5C Reid Importance of Composting

you need a minimum of 1 cubic foot of raw materials, of course, more is better.

You’ll have much better success if you refrain from adding raw materials to your batch of working compost

To increase the efficiency of the composting process, mix the heap to bring more of the raw materials from the outside to the core.

You’ll need to build or buy a worm composting “farm” if you want to dispose of your kitchen scraps by vermicomposting.

Compost tea is simply the result of soaking a bag full of compost in a bucket full of water for an hour or so. The water soluble nutrients and beneficial microorganisms leach out of the compost, resulting in a brown liquid that can be used to water houseplants, your lawn, or garden plants.

Compost tea will give your plants a boost of needed nutrients and help to prevent a lot of plant diseases

Don’t add these ingredients to your compost pile:

Add compost in spring and fall, and till it in.

Compost can be used throughout the season as a garden fertilizer.

Compost is the single best additive for good

Screened compost (compost that has been sifted to collect the smaller particles) can be applied as a lawn fertilizer throughout the season

Mulch is any material that is applied to the garden’s surface to prevent weed germination and to reduce water evaporation.

Compost can be used to create a very good seed starting mix, or it can be added to potting soil to create a nutrient-rich mixture

Because the composting process takes at least several weeks under the best conditions, you cannot add additional materials to the heap without “resetting the clock” to day one

The organic material can be plant material or animal matter

Disadvantages of Open Bin Composting

Kitchen Waste Composting does not Follow Seasonal Cycles

It needs carbon to balance it out, and often in an urban area, carbon is in short supply

Kitchen scraps are very wet and as they start to decompose, they produce even more water.  This water can overwhelm a barrel or worm bin system, or any pile that is not set up to drain well

Pests, both big and small are potential companions for a compost pile made of kitchen scraps.

The small pests like fruit flies and flies are best deterred by making sure that all the scraps are buried completely in whatever system you use.  Since your pile needs air to decompose, know that insects will have no problem finding your morsels.

When your kitchen waste composting attracts larger pests like rats, dogs and raccoons, this can make your neighbors decide that your green living has got to stop.

Winter, summer, snow or rain, every day you produce kitchen scraps. But while you produce kitchen scraps rain or shine, the organisms which drive decomposition take the winter off.  So all winter long, you add to the compost pile, and you have no garden debris to add carbon, and the temperatures slow decomposition to a halt.

Then in the spring, the whole thing gets overwhelmed.

. Composting with worms avoids the needless disposal of vegetative food wastes and enjoy the benefits of a high quality compost.

It is done with "redworms" (Eisenia foetida) who are happiest at temperatures between 50= and 70= F and can be kept indoors at home, school, or the office. As with outdoor composting, it is best to avoid putting bones, meats, fish, or oily fats in the worm box as they emit odors and may attract mice and rat

The redworms are placed in a box or bin which can be built or purchased, along with "bedding" of shredded cardboard and/or paper moistened to about 75% water content. The container should be wide enough so that food scraps can be buried in a different location each time. The dimensions of the container and the amount of worms required initially will depend on how much organic food waste will need to be composted each week.

The worms will gradually reproduce or die according to the amount of food they receive. A sudden addition of a large amount of food waste may attract fruit flies, so increases should be made gradually.

About four to six months after the box has been started, the worms will have converted all of the bedding and most of the food waste into "castings" which will need to be harvested so the process can begin again.