Johnson Su Compost - Keeping it warm in winter

1. We insulated our Johnson Su BioReactor with straw bales and 2” foam board. Heat lamps weren’t enough but a small ceramic heater was easily enough to keep the tote at 60F. I do NOT recommend our setup due to water and straw being in close proximity to the heater!

2. The drip line tends to form little rivulets that run down the vent shafts so tiny misters with a very low rate would be better. We ran the drip line 15 minutes every day.

3. The compost was a bit wet but still fine with a neutral smell – not even fungal or “earthy” as much of the material has been consumed. In the future, we will use smaller wood chips.

4. The orange nylon dear fencing was too porous causing the material around the perimeter to be too dry.

5. We introduced red wigglers early on but the pile was loaded with native earthworms at 8 months with no red wigglers to be found.

6. The compost blew out due to not being covered and in the cold so make sure to cover the material right away and even choke off the vent shafts.

7. This video was shot after 8 months of composting and shows compost with a putty like consistency. We used bedding pack material from the barn along with leaves and wood chips – see previous videos.

8. For a large scale farm Johnson Su operation in cold Colorado see David West’s setup.

https://youtu.be/JGxSDhnvUUc

9. Professor David Johnson and his wife Hui Chun Su recommend apply extract in furrow at a rate of 2 pounds per acre. For a typical planter that applies 20 gallons per acre, this would be about 1.5 buckets of compost extracted into a tote filled with 250 gallons. This is just a ballpark rate. If your compost isn’t great or your soil is really lacking, use more.

10. In terms of what to expect from a full 250 gallon tote, we’ve heard that it will shrink down to about 2 feet with a 5-gallon bucket of compost weighing about 35 pounds. This is really variable depending on your starting materials.

Doing some..