Forced Aeration May Produce Stable Compost That Is Not Mature
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- Опубліковано 3 кві 2024
- Most of us appreciate and expect compost to be mature. We assess maturity using a stability test. Our compost may be stable but not mature! Forced air compost systems in particular, allow us to stabilize the compost by drying it, but it may not be mature. Dry immature compost may heat and create odor when its rewetted. It also may contain high fecal coliform that survive the high temperatures early in the process. Immature but stable compost may be fine for some applications, but not for all. It would be good to know!
Buying compost is such a lottery, I'm glad I no longer need to after I started making my own.
Great video as always thanks for sharing your knowledge🇳🇿
Thank you too
Great point!
I've run into this making leaf mold soil, rushing using last year's ground leaves the next june. When I grind leaves in the fall, if it's a warm fall and I can get 1 strong hot cycle and 1 warm cycle, plus another turn of the pile, the next spring I can screen that pile and let it sit for another month, then it's usable as stable and mature in june........ but, if I don;t get enough turns of the pile in and get that last screening in april done early, that pile can;t be used until July. It really needs the 1.5 months in april/may to go hot/warm again.... or, I'll end up with stable leaf mold soil, not mature.....stable, but immature leaf mold in a 100 gallon pot can run a bit hot again, causing some stress on baby plants and seedlings, where as mature leaf soil will not produce any such outcomes.......
Anyhow, you must grind your leaves, make the pile at least 3 cubic yards, and get 3 turns (covering on after the 3rd) in before winter for success by next june.... it's damn near impossible to get fall leaves viable for next spring, when used as the sole soil medium for growing (like a peat moss or coco, but much, much better). This all only applies to northern latitudes, as it's easy to keep microbial activity in southern leaf mold or compost piles throughout the winter.
I think there are also leachates coming of the leaf mold piles, like tannins and such, that plants really don;t like.....so you kinda have to leave the pile exposed to the elements some, rather than coveredall the time, as a way of moving those tannins and such off the pile when it rains (or you have to water the pile occasionally). WHen you soak an oak leaf, some remarkable stuff leaches into the water. I am pretty sure some of that needs time and composting for viable leaf mold soil. It appears you can grow just about anything with deep, mature leaf mold soil beds......add aerated compost tea feeding if you want stellar plant health and production.
I just wait another year. The leaf mold pile from the fall of 2022, is really good looking now.
The leaf mold compost from the fall of 2023 will probably be finished in august, since i have not turned it enough. But I will probably not use it until spring 2025.
@@bsod5608 yeah, if you can get ahead of things, it's nice... but what I described above is for trying to get fall leaves usable the next june in northern climates....stable and mature..... I make about 15 yards a year.... some being aged wood chip/bark medium.
what do you grow with your leaf mold soil?
Well, I changed my setup. I think that my pond air pump and the setup that I was using is not sufficient enough to make a real difference and to make it worth to pay for the energy. I had turned it of and I did not notice any difference. A larger pile with a larger blower fan would be better, but I can't do that here in my urban setting. I might revisit the concept at a later stage. Maybe that it will work better with different pipes that cover the footprint from the pile a bit better and that have larger holes, or something like that. What I was using now was not intended to be used for this purpose.
So for now I have put my pile on top of pallet, and instead of a conical shaped pile I stacked my pile straight up, and I created some holes in the pile so that air can flow from the bottom to the top. I also added some more bio mass, but I think that my nitrogen and carbon ratio is still not optimal, at least not for the ambient temperatures that we have right now. I think that the pile has too much carbon, but during the summer I can collect and add more nitrogen rich material to the pile, so that is what I am going to do.
However, it is not all bad because there is a composting process happening because the pile does reach 25C, and the pile is also packed with worms. So at the bare minimum I will get good vermicompost. But I realize that I need to be patience and that eventually the fungi will complete the composting process. And the pile even might start the hot composting process after all as soon as the weather gets substantial warmer and when I have added some more nitrogen rich material.
This weekend the temperatures go up substantially for a couple of days, Saturday the temperature might even reach 25C, so I am curious to see what that is going to do with the temperature inside the pile. I will post updates on my channel if something noteworthy changes.
The worms flourishing is fantastic - it suggests also that the moisture is likely higher than 70%, which makes hot composting a bit more complicated. The worms will make great compost for you!
@@TransformCompostThank you for your reply. It might be a bit too wet indeed. I will let it evaporate some moisture and see what happens. And if the worms beat the bacteria and fungi it is also good. 👍
I can accept stable, but not mature compost. But i would not pay anything for immature compost...
not mature and immature are synonymous....?
@@curiousbystander9193 i dont pay for immature compost.
But I accept it, if it gets delivered home for free. For instance a nearby stable deliver horse manure for free.
immature compost can add nutrients and organic matter for agricultural soils, the concern is the potential high levels of fecal coliform and E. coli that survive the high temperature and feed on the remaining readily available carbon
@@TransformCompost question, are folks who put a layer of leves on their garden each fall robbing the spring seedlings of nutrients?.....My brother does this, like 2 inches in the fall, and I maintain there's a better way.
Wouldn't this be illeagal, if it has not gone through a thermfilic phase in your country
Ah, here is the interesting part. We assume that high temperatures kill fecal coliform, and they will not regrow. This has proven to be incorrect. you are welcome to look up a term called VBNC - Viable But Not Culturable. It seems like some of these microbes "wake up" again when conditions are more favorable. The second crucial part of eliminating fecal coliform and E. coli during a composting process is to compost long enough to decompose all the readily available carbon - which is what fecal coliform require. It is well documented that mature composts will be much less likely to contain fecal coliform.
@@TransformCompost ok, so it is now called thermotolerant coliform.
a faculative anerobe. Interesting.
I only source O.M from my own property, no chance of contamination.