Making compost sometimes takes longer than it should for impatient gardeners like me.
Using
compost activators can sometimes give your compost a boost and get it going
quicker. This is especially important early in the spring when your
winter compost
needs some help.
Fast compost retains more nutrients that will be available to plants more quickly; the more compost you make, the faster you can place it on the garden and get the plants growing.
Vegetables grown with compost made by the quick method are more nutritious, healthier and pest resistant.
Slow sluggish compost can be re-activated by adding certain materials which heat it up and get the micro-organisms re-energized.
The heat that a good working compost pile gives off is simply a sign that all is well, and the billions of micro flora and fauna - the tiny animals, bacteria and fungi - are thriving and reproducing at a rapid rate.
Heat in itself is not the aim; the microscopic life and its health is; feed the micro herd and the warmth it produces in its life processes is the byproduct.
Certain compost activators can be added to your compost pile to provide for the health and well being of your micro herd.
Using any of these forms of rapidly available urea or nitrogen can get a slow cold compost pile moving again, or the addition of an activator that simply changes the pH of the compost sometimes is all that's needed.
Some compost activators are commercially available, but expensive, so using those that you can produce yourself is better for your sustainable garden.
Adding
grain
can give vermin a food source but by placing these types of things in the center of the pile only, and watering well after adding them so they heat up quickly, your pile will be inhospitable to mice or rats.
Compost activators are yet another ally in the organic and sustainable garden for getting more compost faster.
You can never have too much compost; in fact, I don’t think you can ever have enough.
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