Soil - where it all starts and ends: Compost Part Two

Compost Part Two:

This will be about what can/should be put into a compost pile and what can't/shouldn't be put in.

First what can be included: Anything that was once living, well, almost anything. Variety is important. You do not want your compost pile made up of a large proportion of a single simple material. Making good compost is like making homemade soup for the microbes, bacteria and worms who are doing all the real composting work for you.

Recycle your finished compost. Pitch a bit of the digested compost, and especially a bit of the compost which is partially digesting and still actively working, back onto the new material pile. This will give the new material a good start with lots of bacteria and bugs.

What to include; The list is almost endless but includes fruit and vegetables, grass clippings, garden prunings, twigs, healthy plants pulled from the garden, animal and human hair, vacuum cleaner dust, cotton rags, weeds, dead flowers, old potting mix and dead potted plants, straw, wood chips, old mulch, Spent mushroom compost, tree bark, sphagnum moss, kitchen scraps which includes melon rinds, potato & carrot peelings, apple cores, banana peels, onion skins, tea leaves and tea bags, Coffee grounds and filters, vegetable & fruit trimmings, spoiled potatoes.

Also....

Leaves represent a large percentage of total yard waste. If you can grind them in a gas or electric chipper shredder or mow over them, they will reduce in size making them easier to store until you can use them in the pile, and they will decompose faster - an issue with larger leaves. They are loaded with minerals and are a natural source of carbon. A few leaf species such as live oak, southern magnolia, and holly trees are too tough and leathery for easy composting.

Pine Needles need to be chopped or shredded, as they decompose slowly. They are covered with a thick, waxy coating. In very large quantities, they can acidify your compost, which would be a good thing if you have alkaline soils.

Egg shells are a wonderful addition, but decompose slowly, so should be crushed.

Wood Ashes from a wood burning stove or fireplace can be added to the compost pile. Ashes are alkaline, so add no more than 2 gallon-sized buckets-full to a pile with 3'x3'x3' dimensions. They are especially high in potassium. Don't use coal ashes, as they usually contain large amounts of sulfur and iron that can injure your plants. Used charcoal briquettes don't decay much at all, so it's best not to use them.

Garden Refuse should make the trip to the pile. All of the spent plants, thinned seedlings, and deadheaded flowers can be included. Most weeds and weed seeds are killed when the pile reaches an internal temperature above 130 degrees, but some may survive. To avoid problems don't compost weeds with persistent root systems, and weeds that are going to seed.

Spoiled Hay or Straw makes an excellent carbon base for a compost pile, especially in a place where few leaves are available. Hay contains more nitrogen than straw. They may contain weed seeds, so the pile must have a high interior temperature.

Seaweed is an excellent source of nutrient-rich composting material. Use the hose to wash off the salt before sending it to the compost pile.

There are industrial and commercial waste products you may have access to in abundance. The following is a partial list: corncobs, cotton waste, restaurant or farmer's market vegetable scraps, grapevine waste, sawdust, greensand, hair, hoof and horn meal, hops, peanut shells, rock dust, sawdust, feathers, cottonseed meal, blood meal, bone meal, citrus wastes, coffee, alfalfa, and ground seashells.

Paper can compost, but it needs to be shredded and soaked with water to speed the
process up

Beneficial herbs to add to your compost pile include:
Borage - Good source of green material - grows quickly and the high moisture content enables them to break down rapidly.
Yarrow - Packed with copper, nitrates and phosphates. Acts as a catalyst for decomposition. It is said that you don't need much to do a lot of work
German Chamomile - High in calcium. Also sweetens the compost and removes the decay smell.
Comfrey - Rich in vitamins A, B12, and C, as well as calcium, phosphorus and potassium.
Tansy - High in potassium. Easily outgrows its space in the garden, providing lots of green material.

Manure is one of the finest materials you can add to any compost pile. It contains large amounts of both nitrogen and beneficial microbes. Manure for composting can come from bats, sheep, ducks, pigs, goats, cows, pigeons, and any other vegetarian animal. Bird and animal manures are generally available to home gardeners, either as processed, composted products in bags, or in some raw form. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid manure from carnivores, as it can contain dangerous pathogens. Most manures are considered "hot" when fresh, meaning it is so rich in nutrients that it can burn the tender roots of young plants or overheat a compost pile, killing off earthworms and friendly bacteria. If left to age a little, however, these materials are fine to use.

Animal manures vary greatly in their content of fertilizing nutrients, depending on type, age, and condition of animal; kind of feed used; age and decomposition of manure; moisture content; and the litter accompanying the manure. Some manure products are composted or mixed with various plant products to achieve a preferred formulation.

Most animal and bird manures in the raw form have an analysis in the range of 0.5 to 4.5% N; 0.2 to 2.0% P; 0.4 to 2.0% K. Since they also contain micro-nutrients, bird and animal manures may be used as the sole fertilizer source in the garden. However, due to their high moisture content (60 to 90%) and relatively narrow carbon to nitrogen ratio, they are less useful for building humus in the soil than are the plant-residual materials. Thus, animal manures have great value as a nutrient source for micro-organisms in compost piles, and when mixed with plant-derived compost for direct soil application. All are beneficial as organic fertilizers.


Now for the things that should not be included:

Avoid all parts of the black walnut tree as they contain a plant poison that survives composting; eucalyptus leaves can be toxic to other plants; bay laurel leaves due to a phyto-toxin that inhibits plant growth; Sunflower seed hulls, heads, stalks are toxic to other plant life; yew trees and bushes are poisonous to people. And avoid using poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, bind weed, kudzu, and Japanese knot weed

Avoid perennial weeds - usually those that survive for longer than a year with a fleshy storage root, for example dandelions and bindweed. Also avoid weeds that have gone to seed as the seed may not be killed off in most heaps/bins.

Avoid rose thinnings as some rose diseases (especially black spot) can lie dormant in the compost. These diseases are not killed during the degradation process, and then could re-infect your roses when the compost is used.

Avoid raw meat, meat products, bacon grease, dairy products, cooked food waste, and high-fat foods like salad dressings and peanut butter, because they can present problems. Raw meat, meat scraps and the rest will decompose eventually, but will smell bad, cause sanitation problems by drawing flies or scavengers and attract pests.

Do not use leather meal products derived from leather tanning and may contain chromates.

Many people exclude hard materials from their compost pile - woody stems, fruit pits - but they do eventually digest. It depends on how patient you want to be in working your compost pile. You may find that gathering a larger quantity of seed free weeds is more efficient in producing the same quantity of compost.

Be careful of sawdust, since it can contain undesirable fungus-killing wood preservatives unless you get it from a place which you know uses untreated lumber. Plus too much sawdust can inhibit the composting action. The simplest thing is to only add sawdust when you have produced it from your own work and know that no pressure-treated wood was involved.

Newspapers are not composted here because of the idea of eating printers ink. Although I have used non-color printed newspaper pages as garden path material.

Dog, cat and other pet waste has no place in the compost pile. It may contain worms and other parasites which can get into the garden food chain. The same is true of human waste, even if it comes from a composting toilet. These things can go in a seperate compost pile for use on flowers, etc.

I know there are a lot of conflicting opinions about some of these things, especially the pet/human waste and the use of meat in compost piles. But like I said at the start of Compost part 1: Note: Keep in mind, this is basic, beginners level, you might say Compost 101.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

Thanks for the information POD.

We have a mirad of possibilities for compost here on our farm. The round bales of hay we put out for the goats in the winter makes a great start for spring compost with what's left over. The old hay decomposes, mixed in with the goats manuer can be transfered into a compost heap, and with all the trees that leaf the lawn and clippings from the yard, Voila, compost. We do use fireplace ash too as well as woodchips from the wood splitter. We give table scraps to the chickens and they get cranky if we put them in a compost pile..They watch us and eyes us suspiciously to make sure none of their 'treats' go in it, if it (leftovers) draw bugs, the chickens quickly gobble them down.

I didn't know about cotton fabric tho, as most is dyed and I was not certain that dyed materials could be used.. I knew that the ink in newspaper was not good for plants or humans. I am also causious about fireplace ash, as sometimes people want to use the fireplace as a burn barral and throw trash in it. I have noticed that people like to use a fireplace as an ashtray and throw their butts in them too.

I am glad you opened this class POD, as so many are leaning towards growing their own theses days. It is always helpful to know where and how to get started. Thanks again for all the usefull info you have posted.

Brightest Blessings
sh