I've been getting more into gardening on a commercial level. I'm mostly interested in nursery stock sales, but also U-Pick.

I had 2 truck loads of wood chips dropped off by a powerline, tree trimming company today and should receive many more loads over the next few weeks as they continue to work in my area. The front of my property is flat. The left side rises up and the right rear drops like a huge bowl. I have some fairly large, low, but dry spots that I am having them dump in. Two loads in the first hole looks amazingly small, until you stand beside it.




I know wood chips pull nitrogen from the soil as they decompose. I have many tons of pigeon, chicken, quail, guinea and peafowl manure. I'm thinking that putting the manure on top of the wood chips should help it break down quicker and make better soil.

I am slightly concerned about fires starting from the heat produced during composting.

Any advice?

Anything I should avoid doing or should watch for?

Keith

I always have three compost piles going, a finished pile ready for the garden, a working pile and a started pile. I throw pretty much anything organic in them, chicken, horse and cow manure, grass clippings (my own and my neighbors that I know have no chemicals), leaves, food scraps, wood chips and sawdust from processing firewood and from my wood shop.

The started and working piles get hot enough to steam quite often but I've never been concerned about fire. i turn the first two piles with the loader bucket on my backhoe and I'll water them if it gets too dry just to keep things working.

Been doing it this way thirty-plus years and never had a fire. Each pile is between five and ten yards.

A pile will only get to 180/200 deg max, have you any way to mix the manure and chips?

I had a compost pile catch fire when I was a teen, a few times in about a week. It just smoldered and didn't cause any damage. I soaked it to put out, which I think actually made it get hotter. It was mostly grass clippings, with kitchen waste, fish scraps and whole stunted fish.

Keith

I can borrow a backhoe.

Would the large amount of nitrogen in the manure make the pile hotter?

Keith

Green wood chips wood put some nitrogen in but mostly carbon.

Not by much, the heat will cook out the water and keep the temp down. You will also need to keep replenishing the water so the pile will "Work". If you have to borrow the hoe, it might not be practical, as you need to "toss" the pile often to keep air in the pile so the aerobic bacteria can thrive..

the two loads I got from the county I just let go. Wasn't in a hurry so I didn't add anything to it. I just let nature take its course. Only time it got any water was when it rained and snowed on it. I would take my loader and move it around in the spring and in the fall. took a few years but it broke down good. I will add a couple wheel barrow full to my regular compost pile whenever I get one started along with using it around the house.

Russ

Fresh (green) grass clippings is what makes my piles the hottest.

I recommend mixing the poo in with the chips. The wood will absorb the nitrogen and break down faster. On top a lot will off Gas into the air and you will loose some.

I have has piles of maple limbs get so hot they were burnt black and so hot I could not touch them when I did tree work as a kid without a chipper and loaded the brush on trailers and heard of barn catching on fire from green hay so your concerns are not unfounded. I have never had any issues with chips the tree companies bring me they just get warm.

Stacking wet hay bales has caused a few barns to be lost to spontaneous combustion.

X2, I also compost pine needles for the blueberries to help with the acidity. I turn over the piles appro every 2 weeks with tractor bucket.

The last, very fine stuff coming out of the two trucks had what looked like steam coming off of it when first dumped. I don't know how long the chips were in the trucks.

Keith

I run a tree service and compost my chips. I keep my piles under 6' tall to prevent fires. Leafy material has a reasonable amount of Nitrogen and will break down quickly in a pile. Any Nitrogen you can add is great. If space isn't an issue 6' tall windrows would be my top choice, makes it easy to add Nitrogen and eventually turn over.

Thanks. If it does catch fire, is it a smolder or a blaze?

Keith

I'm looking into inoculating the piles of wood chips with edible mushroom spores.

Keith

More of a smolder, I've heard of them blazing but I feel like you'd have to ignore the smoldering for a long time before you got real flames.

When the compost pile caught fire it just produced smoke, until I opened it up. Once opened it produced some small flames, that went out in the short time before I could get the hose on it.

Keith

Last week in Cochrane the fire department was called to put out a fire at Greenfirst Forest Products in a woodchop pile.
The pile was about 40 feet high.
Not the first time chip piles have combusted.

Sawdust piles will combust, we had a big one near a sawmill that smoldered for yrs.