Composting 101: Everything you need to know to get started

Basic knowledge about compost making

It is very important for you to know how to make your very own compost. Understanding basics about composting will help you so much. Read on and know more!

One thing you should know is that any crop needs nutrients to grow, even trees. And compost manure can be used for any crop.

The word fertilizer means food for a crop. It’s not only limited to chemical fertilizer like D compound and Urea.

To know how to make your own compost in organic farming is mandatory because it will cut the cost of buying fertilizers even organic, and improve and build your soil for life.

One thing you should know is that there are so many ways of making compost, ranging from heap compost, trench compost, pile compost, open air compost. There are also different durations for each compost to be ready. The duration for the compost to be ready is determined by Carbon and Nitrogen ratios.

You may be wondering the benefits of compost. I will list a few:

1. Compost has high moisture holding capacity, meaning even in drought prone areas, crops can do well with little water supply.
2. Has a complete and gradual supply of primary, secondary and micro nutrients to a crop like Nitrogen, Potassium, Calcium, Sulphur etc.
3. Promotes the existence of beneficial living organisms like earth worms which build the soil and improves aeration.
4. Improves soil structure and texture.
5. Has no weeds. When the temperature in the compost gets hot it destroys seeds for weeds.

These benefits and others will ensure that your crops are doing very well, disease resistant, and have a complete content of nutrients. It’s very possible to have a good looking, but nutrition deficient crop or fruit.

From the best of my knowledge and practice there is no specific standard to composting, the thing you want to achieve at the end is good soil, but there are guidelines you will have to follow. Before you start you have to know the below guidelines:

1. You need any biodegradable matter, dry or fresh. If you are using dry matter, sprinkle water on the dry material to make them wet. To quicken the process, chop them in small pieces. Fresh matter like fresh leaves are high in Nitrogen so they decompose faster. Dry stuffs take time to rot because they are high in carbon, they need nitrogen from the atmosphere to decompose. You can get fresh matter from branches of different trees, the best is leucania. It is a soil rejuvenating tree, you can use the leaves, branches and it is very fast growing.
2. You need manure, adding a variety will improve the quality of compost manure, but you can use even just one. If you have a variety, you can mix them, which includes goat, sheep, cow and chicken manure. The best manure is that of animals which chew the cud.
3. To maintain good environment for living organisms to break down your compost, you need moisture which can be done by sprinkling some water as you made the compost or using fresh biodegradable matter
4. Turning or mixing the compost is very important because it prevents bad smell and also regulate temperature so that beneficial living organisms can work on the compost, if temperature is too high the organisms will die. Turning the compost also helps in aerating the compost, because the living organisms need air to work well.
5. Carbon nitrogen ration is key in the speed of you compost, do not use saw dust, ifs very high in carbon and it will take longer to decompose meaning it will use a lot of nitrogen to decompose. The best ratio is 30:1, 30 carbon:1 nitrogen.
6. Covering the compost, is very important for it prevents the escape of moisture during dry season and the washing away of nutrients during the rainy season. Cover with a thin layer or soil or plastic with soil or suck to allow proper flow of air.
7. Putting your compost under a shade is a good idea and maintaining a good size makes it easier to turn the compost, if your field is big you can put it in different locations

There are different types of compost you can make:

1. 14 days compost,
2. 30 days compost,
3. 6 months to one year compost.

We will talk about the 30 day compost.

How to make compost

Demonstration of composting

Compost is black gold for the garden, it is one of the best food to give your crops. Today we will learn how to make a 30 days compost.

Tips for successful and fast compost:

1. Chopping the materials in small pieces, helps to decompose faster.
2. Add green materials for they decompose fast and are high in nitrogen, as well as moisture content is high.
3. Add enough nitrogen content materials, like manure and green materials, because dry materials are high in carbon.
4. Turn the compost at the right time to avoid a bad smell, and to control the high temperature which can kill living organisms which are breaking down the compost.
5. Cover the compost with a thin layer or soil or plastic without holes to prevent moisture and gases like carbon and nitrogen from escaping. These gases are supposed to be inside the compost to make golden food for the crop.
6. Aerate the compost by turning it, and ensure that you don’t not step on it because it will get compacted and destroy living organisms, because of the absence of proper gaseous exchange.
7. Put your compost under a shade not in direct sunlight because living organisms need a steady temperature, and moisture can escape easily.
8. Do not water the compost, sprinkle or better spray your compost as you add the layers and when turning.

The compost we will be making is an open air compost, which can go up to 2m high and when it is ready, the height must be below 1m if you make 2m high. Then for the width, it must not exceed 1.5m, for easier mixing and turning. The length can be as long as you want it to be, but maintain the width, you can adjust the height but follow the ratios. After turning, it must get back to the same size as of 1.5m with and the same length.

For this one I will give you that of a 2m high compost.

Materials to use

The kind of materials you use will affect the quality of your compost, I recommend growing fast growing soil rejuvenation trees and crops like leucania, Seabian, comfrey, sunhemp, buckwheat, groundnuts, sunflower, beans, cowpeas these are excellent materials to use for composting, because they are soil rejuvenation crops and trees and nitrogen content is very high.

Most of them can be ready, with all of these crops can be ready in 30 days to be used for composting.

Like for example with the leucania tree and comfrey you can be harvesting leaves for life because it is evergreen and grows very fast. It has small leaves and pods which decompose very fast and very high in nitrogen. Like comfrey the leaves can be available every two weeks.

These materials can be grown for the purpose of just composting and soil construction and rejuvenation.

Once your soil is worked on you are the king in agriculture, if you find these trees and crops anywhere, buy them, if not place an order I have them in stock.

If you don’t have these materials plan to have them, but you can still use any green materials you have at hand but I recommend the above.

When should you turn the compost?

Turning the compost is very important, with a 30 days compost turn it every after one week. Meaning 4 times in a month.

How to keep the compost?

When your compost is read, you can keep it outside, but covered with a thin layer of soil, or a plastic with holes, the longer it stays the better, and that’s under a tree or a shade to avoid direct sunlight. You can also pack it in bags.

Picture showing the layers you are supposed to put for your compost.

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