Any garden experts here?

[Jon]

Had some trees cut down and mulched on Sunday afternoon
Today Thursday I went to shift the mulch and found it was hot and smoldering and we have had some heavy rain
See the dark bits
I have seen heaps of piles of mulch around over the years and havent heard of any catching fire
Whats the story about the mulch getting hot and smouldering?
Wonder what would happen if left on the truck over-nite ?

 

[C.J.]

It’s composting. That’s good. My wife is all into this kinda shit on some sorta hippie level and could tell you whatever you want to know. I don’t know as much as her but then again I don’t have to just like she never has to worry about how to lay a floor. Anyway, it’s a good thing. Turn the pile once in a while and throw all your other yard debris in there and it will make some good compost you can spread around your plants. They will love you for it.

 

[Jon]

But is it going to catch fire?

 

[C.J.]

Not that I’ve ever seen. Turning the pile and hosing it down if necessary can be done but if you just leave it it will smolder and decompose and turn into some num nums for your plants. we had an empty bank house next to ours for years. I would cut the grass and dump it in a big pile in the middle of the back yard. It would steam and decompose over the summer. Another neighbor grabbed it and spread it on her garden. I’ve seen people measure the internal temp of the pile and turn it at specific temps/ times.

 

[Mark Brown]

Smoldering to the point where blowing on it will ignite it?>? That I might worry about but hot and steamy, that is a win.
.... or if you don't really like your house, just pile it nice and close and start to blow like the wind.

 

[C.J.]

I stand corrected.

https://s0.hfdstatic.com/sites/the_hartford/files/wood-chip-mulch-storage.pdf

 

[Jon]

You can see how much I know about gardens Even get someone to mow my lawns

 

[Steve079]

With the bug tree crisis in California the past few years, truck loads of wood chips were available for the asking. I had several loads, but never had them in a stack bigger then 4x4, cuz I used wood pallets to hold them. I kept them damp, and covered with black plastic. Never the size mentioned in the article CJ posted, lol. Once they broke down, they were loaded with earth worms and crawlers. Bonus.