PROJECT REPORT h FARMER/RANCHER h SARE

Final Results
FW99-063 Compost Thermal Subsidies in
Commercial Passive Solar Greenhouse
Design
http://wsare.usu.edu

Location: OBJECTIVES
Underwood, Washington The participants want to see if a large berm of hot compost in the north side of a
greenhouse will provide enough heat to grow standard cool-season crops like
Funding Period:
Sept. 1999 to Dec. 2000 salad greens and brassicas.

Grant Award: ABSTRACT

$1,750 Members of the Cold Springs Conservancy, a nonprofit educational land trust of
Project Coordinator:
about 4 acres, want to research CO2 levels, soil and air temperatures and plant
Rebecca Thistlethwaite production and mortality rates of the compost-heated greenhouse during the cold
Cold Springs Conservancy season – mid November to mid April. They will also evaluate the incidence of
Underwood, WA 98651 damping-off disease.
(509) 538-2284
th12@hotmail.com
The plan is go design a model that can be used by producers in the Pacific
Technical Advisor: Northwest and other areas that don’t receive enough sunlight in the winter to
Greg Acker, Architect effectively heat a greenhouse. The process will include solar-citing education
P.O. Box 31067 from the technical advisor, Greg Acker, and the building of two greenhouses,
Portland, OR 97231
each 80 feet long, 20 feet wide and 15 feet high.
(509) 735-9192
acker@spiretech.com
Participants will build and turn the compost pile – manure and vegetable waste –
starting in early October and plant out various salad greens by late October.
They’ll monitor temperature daily and ventilate if needed. Each week, ammonia
and carbon readings will be taken along with compost pile heat levels. Weekly
compost samples will be sent to a soil lab for analysis. By late November, if the
temperature in the compost pile drops, the pile will be freshened by adding more
manure, urine and water.

SPECIFIC RESULTS
The results of the study, skewed by several unexpected events, have been
sufficient to suggest some validity in establishing a compost pile inside a
greenhouse, perhaps underneath benches or underneath a layer of soil with
tomatoes growing on top.

Originally planned for two years with a greenhouse built from scratch, the project was altered to save time.
The prefabricated greenhouse ordered showed up late, and when it was finally constructed and the experiment
begun a wind gust tore off the plastic. In the short time it was sealed, however, the compost actively
decomposed and plant growth was luxurious. It is unknown whether the enhanced growth inside the
greenhouse was from the compost heat and carbon or simply the effect of the hoop house.

The greenhouse worked in the second year, but the anticipated compost material – manure from a dairy –
wasn’t delivered until November, too late for a proper test of the composting technique.

Still, project coordinator Rebecca Thistlethwaite says some valuable lessons emerged from the failures:

1. Timeliness and preparation of the compost is essential.

2. Plant transplants, not seeds, in the hoop houses.
3. Salad greens work best in the hoop-house environment.
4. Hoop houses help keep out rabbits and ground squirrels, which, in this area, devour most growing
produce.
5. On the other hand, the structure harbored thriving winter populations of squash bugs that attacked
early-planted zucchini.

2001 i FW99-063 i 1
Thistlethwaite observes that the compost pile did give off considerable heat. For the short time the plastic
remained on the hoop houses the first year, a tropical atmosphere was created inside. In the second year,
tomatoes and basil were planted two months earlier in the hoop house than in the outdoor planting in late
February. Despite slow growth inside the hoop house, the plants did grow and were harvested a month earlier
than the outdoor planting. Also in the second year, a foot-deep layer of finished compost was spread inside the
greenhouse, and the plants, says Thistlethwaite, responded beautifully. The soil was workable and the weeds
easy to pull.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS
The project indicates that the heat generated by the compost process could help provide heat for early vegetable
growth in a greenhouse.

FARMER ADOPTION AND DIRECT IMPACT

There have been no reports that others have tried to replicate this project.

FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS OR NEW HYPOTHESES

Thistlethwaite suggests that further research on the subject is needed, especially on the effects of the carbon and
nitrogen gases that are released from the decomposing organic matter in the compost pile.

DISSEMINATION OF FINDINGS
The findings have mainly been disseminated through the SARE reports.

2002 i Project # i 2