Planetous Guide to Composting
What is Compost?
What is Compost?
Compost is decomposed organic matter and the process of decomposition is known as composting. This decayed matter is full of nutrients that can enrich your soil. While this process takes time in nature, we can help speed it up by creating the ideal environment. We almost have got nothing to do in the process of composting; still we intend to put in some efforts to accelerate the process.
Planetous is counting on those innumerable families across the world, that believe in the idea of composting and will not give up because the recipe got wrong once. We promise to make you sail through the process so smoothly that you would love to do
Basic Intent
Besides, depending on your type of housing and the type of organic waste generated in your house the recommended process and setup might change. Our major concern in this guide is not limited to composting as composting is a natural process and the organic material is destined to rot by the law of nature. What we care more is management of a stable stink free compost pile throughout the process because once a pile takes too long to decompose or gets stinky , waste management inside homes gets complicated. This one thing demotivates people a lot. So the bottom line is: Composting is easy and hassle free and through this guide we will make that possible.
The Process
Let’s dig into a compost pile to see what happens inside. Composting is a complex process between waste and the microorganisms within the waste. These microbes are basically of three types: Bacteria Fungi and actinomycetes. The actinomycetes are nothing but fungi like bacteria that break down organic matter. So, with the help of these organisms, a compost pile undergoes three stages of decomposition:
In the first stage, bacteria break down sugars which lead to fast rise in pile temperature. Then comes the second stage which does the main job of cellulose breakdown by bacteria and actinomycetes. Temperatures are quite high in this stage. Although, the microbes in this stage thrive at high temperatures, but the pile should not get hot enough to kill the microbes. For this, turning the pile from time to time is necessary. This is the one of the reasons for which we insist people to keep turning their piles from time to time. The third stage involves breakdown of tougher lignins by fungi.
By this time, the compost gets a fresh earthy smell to it, which indicates that it has been cured and is ready to be used.
The Nature's bin
Remember the first time you tried to set curd or say cooked a meal for yourself, it mostly went wrong for almost all of us. But it was the hour of the need so you kept trying and after sometime it came naturally to you. Composting is just like setting curds, or cooking a meal and its truly our planet’s need of the hour. Planetous is counting on those innumerable families across the world, that believe in the idea of composting and will not give up because the recipe got wrong once. We promise to make you sail through the process so smoothly that you would love to do it again and again. The early compost piles in your balconies or backyards have the potential to norish the nature, reduce the impact of global warming and reduce a immense amount of load from the landfills all at once. Why is composting so good for nature and for you? Read next article in the series to explore more.
Compost Guide References:
1. Barbara Pleasant , Deborah L Martin, 2008; The complete compost gardening guide,Storey Publishing; Illustrated edition.
2.