Design, Build, Turn

I think it is time to upgrade the technology I have used for 14 years to monitor the temperature of my compost pile.

The graph below is live, as long as I keep going out and reading the temperature and coming back in and updating the Google spreadsheet. In 1998 I inherited the old YSI thermometer device and found a 7.5 volt mercury battery for it. The battery is still good, and I even have a spare (also 14 years old). I hope that the participants at LEAFFEST can help me find a replacement technology for the beast.

The featured pile was built on September 10 from a three month accumulation of kitchen, garden, and yard waste, some old hay mulch, freshly cut alfalfa, 100 chopped corn plants, a quart of organic fertilizer (5-3-4), and 20 gallons of spent tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and cabbage. The pile was turned on October 7.

2 thoughts on “Design, Build, Turn”

  1. Hi Ilya, The tomatoes, peppers and eggplants got a blight and most fruits rotted. The plants recovered somewhat so there is a surplus for the first time and I just made a gallon of sauce. But only two eggplants from nine plants. The bush beans also got a virus and stopped producing for a month. Just had the second harvest last week. No ripe tomatillos yet. Vine borers killed all but one zucchini plant. The pumpkins grew over the onion bed so all the onions are small. Good cucumbers, though.

    “Eastern orchards” is a broad brush. Ever had a Georgia peach? Or Maryland? Or Pennsylvania?

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