Mazuria Ecolodges

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You now have a nice pile of compost ready for use, so how can you use it?
The soil should be breaked down but not returned, nor too wet or too dry. Spread compost instead in the spring or fall and let it penetrate slightly into the ground (with a rake for example).
The compost can be used half done or mature (see article “the successful compost”):

• Compost half done acts as a fertilizer boost. Ban it for planting seedlings, young plants and avoid it for vegetables if it contains human excrement. Reserve it for the fruit trees, roses and ornamental shrubs
• Mature compost have a smooth and more durable action. It is suitable for all uses. Only a few vegetables should not receive compost (see below)

After adding compost to the soil, cultivate first plant requiring a lot of organic matter, then requiring little contribution and after a not tolerating an input into compost. Make a 2-3 years rotate locations.

Which plants for which quantity of compost?

• Fruit trees and berries: 3 kg/m2/year between feet trees and plants as compost will not be in contact with trons or stems. The strawberries, raspberries and blueberries prefer acid compost (from a lot of dead leaves)
• Roses: 3 kg/m2/2years
• Trees and shrubs with ornamental perennials: 1 kg/m2/2years
• Annual Plants: 1 kg/m2 before planting
• Lawns: 500g to 1 kg/m2/3-5 years
• Potplants: 1 / 3 of mature compost, 1 / 3 soil and 1 / 3 sand
• Vegetables demanding compost (> 3 kg/m2/year):
• Only mature compost: celery, cabbage, spinach, rhubarb
• All-compost: eggplant, artichokes, cucumbers, squash, strawberry, gherkins, leek, pepper, chili, corn, melons, potatoes, tomatoes
• Vegetables little demanding compost (<3 kg/m2/year):
• Only mature compost: peas, parsley, lettuce, salsify, beets, beans, chicory, carrots
• All-compost: asparagus
• Vegetables not requiring compost:
• Herbs, onion, garlic, brussels sprouts, shallots, beans, mash, turnips, radishes

Compost is almost second nature to you now! Good crops!

The compost allows you to exploit all your organic waste into fertilizer for the soil: humus. The humus is an effective fertilizer, which also limits appearance of diseases and pests. So it not only reduces the contents of dustbins and save on the purchase of chemical fertilizer, but it also permit to work without pesticides and herbicides that pollute our environment and threaten our health.
The soil is a real ecosystem that needs to regenerate itself by recycling the organic matter. If it is not the case, the soil become poor, subsided, asphyxiated and ultimately sterile (regions of the world practicing intensive farming know something about that)
So how successful a good compost?
Four essential conditions must be met to get the right balance:

• Ventilated environments: microorganisms involved in the decomposition are aerobic organisms, they need oxygen. If the anaerobic micro-organisms develop themself, they are causing then the putrefaction recognizable with odors that emerge. It is good to know that the nitrogen materials are subsided themselves more than the carbonaceous materials
• A good moisture : a surplus of water asphyxiate the middle and a lack hampers composting. The nitrogen materials are rather wet and carbon ones dry .
• High temperature : composting actors are more effective if the temperature is high. A voluminous and well-sheltered heap can reach temperatures of over 60°C, destroying seeds and pathogens
• The right proportions of nitrogen and carbon : 30 to 40 times more carbon than nitrogen are needed to get a good compost. Think in making your heap (see article on composting materials)

How to make a good compost heap?

• Select a location in the shade, protected from the wind. A deciduous foliage hedge is perfect for protecting the compost heap
• Realize the heap on the floor, especially not in a hole
• It will be convenient to mount your pile near the house and neer a water point
• Protect access to the pile by a barrier to avoid problems with children and animals
• Arrange 5 cm of straw, sticks or dry wood chips at the base of the heap to ensure proper ventilation
• Protect your pile of cold, light, wind and excess water by placing on top of the pile after each addition of new organic matter either straw or leaves or grass or dried ferns. Put some water to flatten this layer on the heap.
• To expedite the process, it is possible to turn over the heap after the temperature peak, by ensuring that the center of the pile will contain the parts previously on the periphery. The composting activity will be boosted and the temperature will rise and other time.
• When your heap will be a meter in diameter by one meter high, start a new heap

By turning over the pile, compost can be ready in 6 months, otherwise he must wait one year. If you compost of human excrement, we must wait for a year to use it and you must use the straw activated method (see toilet rubric on this site)
A half done compost is recognizable thanks to its brown color, materials are no longer recognizable, and it contains many red worms. It’s rather wet and sticky.
A mature compost is recognizable to the small number of red worms on it, it is dark, thin in appearance, soft to the touch and not sticky. Its scent is the undergrowth.

And now you can go to work!

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Compost is a story of good proportion of carbonaceous materials and nitrogen. The best for micro-organisms actors of the compost (they produce proteins from nitrogen and minerals and find their energy from sugars from the carbonaceous material in decay) is to have 30 to 40 times more carbon than nitrogen
The compost materials rich in nitrogen are :

• Lawn clippings
• Young green and tender plant materials,
• Waste-meat or fish
• Peel and kitchen leftovers
• Urine
• Faeces
• Droppings of pets
• Chicken manure
• Strawed manure already composted

The compost materials rich in carbon are :

• Leaves of oak or sycamore
• Stalks dried flowers
• Old-wood and bark
• Oat, barley or wheat straw
• Sawdust and wood chips
• Paper
• Cardboard

The compost materials already having a good C / N ratio are :

• Leaves of fruit trees, alder, elder, hazel and ash
• Hay
• Spring-size shrubs
• Fresh straw-manure from horses, cattle, sheep, rabbits and goats

Tips:

• Rake dead leaves with the lawn mower, they will be crushed and mixed with the grass and everything will be a perfect starting point for the compost heap
• Absolutely avoid a large pile of freshly mowed grass on your compost heap, let grass dry before or mix it with carbonaceous materials before
• Coarsely grind all the carbonaceous material, it will be composted easily and participate in aerate the compost heap
• If you compost essentially left over of the kitchen, recover untreated sawdust and mix it with your waste
• Limit citrus fruits because they are too acid, in all cases turn into small pieces skins
• Limit bones and fish bones because they are slow to decompose. In all cases grind them with a hammer for example, before putting them on the compost heap
• Moderate intake of wood ash (rich in minerals but with lots of lime disrupting microorganisms)
• Lawyers and cabbage are to be introduced into small pieces
• Hulls almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts must well crushed before joining your compost heap
• Shellfish and egg shells will be even crushed and added in small quantities
• Do not hesitate to compost fruit and vegetables rotted naturally (but not those with diseases!)
• Avoid seeds, which will tend to sprout on the compost, add only dry roots and crush the potatoes so that they will not grow on the compost heap
• Add dregs and tea bags but only if the filters or bags are made of paper
• Compost tissues and paper towels, toilet paper and wipes if any are neither bleached or colored or flavored
• Paper and cardboard can be composted into smaller pieces if they are virgins glue, ink and color. But it will be better to recycle them
• If you want to compost human excrements (from your dry toilet for example), you should take few precautions and use activated straw (see the toilet rubric in this site)

Good composting!

All our wastes can’t be composted, some because of difficulty or problem, others because impossible or dangerous :
This materials are difficult to compost or problematic:

• The thick leaves or tannin-rich: (composting possible, but it must be crushed and composting is long)
• Oak,
• Chestnut,
• Wood,
• Tree,
• Walnut,
• Leaved shrubs persistent
• Conifer needles, sizes cedar or cypress (their decomposition is slow and produces a toxic acid compost for crops)
• The sizes of old branches (they contain too much carbon and decomposes very slowly, composting is possible but separately)

The impossible to compost materials (as non-biodegradable)

• The glass
• Ceramics
• The metal
• The plastic
• The synthetic fibers
• Chemicals
• Non-textile fiber derived from plant or animal matter tinted or colored with natural products
• All materials that may contain products above (dust of the house, treated plants …)

Hazardous materials to compost: (disease can be neutralized by the heat of the compost heap, but it is preferable to burn it)

• Ill plants
• Ill fruits
• Ill vegetables

Good composting!

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