In 2009 I only made 100 cubic meters, just an experiment. It went very well, but there were still lots to learn. Last year I made 550 cubic meters. That went even better and I learned some valuable lessons. One of them were that the stems makes handling very difficult. It also causes the compost heaps to dry out too rapidly due to too much aeration.
So the stems are left untouched for at least a year so the the UV can break it apart a bit. This makes it brittle and it manages better the next year. The stems are an important ingredient in the mixture because it helps with the longevity of the product.
This post does NOT relate to static composting, which is a whole different story.
The key factors involved in making good quality compost are moisture, aeration, pH and C:N ratio. The micro organisms (MO) struggle to function at low pH. The grape skins naturally have low pH, and this gets adjusted by adding Calsitic lime to lift the pH to 6.5. They also need Nitrogen as "fuel", so that's why you need to add a food source like chicken manure (or any manure).
The MO also need moisture to function, and obviously air (oxygen). If you don't aerate the heaps they become anaerobic and will start to smell bad. Compost should never smell bad. Bad smell = bad compost.
I try to turn the compost every second day, but it is turned mainly according to the temperature readings. You need the temperature for the first week and a half in the 70 degrees Celsius region. This sterilizes the compost and kills off nasty pathogens and weeds.
After this fermentation phase the temperature comes down to the mid 40's, and will more or less stay in that region. (unless you get a lot of water on the heap, like you can see in the graph where it rained)
The process takes about 10 weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment