Autumn leaves are carbanceous, not so much a very good source of nitrogen. For nitrogen, think green.
Couple questiona for you: what green material have you been adding? And second, do you ever wet the compost?
You might need to add some green, nitrogen material. You may also need to moisten it occassionally.
^^^ What Axis said. lol (still wanting to see your compost boxes! I just have plain old piles, but that is what works for us.) Need a thread about grape vines, wines, & compost... hint, hint...
I would add:
For (N)itrogen, think *
fresh* greens & fresh manure. (example: grass freshly cut has higher nitrogen than if you let it dry out.)
Think of water as temporary glue- it helps nitrogen stick to carbon until the microbes can break it down. If it dries out.. the "glue" is gone and nitrogen escapes. Water is H2O... it doesn't add nitrogen- just a little bit of it helps keep nitrogen in a pile. (Exception- rainwater which has trace amounts of nitrogen- especially during lightening storm. The raindrops will grab a little nitrogen in the air on it's way down. This is also why your lawn & garden green up better after a rain but plain irrigation doesn't produce the same result.)
The *pile* needs to be damp-
not just the outside- the whole pile. This is why it gets turned. You are moving moisture into the middle as well as new food and air for the microbes. Essentially you are feeding, watering, and airing out the microbe city so they can thrive and do what they do- reproduce & decompose things. The population is highest in the middle as the inside is more protected and the fastest decomposing microbes need heat.
So turning.. depends on temperature & moisture. If they run out of food/air/ or water (or temps get too high).. the population begins to decline- and other microbes take over that are slower at the job.
This is hot composting. If you get picky about it- you can make finished compost in several weeks. If you're less diligent- it will still break down- it just takes longer.
(Really lazy gardening... in the fall part of our pile we toss in tomatoes that turned & pumpkins/squash that went bad before they could be fed to the birds. Tons of leaves get mixed in. It is not a hot composting pile as winter is about to kick in, it is not enclosed, and well.. we are lazy. Every year my husband forgets- pulls compost from that pile and spreads it. Then we spend the next few months dealing with millions of tomato & squash seedlings. My neighbors love it- free heirloom tomato plants & squash. I grow over a dozen different kinds- so you never know what you're going to get. They don't care.. and wander over with buckets & shovels and help themselves. Squash get picky- but if you are gentle and keep roots minimally disturbed of the seedlings- they transplant fine.)
