It has been about 48 hours since I built this compost pile. Last night at the 31-ish hour mark my temperatures reached 131 degrees F, which is good. This meant if the pile stayed at 131 F for three days then I can turn it. However, if the temperature reaches 151 F I will need to turn in 48 hours. Now if the pile gets to 160 F I will need to turn in 24 hours but if it gets to 165 F I will need to turn in 12 hours.
There was this white fuzzy looking fungus that grew all over the compost pile last night. I mistake it for mycelium, which it might be, as my Soil Food Web School mentor Wes told me it was most likely some kind of mold. Often molds can be mistaken for mycelium.
So typically, when an overnight explosion of an organism growth like this it means:
This sort of quick growth pretty much always involves a flowering event (either this sort of organism, or mushrooms in the case of fungi)... however the main thing is, it just doesn't seem to be possible to grow out aerobic mycelium that quickly.
- Wes Sander, Soil Food Web Mentor
Wes made a great point but we will see. I am still feeling good about this pile and still stoked on it. It has been 4 hours since the pile reached 160 F and it is staying at that temperature pretty steady. I may have mold or a lower level fungi that maybe more facultative or anaerobic in this pile but I most definitely have ample beneficial organisms to keep this temperature fairly solid at this temperature range. Now that is not to say I wont be seeing a spike in temperature here and maybe having to turn this pile at 1am or something but still it looks good. It looks better than my last failed pile. Last time the environment was too wet and cold and flies took over. This time temperature are ideal and the flies are thinking twice about touching the pile.
But not to worry, it's not a big problem, just monitor and maintain your moisture accordingly. The nutrients used by the mold are currently stored in all that growth, which aerobic bacteria will soon consume. So in the end it may actually help things move along more quickly, because the mold is helping to break down your starting materials.
- Wes Sander, Soil Food Web Mentor