Post date: Dec 17, 2019 4:32:48 PM
It is nice to know that so many of you are now composting your kitchen waste. It is the best thing you can do for your garden soil. You feed and take care of the soil, not the plants. Good soil will nurture healthy plants anyway. Here are a few things to remember:
1. Composting bacteria slow down in the cold. They need temps of 60 and above. Much of your winter compost bins will remain inactive. Plan for more space to compost through winter.
2. Composting is a cooking process. Without the benefits of the mesothermic bacteria, your compost will have pathogens and harmful bacteria. Volume is critical to generate heat and get the beneficial bacteria to sanitize your compost.
3. To achieve 3, you have to make sure you manage moisture and air well. Make sure your compost will well layered with leaves and is not too dry or too wet. Squeezes sponge texture is what we are looking for.
4. Early spring, whatever be your composting system, bring all the semi done compost into one single large pile. Add some soil, manure if possible. And let it cook.
5. You will achieve crumbly and beautiful compost in about 15-20 days of the above process.
6. Do not hurry with harvesting the compost. You will add pathogens to the soil, including harmful bacteria like botulin, if you use semidone compost.
7. Fully done compost smells great, does not look anything like what you put in, and is crumbly. Wait for it to be done.
8. Add more materials as compost sinks in volume. Most of the kitchen waste is water and loses volume rapidly. Older compost helps newer materials to decompose.
9. Don’t hurry the process. Just let it cook in its time. Just facilitate the activity with volume, air and moisture.
10. You don’t have to walk in the cold and turn the pile. Let it lie. Early spring when you fork it into a new pile, everything will be turned and aired.
Enjoy the process. Do not hesitate to discuss questions and issues at this forum. So many of us are happy to help! Happy holidays :)