Checking the Moisture Level In Your Compost Pile

The second most important requirement that helps keep the decomposer organisms working just the way they should is having just the correct amount of moisture (water) in your compost pile.

When you pick up a handful of your compost, it should be as damp as a wrung-out sponge — moist to the touch. No water should come out when you squeeze the handful of compost.

Is Your Compost Pile Too dry?

When checking your compost pile’s moisture level, if you see that your compost pile is too dry, you can poke holes in the compost pile and water it from the top with a trickling hose. Better yet, pull the pile apart and rebuild it, wetting each layer as it goes on. Very fibrous materials such as dead leaves may need to be soaked in a bucket for an hour or two.

How To Remove The Extra Moisture (water) In Your Compost Pile

On the other hand, when you check the moisture in your compost pile, and you see that the compost material is soggy, you should turn the compost pile so that clumps of material are broken up, allowing air in and water out. If the compost is absolutely soaked, you can spread the materials to dry in the sun, or scatter peat moss throughout the pile as you rebuild it with the drier materials in the center.

As you notice, it’s not that complicated; it’s simply a matter of checking the moisture of your compost pile regularly. And if your compost pile is too dry or too wet, follow the above suggestions so that you end up with just the right moisture level in your compost pile . . . damp as a wrung-out sponge.

See you on the next post.

Marcie

Part of organic gardening could be planting an
“Absolutely beautiful and nearly maintenance free” landscaping cover:
The Lamium-Beacon Silver.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 2:25 am and is filed under Moisture In Compost Pile, Hot Composting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.