Compost! And What You Should Know About It

INTRODUCTION
Compost is a word that you hear being thrown around more and more. But what is it? Basically, composting is taking organic material such as plants and food scraps, putting them in a pile and letting nature take its course. Eventually you will get healthy, nutrient rich soil. But it’s a little more than that too.

With the environment in a sad state and the economy in ruins, people are starting to look to composting as a viable way to not only grow food cheaply, but also as a way to dispose of something that until now has always been thought of as “garbage.” Think about it. Most people use one or even two garbage cans a week. How much of that is leftover food? Instead of throwing away materials like corn husks and egg shells, try composting them. Your weekly waste will drop substantially. Many people that compost find that they no longer need garbage pickup on a weekly basis and can instead hand deliver a can or two once a month to the dump. This allows you to cut out the garbage pickup, which when added up over a period of time can be quite costly.

When you first look into composting it can be overwhelming. There’s a lot of information out there and if you have no experience, it’s hard to make heads or tails of it. Carbon and nitrogen ratios? Moisture content? Aeration? What does any of it mean? Many people give up there, while some will forego research and run headfirst into it only to experience a compost failure down the road. Composting isn’t as hard as it sounds. While some research is necessary, there’s no need to over complicate things.

THE GIST
Here’s composting in a nutshell. What makes your compost work is the bacteria that lives in it. Like any other organism, it needs a few things in order to survive. Food, water and air. The bacteria feed on the material in the compost, and just as people need a balance of nutrients, bacteria need two main types of food. The carbon and nitrogen ratio is what tells you what type of organic matter to add to your compost. You generally want around two parts of dry, brown material (carbon) for every one part of fresh, green material (nitrogen).

Water allows the bacteria to move around in the compost. Too little water means that your compost will take longer, and too much will cause it to smell. A handful should feel damp and spongy, but you shouldn’t be able to squeeze water out of it.

Your compost pile should be mixed and turned every few days. This will not only distribute moisture and prevent water pooling, it will also add air to the pile. Without air, the pile will start to smell and the composting process will slow.

THE SCIENCE
The carbon and nitrogen ratio is important. Organic material that is brown and dry has more carbon, while things that are green and wet have more nitrogen. The ideal ratio is around 25:1, that is, 25 parts carbon for every one part of nitrogen. So that means that if you want to compost twenty five pounds of dry leaves you need one pound of fresh grass? Well, no. Unfortunately it’s not quite that simple. Every type of organic material has a specific ratio. For example, fresh grass has a ratio of about 17:1, while dry leaves are around 30:1. If you’re into math, you can use this formula and feel secure in the knowledge that your compost is perfect:

%carbon = %nitrogen x carbon/nitrogen

Or you can use the preferred method and just eyeball it. As with just about everything in science there are several conflicting theories, but a general rule of thumb is to have two parts of brown material for every one part green material. If your compost starts to smell, it’s a sign that you have much nitrogen, which means you need to add some brown material. If the composting seems to be going slow, you may have too much carbon, which means green material should be added. To get the best results you should layer your compost, alternating between brown and green material.

Moisture content is next. This is just a measurement of how much water the compost is holding. The ideal moisture is around 50%. Just as with the carbon and nitrogen ratio there’s a formula you can try:

moisture content= ((wet weight-dry weight)/wet weight) x 100

When you squeeze a handful of compost it should feel damp and spongy, but no water should come out of it. Too much water can cause your compost to smell bad, while too little can significantly slow the process. Water often pools towards the bottom of the compost, so be sure to mix it frequently and distribute the moisture.

Aeration is the last major need of compost, and also the most simple. A proper compost pile has aerobic bacteria, which is bacteria that needs air to survive. If your compost doesn’t have enough air, the aerobic bacteria will be replaced with anaerobic varieties. Not only will the process slow to a crawl, your pile will also start to stink. Fortunately, all you need to do to prevent this is mix and turn your pile once every few days. When you turn your compost, be careful to use a shovel or pitchfork- healthy compost can reach temperatures of over 140˚ Fahrenheit.

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
Now that the science is out of the way, you can actually start the thing. Once you have it started, compost doesn’t need much maintenance. Even starting up doesn’t require much. Composting tends to be easiest when you keep it contained in a bin of some sort, but if aesthetics don’t matter it can also be kept in a free standing pile. If you do use a bin, you can use virtually anything. Your container should have vents in the sides to allow for air flow, and does best with an open bottom. Old pallets and fencing make excellent frames for your bin, and allow you to recycle material that would likely go unused otherwise. It’s recommended to have your compost pile be at least three feet by three feet. Though it may be daunting to start out that large, smaller piles are more sensitive to improper conditions and need more careful monitoring.

If your compost is working properly it should have an internal temperature of anywhere from 90˚f to 140˚f, and be so odorless you can keep it inside- though this is not recommended as it can be difficult to properly balance and can pose a fire hazard. Countless factors contribute to the speed of decomposition, but it can take anywhere between three to six months to be “finished.” Without maintenance, it may take as long as a year or two. The best way to get your compost rolling is to get some material out of an established composting bin. This introduces the bacteria and other organisms needed, and can speed up the process significantly.

Once your compost is finished, it should be dark and crumbly. A few large pieces of material are okay and can be added back to your pile to continue composting, but the majority of it should look like fine, healthy soil. First, rejoice! Then use your new fertilizer for whatever you like and revel in the knowledge that you’re saving both money and the environment.

Alexis Stoughton