Very nice, comprehensive summary! On ramial wood, I wonder if you've ever seen a ramial wood pile like that completely or thoroughly compost. We've witnessed the heating of the pile, blackening and whitening of the material inside for a few weeks, but then it slowed and stopped. It could have been lack of water, but I'm wondering if just the available nitrogen in leaves and fresh cut wood was used up. We spread the chipped wood on our paths, and with time they broke down beautifully, but I was wondering if we could have kept it composting by adding more nitrogen? Any thoughts?
You would need to turn it and keep it moist. Turning it provides oxygen and moves the material on the outside into the center where the temperatures can rise to a point to activate the thermophilic bacteria . It would not reduce completely and will require sieving to obtain the fine medium you get in the bags but turning and adding moisture (or covering if heavy rains are due) will certainly help
Very nice, comprehensive summary! On ramial wood, I wonder if you've ever seen a ramial wood pile like that completely or thoroughly compost. We've witnessed the heating of the pile, blackening and whitening of the material inside for a few weeks, but then it slowed and stopped. It could have been lack of water, but I'm wondering if just the available nitrogen in leaves and fresh cut wood was used up. We spread the chipped wood on our paths, and with time they broke down beautifully, but I was wondering if we could have kept it composting by adding more nitrogen? Any thoughts?
You would need to turn it and keep it moist. Turning it provides oxygen and moves the material on the outside into the center where the temperatures can rise to a point to activate the thermophilic bacteria . It would not reduce completely and will require sieving to obtain the fine medium you get in the bags but turning and adding moisture (or covering if heavy rains are due) will certainly help