Should in use a lid when cooking my super soil?

Cooking subs recipe in trash cans. Should I leave the lid of trash can on or off? Should I drill holes in cans for aeration.

You definitely need airholes if cooking in a trash can, it'll just get anaerobic and smelly at the bottom unless you turn it every day (this I know from experience). You may need to turn it a few times anyway due to compaction. As for the lids.......where are you keeping the cans? I'd keep them on and just check on it daily.

Depends where you live in the desert mine drys out and I have to add water ever month or the top foot will be bone dry. I would not add holes to the can and when it's done mix it all up again.

This is in the can behind the big pile, if your doing it right you should get a soil web over your soil while it composts.
This is about 300 gallons of super soil, under this tarp. You don't have to use garbage cans, anything to hold in the moisture works. Composting needs water to work, after I add my amendments I mix the soil several times over a few days. Then I add water to dampen the mix and can it up. I recommend reading about composting and how that works.

Hi Guy's What about indoors cooking should there be something covering my planter it's a 12 gallon sized pot. Thank You.

It doesn't matter IMHO. Outdoors I cover to keep out rain and other shit and indoors I do mine a bit different and go ahead and fill up my grow bags with the fresh mix and let them "cook" uncovered for a couple months, maintaining moisture as if they had a plant in them.

I make my recipe indoors and cook indoors. I make it on a piece of 6 mil poly that I drop into a tote. I don't seal it off or put the tote lid on it just take the corners of the poly and lay them over the top and take a look now and then to make sure it's staying moist. I pull it out of the tote every week or so and turn it again, test for moisture and put it back. I make a big batch and let it cook for months.

I don't personally water like there is a plant in there just enough to keep the micro herd doing there thing. If I see whitish fuzz I know I'm doing it right

To clarify, I moisten my SS the same way I water plants, in that if the top inch or so is dry, I moisten her back up. The top will dry out while the bottom stays wet a lot longer, depending on heat and humidity, because there is no plant roots taking up the moisture, so it doesn't take nearly as much water.

Smidge34 said:

To clarify, I moisten my SS the same way I water plants, in that if the top inch or so is dry, I moisten her back up. The top will dry out while the bottom stays wet a lot longer, depending on heat and humidity, because there is no plant roots taking up the moisture, so it doesn't take nearly as much water.

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That makes perfect sense smidge! I was just thinking to myself if I was told to water like I water my plants I know I'd be over saturating but that's because I take things too literally