2008 SOLARFEST

Compost: The Secret Recipe

Wendy Sue Harper, Ph.D.
Vegetable and Fruit Technical Assistance
Advisor
Northeast Organic Farming Association
of Vermont

www.nofavt.org
 Questions and Answers
• What do you want to get out of this talk?
• Rot is Hot—but does it have to heat up?
• What’s the best recipe for me?
• How long have humans made compost?
• Why is compost brown?
• Which birds make hot compost— better than some people?
• What are three things you should not compost?
• How do small compost organisms get from pile to
pile?
• Why does compost suppress some plant diseases,
and which ones are suppressed best?
 Today’s Session
• Questions
• Compost through the ages
• Who’s doing this for you?
• Principles of Composting
– Recipes
– Methods
– What not to compost
• Composts value
• Composts use
• Questions
• Resources
Compost Through the Ages
• Native and ancient peoples
• U.S. presidents
• Albert Howard
• Rodale Institute, BioCycle
Richmond Then and Now
• NOFA’s and MOFGA’s
• Towns and cities
New Farm
• Researchers at universities

• Farmers and gardeners have always composted.

 What is Compost?
• Compost is the biological reduction of
organic wastes to humus. (Golueke)

Scientific American, 1991

 The Brush Turkey

Scientific American, 1991

Mound builders are “Megapodes,” big feet, (family Megapodiidae)

 What is Compost?
• Compost is the biological decomposition of
organic matter under controlled aerobic
conditions. In contrast, fermentation is the
anaerobic decomposition of organic matter .
(Epstein)
What is the Secret of Compost?

Tulane Uni.

It is all about biology.

DFW SMB
The Ecology of Compost

DFW
 Think About Scale in this Watery
World
• Microscopic organisms: swim in thin
skins of water that coat particles in
compost
• Medium size mites: walk knee-deep in
water in pores
• Bigger organisms like insects and
worms: make pores in compost
 Microflora Swimmers: Bacteria

DFW

SMB SMB

SMB
 Microflora Swimmers:
Actinomycetes

SMB
SMB

SMB
Microflora Swimmers: Fungi & Molds

Mold

SMB
DFW
Fungi
SMB

University of Edinburgh

SMB
 Microflora Swimmers: Fungi
SMB

Parasitic
Saprophytic SMB
 Compounds Produced:
SMB

Lignin becomes humus

SMB

SMB
Fungal Phenolic Compounds

SMB

SMB SMB

Melanin Granules
SMB SMB
Microflora Swimmers: Yeast

SMB

SMB
 A Plant Virus
Viruses
SMB

SMB

Plant Cell
 Microflora Swimmers: Algae
SMB

SMB

SMB
 Microfauna Swimmers: Protozoa

SMB
DFW Amoebas
Flagellates

DFW

Tulane University
Ciliates
 Microfauna Swimmers: Rotifers

Microscopy-UK

DFW

Microbus
 Microfauna Swimmers: Nematodes
SMB SMB

SMB

DFW Captured
Nematodes
DFW

Parasitized
Nematode

Interesting Relationships and

Fungal Population Checks and Balances.
Hyphae
Nooses
Mesofauna: Walk Knee-Deep in Water

DFW
DFW
Beetle Mite
Mold Mite
Soil-USDA

DFW
Predatory Mite
 More Interesting Relationships!!
Phoresy: Detritivore Hitchhikers

DFW

Sucker Disc

DFW

DFW
Immature
Mites
Phoretic
Nematodes
DFW
Mesofauna: Walk Knee-Deep in Water
Spring Tails

DFW
Bark Lice DFW

DFW
DFW
Pseudoscorpion Feathered-winged
Beetle
 Macrofauna: Pore Makers

DFW
DFW White Worms or Potworms
Earthworms

Millipede

DFW
 Macrofauna: Pore Makers

Ispod, Pill or Sow Bug

DFW
DFW
Land Snails DFW Maggots or Fly Larvae

Slug
DFW
 Macrofauna: Pore Makers
Ground Beetle

Centipede

DFW

DFW

Ants

DFW
 Macrofauna: Pore Makers

DFW
Wolf Spider
DFW
Land Planarian,
Flat Worm or
Turbellaria
The Ecology of Decomposition
& Soils

DFW
 Principles of Composting
• C:N Ratios
– Recipe
• Moisture Balanced with Oxygen
– Recipe
– Particle Size
• Temperature
– Recipe
– Size of pile
– Microbes and Macrobes
– Time
• Management
– Assess Your Level of Interest
The Process in a Compost Pile:
• Microbial enzymatic digestion needs:
• C, N, O2, H2O, Microbes, Volume for warmth,
Others?

H2O Vapor, CO2, Heat

On-Farm Composting Handbook

The Hot Composting Process

Active Phase

Curing Phase

Cornell University Waste Management Institute

 Hot Compost Process Reviewed

• Stage 1: Quick digestion (1-2 days)

• Stage 2: Thermophilic digestion of cellulose

(several weeks to months)

• Stage 3: Curing Phase recolonization by

mesophiles (up to 4 months)
 C:N Ratio
• If hot compost is desired, the ratio preferred is
about 25-30:1, but 20-40:1 is acceptable.
• High C materials: straw, hay, woody materials,
dried corn stalks, paper wastes.
– Not are Carbon behaves the same.
• High N materials: manures, green material, food
wastes.
• Start with 1 handful of N wastes to 3 of C wastes.
• Cornell’s WWW site for recipe design:
– http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_Homepage.html
Cornell University Waste Management Institute
 What NOT to Compost
• Plants diseased with a virus
• Organic materials treated with toxic substances
– PT lumber wastes
• Plastics
• Pet wastes
• Coal ash
• Plants containing poisonous substances
Cuke: University of Illinois Extension

• **Weeds gone to seed

• **Diseased plants (non-virus)
• **Meat, dairy, food oil
 Moisture Balanced with O2
• If hot compost is desired, a range of 50-60% is
preferred, but 40-65% is acceptable.
• Field Test: Compost should feel like a damp
sponge. Moist, but you can’t ring water out of it.
• Generally, if the C:N ratio is OK, moisture is
OK.
• Cornell’s WWW site for recipe design
– //http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_Homepage.html
• Particle size and thus pile porosity are
important too!
Proper Moisture Too Much Moisture

Cornell University Waste Management Institute

Getting Oxygen into the Pile:
Good Porosity

Cornell University Waste Management Institute

Desired Recipe Characteristics:
Characteristic Reasonable Preferred Range
Range
Carbon to 20:1-40:1 25:1-30:1
Nitrogen Ratio

Moisture Content 40-65% 50-60%

pH 5.5-9 6.5-8.5

Oxygen Content Minimum 5%

On-Farm Compost Handbook

 Temperature
• Thermophilic • Mesophilic
– over 40oC or 105oF – 10- 40oC or 50-105oF
– Destroy Weed Seeds – Less Management
– Destroy Pathogens SMB – Less labor
– Quicker – More Disease
– More Management Suppression
– More Labor – Slower
– Less Disease – May Not Destroy
Suppression Weed Seeds and
– Microorganisms: Pathogens
SMB
Bacteria, and Fungi – Micro and Macro-
and Actinomycetes Organisms Involved

SMB
 Management

VS.

Compost a Recipe for Trouble!

 Aerobic Methods

• Small piles and bins

• Windrows

• Passive aeration

On-Farm Compost Handbook

Gardener’s Easy Practical Compost Method
• In bins or free standing.
• Build pile by adding 1 handful
of green/wet stuff for every 3 SOIL

handfuls of brown/dry stuff, ORGANIC MATERIALS

added overtime. SOIL

• Add soil/old compost for odor ORGANIC MATERIALS

control.
1-2” SOIL

1-2” manure
6-8”

• Turn and rebuild pile in fall,

ORGANIC MATERIALS - Grass, leaves, weeds, etc.
SOIL
LINE

mix in garden cleanup debris.

• Wait 2-3 years before using. Cross Section of Layering in Compost Bin

• Do not add weeds gone to seed

or plants infected with viruses.
 Troubleshooting (Summer)
• Wet and stinky? • Add C materials and
turn in sunny weather.
Shape to shed water.
Break up matting or
compaction.
• Dry not working? • Add N materials and
turn when raining.
Shape to hold water.
• No heat when turned? • Look at material if
dark and crumbly with
good earth smell, may
be curing. No? Check
size and see above.
 What Composting Does for You!
1. Decrease bulk of the pile (CO2 gas)
2. C:N ratio
3. Odor
4. Hot composting kills weed seeds & pathogens
5. Cool composting provides disease suppression
6. Humified (turning to humus) material is a slow
release fertilizer
7. Wastes become useful material
Î gardener’s brown gold
 Compost Improves Soil Fertility
Soil Fertility is
The ability of a soil to provide a physical,
physical
chemical,
chemical and biological environment for
the plant that is health sustaining.

This is along term ecosystem

based or ecological agriculture
perspective!
 Promote Soil Tilth with Compost
• All the physical properties of soil related to plant growth
– Including: structure, drainage, aeration, moisture holding
capacity, bulk density
– It aggregates soil creating structure.
• And Thus:
– Drainage and aeration in clay soils (macropores)
– Water holding capacity in sandy soils (micropores)
– Lower bulk densities

*Cause it creates the missing pores!*

Macropore hold air and drain—between soil aggregates
Micropores hold water—within soil aggregates

OM = Drought Prevention Insurance

 Promote Diverse Soil Organisms
with Compost
• Provides food and energy for organisms
• Stimulate plant root growth SMB

• Stimulate diverse communities of

microorganisms
• Suppress diseases: fungal best

SMB

SMB
 Promote Soil-Plant Nutrition with
Compost
• Increase Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC)
• Over-time builds N, P, S & micronutrients
• Chelation or complexing of metals
• Help to buffer soils pH reaction

K+
 Using Compost
• Mulch or top dressing
• Soil amendment
• Potting mix ingredient

Scientific American, 1991

Questions?
 Useful Compost Resources
• The Rodale Book of Composting
by Deborah L. Martin & Grace Gershuny.
Rodale Press. 1992.
• On-Farm Composting Handbook
by Robert Rynk. NRAES-54. 1992.

• Cornell’s WWW site:

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_Homepage.html
• ATTRA’s WWW site:
– http://attra.ncat.org/
 Biological Slide References
• DFW: The Decomposer Food Web: Ecology
of organisms of compost and soil litter by
Dr. Daniel Dindal, Professor Emertius, Soil
Ecologist, SUNY-Syracuse

• SMB: Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry

from Soil Science Society of America
The End