Yesterday I turn my compost pile that has been cold for approx. 2-3 months (winter in Ohio), while turning the pile I noticed some of the horse turds had little weeds growing out of them. Now that we are getting temps in the 60-70 degree range will the compost start to heat up again? I thought it was finished composting, also found some large night crawlers in the pile. My compost pile only consist of old Horse manure, grass clippings, leaves and coffee grounds and have added more alfalfa pellets and molasses in the past 3 weeks along with a couple buckets of cold compost tea. After turning the pile I grabbed a hand full and after placing the hand full back in the pile I noticed my hand was a little sticky.....too much molasses in the pile??? Now what.

Stop feeding it if you ever want to use it. And stop buying brand new stuff (alfalfa and molasses) and throwing it away in the pile. Compost piles are supposed to be recycling for waste materials. The rest of your stuff will make an excellent compost.

Start a new pile and let this one rest for several months. Keep the old one moist and let the microbes finish off the stuff you recently put in.

Cold outside air temps are not a factor in whether the pile heats up. What matters is the protein and urine content of the ingredients.