

for a source of good compost and worms - yes... to keep getting heat, no...
You have to have "food" for the bacteria, who give off the heat as they multiply and feed, which is why you remix the heap from time to time... give the little fellas a new source of food. If you had a manure pile going and a ready supply of "poo" (NOT YOURS ) it would be easier as manure comes preloaded with a high level of bacteria and (often) moisture..

food for thought, thanks AM