Smoke in the wood chips

[rdb]

I was shoveling out some of the wood chips that have been in a pile for,
oh, about three years or thereabouts, and smoke came out from the black
stuff about a foot deep into the four foot high pile.

I touched it with my hand and it was only warm. Not hot.
Where did the smoke come from?

It was consistent.
I'd shovel off a foot or two until I get to the black stuff and I'd see
smoke. It wasn't dust as it was wet and gunky a foot under.

Then I'd touch the wet black gunk with my hand, and it was only warm.
Not hot.

Ever see smoke in compost but it's not hot to the touch?

[Leonard Blaisdell]

On 2023-05-29, rdb <r...@usa.usa> wrote:

> Ever see smoke in compost but it's not hot to the touch?

I believe those were visible vapors, a combination of water and rotting
organics. Don't strike a match near them.
But...I could be wrong.

[Tamborino]

Leonard Blaisdell <leobla...@sbcglobal.net> wrote

>> Ever see smoke in compost but it's not hot to the touch?
>
> I believe those were visible vapors, a combination of water and rotting
> organics. Don't strike a match near them.
> But...I could be wrong.

Wood chips are supposed to steam.
https://www.walterreeves.com/general-q-and-a/which-fertilizer-to-use-when-decomposing-wood-chips/

The more you feed it nitrogen (for example, by peeing on them the better
the NPK ratio because the carbon to nitrogen ratio is 600:1 for wood chips.
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/489/Wood-Chip-Backyard-Biology

Urine is about 10:1:4 in NPK so it supplements the wood chips nicely.