For most efficient composting, use a pile that is between 3 feet cubed and 5 feet cubed cu. This allows the center of the pile to heat up sufficiently to break down materials. Smaller piles can be made but will take longer to produce finished compost. You may also want to have two piles, one for finished compost ready to use in the garden, and the other for unfinished compost. If the pile has more brown organic materials, it may take longer to compost. You can speed up the process by adding more green materials or a fertilizer with nitrogen use one cup per 25 square feet.
The surface area of the materials effects the time needed for composting. By breaking materials down into smaller parts chipping, shredding, mulching leaves , the surface area of the materials will increase. This helps the bacteria to more quickly break down materials into compost. Finally, the number of times the pile is turned influences composting speed.
By turning more frequently about every weeks , you will produce compost more quickly. Waiting at least two weeks allows the center of the pile to heat up and promotes maximum bacterial activity. The average composter turns the pile every weeks. When turning the compost pile, make sure that materials in the center are brought to the outsides, and that materials from the outside edges are brought to the center. With frequent turning, compost can be ready in about 3 months, depending on the time of year.
In winter, the activity of the bacteria slows, and it is recommended that you stop turning the pile after November to keep heat from escaping the pile's center.
Fill in the pit with your organic waste, making sure the items are quite moist, and then fill the hole back up with soil. One of the downsides to this method, as with all cold composting methods, is that it takes longer for the waste to decompose. Trenching can produce finished compost in about 12 months , sometimes sooner if the conditions are ideal. Vermicomposting, or worm composting, is a great indoor option if your outdoor space is limited it can be done outdoors as well.
You can do it year-round in a basement or garage or even under your sink. Vermicomposting produces natural, odorless castings, which are a nutrient-rich fertilizer, in about three to six months. There is very little maintenance required; the most significant time commitment is harvesting the vermicompost every few months.
You can purchase a cheap worm composter in stores or make one yourself. At its simplest, a vermicompost system can be a wooden or plastic bin with holes in the sides and bottom for ventilation and drainage similar to a regular enclosed compost bin. A worm composter needs to be raised off the ground to allow excess liquids to flow out. A simple setup for worm composting is to place a taller plastic bin inside a shorter one.
Then you have to add worm bedding and some soil. Bedding should be made out of carbon-heavy material to help hold the right amount of air and moisture for the worms.
Some common materials for bedding are:. Feed the worms once a week by burying your food waste under their bedding. Ideal food for the worms includes fruit and vegetable scraps, bread and grains, coffee grounds and used tea leaves. The moisture level of the bedding should be similar to that of a damp sponge, so make sure you check on that regularly as well. The best types of worms to use for vermicomposting are red wigglers , a species that is very easy to maintain and actually prefers the compost environment over regular soil.
Red wigglers can eat half their body weight in a day. A typical home system needs about a pound of worms. Check out this video to see how much one pound of worms looks like so you can ensure that you buy the right quantity for your bin.
Anything that comes from the ground can be composted at home. While animal products can often be composted in municipal composting systems, at-home composting should avoid those items as they can attract animals and insects and leave pathogens in the final product.
Pet waste contains parasites and bacteria that can be harmful to humans and other animals if ingested. These pathogens can find their way into your body if you use compost that contains pet waste as fertilizer on edible crops. Compost must reach and remain at a minimum of degrees Fahrenheit for three consecutive days to kill pathogens found in pet waste, and it is hard to regulate and monitor that if you are composting at home.
It may be possible to compost dog waste in a home system, but you must follow USDA guidance carefully to ensure the proper conditions, and you should not include cat or any other pet waste.
The USDA has resources that provide step-by-step instructions on how to compost dog waste, along with some recommendations to decrease health risks, including:. Specialized color or glossy paper may contain toxic materials from the printing inks and additives that may be harmful to humans, animals, and plant life.
While animal products meat, fish, eggs, bones, dairy, grease, fat are organic, they can create odor problems and attract flies, rodents, and other pests to your pile or bin.
These products can also carry pathogens that may survive the home composting process. You can trench compost small amounts of animal products. These materials should be kept away from at-home compost collections. However, if you have a large amount of these materials, see if your municipality accepts food waste for composting, or reach out to a nearby composting program that may accept these items.
Large-scale composting facilities can often take in these materials and compost them without the risks faced by a home composter. It is important to note that while fruit flies are annoying, they are harmless to humans and to compost. However, they reproduce quickly and can infest your yard or kitchen if not addressed.
Here are some things you can do:. Take standard safety precautions when handling the waste e. If you have a condition that predisposes you to an allergic reaction or infection, wear a dust mask while tending to your pile, especially in dry weather. Compost needs to entirely stabilize and mature before it can be used.
Not only can immature compost damage your plants , but it can also attract rodents and other pests to your yard. You will need to stop adding material in order for your pile to mature although in no-turn systems, the bottom of the pile may provide finished compost even if the top of the pile is still active.
You can identify finished compost by looking for these characteristics :. Once you have confirmed that your compost is mature, here are some ways you can put it to use:. Compost cannot go bad, but it can get too wet, too dry, or too old.
You can still use compost that is old; it just might not have as many nutrients in it as fresh compost. Some cities have programs that provide curbside collection of organic waste along with regular trash on select days. Check your local municipal website or call to see if your city has such a program. There is a broad range of residual sources used in compost including manure, yard and food wastes, and animal mortalities and a wide array of people and groups composting including households, schools, farms, municipalities and private entities.
Whether your composting operation is small or large the same principles apply: the proper materials, surface area, volume, moisture, aeration, time and temperature will affect the outcome of your compost. There are several composting systems farmers can choose from if they decide to start composting. The options vary in cost, labor requirements, and processing time. Windrow composting involves stacking raw materials into long piles that are turned regularly with a front-end loader, bucket loader or special compost turner.
The advantages of windrow composting are that it requires no source of electricity; windrows can be built in the fields, where the compost will be used; and farmers can usually use existing equipment to make and maintain the piles. On the other hand, farmers must monitor the pile temperature often to avoid odor problems and ensure that the ingredients are composting.
A network of pipes runs through the coarse materials to provide aeration. The advantages of passively aerated piles are that they require less labor than windrow composting and no electricity. This method, however, takes longer to complete. As a result, static piles require a source of power. Two types of units sometimes found on farms are bin composters and agitated-bed, or channel, composters. With bin composting, raw materials are placed in bins similar to grain bins or a bulk storage building.
The materials are seldom turned, if at all, and are aerated by forced aeration from the bottom of the bin. With channel composters, raw materials are placed in channels. The materials are turned regularly via a machine that travels on a track above the channels. Most channel composters also have aeration pipes. It is good for most gardens, but so is manure, and wood chip mulch. Both of these are organic matter as well.
As a mulch wood chips work better. I am pro organic gardening, but I have serious concerns about proponents who are certified and follow the certification requirements to the letter instead of thinking and doing what makes sense.
Compost is slow acting. It takes at least 5 years to fully decompose. Next year you add more, and the year after again. In 5 years you have nutrients being added from 5 years of applications.
Yes you can add too much. Awesome, thanks for taking the time to respond, and I believe you are telling the truth with respect to reports you are getting. I am skeptical of entrepreneurs of organic gardening.
What would you say to the recommendation that putting down compost and dry molasses on a lawn that has many weeds known to grow in nitrogen deficient soils is the best organic approach?
The theory that the spike in microbes eating the sugar will aggravate the common soil pests like fire ants seems intriguing. If the owner is dead set on an organic approach, is that worth their time on a lawn that has been ignored and is now just being mowed weekly? Compost and molasses will both add nitrogen. Just because a weed grows in nitrogen deficient soil, does not mean it will not grow with more nitrogen — it usually grows better.
This is a problem with corn gluten. It prevents weed seeds from germinating, but since it is high in nitrogen it makes existing weeds grow better. Yes, an animal may poop here and there but it is not as if the entire forest floor is covered in it.
Good article and as the saying too much of a good thing is not always good. The two numbers I gave are routinely used and i never gave them much thought. I am a Master Gardener and I find your blog to contain the most useful information I have found anywhere. You repeatedly answer the questions I have that I never seem to get answered elsewhere.
Thank you so much. My instincts tell me that you can have too much farmyard manure, especially if it is fresh I think it would be very difficult to apply too much homemade garden compost from plant remains Although I agree that our soils often have excessive phosphorus from previous fertilisation I think you overplay the dangers of excess from compost.
You might be right Roger. There is not a lot of information available about field effects when higher amounts of compost are used. One of the problems is the the effects are slow to develop since compost decomposes so slowly. But there seems to be more reports of organic growers having problems with plants while at the same time having high organic levels. Helpful information, especially since our latest community garden soil test showed almost no Nitrogen and way too much Phosphorus.
We are limiting our fertilizers to blood meal and fish emulsion. Thanks for explaining. Is there a reliable diy soil test kit to test nutrient levels in your homemade compost? If my Phosphorus is too high how do I reduce it? If P levels are too high the best way to lower them is to grow things, and then remove the plant material from the garden. Alternatively, wait. Over time P levels will also drop as some is leeched to lower levels of soil — but this is a slow process.
Phosphorous and potassium levels are extremely high. The plants have never shown any signs of any deficiencies, and growth and yields continue to be excellent. A few possible explanations.
Phosphorous supplied by organic materials is in a different form in the soil than that supplied by minerals. Also, phosphorous does move down through the soil profile, how fast is directly related to the phosphorous load into the soil.
Not saying this is good or bad, just that it is. A major source of phosphorus movement is when soil particles are carries down slopes by rainfall. And finally, as far as the differences in major nutrient concentrations in finished composts between plant- and manure-based composts. Thanks for the post. Organic matter will also absorb free phosphate. Is it possible the OM is keeping the effective levels of P low in the soil solution?
Most of the P is held in soil and only a small amount enters the soil solution. OM should increase the amount that can be essentially buffered — until some tipping point is reached and the soil is saturated. Then the excess P starts causing problems. I had seen a paper that looked at actual home made composts, and they found a significant variation in nutrient levels. This reference might be of interest.
Press here to subscribe. Garden Myths - Learn the truth about gardening. By on Can you have too much compost? If you like this post, please share This entry is filed under composting , Fertilizer and tagged compost - too much. October 13, at am. Robert Pavlis says:. October 18, at am. Ralna says:. July 29, at pm. Dooyum says:. June 18, at pm. Kenny Miller says:. June 17, at pm. Linda Thames says:.
June 14, at pm. June 16, at am. Jane Nicol says:. May 24, at am. May 25, at pm. Sharon says:. May 17, at pm.
May 15, at pm. Martha says:. May 26, at am. Brian says:. June 9, at am. Linda Mary Johnson says:. Dawn Renee Thomas says:. May 11, at pm. Sarah says:. May 5, at pm. May 9, at pm. Cat says:. March 21, at pm. Ian says:. November 25, at pm. I says:. October 29, at am. October 29, at pm. September 7, at am. October 2, at am. Avery says:.
September 2, at pm. October 23, at pm. October 25, at am. October 5, at pm.
0コメント