Composting has become quite popular. Learning how to compost is easy. As long as you know what not to do, your compost will be all right. If you want your compost to be efficient, you need to learn a little bit more about composting.
Composting can be done in a number of ways, some methods are more efficient than others. There are a lot ideas how to create a good compost, how it should maintained, what should be added and so on. But you don’t need to complicate things in order to have a good compost.
Basically, five things determine the success of your compost. First it needs a reasonable temperature, the colder it is, the longer the breakdown process will take. If the temperature inside the compost is close to the freezing point, the process virtually stops. Once the temperature in the compost is above 100 degrees Fahrenheit the composting process is going fast. Ideal temperature range is between 130 degrees and 150 degrees. If it gets too hot, some beneficial organisms may disappear.
If you want an efficient compost, you also need the right moisture. If your compost becomes too dry, the composting process halts. While the temperature is easy to measure with a thermometer, making sure that the compost is damp is more difficult. One easy way is to check the temperature, if the compost is warm, the moisture is reasonable. If the compost is cold, the reason may be it is too dry. Often, your compost don’t need any additional water. If you think it too dry, it is best to sprinkle a little bit of water onto it every now and then. This is much better than once in a while pouring large amounts of water onto it.
If you want a pH-neutral compost, it needs oxygen. The breakdown process works also without oxygen but the result will be pH-negative (acidic) and it will take longer time and smell more. The micro organisms at work in a compost need carbon and nitrogen. As long as you put in a variety of brown and green things into your compost, your compost is unlikely to run out of carbon of nitrogen. What is the right carbon/nitrogen ratio has been discussed for a long time, with plenty of heated discussions. Generally, the problem is having the right amount of nitrogen. Too little nitrogen slows down the compost, too much nitrogen and the compost will produce ammonia. The latter will smell badly, making you unpopular in the neighborhood.
Obviously, only put organic waste into your compost. The waste does not need to be chopped into small pieces. It is true that small pieces will break down quicker than large pieces. This is because the surface area that is exposed to microbial activity is larger. But you don’t need to shred your leaves into pieces before putting them into the compost. Never put any animal products, pesticides or pollutants into your compost. Nut shells and egg shells are ok to but they take a long time to break down.
You can of course spend much time learning about composting. But if you just want a compost at home, not much knowledge is needed about how to compost. Composting is after all a natural process.