How to make the right compost for plant nutrition. How to make and use compost as fertilizer.

Soil fertilization is important requirement agricultural technology of any plant, and one of the main components for incorporation into the soil is compost. Today we will learn how to make compost in the country on our own.

Many summer residents have been preparing compost with their own hands for a long time, because this not only saves time and money, but also eliminates a lot of unnecessary worries, which are already enough in the country.

Nitrogen materials are green, succulent, manure and other unreacted substances, such as grass mowing, weeds, fruits, kitchen waste, animal waste, urine, etc. carbonaceous materials. Carbon material includes anything that consists predominantly of carbon wood, wood chips, straw, dry leaves, paper. Correct application layers. Composting is done by applying a small layer of nitrogen to each large layer of carbonaceous material. Composting does not need to be discarded, it will happen without your initiation, but the process will be slow and the initial volume of mass will be reduced to a tiny layer of the final fertile mass in a year.

What is the benefit of making compost in the country?

Compost is considered one of the the best fertilizers, which, when introduced into the soil, fills it with a huge amount of trace elements.
Compost is the cheapest and most practical means for proper soil structuring, as it increases moisture conservation and creates loosening necessary for all plants.
Spreading compost over the surface of the soil creates the best organic mulch that will conserve moisture and inhibit the growth of many weeds in the area.
Making compost for dacha territory- it is very beneficial process, as well as a significant contribution to the development and protection environment. None mineral fertilizer cannot be compared with high-quality compost, and a properly formed pit in which organic components rot can become a real incubator for beneficial bacteria and microorganisms.
Composting significantly reduces your physical effort, as now you do not need to remove from the territory suburban area a good part of the garbage, everything can simply be placed in a special pit.

What is garden compost?

Compost is a specific product obtained from organic waste under the influence of the environment and huge amount variety of insects and microorganisms. It is used for structuring the soil, mulching, fertilizing.

We can add oxygen to the holes, make it decompose faster and get more compost. Instead of shifting, we can spread the whole pile, including the unfinished remains, over time, on the bed, squeeze the straw and the nest of the ding and the worms in the nest in the straw in May. The composting process is quickly completed in place of the mulch for the great fun of pumpkin plants.

And as a valuable raw material, it has returned to where it belongs - back to nature and soil. Everyone can help change the unwanted state. Combination of traditional and modern technologies composting offers solutions for those who do not have their own garden.

The bark and branches of trees, the stems and leaves of plants - all this can be put in a certain order in a special pit or simply on a pile, ensure the conditions for decay and processing, and get high-quality, truly environmentally friendly compost without any harmful and toxic compounds. Naturally, the process of decomposition of all organic residues will seriously wait, maybe even several years, but then you will get real quality, and not a mixture from the store prepared on the basis of unknown components.

Or they can't compost properly and they're not happy with the result. Many people do composting without thinking about it. However, sometimes there are problems. Waste does not decompose, compost smells or becomes a seedbed for weeds and germs. Then he pays to know how to help in the right process.

Composting is provided by special bacteria and microscopic fungi. There are many species, but they share basic needs: air, water, darkness, and warmth. When composting organic material decomposes by crushing, which is an aerobic process - it consumes only oxygen. If the compost smells bad and is unpleasant, it is likely that anaerobic processes are taking place. This may be due to excessive moisture or loss of material. Therefore, composting must be based on air and water, but excess water can also flow.

How to make compost?

Before moving on to looking at "recipes", we'd like to talk about building a proper compost bin or pit.

How to make a compost bin?

So, initially we need to prepare the material for the production of a compost box in size. Almost any, but not rotten and not previously in contact with toxic materials, boards or planks are suitable for this. In the first case, during the biological process, rotten planks can deteriorate, in the second, boards in paint or oil can simply poison the compost, damaging its quality irreversibly.

It will help against jerk if the compost has the most varied composition and mix it from time to time. The compost must not dry out, so it must be in the shade, otherwise we must sprinkle it regularly. This so-called hot phase should take at least 3-4 weeks to ensure that most microbes and weed seeds are removed. To achieve the correct temperature, the ambient temperature is not critical, but the amount of material - we must be at least 1 m 3 organic matter at a time.

Many people do not comply with this condition - they simply throw small amounts of waste into the compost, for example, from the kitchen. This does not mean that good quality fertilizer cannot be produced, but the so-called hygienization phase, i.e. the hot phase, which eliminates unwanted seeds and microorganisms, will not be reached.

We would advise you to take unedged pine in boards or beams so that the finished box will last for many years, and work with this material. So will you do quality box but don't spend a lot of money.

Now choose a place for compost, and start building. On a hill or on a flat area, it doesn’t really matter if your terrain is not rainy, and the GWL is low. In general, it is desirable to place a place under the compost a little higher than the standard soil level so that it does not wash away. So, we create four sides of the box, like a standard vegetable box, but much larger.

The simplest variant of compost is a regular pile, usually located in an enclosed corner of the garden. Apart from the aesthetic effect, it is impossible to counter this composting method, especially if we always process more material at a time. Big advantage is that the compost is easily accessible and, if necessary, can be easily mixed.

Even better is closing the compost in a housing that should drain air and moisture easily and easily. We don't have the ability to easily manipulate the material, but the compost is more compact and doesn't dry out easily around the edges. Easy, but not always best solution is to purchase a commercially manufactured composter with a lid. Its main advantage is that it is easier to get hygiene in the material, even with less volume than one cubic meter. On the contrary, there is much less access to oxygen and proper humidity.

Be sure to observe the gaps between the prefabricated planks to ensure ventilation of the compost for the correct internal biological processes.

At the place of collection of the box, we install supports, we attach three ready-made walls from pine board or a bar. We leave the last side removable so that it is convenient for us to get the finished product for fertilizing or mulching the soil in the country.

When we use regular compost to spill more water, like rotten apples, they can handle them easily. However, in a tall, narrow container, rotting apples can form a water-resistant, air-anaerobic compost layer, resulting in bad smell. The only solution is to drain all the material from the composter, mix the apples in with it and refill the container - and it's somewhat lacking in elegance.

Kitchen leftovers are important

Therefore, compost can be recommended mainly in small gardens, which practically "will not survive" in the classic compost. From what has been said so far, it would appear that large piles of grass or leaves play an important role in the compost. The best quality compost we get if we "feed" it various materials: whoever denies the remains of the kitchen makes a big mistake. More specifically, composting should be a certain optimum ratio of nitrogen and carbon.

By and large, if you do not go into a lot of details, such as how to hold a hammer and where to drive the first nail, the design is ready, and we can safely start cooking.

It is advisable to lay some material, for example, old linoleum, on the bottom of a box or, as they say, a compost pit.

How to make the right compost quickly?

How to make compost fast way? This question interests many beginners of the dacha business, and therefore, we turn to it without delay.

If we mainly collect grass and leaves from the garden, there is usually an excess of carbon. Then the necessary nitrogen is added to the "soft" kitchen waste. Less often there is an excess of nitrogen in the material - it is easiest to detect the characteristic smell of ammonia leakage. Then just add some sawdust, straw, bark or shredded box and mix.

Proper composting also supports the addition of soil and some other ingredients - such as clay meal, mountain meal, calcium fertilizer or special herbal preparations. However, if we also compost bio-waste from the kitchen, special additives are usually not needed. The clay will return to the compost with plant debris and roots that we land in the garden or from transplanted flowers.

First of all, we create a special box - a frame that will contain all the organic residues entering the compost on a single heap. It might just be a hole wooden structures, a special wooden or plastic box in which there will be ventilation and access to the contents from above or from the side.

We create drainage at the bottom of the tank. You can make it from a layer of hay, straw, spruce branches. The layer should be about 10 cm.

Let's not forget about kitchen waste - that's nice to say. But a nice bucket of peel is not very nice, at least in modern apartment. Those who do not want to go to the compost after each cooking can get the so-called compostable bags. They are completely biodegradable, so they just throw in the compost along with the waste.

The bags are mostly made from corn or potato starch with some biodegradable petroleum products added. Now we are moving to bags that are made from 99% raw materials of natural origin, explains Tomasz Chodek from Ekodomova. It can stand on the floor, hang on the wall, or hang on kitchen door. At the same time, we don't have to worry about the bag being composted before we throw it away: it doesn't have enough moisture or temperature. There are also compostable bags that can be used just like regular "plastics" and can be used as bags in a compost bin at the end of their life.

Materials and various products for composting are stacked in layers. For example, you can immediately put branches and other fruit waste, then a layer of paper, the next layer of leaves, then a layer of mowed annuals or grass, and so on. It is important that the layers alternate approximately as follows, dry waste with wet, soft with hard. Such a laying method will provide air access, ventilation, and acceleration of the composting process. In this case, it must be remembered that the seal is useless here, and may even harm.

Even someone who does not own a garden should not accept a reset. organic waste into the wastebasket. Few people are lucky enough to live in a village with a communal composting plant, which is expensive and must meet high standards. technical parameters. A viable solution for residents apartment buildings who agree and agree with each other, is the so-called community composting. The fact is that a group of people buys a joint lockable compost that they take care of together.

The fertilizer produced then divides or uses it to change the shared areas. Pilot community composting projects are being implemented in Chrudim and in Prague 6, Repa. Many years of experience exists in the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Slovakia. Community composting can be applied not only in residential buildings, but also in garden colonnades or schools.

It is required to lay each layer and special process accelerators, for example, nitrogen additives, which are offered in garden shops, manure of herbivorous animals, plants such as legumes, nettles, dandelions, yarrows. You can also use rotted manure or ordinary garden soil.

To maintain the temperature and the correct internal environment, it is necessary to cover the compost storage with special materials - oilcloth, old rags, a piece of linoleum or carpet. The main thing is to keep warm inside, which will help to make compost in the country quickly and correctly.

Those who don't own a garden and whose desire for compost is too lonely have another option - vermicompost. This plant, where the conversion of organic residues into fertilizer is provided by earthworms, is quite costly and labor intensive - the earthworms just require some care. However, the reward is the best compost that can be made at home and a significant educational or recreational effect, for example for children. Of course, vermicompost can also be used as an addition to classic compost, but it requires a constant temperature - it certainly cannot be all year round in the garden.

In the summer, when there is a drought outside, the compost can be shed a little in order to maintain the desired humidity inside the storage. But remember, only spill, and do not fill to the top.

If you smell specific odors from the compost bin, this may mean that the composting process has failed and is not going well. If it smells of ammonia, there are too many nitrogen components in the pit (you can correct the situation by adding some torn paper). If you smell rotten eggs, then there is not enough oxygen in the pit or box, and the contents must be well stirred up, spilling the layers with straw or shavings.
Materials that may show a higher content of harmful substances.
Most vegetable waste from the garden.

Most organic household waste.

Textiles, glass, metals, plastics.

Trees are treated with varnish, preservatives or other chemicals.

Materials that we can only compost under certain assumptions.

Great cleaning of spring, stop piling up! Prepare your chat for the new season
Diseased plants, weeds with seeds, root weeds and sticking weeds: a hot phase of 3-4 weeks is a precondition for destruction. For example, a large number of grass should be mixed into the clusters so that the compost is sufficiently aerated. It is a rule that we mix green matter with brick, fresh old, fibrous and greasy. Southern fruit frogs are easily susceptible to mold, so we only add limited amounts to the compost. However, we don't have to worry about the fungicides they handle: according to a new study, they can't be digested in the compost after 6 weeks. The shells decompose, so they should crush well. FROM high content calcium, it resists acidification of the compost. Coffee sedge and fermented tea are well distributed in the compost, where there is earthworms. The same applies to onion leftovers. The coffee grounds react with acid, so the fertilizer is good for rhododendrons. Blank paper and cardboard belong to a separate collection. The content of poisonous thujone and wax layer prolongs the decomposition time. Waste is best used as mulch material for interlaced hedges. It doesn't matter if you own a cottage or a cottage in famous place recreation at the Vranov dam, in the foothills of the Lužacke Mountains or in a quiet place in the forest near the city.

If you manage to make the compost bin the right way, and also fill it in even layers, the compost will be ready in a few months. It is better to choose it from the lower layers, so that the upper ones fall evenly, pressing against the top with new organic residues.

How to make compost the slow way?

How to make compost from grass or branches? How to get the most correct and high-quality compost? Naturally, this method a little more difficult, or rather, longer, but as a result you will get very high quality compost.

By and large, you don’t have to do anything in particular, just prepare everything for rotting once and wait a few years. By the way, this way you can install a new one in the corner of the site every year. compost pit in order to reach constant, annual volumes in 2-3 years.

So how do you make your own compost?

If you can make compost in a barrel in a quick way, then for a slow, cold way, you will need an ordinary pit on some hill of the site. The pit is dug small, about the size of a spade bayonet, but wide enough to accommodate enough branches and logs for composting. Further, broken branches and arrows of trees, trimmed parts and rotten logs in a crushed state are poured into the pit. Our whole heap is covered with soil from above and forgotten for a long time. In the second year, if you are very lucky, or in the third, which is stable with proper preparation, you will receive a noble fertilizer for the garden.

When choosing from fertilizer preparation methods, many choose a fast one, and it’s not even worth explaining to anyone the reason. But now I want to say not about the method, but about what should go into the compost pit and what should not.

What can be composted from?

If you want to make high quality compost and save time, throw in the place of decay only the following:

Kitchen waste (fruits, vegetables, cereals, tea leaves, coffee grounds);
Straw, hay, shavings, sawdust, mowed grass;
Thin branches and stems garden bushes and trees;
Recycled wood from a garden shredder;
rotted animal manure;
Rotten leaves and other garden waste;
Various algae;
Other natural materials- fabric and paper;
Shredded weeds (avoiding rhizomatous weeds in the compost).

What can't be composted?

During the preparation of fertilizer, it is necessary to remember that it is impossible to place in the compost storage:

Bones, large and hard, poultry, meat, fish waste, pet droppings;
Fresh leaves, rhizomatous and perennial weeds;
Plants or debris infested with diseases or pests;
Fresh manure, which can only be poured into slow-cooking compost;
Waste from the garden that contains toxins, poisons, herbicides, and so on;
Unnecessary garbage - metal, glass, rubber, plastic, polyethylene, etc.

How to make compost (video)

Following the simplest rules and advice experienced summer residents, who have been preparing a useful "potion" for their garden for more than a year, you can make compost in the country with your own hands very simply, and immediately start fertilizing the soil to improve the quality of crops.

A garden rich in plants depends on many factors: systematic watering, weeding, seed preparation. And, of course, from high-quality top dressing of the soil. And for this you do not need to spend a lot of money and effort. Fertilizer can be made with your own hands, because the components of the compost are always at hand. In this article, we'll talk about how to make compost the right way.

The main advantage of this fertilizer is its organic nature. Today, in specialized stores, you will find compost made from various substances. But why spend finances if you can prepare fertilizer with your own hands. The ingredients are household food waste, mowed grass, fallen leaves, various garden vegetation.

To the question “how to make compost”, we answer that this is a long process, it will take about two or three years to get humus. The speed of obtaining compost also depends on what is put into it, for example, there are em preparations that accelerate the decomposition of substances. First, let's figure out what is best to use for cooking. organic fertilizers so that plants delight us with their growth.

Video "Making compost for the garden correctly"

How to do compost heap? What is compost and how long does it take to prepare?

What should be done

Let's figure out how to make compost the right way. The first ingredient is the most common for use in garden beds. This is manure. It is laid out in a pre-prepared box and mixed with sawdust, fallen leaves, dry grass.

The option is not worse - compost from chicken manure. This component is highly concentrated, so plants should be fertilized with it in moderation. To reduce the concentration of chicken manure, experienced gardeners It is advised to pre-infuse it with water.

Common food residues are used to make compost: peels from potatoes, carrots, bananas and apples. Is a good ingredient eggshell. Use the leftover tea leaves after tea or coffee. Plants will thank you for this fertilizer.

In Belgium and France, farmers do not hesitate to make compost from human feces. It is believed that this is the most effective method top dressing, which increases the growth of plants many times more than with the usual.

If this option is very radical for you, you can use ordinary straw, dry leaves, grass and other plants. The remains of green plants or weeds will do. Substances such as chalk, ash and coal are also used.

Before preparing the compost in the container where you will store it, you need to add tree branches, be sure to grind them. The branches serve as drainage, they enrich the future compost with oxygen and water, thereby increasing it. beneficial features. Plants and soil will also be enriched with the necessary elements in the future.

What can not be made

Despite the fact that fertilizer can be made from almost anything, there are some products that do not give a positive result.

The first is plants that have fungal diseases or are affected by a pest. Better burn them after weeding.

Do not use meat or fish as ingredients. From such compost will bad smell during decay. It is also undesirable to use the droppings of those animals that have consumed the listed products.

Compost should not be prepared from milk, butter and various fats. And if you want to use rubber products, stones, bones or old rags for humus, you should know that these components do not decompose.

Under no circumstances should plants be added to the compost that have undergone chemical treatment. Otherwise, they can cause rotting of the new plant.

How to make a container

First you need to build a suitable storage container. Exist different ways waste storage. The quickest solution is to dig a hole where to put the ingredients for humus. But it's better to do quality equipment for making compost. best material wood is used for these purposes; boxes with several compartments are made from it. It is possible to build a structure from edged boards. It is necessary to install four supports at an equal distance, fix the boards on them, while leaving big gaps for the supply of oxygen. It is important that the composting container is above ground and has a bottom of sand, tree branches or brushwood.

Several compartments should be made in the tank where fresh waste will be stored, those that are in the middle stage and separately in the completed one. After preparing the container, we proceed to the next stage - the correct preparation of compost.

How to cook

If you have decided what you will prepare fertilizer from, whether it be chicken manure or dry leaves, for proper cooking there is a special technology. In order not to wait two or three years, you can speed up the process by adding such chemical substances like em drugs.

First you need to stick to the right climate. Grind the compost ingredients and add water. And the em preparation should be added to the water, which will ensure rapid decomposition. Regarding chicken manure, it is better to rub it together with sawdust and hay.

Note that em preparations can be purchased at any specialized store, but they are not cheap. If there is no money for the accelerator, it can be replaced with yeast and sugar. But when using natural remedy fertilizer does not decompose quickly. After all, the accelerator consists of anaerobic bacteria, which in turn not only guarantee rapid decomposition, but also improve the quality of the soil. It is better to add em preparation at the initial stage of compost preparation.

Chicken manure fertilizer decomposes faster. Not only thanks to the EM accelerator - after a couple of days, a natural process of heating substances takes place. If the compost is made from chicken manure, then it needs to be mixed every two days. Otherwise, due to overheating, the necessary microorganisms will die.

The preparation of compost using the em preparation allows you to prepare humus in five weeks.

There are ways without using the em accelerator. For example, for chicken manure, you can make a mixture of yarrow, chamomile, nettle, dandelion, oak bark. For the right natural booster, you need to mix all the herbs in equal amounts. Follow the decomposition of chicken manure, mix occasionally and then you will get high-quality compost for any plant variety.

When choosing how to make compost: do it yourself or buy it in a store, consider all the pros and cons of each process. Plants will thank you for natural compost, and the soil will delight you with a quality crop. Following not tricky rules for the preparation and storage of fertilizers, the end result will exceed the wildest expectations.