{"id":63,"date":"2014-12-11T23:55:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T23:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/?page_id=63"},"modified":"2025-12-19T09:03:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:03:39","slug":"bulkdensity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/compost\/bulkdensity\/","title":{"rendered":"Compost Bulk Density"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\n\t

\r\n\t\tCalculating Compost Bulk Density\t<\/h1>\r\n\t\t<\/header>\r\n\n\n
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Procedure for calculating compost bulk density<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. With a 1-gallon measuring container, fill a 5-gallon bucket with 5 gallons of water, as the top brim of a “5 gallon bucket” is often more than 5 gallons. Mark this line on at least three places on the inside of the bucket with a permanent pen.<\/li>\n
  2. \n
      \n
    1. Buckets with straight sides (i.e. diameter at the top of the bucket is the same as the diameter at the bottom): measure height from bottom of inside of bucket to the 5 gallon line, divide this number by 3, and mark the inside of the bucket as above at 1\u00d7 and 2\u00d7 this number. For example, if the 5-gallon mark is 13 inches, dividing by 3 will get 4.33 inches, so mark that bucket at 4.33 inches and 8.67 inches.<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. If you cannot obtain a bucket with straight sides: find the two intermediate lines by measuring 1 \u2154 gallons (=1.67 gal or 6.31 liters or 1 gallon plus 10 \u2154 cups) then 3 \u2153 gallons (=3.33 gallons or 12.62 liters or 3 gallons plus 5 \u2153 cups) of water into the bucket and marking the inside of the bucket where the water line is at both volumes with a pencil when wet, then a permanent pen when dry.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    3. Compost used should be representative of the pile. Take handful samples (not large shovel full samples) from several locations in the pile. Dig into pile a couple of feet, do not take from dried-out outer layer of pile unless the pile was just turned.<\/li>\n
    4. \"GifFill bucket to the \u2153 line with compost. Drop bucket squarely from approximately 1 foot high to the ground (hard surface) 10 times. Use gravity to drop the bucket, not force.<\/li>\n
    5. Fill bucket to the \u2154 line. Drop bucket squarely from approximately 1 foot high to the ground 10 times.<\/li>\n
    6. Fill bucket to the \u00b3\u2044\u2083 (5 gallon) line. Drop bucket squarely from approximately 1 foot high to the ground 10 times.<\/li>\n
    7. Fill bucket again to the \u00b3\u2044\u2083 (5 gallon) line (do NOT<\/span> drop bucket!) and weigh in pounds.<\/li>\n
    8. Multiply weight of material in pounds (excluding bucket weight) by 40. This is your bulk density, in pounds per cubic yard (lbs\/yd\u00b3).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n\n
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      Materials Needed<\/h2>\n
        \n
      1. Compost (or feedstock) pile<\/li>\n
      2. 5-gallon bucket (straight sides preferred)<\/li>\n
      3. Permanent pen marker<\/li>\n
      4. Measuring containers (gallon, cup, liter)<\/li>\n
      5. Scale (pounds)<\/li>\n
      6. Ruler<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \"Illustration<\/a>
        \"Illustration<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":681,"featured_media":0,"parent":36,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":null},"categories":[],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[55,49],"wsuwp_university_org":[396,441],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2616,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions\/2616"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puyallup.wsu.edu\/soils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}