Composting

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Composting

• Steve Chaney.
• Texas AgriLife Extension Service
• Tarrant County

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If you want to have a healthy, productive
landscape the first key is to build great soil.
Many gardeners make the mistake of looking first
to fertilizers, tonics, or a multitude of miracle
working concoctions to produce great plant. There
is no long-term substitute for proper soil
building. If your soil is poorly drained, too
acidic or alkaline, compacted, low in organic
matter or has poor structural characteristics, it
doesnt matter how much fertilizer you add, the
results will be disappointing.
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Build your soil first and then fertilizers can
play their proper role in promoting plant health
and production. Fertilizers are most effective
when used to fine tune a soil situation that is
already working relatively well. Healthy soil
grows healthy, productive plants and is the place
where any great landscape begins. Start by adding
compost to improve the soils structure, internal
drainage and water holding ability. It stimulates
soil microbes and breaks down to feed plants
gradually over time. If drainage is at all in
question, build raised planting beds to insure
that plant roots dont sit in soggy wet
conditions.
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Organic fertilizers can be an integral part of a
good soil building program for your garden and
landscape. Along with compost additions and soil
testing they provide the basis for a healthy
productive landscape. While some organic
fertilizers provide a quick fix, similar to the
way synthetic products can, most are for a
long-term solution. The goal is to build soil
that needs few additional inputs rather than soil
dependent on a continual series of quick
fixes. Gardeners who want to garden naturally
are willing to build their gardens over time
recognize the value in such an approach. They
will enjoy the benefits for years to come in
terms of great soil, healthy plants, and
productive gardens.
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• Types of Natural Fertilizers
• Alfalfa Meal - 3 Nitrogen
• Blood Meal - 12 Nitrogen
• Bone Meal - 12 Phosphate
• Corn Gluten Meal - 10 Nitrogen
• Cottonseed Meal - 6 Nitrogen
• Feather Meal - 12 Nitrogen (slow release)
• Fish Meal - 10 Nitrogen
• Fish Emulsion - 5 Nitrogen
• Greensand - 5 Potash (slow release)
• Kelp Meal - 1 Nitrogen
• Gypsum - 0 Nitrogen ( calcium and sulfur)
• Lime - 0 Nitrogen ( calcium)
• Soft Rock Phosphate - 30 Phosphate ( very slow
  release)
• Potassium Magnesium Sulfate - 22 Potash , 18
  Mg , 27 Sulfur

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Forest Floor

• Nature recycles leaves and plants. In a forest,
  leaves fall forming mulch that protects the soil.
  Over time they decompose into nutrients that feed
  forest plants.

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Compost

• Broken down (decomposed) organic matter
• A soil enrichment product

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Composting Benefits

• Improve Your Soil Quality
• Moisture retention
• Increased aeration
• Reduce erosion potential

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Composting Benefits

• Improve your Soil Texture
• Clay soils
• Easier to work
• Helps drainage
• Sandy soils
• Prevents nutrient and water losses

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Composting Benefits

• Save on your gardening bills
• Soil amendment savings
• Water use savings
• Yard waste disposal costs

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Home Composting Benefits

• Helps Our Environment
• 30 of waste stream is organic material
• Pro-active alternative to land-filling and
  incineration of organic waste

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Whats Happening in the Pile?

• Organic matter is decomposed by living creatures
• Starting materials converted to less complex
  forms
• It becomes unrecognizable humus

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Microscopic Decomposers

• Chemically convert organic materials
• Mostly single-celled organisms
• Bacteria considered most productive
• Fungi
• Actinomycetes
• Protozoa
• Rotifers

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Physical Decomposers

• Arrive in the pile after lower level decomposers
  have worked material
• Grind and chew remaining organic material
• mites, snails, slugs,earthworms, millipedes,
  sowbugs, whiteworms

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Organic Matter Decomposition

• 2 Basic Processes
• Aerobic Break-down
• Anaerobic Break-down

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Aerobic Decomposition

• Organisms require more than 5 oxygen
• Occurs in nature (leaf litter on forest floor)
• Community of decomposers affected by
• Aeration
• Moisture
• Organic materials used
• Temperature

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Anerobic Decomposition

• Organisms utilize less than 5 oxygen
• Occurs in nature (Marshes, mud flats)
• Production of Methane gas
• Associated with bad odors

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Required Oxygen (Aeration)

• Home composting should be Aerobic
• Aerobic composting is up to 90 faster than
  Anaerobic composting
• Anaerobic odor emissions are avoided

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Goal Achieve High Temps

• Importance of High Temperature
• Pathogen kill
• (Harmful bacteria, etc.)
• Weed seed kill
• Pest control
• (Flies, plant parasitic Nematodes)
• Checking temp with a compost thermometer

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The Composters Role

• The Home Composter is responsible for making a
  suitable living environment for beneficial
  decomposers.
• Pile size
• Aeration
• Weather
• Moisture
• Particle size
• CarbonNitrogen ratio

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Sizing a Compost Pile

• To reach higher temperatures needed
• 4 x 4 x 5 (L x W x H)
• 3 x 3 x 4 (Minimum Size)
• Too small of Pile Size
• Decomposition slows
• Temperatures remain low

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Bins
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Bins
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Moisture Maintenance

• Moistening piles
• Decomposers need water to maintain their activity
  
• Place pile close to water source
• Apply moisture to 55-65
• Squeeze test

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Working with Weather

• Protecting piles
• Excess rain leads to anaerobic decomposition
• Cool temps slow decomposition
• Wind may cool pile
• Avoid potential nutrient leaching

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Achieving Aeration

• Turning piles
• Introduces oxygen to pile organisms
• Hastens decomposition
• Set a schedule that works for you

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Good Compost Materials

• Grass clippings
• Leaves
• Farm manure
• Yard clippings
• Vegetable scraps
• Sod, Hay
• Non-noxious weeds
• Sawdust

• Garden residue

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Bad Compost Materials

• Pig and pet manures
• Meat scraps
• Fats or oils
• Diseased plants
• Noxious perennial weeds
• Recently fungicide-treated plants (within a month)

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Selecting Compost Materials

• Decomposers need Nitrogen to break-down Carbon
  materials for use as their energy source.

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Influence of C N Ratio

• Optimum decomposition occurs when Starting
  mixture ratio is 301

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Selecting Compost Materials

• Low C N
• Alfalfa hay 181
• Grass clippings 191
• Rotted manure 201
• Oak leaves 251
• Vegetables 261

• High C N
• Leaves 501
• Corn stalks 601
• Straw 801
• Pine Needles 901
• Sawdust 3001

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Influence of LOW C N Ratio

• Mostly Grass
• Initially
• Organism populations skyrocket
• Fast temperature increase
• Fast decomposition
• Later
• O2 and N depleted
• Odors
• Temperature decrease

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Influence of HIGH C N Ratio

• Mostly Straw
• Effects
• Low temperatures
• Slow organism population growth
• Slow decomposition
• Material looks the same after 3 weeks

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Other Considerations

• Turning piles
• Need pitchfork
• Rebuild pile next to old pile
• Old top, becomes new bottom
• Old outside new middle
• Add moisture to 55-65

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Other Considerations

• Layering method
• 1 layer of hay, 1 layer of grass, repeat
• Pre-mixing method
• Mix materials before piling it
• Alternate fork method
• 1 fork full of hay, 1 fork full of grass, repeat

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Using Finished Compost

• Compost Value
• Use as a soil amendment
• Apply in tandem with other fertilizer sources

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Use Compost in Potting Soil

• Container mix (fertilize as necessary)
• 1 gallon vermiculite
• 1 gallon compost ( matured)

• 1 T single super phosphate - ground
• 2 T limestone or dolomite
• 4 T dried manure or blood meal or cottonseed meal

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The Living Soil By Mike Shoup - Antique Rose
Emporium The development and maintenance of a
good garden is dependent on the management of the
soil. Roses old and new do best in a well
prepared bed incorporated with lots of organic
matter. It is rare to see our native forests in a
state of starvation. Mother Nature has ensured
that these plants grow and stay green without the
aid of mans synthetic fertilizers. The constant
decomposition of leaf litter, dead branches, and
bark that falls to the ground in these areas
provide nutrition.
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The gardener would do well if he could mimic this
program in his landscape. Good results have been
achieved using the following guidelines. Mixing 3
inches of decomposed organic matter like
composted leaves or manure into 6 to 8 inches of
soil. Roses and perennials should be planted in
this mixture and mulched with 3 inches of coarser
material like hardwood bark. Mulch will slowly
decompose, providing a continual source of food
for fungi and bacteria, creating a living and
nutritive soil. The addition of more mulch
biannually insures the continuation of this
process. The advantages , besides not having to
apply synthetic fertilizers, are numerous. Beds
retain moisture, the pH of the soil is buffered,
weeds are kept at bay, soil temperatures
fluctuate less, and the appearance is better.
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Composting

• The End