Alright!
This is John Kohler with GrowingYourGreens.com today I have another exciting episode for
you.
As you have seen in previous episodes I got the Joraform 270 composter here and just recently
got the Sun-Mar 400 composter right here.
Now, how can you tell if they’re working?
Well, the easiest way is to open it up, if I open it up you can see, I don’t know if
you guys can see that but there’s definitely steam coming off there because this composter
is definitely working.
If I put my hand there I can feel the heat coming off, but you know what?
You’re checking it by the heat and the heat coming off is really great because if I open
up this one next door there’s not heat steam coming off but I definitely feel it’s a
little bit warm but not as warm as the Joraform.
So, how can you tell if your compost is really happening?
Well, the easiest way is to get a compost thermometer, so that’s what I got in the
mail today so let me show you guys.
Ordered from Amazon.com, let’s bust this open.
I shopped around for the best price on a compost thermometer all over and the best price I
found was Amazon.com and here it is right here “Compost Thermometer”.
Now, this cost about 10 bucks, so if you’re composting I highly encourage you guys to
get compost thermometer because it’s like you’re gas gaging your car.
If we didn’t have a gas gage in the car you wouldn’t know when you’re on empty,
you wouldn’t know to refill; so if you don’t have a compost thermometer you won’t be
able to gage how well your compost pile is doing so you can optimize it and ensure that
it’s working the fastest to create usable compost faster.
In the past, you know, I haven’t been a good composter and I’ll be the first to
admit it.
I’ve been a good gardener but my composting skills have sucked.
The main thing composting relies on is mixing your greens and your browns and getting that
right ratio, that sweet spot, so the bacteria thrive.
Another thing that I’ve learned that’s very helpful is getting a good composter like
the Joraform that’s insulated.
And in this episode we’re going to show you guys how the compost thermometer works
and actually we’re going to show you the temperature inside the Joraform and how good
that is cooking the compost.
So, the compost thermometer I have right here is actually called the Bios Compost Thermometer
“Generate clean, fertile compost fast”.
And has a little compost guide here to remind you guys what to put in there, talks about
the greens and the browns and the things to avoid.
Now, if you are composting in a standard static pile the temperature of your compost can also
let you know when you need to turn that compost to keep it going, to add some oxygen.
Because in a static pile, you know, in the middle of the pile unless you’re putting
PVC pipes with holes in it to get some airflow in there, it’s not getting oxygen.
That’s why I like these spinning composters because every time you spin it it adds some
oxygen in there for you so it’s really neat.
So I guess let’s go ahead and…
This guy is by Thermor and it’s bioexactly.com, has a 1 year warranty.
Let’s go ahead and open this guy.
You can use a standard kitchen thermometer that you plug into your meat, if you’re
still eating meat, but the stem is not as long.
This is like a nice 20 inch stem to dig down into the middle of your compost pile.
Another thing I like about this is it has all these little numbers on there so it tells
you how hot it is but also it’s color coded.
So it tells you red is too hot, the orange is hot, the yellow is active and the blue
is steady and the dark blue is actually too cool.
So first we’re going to go ahead and measure the temperature in the Sun-Mar.
now, this has been cooking for two days, I did a good carbon to nitrogen ratio, or greens
and browns ratio; plus I even added some compost that was going from the Joraform in here to
kind of give me that quick start.
I’m going to go ahead and stick this into the pile here and we’re going to go ahead
and let it register for a little bit and see what we get up to.
So we put the thermometer in there and it’s going up very slowly so we’re just going
to hang out and see what temperature it gets to.
As you can see the temperature pretty much stopped moving and it’s probably about like
93 degrees or so and the 93 is steady.
At 93 degrees this is just not getting hot enough to compost yet, but guess what?
We just filled it two days ago.
The Joraform I can definitely say was hotter than 93 degrees in 2 days so this might be
taking a little bit longer.
And this is a funny design because there is a tube in the middle that will maybe keep
the middle of the compost pile, maybe not as hot, plus there is no insulation on this
guy.
Also, it’s good to monitor your compost temperature to see if it’s actually working
or not, because if you’re pile is sitting there for a long time and it’s not heating
up, it’s not working.
That means you need to do something, maybe need to add more carbon.
Most of the time people have enough nitrogen because you’re adding food scraps and grass
clippings but they’re not adding enough carbon like sawdust or the sawdust pellets
that I showed or shredded up newspaper or something like that or some leaves.
Another thing that may not be right in your compost probably is the moisture percentage,
there can’t be too much water because it can’t be like a swimming pool but it can’t
be too dry either.
There needs to be a right balance of the moisture level for the compost to happen optimally.
This pile here might be a tad too dry so I might a little bit of water and we can see
if we can get that compost temperature up to be working in an optimal range.
So, that’s definitely good to know on this guy here.
Next, we’re going to go and check the Joraform here and before I do I want to show in this
little packet they give you this little free compost guide magnet.
So, I like that a lot.
We can go ahead and open this compost guide maggot…
maggot, I mean magnet.
And we can see actually on here what we should be composting and what we shouldn’t be.
So you can compost kitchen waste and yard waste and avoid some of these things.
And you can stick this on your refrigerator to remind you or if you’ve got a Joraform,
because it’s metal…
Check it out, it sticks right on there so every time you fill it up you’ll actually
know what to add.
Let’s go ahead and open this guy up and watch this, watch the steam coming out of
here.
Check it out, do you see that steam coming out?
I mean, this is one hot pile.
Let’s go ahead and stick our compost thermometer in there and check it out the thermometer
is instantly moving up nice and quickly.
Already at 110 degrees, moving up in the 120 range, it’s an active pile here, it’s
getting, into the hot range easily 130 degrees now.
As the steam is coming off and fogging up the lens of my camera this is one badass composter.
As you can see the temperature pretty much stopped moving, I don’t know if you can
see that on the camera there.
The camera doesn’t have the best focus, 151 degrees is what it looks like.
So, at 151 degrees this composter is kicking some royal but making some compost.
As you can see all the different things in here just decomposing and think actually this
was, that they normally don’t recommend you compost, this is actually the orange peel.
And check it out, it literally just flakes in half now, this is totally getting broken
down and actually this is quite warm to the touch.
So, if you want a good hand warmer open your compost and stick it in on a nice winter’s
day although afterwards you’ve got a funky orange compost smell on your hands.
It smells kind of like orange oil.
In the Joraform orange peels and even other things that they’d normally say don’t
compost you can compost in here because of the high sustained temperature, so 150 degrees.
So, let me go ahead and pull this guy out, my compost thermometer.
I’m highly confident now that the Joraform composter is working and I just want to say
that the Joraform composter has been the easiest composter that I’ve ever owned and trust
me I’ve owned a lot of different composters, here’s just a few of them here.
But the Joraform you fill it right and it was working within 2 days, as you can see
the temperature is really hot.
Every time I come out and spin it, like once a day, an open it up…
Man!
Burst of heat!
You could probably even cook your potatoes in there.
So, the moral of this video is a two-fold; number one: you want to get a compost thermometer
so you can monitor your compost pile whether you’re doing a static pile or a spinning
tumbler.
I highly encourage you guys to get a Joraform composter because it just works and it works
fast.
The faster you can make compost, and add your kitchen waste and your yard scraps, the faster
you can be enriching your garden with some of the best nutrients on Earth which is your
homegrown compost.
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode learning more about the cool, nifty, 10 dollar compost
thermometer I got from Amazon.com but more importantly how this Joraform composter is
working.
Once again, there’s now currently a special on the Joraform composter for GYG viewers
only.
Be sure to check the link below for that link to get the special price on the Joraform composter
so that you can be creating compost faster than having it just rot in a pile.
Once again, my name is John Kohler with GrowingYourGreens.com we’ll see you next time, and remember: keep
on composting!