what is that gosh awful smell?

[bj taylor]

i moved part of my compost pile the other day. oh my gosh! before i disturbed it - nothing. when i did a few shovels, the worst stench ever. not like dead animal, not like rotting vegetation. my boots couldn't come in the house for two day. today we moved the rest of the pile - no smell whatsoever. weird.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Do you think it could have been some kind of off-gassing...like some, i dunno, methane built up in there or something?! I have no idea if thats possible...

 

[digitS']

Ammonia?

Plant material loses a good deal as ammonia once it begins to decay.

It is one reason I think covering with soil helps. Still, soil won't seal the compost and getting oxygen in is a good idea. I do not like the idea of losing very much of the nitrogen by way of ammonia gas, however.

Steve

 

[desertlady]

 

[MontyJ]

How wet was the part you disturbed? If it was pretty wet, you probably had some anaerobic composting going on. By disturbing it and allowing air to get in, those bacteria died (a good thing).

 

[dewdropsinwv]

I have helped MontyJ with our compost pile.... it does smell bad when you turn it over. But just think of what your going to use in the garden next year! Your garden will be great!

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Our manure pile has a lot of hay in it. A few days last week it smelled REALLY BAD! It did smell like dead something. We concluded that it was the hay rotting under perfect smelly conditions. It usually doesn't smell and after a couple of days, it stopped smelling. (thankfully!)

Hopefully you disrupted the "perfect smelly conditions" and it is back to it's non smelly self!

 

[Jared77]

Wonder if putting in some ventilation would help? Some PVC pipe or even metal pipe with holes drilled at the part that goes into the pile to allow moisture, air/gas to be pulled out and aerate the pile?

Any breeze blowing over the pile should help pull air up the tube and give you the desired effect right? I'm trying to remember my high school physical science here so bear with me.

The additional ventilation would allow for faster breakdown since more bacteria could grow in a more oxygen rich environment.

Mind you this is all in theory I've gotta unpack my tools before I can build my composting area so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[MontyJ]

That actually does work Jared. In fact, I have 2 compost aeration pipes laying in the yard right now. My pile is getting tore down and rebuilt so often this year, I didn't even put them in.

 

[bj taylor]

I will try to incorporate this ventilation. I've just moved the pile so things are pretty deconstructed.
I did get to add some goat berries/pebbles from cleaning out the goat pen. i'm looking forward to having a source of manure.