How to ensure compost acceleration

What to compost

At each summer cottage, when cultivating a garden and a vegetable garden, a lot of garbage accumulates. The zealous owners do not burn it, do not throw it away, but put it in a compost pit (heap) for further processing into a valuable organic fertilizer. Branches of trees after pruning, green grass after mowing the lawn, weeds after weeding, tops of vegetables after harvesting from the garden, fallen leaves, fruits spoiled by frost are sent to the compost. Everything that grew on the site can get a second life as a top dressing for the next plantings, decomposed in the compost heap.

Waste of human life in the country also needs to be sent for recycling. Not only kitchen waste (potato peelings, vegetable leftovers, coffee and tea grounds, all uneaten food) will work, but scraps of paper, ash from a fireplace or fire, straw, hay, wood shavings. And a bucket from a country toilet, like bird droppings or manure, will accelerate decomposition almost like a special preparation.

It is undesirable to send meat, animal fats, roots of especially dangerous weeds such as bindweed and sow thistle, weeds with seeds to the compost heap. It is absolutely impossible for tin, plastic and glass objects to get there, in no case should the entry of plants affected by diseases, for example, potato tops, tomatoes with late blight, should be allowed. Large solid waste, for example, branches, paper, must be shredded in order for the decomposition process to occur faster. Special preparations have been created to speed up the compost preparation. "Doctor Robik", "Baikal EM" and other means are used to make the useful fertilizer mature not in 1.5–2 years (as the old gardener's handbooks indicate), but in just a few weeks.

Video "How to accelerate the maturation of the compost heap"

In this video, you can hear tips on how to speed up composting.

Conditions for creating

In order for the waste to become humus, certain conditions must be created and maintained. First of all, the compost heap must be air-permeable. He not only has to get there, but also circulate inside. The decomposition of organic matter is accompanied by the release of gases and heat, these gases must move, and the heat must promote further processing.

The compost heap should be moistened as needed, but not refilled. If there is too much moisture, the mass will rot, and if there is too little, the decomposition process may stop. Therefore, it is watered in a dry hot summer, covered with burlap or foil with holes on top to keep moisture longer, and covered with foil in the rain to protect it from excess and prevent nutrients from washing into the surrounding soil. All these wastes can only decompose if there is a sufficient amount of nitrogen. It is he who will create the conditions for the activity of fungi and bacteria that do this. There is a lot of nitrogen in fresh cut grass, nettles, and legumes.Even more nitrogen in the manure, in order to increase its amount, add different preparations - compost activators.

The decomposition process is accompanied by the release of heat, the larger the heap, the more it is released. Therefore, in the cold season, the process slows down, and in summer it accelerates. It is to accelerate the process of converting heaps of garbage and waste into humus that such preparations as "Doctor Robik" and "Baikal EM" were created.

How to lay a compost heap

A compost pit can be made at any time, except in winter, usually gardeners make it in the fall, when a lot of plant waste has accumulated. A good place for her is a secluded shady corner, where there is no direct sunlight and moisture is well preserved, woodlice, earthworms, microorganisms that contribute to the decomposition of plant mass live there. There are different recommendations for the arrangement: some talk about a pit (no deeper than 1 m), others about a heap (no more than 2 m²), the third recommend a wooden box, the fourth - old metal barrels without a bottom, painted in dark colors. Old reference books claim that it is better to have 3 heaps formed in different years, then every year you can have a fresh ready-made fertilizer. This is good advice, but where on the site to place 3 heaps with an area of ​​2 m²? Immediately I would like to recall the preparations such as "Doctor Robik" or "Baikal EM", which will help to reduce the preparation of fertilizers to several weeks.

The compost heap is laid in layers. At the very bottom, branches, spruce branches, straw are placed to create drainage, and then a green layer of mown grass or weeds is alternated with a brown layer of chopped branches, paper, coarse tops. All components should be finely chopped, simply poured on top of each other without tamping. Periodically, all this is interspersed with layers of liquid manure, wood ash, nitrogen fertilizers and earth. The very top is covered with earth and covered with straw or burlap to retain moisture.

Secrets of use

If you provided the compost heap with air, heat, moisture and nitrogen, then the process will definitely go on. First, cellulose is broken down, and then, with the involvement of not only woodlice and earthworms, but also special bacteria and fungi, more and more plant residues, cellulose, wood are processed into fine-grained humus. So that there is always access to air and the movement of gases, at least once a month, the entire mass must be mixed with a shovel or pitchfork. It is very difficult to do, but necessary. Without the use of fertilizers, activators and any accelerator preparations, the preparation of humus takes 7-8 months at best, and maybe even a year and a half.

If you use "Baikal EM" or "Doctor Robik", then the process will significantly accelerate due to the attraction of effective microorganisms (EM), there will simply be more of these EMs, which are engaged in the processing of organic matter into humus. In addition, they will prevent the development of pathogenic microflora, destroy the larvae of harmful insects. These preparations should be used once a month after (or together) watering the compost heap, that is, one watering of the heap with a diluted preparation is enough to turn it into humus.

Ready-made humus smells good of earth, crumbles in the fingers. They fertilize and mulch the beds. This most useful fertilizer without contraindications can improve any soil. Only you can not plant seedlings in it, you need to mix it with the ground.

Video "How to make compost"

In this video, you can see how to prepare compost, after which you need to fertilize it to speed up maturation.