COMPOST

(Page 9 of 9)

September/October 1986
 
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Fast, Medium, or Slow

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There's one last step to making compost: turning the pile. And here you have some choices. If you want to get your compost quickly, you'll turn the pile every time its most intense heat (104° to 170°F) starts to drop — about every three to five days. That will add more oxygen and kick up the process. Keep that up and you should have finished compost in two months or less. If all the ingredients have been finely shredded, thinly layered, and turned every three days, it's even possible to make usable compost in two weeks!

If you want your compost in a medium amount of time, turn the pile approximately six weeks after you make it and again six weeks later. Your humus should be ready four to six months after you started it.

And if you're long on patience and short on turning time, just leave the mound alone. Such a slow pile should be ready to use after a year (or even a little longer).

Time is not the only consideration here — there are raging debates about whether "quick" or "slow" compost is better. Since quick-cured piles get well above the pathogen-killing temperature of 140°F, they're the way to go if you want to compost diseased materials (or kill weed seeds).

On the other hand, slow-pile advocates claim that cold-cured compost (which cooks at around 100°F) retains more nutrients.

So relax, dig in, and don't be afraid to experiment. Whichever way you compost, you'll be making the best soil builder your garden could have. You'll also be participating in the light cycle that connects all life on this planet-plant, animal, and even human. As Leandre Poisson has pointed out, we ourselves are "light's ultimate art."

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WESTSTAR PHOTOGRAPHIC

Super Compost Books

The Rodale Guide to Composting, $14.95 postpaid from Rodale Press, 33 E. Minor St., Emmaus, PA 18049.

Fertility Without Fertilizers, by Lawrence D. Hills, Henry Doubleday Research Associates. Out of print.

Let It Rot, by Stu Campbell, $7.95 postpaid from Storey Communications, Inc., Schoolhouse Rd., Pownal, VT 05261.

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