Melissa’s Compost Bins

Possibly, after observing the great enjoyment and satisfaction I derive from my research with the biomeiler, Melissa was inspired to begin a composting experiment of her own.

She had me make two wire mesh cylinders 3’ in diameter and 28” tall. In one cylinder, she alternated layers of thatch from the back yard pile and layers of used litter from the chicken coop. She added water to start the composting process and began taking temperature measurements with the long dial-type thermometer I used to use when my biomeiler experiments were much smaller.

After a few days, her compost bin reached 136F. She let it cook for a few days, until the temperature dropped. At that point, she opened the side of the cylinder and moved the contents to the other cylinder so that the materials in the outer surface of the first cylinder became the internal materials in the second cylinder.

The goal of that rearrangement is to have all the materials spend some time in the interior of the pile where the composting action is greatest.

I am glad she is starting such an exciting project, but I am not sure how much potential there is for long-term enjoyment when she is only measuring the temperature in one place and is not recording the data she collects. How will she make any graphs? How will she form and test her hypotheses? Perhaps she intends for the first batch of compost to be merely an evaluation of her production method and will use the anecdotal results to design the data collection method for future batches.

She’ll make another rearrangement of the pile after the temperature drops again. At that point, for her sake, I may make a subtle inquiry about her plans for data collection. Being a caring spouse, I would not want her to become upset by a sudden realization that she’ll have no quantitative results after the conclusion of her experiment.