Faster Compost - Speed Up Your Composter
While every gardener knows that compost is one of the best additions we can make to the garden, many struggle with getting compost from their composter in a timely manner. Here are some tips to getting your garden compost bin working faster.
For most gardeners we want to have more compost than is available. Compost is a great addition to the soil for a variety of reasons. It improves the tilth of the soil, which improves drainage while allowing the soil to retain water better in hot weather. Compost also buffers the soil pH, reducing acidity of acid soils and the alkalinity of alkaline soils. Sifted compost is a good seed starting medium, great for those small seeds like carrots.
While the exact ratio of high carbon to high nitrogen materials doesn’t have to be exact, it does help to make sure that we don’t have too much of one or the other. Avoid using all one type of compost material like leaves or lawn clippings. Try about an even mix of brown and green materials for you composter, and it should heat up without overheating and smelling.
Breaking down the physical size of the pieces of compost material for your pile will help speed it up. That cuts down on the work the compost pile hast to do, and it exposes more of the internal cell structure of the plant material to the activity of the pile. Break down the big stalks and branches with a pruner or saw, and chop up smaller material by running mower over it. You may want to buy a electric chipper shredder to do a thorough job.
Processing compost in batches works well for faster composting. Once you have a pile working, start another pile or keep your kitchen waste in a kitchen compost crock. One idea is to have a small compost bin near the house, and move the contents to a larger pile in the yard for a large batch of compost.
The more often you can turn the pile, the more active it will be and the faster the compost will break down. This has the dual advantage of bringing fresh composted material into the hotter center of the pile, while improving the air flow throughout the pile as well, refreshing the oxygen supply to the microbial activity in the hot middle of the pile.
The ideal moisture level is a pile that is like a damp cloth. Don’t let it get too much water, which can cause a smelly slimy mess, and conversely too little water can lead to an inactive compost pile. This leads to the need to make sure you can keep water from getting in during times of heavy rains. Try a few of these tips and turbocharge your composter this season.