Conditioning the bales: Days 7-9

On Day 7 I checked to see if the bales were warming up and starting to compost. I checked several, they are not warming up at all. But they are wet.

Yesterday, Day 8 I turned on the soaker hose, and my boyfriend Edwin turned it off for me after an hour.

This morning (Day 9) I checked the temperature of the bales again with a meat thermometer, then my fingers. They are still not warm at all. I added 1/4 cup of the nitrogen fertilizer (30-0-3) to each bale and turned on the soaker hose for an hour. I didn't have time to use the spray nozzle to push the fertilizer into the bale, so when I turned off the hose the fertilizer from today was still sitting on top of the bale. I will try to rinse it in this evening.

The bales should be composting by now with all the nitrogen in them. Even if they are not heating up I am pretty sure they are composting. I know that the compost in my other compost bins never get hot, but everything breaks down just fine.

I am just going to stay on schedule with fertilizing. I will give the bales 1/4 cup more of the 30-0-3 on Saturday (Day 11) then 1 cup of regular plant food on Monday. Maybe I will check the bales Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and if they are still not hot I will go ahead and plant. I just don't want them to start heating up with my plants on them. I guess I will make sure they are watered well and that should keep them cool.