Can you make a compost in the winter?

Question

how long can you keep it before you have to use it?

Answer 1

Composting is an exothermic reaction, it creates heat so it will go even in winter, just slower.

Compost Mix Calculator
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwaste/fileshtml/organics/compostCalcAbout.htm
A rule of thumb on C:N ratio is make roughly 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 of the pile green nitrogen materials and 1⁄2 - 3⁄4 brown carbon materials.

Smell and temperature are the best gauge of your composts activity level.
1 - If it smells fresh like turned soil it is working properly.
2 - If you get it to wet it will begin to decompose anaerobically and produce hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg smell. The best thing is to turn it and get air in. Possibly layer in fresh dry ingredients to absorb excess moisture.
3 - If the pile has an ammonia odor, you have too much green material (grass clippings, food scraps, green plant material) and not enough brown (dry leaves, woody prunings, pine needles, dried out plants, saw dust). Add more brown material or a shovel of soil and turn it.
4 - If it just sits &/or you see ants then the pile must be to dry. Everything should be moist but there should be nothing dripping. If you piled it to dry, its own heat dried it or the summer weather dried it then you must turn it rewetting the layers as you go.
5 - If it just sits there and won’t heat up despite being moist you have to many browns. Too much carbon prevents the pile from heating. Go to a coffee shop and get some coffee grounds, any grain, seed or meal is a good source of nitrogen. Add some grass clippings in thin layers or get a neighbor to donate kitchen scraps.

Answer 2

Yes you can, but the process will definitely slow down, even to the point of the pile freezing depending on your local climate and the size of the compost pile. The good news is that it will start up again in the spring. The biggest problem is keeping a proper ratio of carbon to nitrogen to keep everything going. Most of us don't want to be fooling around with a compost pile in January here in the Midwest, so a lot of times the kitchen waste is tossed on the snow covered pile and some leaves are thrown over it.

Finished compost will last forever if you keep it covered so that the rain doesn't wash the nutrients out of it.

Visit our website for more information on compost at-
http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/compost.html

Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!

Answer 3

Yes you can make compost in the winter the way to do this is when the leafs of the trees fall off, in fall rake the leafs and put them in a pile and water them so they start rotting this is a good sign that it is working, when it starts to snow the leafs will start rotting and decomposing and by spring there is a horrible smell that smell is the smell of new compost, and you can keep the compost forever outside and if you want to take that compost inside you should do this after a month.

Answer 4

Yes you can. A properly "working" compost pile will make it's own heat.

You can keep it indefinately before using it. If you quit turning and "feeding" it will quit working but will be fine until you are ready to use it.

Bert

Answer 5

Of course. However, sometimes even without turning it, which makes it work faster, it will develop eventually; as everything breaks down at some time or another.