COMPOST

(Page 6 of 9)

September/October 1986
 
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Sludge. Commercially reprocessed sludge is an increasingly popular soil amendment and is almost certainly pathogen-free, but I'm concerned about the heavy metals and insecticides it may contain.

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And what are good compost makings? Well, for starters, how about these:

Plant residues (preferably nonsprayed) , such as kitchen and garden wastes, weeds, grass clippings, leaves (go light on those from eucalyptuses, walnuts, and evergreens), straw, hay, hedge clippings, seaweed, aquatic plants, and green manure crops.

Commercial wastes , such as buckwheat hulls, rice hulls, molasses-making residue, spent hops, fruit-processing wastes, commercial fishing scraps, lake dredgings, sawdust, feathers, wood ashes (in moderation), utility-company tree trimmings, and vegetable or dairy wastes from grocery stores.

Home wastes , like eggshells, hair, wool scraps, etc.

Manures from horses, fowl, cows, pigs, sheep, etc. These are even better if they're mixed with straw (i.e., used stall bedding).

The Six Essentials

Once you've assembled lots of appropriate organic matter from the "compost pile shopping list" above, you're just about ready to start cooking. The funny thing, though, is there is no one way to make compost — indeed, there are almost as many methods as there are experts to advocate them.

It's like baking bread: There are thousands of different recipes, but all of them have in common some basic practices and vital main ingredients. So before you build that long-awaited heap, let's quickly review the six essentials of successful composting:

Nitrogen . For a compost to cook properly and to have maximum value for plants, it needs nitrogen, the leaf-growth-promoting element. Good sources of N are pig, chicken, sheep, horse, and cow manure (ranked in descending amounts of nitrogen) . . . fresh green plant waste (especially legumes) . . . kitchen wastes . . . blood, bone, cottonseed, hoof, horn, and alfalfa meals (readily available from garden supply centers, but somewhat costly) . . . and urine. This last nitrogen source may be animal or — if you're not made squeamish by the thought — human. Indeed, "household liquid activator," as human urine has been dubbed, is practically sterile, available to everyone, and a perfect nitrogenous compost catalyst. (You can collect it in a lidded bucket — a chamber pot, our forebears called it — and dilute it with water, then add it once the pile is hot . A week's urine should provide plenty of N for a good-sized pile.)

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