Troubleshooting · 12 of 30
Pile is too dense to aerate
A fork goes in with difficulty, the material feels heavy and clay-like, and the pile heats unevenly or not at all.
01Symptom
A fork goes in with difficulty, the material feels heavy and clay-like, and the pile heats unevenly or not at all.
02Why it happens
Fine, uniform material — sawdust, screened compost, wet manure without structure — packed so there are no air channels.
03What to do
- 01 Add coarse structure at 25-30 % of volume: chopped straw, chipped prunings, torn cardboard.
- 02 Rebuild the heap loosely rather than pressing it down.
- 03 Insert a perforated pipe vertically into the centre as an air chimney.
- 04 Turn into a second bay instead of turning in place, which lets the base be lifted.
04Where this has come up in the logs
No published log has hit this one yet. The sequence above is the standard order at this bench.