What is Compost - All About It
By
Bikash Kalita
Compost is a dark brown, earthy material in its look. It is a
material that helps tremendously in the gardening and
cultivation.
Compost is the final output of the composting process, where
aerobic decomposition of the biodegradable material is done. It
is a soil amendment, used commercially for landscaping, nursery
and agriculture.
Benefits Using compost has many benefits for
the soil and the user. Some of the benefits of composting are:
- It is one of the best mulches
- It is easy to produce
- Good soil amendment
- Very cheap
- Improves soil structure, aeration and texture
- Improves water holding capacity of the soil
- Improves soil fertility
- Food for microorganisms
- Promotes healthy root development
- Composting process produces nitrogen, potassium and
phosphorus
- Used as a landfill cover
- Used for erosion control
- Used for soil reclamation
Materials used for compost making
You can use all organic materials for composting,
except a few. The compost is made of two main components browns
and greens.
Browns are the carbon rich materials and greens are the nitrogen
rich materials. You can use brown materials like dried leaves,
straw, hay and wood chips. In green materials, you can use grass
clippings, weed, plant parts and kitchen wastes etc.
When you dump the materials in the compost pile used for compost making,
you should remember to balance the browns and greens.
The brown and greens should be in a ratio of 25 is to 1. If this
balance is not maintained, you will find problems of slow
composting and odor. When the browns are more than the ratios
recommendation, then you will find the process very slow. When
greens are more there will be odor problem.
Do not use some of the materials which are very hard to
decompose and are poisonous. Some materials need special
technique and process for decomposition.
Do not use materials like chemically treated wood products,
diseased plants, human waste, meat, bone, some plant and leaves
like oak, holly trees, poisonous materials like eucalyptus and
black walnut, poison ivy, sumac etc.
Compost types
There are many different types of composts available. Some
of them are Coffee grounds, Compost tea, Humus, Leaf mold,
Mulch, Spent mushroom compost, Worm compost.
There are some problems associated with composts. If the
compost is not well decomposed, then it may hamper the soil.
Diseased plant parts in compost may cause diseases in plants.
Microbes causing diseases, and weed seeds may be present in the
not well decomposed compost.
Compost is a cheap organic material for your garden for
increasing the fertility and improving the physical condition of
the soil. It enhances the microbial activities also. So use it
but in the recommended dose only.