Features of composting grass

Humus composition

In practice, it has been proven that grass compost, consisting of a large amount of grasses, weeds and food debris, is an excellent fertilizer. It is easy to do it yourself, without spending money and a lot of time. To obtain high-quality humus, you need to include in it such components as green grass, straw, hay, weeds, branches and foliage, plant roots along with soil particles, bark, sawdust, vegetables and fruits, bird droppings, manure, ash.

Special additives are widely used to speed up the composting process. You cannot use the herb in isolation. Since in this case you will receive a liquid slurry or silage. Still, in no case should you add to the composition such components as food of animal origin, weed seeds, human and animal feces, substances that are not able to decompose naturally, chemical elements, plants that are infected with fungi or damaged by pests.

When creating your own compost heap, make sure that there are no hops, horsetail and other crops in it, the seeds of which do not tend to rot. Otherwise, they will only sprout and clog the site.

How to compost video

This video will show you how to make good compost.

Compost pit or compost bin

Particular attention should be paid to a special box in which the fertilizer composition will be stored. You can use a large wooden box made of boards. For litter, choose ready-made humus or chaff, sawdust. If last year's humus already contains bacteria that affect fermentation, then they should be added when choosing chaff. One of the walls of the box should be a lid and can be removed without problems. It is advised to make it from a dense film or a piece of slate. It is necessary to place the box in a dark place. For compost, both waterlogging and overdrying are equally harmful. When filling the box, you need to mix the contents and moisten it with water from a garden hose. You should constantly maintain a certain level of humidity and temperature inside the box. Grinding the components with a shovel helps to speed up the preparation of humus. It is required to add fresh soil from time to time. Part of it gets inside along with plant roots.

If you are the owner of a large plot, instead of a bin, it is possible to create a compost pit. From the inside, it must be covered with slate. Be sure to leave a distance between the sheets so that the air can circulate normally.

When creating a compost pit, you need to adhere to the puff cake principle. This means that the layers of grass and the ground with sawdust should be made alternately. In the summer, it is necessary to protect humus from precipitation, and on winter days - from cold weather. If the temperatures outside are too low, cover the compost bin with a thick layer of straw. You can use old rags or corn leaves. The next year, plant residues are recommended to be used as a composition for new compost.

Characteristic features of herbal fertilizer

Good quality compost must meet certain requirements. You can add its color to this list. Ideally, humus should be light brown. Since black, which is sold in stores and on the market and is suitable for plants, does not have many beneficial micronutrients. Properly prepared compost also smells like dry leaves, mushrooms, and forests. The crafting process is considered disrupted if you smell the characteristic scent of mold or rot when you open the box. Then you need to leave it open so that the composition can dry out. If this fails, the fertilizer will have to be thrown away. Signs of humus readiness are the presence of worms in it and the ability to make a ball out of the composition with your hands.

Precautionary measures

When making humus, you should be careful and follow some simple rules. Place the compost bin away from all available drinking water sources. If the compost pit is located on an unevenness, you need to make sure that it is below the well or well.

Remember not to allow your composition to overheat in the sun. From this, its quality suffers greatly, it is guaranteed to lose the lion's share of its useful elements.

Accelerated composting

It should be remembered that the speed of compost readiness directly depends on a number of important factors. These include temperature conditions, humidity, and dimensions of the compost pit. If you focus on natural production, you will have to wait until the composition is ready from 3 months to 2 years.

Today it is really possible to speed up this process. For this, regular watering of the heap is carried out. The weight and size of the grass is also important. It should be crushed. An increase in temperature is achieved by mixing chicken manure into the composition. If you create high humidity and the desired temperature, water the compost with special additives, introduce chicken droppings into it, mix the layers, you can get the finished fertilizer after 4 - 5 months.

You should know that to stimulate the reproduction of bacteria in humus, it is required to mix it at least once a week. Although green grass and weeds are the basis for useful feeding, in order to get a truly high-quality composition, it should be made from 7 components. Store humus only in a pit or box.

Video "Where and how to store"

The video will show you where and how to store compost.