Compost pit - what is possible and what is not possible?
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COMPOST PIT: RULES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Although many gardeners use a compost pit primarily for waste disposal, this is actually the wrong approach. Unsystematic placement of plant residues leads tothe rate of compost overheating decreases, and the pit itself turns into a breeding ground for flies and rodents. To avoid this, follow simple rules.
1. A nook for compost
Under the compost pit, place a corner in the shady color of the garden, where the compost will not dry out. Dig a ditch with a volume of at least 2 cubic meters (or install a box of this size), divide it into two parts with a sheet of tin or slate. At the bottom, pour 10 cm of sawdust - they will absorb the liquid that will flow down. In the first year, fill one half of the structure, leave it to overheat. Next season you can already use the compost from it to create a warm bed.
And begin to fill the second half of the pit.
2. What can not throw
Do not throw into the compost pit:
- - Non-degradable materials (plastic, rubber, leather, glass, metal);
- - weeds with seeds;
- - cleaning and plant debris affected by diseases and pests.
3. That in a compost the flies
After each bucket of organic waste, make a layer (2-3 cm) of sawdust, peat, or hay. It’s simplest if there is always a bag with the selected “powder” next to it.
4. Speeding up the composting process
After every 20-30, see waste, spill 2-3 compost and a concentrated infusion of manure or weed - this will help to fill the hole with beneficial bacteria and microbes, which will speed up the process of overheating.
And for microorganisms to have enough nutrients, add 1 tsp to each bucket of waste. azofoski. In the drought once a week in 2-3 plenty of water compost
© Author: Anton LESHCHEV, Cand. of sciences
WHAT IS POSSIBLE AND WHAT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE IN THE COMPOST? MEMORY
Compost yeast booster
For the compost to ripen in 4-6 months, in 1 l of warm water I grow 1 Art. sugar, add 10-12 g dry yeast. When they start foaming, I shovel the shovels with deep holes in the 5-6 compost, pour the solution into each 180-200 ml of solution, I fall asleep with the ground. I repeat the procedure once every 2-3 week. Once a month I shovel the contents of the pit, trying to get to the bottom.
Oleg TITOV, city of Bobruisk
Fertilizer for one season
In order to harvest a sufficient amount of compost by the fall and then embed it into the soil, in May I fill the compost box with mowed grass, green manure and sawdust. Every 10-15 see such a mixture I shift 7-10 cm of fresh manure and sprinkle with earth, then spill 2-3 l of Baikal diluted according to the instructions. I fill the box
in 4-5 receptions with an interval of 2-3 days, so that the contents have time to settle. Then I cover it with a sheet of slate. After 2 weeks, I pierce the compost with a metal rod, leave it in it for 5-7 minutes, remove it and check if the metal is hot. If heated - the process of overheating is in progress. If not, I spill it all warm (+ 40 ... + 50 degrees.)
water, then pour another bucket of divorced according to the instructions of Baikal. I leave the rod in the compost, take it out once a few weeks. When it stops warming, the compost is ready. Usually, if I plant organics in May, at the end of September I can already apply fertilizer for digging.
Valery PEHTEROV, Knyazhitsy village
EXPRESS COUNCIL LIDIA AVERKEEVA
In order to make the compost quickly and evenly, all the waste that I send to the pit I pre-crush: weeds and twigs finely chop with an ax, mowing grass with a trimmer.
What is the problem, will tell the smell
A few years ago, a compost pit began to smell like rotten eggs. A familiar agronomist explained that such a smell appears when the compost lacks oxygen. According to his advice, several times he carefully mixed the contents of the pit and covered everything from above with straw. Literally a few days later, there was no unpleasant smell. By the way, according to the same agronomist, if the compost begins to smell sharply with ammonia, it means that too many nitrogen components were laid in the pit. To get rid of the smell, you need to add 2-3 buckets of sawdust and mix everything thoroughly.
Lyudmila UZDENEVA, Nikolaevka
CAN CAT LITER BE ADDED TO COMPOST?
Very many cats have, respectively, fillers for the tray, too, and in huge quantities - 12-15 liters of filler per month is spent on one cat. These wastes are used by our gardeners with might and main to increase soil fertility. I found out interesting things. Wood filler can be burned - you get high-quality ash for fertilizer, and it is not advised to throw it into compost. Zeolite filler is added to the soil for many plants. Bentonite is only for throwing away, because when wet it turns into viscous clay. Or maybe all this is harmful to the garden and the garden?
Marina Lukina, Istra district, Moscow region
Cat litter material is recognized as being suitable for compost or direct application to beds.
Firstly, this is how we utilize cat “waste” rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements necessary for plants (although we feed them with such expensive food for a reason).
Secondly, the granules themselves prolong the action of the fertilizer and serve as a material for improving the properties of the soil (its structure, exchange properties in the case of zeolite).
Thirdly, it is protection from mice: if you scatter the used filler in a flower bed, then loosen it, then mice and moles will not go there for several weeks. Before winter, you can scatter in the near-stem circles of trees, on planting bulbs - from mice.
Wood pellets can be introduced into the soil as a whole; when burned, the most valuable part, nitrogen, evaporates. Bentonite is not “viscous mud” at all, but a colloidal material (the more colloids in the soil, the more fertile it is), it contributes to the crumbling of clay, and not to aggravation of its viscosity.
The manufacturer is a hostage of profit, he can always cheat on such a product where there are no strict requirements (fillers are not for people!). Therefore, they can sell zeolite, worked out somewhere in the production, which is half clogged with any kind of pollutants, up to heavy metals. My intuition tells me that mining is still being disposed of, because pure mountain zeolite is too valuable a sorbent to be given to cats.
However, cat food is salted, so cat litter is high in chlorine (NaCl) and should not be used under blackcurrants, raspberries and potatoes and other chlorine sensitive crops.
LAYING A COMPOST PILE
I would like to know how to properly start a compost heap from scratch, step by step. Which plant residues can be used and which cannot?
Ksenia Krapiva. North Kazakhstan region
Answered by Nikolai Rogovtsov, agronomist
Before you start composting on your site, you need to decide on the sites for its preparation. The most suitable place is considered to be a shaded corner of the garden near outbuildings, protected from cold winds and away from the house.
The place for compost should be on a hill so that it is not flooded by spring waters.
There should be three sites: on the first one, fresh compostable materials are laid, on the second - ripening compost laid last year, on the third - ready-mature compost. On these sites, boxes without a bottom are constructed from wood, metal mesh or plastic with a volume of at least 1 cubic meter each. The front walls must be removable to remove the finished compost. There should be gaps between the boards of the box to allow air to enter the lower layers.
Can't cook compost in pits and trenches: there is not enough oxygen in them to decompose organic matter, which leads to the death of microorganisms, which decompose them. At the same time, the compost turns sour.
Before installing the boxes, the fertile layer of soil 15-20 cm thick is removed, and in its place branches of trees and shrubs, sawdust or other loose coarse material are placed in a layer of 20-30 cm to allow excess water to seep down. Then the compostable mass is laid, watered with slurry, mullein solution, 2-3% ash or lime is added (10 kg per 1 cubic meter of mass) and covered with peat, garden or turf soil in a layer of 5-6 cm and the waste is laid again. And so - layer by layer.
8 compost includes grass clippings, fallen leaves, healthy tops and peelings of vegetable crops, weeds before flowering, animal manure, bird droppings, peat, raw eggshells, straw, sawdust, shavings, paper, feathers and other natural organic materials.
To create an optimal environment in the compost heap, the raw materials need to be crushed: the smaller its fraction, the faster the compost ripens. The composting process typically takes 4-24 months depending on the materials used. To accelerate the decomposition of the components, an aqueous solution of baker's yeast with sugar or other preparations containing suitable microflora, for example, Baikal EM-1, are added to the wells.
When composting a large amount of straw, shavings or sawdust, they are sprinkled with nitrogen fertilizer (300-350 g of ammonium sulfate, 200-250 g of ammonium nitrate or 150-170 g of urea per 10-15 kg of weight).
Potato and tomato tops that are not infected with late blight, as well as potato peelings, can be composted without any worries along with all healthy plant debris, grass from lawns and green weeds before flowering.
If possible, disease-infected plant residues of all vegetable crops are composted in a separate pile, and the resulting compost is used for berry bushes and fruit trees. Compost from potato and tomato tops infected with late blight cannot be used to fertilize strawberries.
If it is not possible to compost infected plant remains of tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables separately, they can be placed in a general compost heap, pre-treated with Fitosporin-M, Alerin-B, Sporobacterin and other fungicides. In this case, the composting period is extended to 3-4 years so that the compost is fully decontaminated.
In dry weather, the compost heap needs to be watered regularly. The humidity of the composted mass should be within 55-60%. In addition, every 40-50 days after laying, the compostable mass of each layer is thoroughly mixed with a pitchfork to ventilate. Before frost, the stack is covered with film and insulated with straw, peat, and tree branches in a layer of 25-40 cm. In winter, it can be covered with snow.
See also: Compost of leaves with your own hands + decomposition speed table
WHAT YOU CAN'T LAY INTO COMPOST - VIDEO
TOOLS FOR MASTERS AND MASTERS, AND HOME GOODS ARE VERY CHEAP. FREE SHIPPING. THERE ARE REVIEWS.
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- Which mulch is better? (Reviews and advice of the candidate of agricultural sciences)
- Vegetable garden ON PEAT - what kind of care is needed
- Beer as a plant food
- Plant growth stimulants are just about complicated. Gardener memo
- How to make excellent fertilizer from sawdust with your own hands
- Bread fertilizer for tomatoes own hands
- Bird droppings as fertilizer - how, when and HOW MUCH?
- Fertilizing an orchard in autumn - how to fertilize?
- How to store compost - stack it! (storage of compost)
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All organic matter from the garden, as well as cardboard, fruit and vegetable waste, were placed in the compost bin. The box was open. After 2 years, the compost turned out to be very dense and heavy, like clay. Where is the mistake?
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— One of the main conditions for preparing compost is access to organic oxygen, which is necessary for the life of microbes. If it is not enough, then oxidation processes predominate in the mass of the compost heap, which results in the formation of mucous, foul-smelling substances.
A dense mass is formed, not much like the usual loose compost with an earthy odor. In your case, compaction of the components of the compost heap occurred due to their waterlogging. This happens in a rainy year if the pile is not covered with a lid or film.
Excess water weighs down all the materials in the pile and fills the pores between them. To remedy the situation, provide air access to the compost. Scatter it over the beds, and it will gradually compost itself in the presence of oxygen. In the future, adjust the humidity in your compost pile to avoid problems. In dry summers, water each layer of organic components when it reaches 20-30 cm. In rainy summers, cover the pile with plastic wrap to limit the entry of rainwater.
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Is it possible to compost old newspapers, cardboard boxes with inscriptions, unnecessary printouts from a home printer. Whether these materials, printing ink contain toxic substances, heavy metals. Will they harm the plants later if you put such paper products in the compost?
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Such studies were carried out in England, at the Center for Alternative Technologies. In a series of experiments, no negative effect was found either on the development of plants or on their chemical composition. Of course, in the past, printing ink contained lead and ink was made from metals, but now both are usually made on a plant basis and completely decompose during the composting process.
You can not put plastics in the compost, as well as glossy wrapping paper, bags for drinks, in a word, something that does not rot and only pollutes the earth.
O. NOSKOVA, agronomist
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We have only broken glass, plastic bottles, cans, cellophane in the trash. Everything that can rot - food waste, cardboard, paper - I collect during the winter, and in the spring I take it to the dacha. And it is not necessary to buy a special bucket for collecting waste, it is expensive.
You need to take a dense large (60 l) plastic bag and prick holes at the bottom with a fork. Put the bag on a plastic bucket, in which there is an inverted plate at the bottom to collect the formed liquid.
The bag contains waste that needs to be sprinkled with wheat bran with an EM preparation. We send the filled bag to the garage until spring, and then to the compost heap in the country. You can make warm beds.
Yes, I forgot, the package is collected gradually: they put the waste, sprinkled it with bran - after that it is necessary to tightly tie the bag and put a load (brick, eggplant with water) on top so that excess moisture leaves the bag.
We have already written how potato peels help currants. I used to make grooves, put cleanings in them and covered them with earth.
Now I’m doing it easier: I scatter the cleaning under the bushes, put cardboard on top (I collect it specially in winter), and put compost, or sawdust, or manure on top of the cardboard. Earthworms are happy, and currants thank you for a good harvest.
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The potatoes stored in the cellar sprouted strongly, became shriveled and tasteless, some tubers rot. Can crop residues be composted? Or are they suitable for something else?
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- For composting, with the right approach, any organic matter, including rotten potato tubers, is suitable. But it must be remembered that, when sending rotting organic matter or plant residues with signs of diseases to the compost, it is necessary to wait until they are completely rotted. In appearance, the finished compost cannot be distinguished from the soil, it should not have an unpleasant odor (usually it smells like earth after rain), not rotten plants. It should be free-flowing, moderately moist and non-sticky.
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I have not made compost pits for a long time. And I build compost heaps simply: I put all the weeded out weeds in one strip all season and sprinkle them with mown grass. And I have such a fertile bed every year in a new place. On it, I always planted zucchini, pumpkins and cucumbers, which always bore good fruit.
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1. How long does it take to get ready-made compost from quail litter with sawdust? 2. Soil for seedlings: in addition to all components, what peat should be added and how much? Low or high?
3. I repeatedly read the advice of gardeners that when fermenting grass, to obtain grassy “kvass”, ash with superphosphate and manure is added to the tank, and in other publications it is argued that ash should not be mixed with mineral fertilizers and manure. Where is the truth? And in what cases can fresh baker's yeast be added?
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Since last year, there are a lot of old potatoes. Animals in the country there, and throw the tubers in the forest do not want.
Can I put them in a compost pile?
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Older and sprouted potato tubers are undesirable for nutrition. But to throw them into the forest from all points of view is not good. 1 kg of tubers contains 0,7 g of calcium, 0,6 g of phosphorus, 40,7 mg of iron, a number of other trace elements, as well as proteins, vitamins and a number of amino acids. And all this is very necessary for vegetable plants. On the other hand, late blight and other diseases of solanaceous crops are transmitted through potato tubers.
The best option: chop the potato tubers and place in an old barrel for insulated composting. Cover all this with weeds and leave until spring. After the winter freezing from pathogens, little will remain. Next year, this material can be laid in warm ridges under pumpkin cultures or they can grind berries.