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Organic composting of soils explained. More produce and healthier food for
your lifestyle and family. Produce for profit.
*Frequently asked questions ???
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Compost is what?
Compost is humanity’s version of the humus found in nature, and the compost
heap is a ‘digester’ – our tool used to produce it. Humus is made of broken down
vegetation which releases nutrients back into the soil for healthy plant growth.
Similarly, under the direction of the careful gardener, the composting process
breaks down a rich mixture of ingredients to produce a potent humus which will
regenerate soil and foster vigorous plant growth. Virtually anything which has
once lived can be composted – although selecting the most appropriate mixture of
ingredients from what is available can be seen at first as something of a ‘dark
art’. Time spent in quiet observation of the natural processes of your garden
will never be wasted. This includes experimenting with composting materials and
methods, adapting ‘expert’ advice to local conditions, and learning from your
own successes and failures along the way.
Why make Compost?
   
Strong and healthy plants have their own natural resistance to pests and
diseases and compost is the natural, home grown, method of achieving this. Good
compost added regularly to your garden will support healthy and rich soil - your
plants in turn will thrive in this soil to produce healthy and nutritious food
for you. Chemical fertilizers bypass many of the natural processes used to build
healthy plants and thus healthy food. This can create an imbalance in which
weeds, pests and diseases are encouraged – which in turn then demands more
chemical responses in the form of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc.
Composting is also the natural way of disposing of garden waste and turning it
into something useful (and not into an environmental problem at your local
landfill). Any garden which can increase its own fertility year after year while
producing nutritious food for its owners is helping to save the planet – compost
can help you do this!
How to make Compost
Many guides to composting recommend this or that material as being good for
making compost. In most backyard situations, you will have to make do with
whatever you have around, or if you want to, to buy in materials (eg bales of
straw, bags of manure). However, the mix of ingredients is important for a good
compost process and end product. If you only have weeds and kitchen scraps, make
sure you balance them up with shredded paper or cardboard. Too much nitrogen
material and the heap will stink, too much carbon and the decomposition process
slows down
There are a number of different techniques used to make compost. The one
which works best for me is the ‘hot’ process (also know as the Berkely method)
described below. Others include the Indore method (as first described by Sir
Albert Howard in Indore, India in 1913) and
Composting bins – everyone is entitled to experiment and find the one that
suits them best!
Ingredients for the compost heap (no matter what method
is used) are :
Organic materials – anything that has been alive
can be composted! – but like making a cake, there needs to be some balance in
the ingredients. The two broad categories of compost materials are high-Carbon
(woody, brown, dry) to high-Nitrogen (fresh, wet, green). The microbes that work
in the compost digester need a starting ratio of approximately 30 Carbon to 1
Nitrogen to make protein (ie their body mass) – thus as good heap designers,
this is what we should be aiming for as an overall ratio. If you want to start
getting really technical, you can analyse the compost ingredients. As each have
their own balance of C/N, the overall ratio of the assembled heap needs to be
adjusted accordingly (see table).
Material C/N ratio for the ideal
compost
- Sawdust 450
- Paper 150
- Straw 100
- Leaves 60
- Fruit wastes 35
- Lawn clippings 20
- Food wastes 15
- Weeds 19
- Chicken litter (typical) 10
- Cow manure 12
- Chicken manure (no straw) 7
It also helps to have the materials in small pieces – this increases surface
area and makes it easier to get an even mix. A mulcher will chop woody materials
up nicely – a lawn mower can do almost the same job on small pieces of twigs and
cardboard. You may also have to ‘stockpile’ materials until you have enough to
make a heap.
- Micro-organisms – hundreds of species of bacteria and
fungi are involved in the composting process. But don’t worry about arranging
the party invitations – as soon as you assemble your compost heap, all the
guests arrive automatically and get to work multiplying up into huge numbers.
Its Free!!
- Moisture – it is very important to keep the heap at the
correct moisture level. Too dry and the decomposition process will stop (you
will be able to tell if this has happened as the ingredients will remain
unchanged week after week, sometimes with dry powdery white fungi, and
sometimes with the invasion of slaters). Too wet and the anaerobic bacteria
will flourish leading to a different kind of decomposition, including foul
smells. Regular turning and regular watering will help to maintain the correct
balance of moisture throughout the heap. Also, keep the heap protected from
heavy rain which can make it too wet and leach compost products away
- Oxygen – The bacteria we seek to encourage in the
compost heap are aerobic (air/oxygen loving) as opposed to anaerobic
(air/oxygen hating). Thus we need to supply a constant supply and resupply of
oxygen throughout the heap. This is the primary reason why the heap is turned
regularly.
Method (for a ‘hot’ heap)
The optimal shape for a compost heap is approximately 1.5m wide and 1.5m high
and at least 1.5m long. Some Biodynamic farmers have heaps 100m long – needless
to say they turn them using tractors! The length of the heap will depend on how
much space you have in your garden, and how much material you have. Build the
heap in thin layers of different materials approximately 5cm thick and water
each layer before progressing to the next. For example, one layer of leaves, one
layer of manure, one layer of weeds, then start again. Adding small amounts of
soil into the layers will also help to ‘inoculate’ the heap with soil flora.
How it works
Living (or recently dead!) tissue, whether plant or animal, is made up of
large and complex organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen and other elements in smaller quantities. Even before you have finished
building the heap, bacteria and fungi have started to feed on the dead plant
material and multiply in number. Plants are made of starch, fat, protein,
cellulose and lignin and these become food for a huge variety micro-organisms
that live in the soil. These micro-organisms – the soil flora, excrete enzymes
which enable chemical reactions to take place, breaking up organic molecules
into smaller and simpler pieces that can be used as food. This food is used to
build the cell walls and cell contents, in the manufacture of enzymes and other
exudates, and in multiplication.
The first group of bacteria to work on the heap are those that work in the
normal air temperature range. However, one of the by-products of these chemical
reactions is heat, and because of the shape of the compost heap, this heat is
retained. As the temperature of the heap rises another group of bacteria take
over – the heat loving or thermophilic group – and the heap can heat up to over
60oC within a day or so. This heat is important to human composters as it will
kill unwanted seeds and pests. However, as available food is used up, the heat
loving bacteria give way to other types of bacteria and fungi. Turning the heap
every 2 days or so will re-mix the ingredients and provide more food in the
centre of the heap, restarting the process.
Many complex chemical and microbiological reactions take place in the heap -
one of the more important reactions is that which cycles nitrogen from organic
matter into nitrate which can be used by plants. When the heap finally starts to
cool down (and using the ‘hot’ method, this should be around 3 – 4 weeks) larger
soil animals move in to feed on the organic material and on the bacteria and
fungi. These include protozoa, nematodes, mites, collembola, worms, ants and
others whose effect is to further condition and enhance the structure and
content of the humus in readiness for use.
How to use it
Finished compost should be dark, fine and spongy with a pleasant earthy
smell. You should not be able to recognize any of the original ingredients in
it!
- The finished material can be applied directly to form a
surface layer which conditions, fertilizes and suppresses diseases in the
soil. You can’t harm plants by putting on too much, but to make it go as far
as possible, a minimum layer of 5cm is recommended. In Australian conditions,
exposed layers of compost on top of the soil will quickly dry out and ‘die’.
Thus a thick layer of mulch (straw, cardboard etc) should be placed on top
immediately to protect it. New plantings can be dug though this protective top
layer.
- Also recommended is to make a ‘tea’ with the compost by
soaking it in water, then aerating it to build up the flora volume again. This
can be filtered and sprayed onto the garden or onto the leaves of plants
- Sifted and mixed (1 part) with sharp sand (3 parts) and
peat or coconut mulch, ( 3 parts), it becomes seed raising mix
Compost Clinic
“Crikey….something’s not quite right here!!”… Look upon your compost heap as
a living organism - to find a cause for any ailment in your garden’s digestive
organ, go back to the basic ingredients listed above (balance of ingredients,
water, oxygen) and diagnose your heap against each one
“It stinks!!”
– this could be the result of a couple of common problems
- noxious fumes are produced by anaerobic bacteria ie, not
enough oxygen is available throughout the heap, or its too wet or has large
lumps of wet sludgy material. Or large amounts of unmixed kitchen waste
- Excessive nitrogen is unbalanced by too little carbon,
and the heap is venting as ammonia gas. One remedy which would address both
problems could be to turn the heap to aerate it more often and to add in some
drier, fibrous, carbon rich material (eg straw)
“Nothing’s happening!”
Your heap has done nothing for days and days on end – no heat, no change in
structure of the ingredients. This could be
- Too little water – you heap is dry, effectively stopping
any biological activity. Turn the heap, spraying with water constantly.
- If the ingredients are too rough or large this will also
slow things down. Remedy is to remake the heap after chopping up the rougher
ingredients (eg run the lawn mower over them!).
- Not enough nitrogen – turn the heap and add more manure
or lawn clippings as you do it.
“I don’t have space for
a compost heap”,
or “I don’t have the energy to move all that stuff around around any more”.
Don’t give way to despair! A worm farm could be just the thing for you. See our
notes on setting up a work farm..
Sources and Links
“Composting – making soil improver from rubbish”,
Handreck, K A, CSIRO 1979. The best little booklet on composting around , but
probably out of print now.
“Permaculture – a designers manual”
Chapter 8 is a classic primer on soil and its role within the context of human
survival.
“Grasp the Nettle – making biodynamic farming and
gardening work” Proctor P, Cole G, Random House 2000
“Biodynamic gardening” Soper J,
Souvenir Press 1996. Both books give a good context for composting within a
larger BD view.
 www.soilhealth.com
University of WA group promoting biological farming. Good basic description
of soil biology
www.soilfoodweb.com
the web site of Dr Elaine Ingham promoting compost teas
www.mastercomposters.com
US based self help site with heaps (!) of message board archives to
pore over
www.soilassociation.org
UK based site devoted to organic farming – good resources section
http://www.soilandhealth.org/
amazing individual site including on-line library of soil
Summary
Composting is one of those things that’s too important to put off doing, just
because you don’t think you can get it right…Remember - If it’s worth doing, its
worth doing badly!!
“So Long as one feeds on food from unhealthy soil, the
spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body”
Rudolf Steiner
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PYTHON JUNGLE . PLANT
NURSERY & GARDEN CENTRE &fish hatchery
