The compost thermometer changed my whole pile game after 6 years

I've been composting in my backyard in Columbus since 2018 and I always thought I was doing it right. Turn it every few weeks, keep it damp, add leaves in the fall. But the pile just sat there, never really heating up, and I figured that was normal. Last month my neighbor let me borrow her instant read compost thermometer and I found out my pile was only hitting 80 degrees in the middle. Turns out I was adding way too many browns and never enough water, so the microbes were basically starving. I started checking the temp every other day, adjusted the mix to about 2 parts greens to 1 part browns, and within a week it jumped to 130. The pile broke down in half the time and I finally got actual dark crumbly soil instead of half-rotted food scraps. Has anyone else had that moment where one cheap tool made you realize you'd been doing the basic thing wrong for years?

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michaeld481mo ago

80 degrees? That's literally cooler than my garage in August. I've been doing this since 2019 and I'm sitting here trying to remember the last time I even bothered to check the middle of my pile. Probably never, honestly. All that time I was just guessing and my pile was basically a cold, sad pile of garbage. The part about half rotted food scraps really hit me because that's exactly what I've been pulling out of mine every spring. I really need to get one of those thermometers tomorrow because I have a feeling I'm in the same boat as you were.