Composting - History, Composting On Any Scale, Materials To Compost, How It Works, The Chemical Process
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Composting is the process of arranging and manipulating organic wastes so that they are gradually broken down, or decomposed, by soil microorganisms and animals. The resulting product is a black, earthy-smelling, nutritious, crumbly mixture called compost or humus. Compost is usually mixed with other soil to improve the soil's structural quality and to add nutrients for plant growth. Composting and the use of compost in gardening are important activities of gardeners who prefer not to use synthetic fertilizers.
Nature itself composts materials by continually recycling nutrients from dead organic matter. Living things take in inorganic nutrients to grow. They give off waste, die, and decompose. The nutrients contained in the plant or animal body become available in soil for plants to take up again. Composting takes advantage of this natural process of decomposition, usually speeding up the process, by the creation of a special pile of organic materials called a compost heap.
The major benefit of compost is its organic content. Humus added to soil changes its structure, its ability to hold oxygen and water, and its capacity to adsorb certain nutrient ions. It improves soils that are too sandy to hold water or contain too much clay to allow oxygen to penetrate. Compost also adds some mineral nutrients to the soil. Depending on the organic material of the compost and microorganisms present, it can also balance the pH of an acidic or alkaline soil.
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Prehistoric farming people discovered that if they mixed manure from their domesticated animals with straw and other organic waste, such as crop residues, the mixture would gradually change into a fertile soil-like material that was good for crops. Composting remained a basic activity of farming until the twentieth century, when various synthetic fertilizers were found to provide many of the nutri…
Composting can be done by anyone. A homeowner can use a small composting bin or a hole where kitchen wastes (minus meats and fats) are mixed with grass clippings, small branches, shredded newspapers, or other coarse, organic debris. Communities may have large composting facilities to which residents bring grass, leaves, and branches to be composted. Such communities often have laws against burning…
Most organic materials can be used in a compost heap—shredded paper, hair clippings, food scraps from restaurants (omitting meats), coffee grounds, eggshells, fireplace ashes, chopped-up Christmas trees, seaweed, anything that originally came from a living thing. Meat is omitted because it can putrefy, giving off bad odors. It can also attract rats and other pests. Soil or finished humus is…
A compost heap needs to have both water and oxygen to work efficiently. In dry weather it may need to be
Backyard composting in Livonia, Michigan. This system includes a 16 cubic foot (0.5 cubic meter) composting bin made from chicken wire and plywood, a soil screen made from 1/2 inch galvanized mesh wire and 1x6 boards, a wheelbarrow, and a digging fork. The system produces about 10 cubic fe…
The processes that occur within a compost heap are microbiological, chemical, and physical. Microorganisms break down the carbon bonds of organic materials in the presence of oxygen and moisture, giving off heat in the process. High temperatures can be achieved most easily in a compost heap that is built all at once and tended regularly. Enclosed bins, often used by city gardeners, may produce hum…
The most heat is given off at the beginning of the composting process, when readily oxidized material is decomposing. Digestion of the materials by bacteria is strongest at that time. Later, the temperature within the pile decreases, and the bacterial activity slows down, though it continues until all the waste is digested. Other microorganisms take over as the heap cools. Microorganisms, such as …
Some composters use a somewhat different form of composting, especially during winter. Called vermicomposting, it consists of maintaining worms (preferably redworms, or Eisenia foetida) in a container filled with a plant-based material (such as shredded corrugated paper, manure, or peat moss) that they gradually consume. Kitchen waste is pushed into the soil and digested by the worms. Their excrem…
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