North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jfruth@tds.net>]

Ginda,
   Contrary to Doc's message, my compost pile gets hot to where you would 
not want to stick your hand in it.  Sure, our Winter temperatures are low 
but mid-summer temps are frequently in the 80's and 90's.  Anything I add to 
the pile in Fall or Winter will cook during the following Summer.  Doc is 
talking about protecting beneficial bacteria and I want to fry pathogens. 
If all you ever put in your compost pile is sterile stuff, Doc's method is 
fine and a tumbler would do you well.  I put diseased, infected, etc. into 
mine too, everything except wood, including aphids, bug eggs, etc. etc. and 
I want all of that stuff DEAD before I use that potting soil.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
www.bberryfarm.com
(218)568-8483 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]

And here I thought compost was supposed to get hot enough to "cook"
and kill disease organisms.  Do you add a "let it get hot" stage at
the end, or just not worry about that?

I "compost" by dumping leaves in a heap every fall, and tossing dead
plants, old veggies, and other vegetable matter onto the leaves.
Once in a blue moon my husband turns the stuff over.  It never
smells.  I'm in eastern Mass, so not as cold as Jim, but cooler than
you.  We occasionally have trouble with old jack-o-lanterns, for
instance, attracting deer and other undesirables, but otherwise it
seems fine.  Of course, my purpose is more to get rid of leaves and
garbage than to create soil, but I have dug some dirt out of the pile
form time to time.

Ginda