Composting is an excellent way to convert organic waste into beneficial garden fertilizer, how to speed up your composting.
Simply place kitchen scraps in a composting container, such as carrot peelings and cabbage cores. Composting is often done outside, although worm composting can be done either outside or indoors. You’ll need to speed up the composting process if you want to use the completed compost to fertilize your plants right away. Here are seven methods for hastening decomposition and producing fertilizer.
Worms for Compost
Outside, in a compost bin or compost pile, cold composting is typically done. Plant materials and food leftovers are broken down mostly by microbes in this system. It takes six to a year for cold composting to create useful compost.
Composting worms are used in vermicomposting to swiftly decompose plant materials and food scraps. Within a few months, you’ll have finished compost.
Cold composting alone takes longer to create finished compost than combining the two procedures. In addition, nutrient-dense worm castings are included. More information about the advantages of worm castings can be found here.
Keep Moisture in Check
Water, but not too much, is required for the bacteria in your compost pile. Like a wrung-out sponge, your compost should be wet. Sprinkle in a little water if your compost becomes too dry. Add dry material, such as fall leaves, if it becomes too humid (or, if you have composting worms, more bedding).
The Air Flow
When aerobic microorganisms, or bacteria that require oxygen, are present in the composting bin, the composting process works optimally. When there isn’t enough oxygen, anaerobic (oxygen-free) bacteria take control, but the breakdown process slows. Furthermore, under anaerobic conditions, the compost starts to smell terrible. The oxygen essential for fast decomposition is provided by using a bin with sufficient airflow or stirring your compost on a regular basis. Tumbler composters make it simple to provide adequate airflow to all parts of your compost.
Winter Comfort
Nothing occurs if you leave your compost bin outside all winter. Consider the plant waste in your composter to be food for your home. Food can last for months in the freezer. Food can last for days or weeks in the refrigerator. Food left out on the table or in a compost pail, on the other hand, will deteriorate and begin to degrade swiftly. We want the plant matter to decompose when we make compost. When the outside air temperature is warmer, the breakdown process will accelerate up. In the winter, learn how to compost using worms.
Composting is sped up by using chopped plant material.
You’ll still have whole leaves in your compost bin in the spring if you placed complete leaves in your compost bin in the fall. You can get fantastic compost in time for spring planting if you cut up those leaves before putting them in your bin in the fall. Use a lawnmower or a leaf shredder to break up the leaves. Allowing the leaves to dry and stepping on them is a lot of fun for the youngsters!
Fill Your Bin with Waste
A larger amount of stuff will degrade more quickly than a little amount. If you’re using worms to compost, be careful not to overfeed them.
Speed up compost processing time to balance carbon and nitrogen.
Your composting bin’s processing time will be sped up by balancing your high-carbon components with high-nitrogen ones. Most of the substances listed below are not advised if you’re composting with worms. Composting Worm Feeding Guide can be found in our article.
Dried leaves, straw, and wood chips, for example, are brown and dry high-carbon materials. Green materials, like grass clippings, or colored materials, such fruit and vegetable peels, are high in nitrogen. Manure from horses and cows, for example, does not adhere to this guideline. Manure is a high-nitrogen substance that is brown in color.
A carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of roughly 20:1 results in the most efficient composting. This means you’ll need roughly 20 times the amount of dried leaves as fruit peels (by volume).
Carbon-to-nitrogen ratios for common materials are shown in a chart from Cornell Waste Management Institute, based on dry weight. High-nitrogen materials have a low first number, while high-carbon compounds have a high first number. (Keep in mind that the content of some of these resources varies.)
Here are the carbon-to-nitrogen ratios for some typical materials:
Poultry manure, from 3:1 to 15:1
Cow manure, 20:1
Horse manure, from 20:1 to 50:1
Food waste, about 15:1
Fresh grass clippings, 15:1
Sun-dried grass clippings, 20:1
Oak leaves, 40:1 to 80:1
Straw, 50:1 to 150:1
Sawdust, 200:1 to 750:1
Newsprint, 400:1 to 850:1
Corrugated cardboard, about 560:1
In Summary: Speeding the Composting Process
The composting process can be sped up or slowed down depending on a number of variables. T
emperature, the amount of material you’re composting, the brown-to-green matter ratio, and the size of the material all play a role. Composting worms, one of nature’s assistants, can cut processing time in half. In the United States, Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm is the leading provider of composting worms, especially Red Worms.
