What is compost? Organic fertilizers, horticulture and gardening

Every knowledgeable gardener takes a special place to the compost, since the latter is the creator and source of vitality of plants and their main natural fertilizer. Plant health and the future harvest directly depend on the quality and structure of the compost. If you properly prepare this mixture, the gardener will not need to apply fertilizers. What is compost, how to prepare it will tell this article.

Compost - what is it?

Compost is an indispensable component of fertile soil in any garden and the most accessible fertilizer in all senses, which is obtained from plant residues. If it is cooked correctly, it will not only fill the needs of plantations in nutrient components that accelerate growth, but also significantly improve the soil structure on which its looseness depends, and how it can absorb and retain moisture.

Compost in the country or vegetable garden is the only natural organic fertilizer, obtained by fermentation, which is provided by earthworms and bacteria.

The preparation of this fertilizer occurs in compost piles or composting . They can be built just like a hole in the ground, but the best option is a specially equipped place. This, as a rule, is the capacity of a closed or open type or a box with access inside.

Sometimes gardeners, truck farmers, are interested in what is "American-style" compost. This is, as a rule, a bucket into which food waste is added and diluted with earth. As you fill the mass is transferred to a larger container or poured into the main compost.

Conditions for composting

In the compost heap it is allowed to make all organic substances that can decompose. These include, among other things, wood waste, hay and straw. Do not add fresh feces to the compost, because they are composted separately, mixing with peat and earth, for at least several years.

To ensure that microorganisms that provide fermentation can process everything that is added to the compost pile and then produce humus from it, certain conditions are created, since they need a full-fledged diet to work. From plant waste they receive carbon, and they must be supplied with nitrogen by appropriate additives, which are animal manure.

Cow manure is added about twenty percent of the volume of the entire heap, and concentrated bird droppings are required less. If there are difficulties with the presence of this ingredient, then it is replaced with legumes, bone meal, young nettle or grass.

Composting It does not do without such components as fertile soil, saturated with microorganisms, and stimulators of fermentation. To create a more caloric composition, add fused phosphate or phosphorite flour at a rate of six kilograms per cubic meter and potassium (wood ash or potassium sulphate) in an amount of two kilograms per cubic meter.

When creating the necessary conditions and the correct compost structure, the heap is heated, accelerating the decomposition of the residues.

Of what do not make compost

One of the popular hobbies among people is gardening and gardening. To successfully conduct them, you need to have certain skills, one of which is knowledge of how to prepare fertilizer for garden plants.

To get quality compost it is important to understand what components it should not be:

• Plastics;
• Fats;
• Synthetic materials;
• Bones;
• Fat;
• Meat and milk waste.

The last three are undesirable because they smell unpleasant and attract rodents. It is possible to add them in small quantities for fast decay and in the middle of the compost.

Remembering what compost is, you can not make a garbage pit out of a heap, putting in it such components:

• Human feces and household waste to avoid helminthic infection;
• Rags, glossy paper, stones, bones, rubber, as they do not decompose in compost;
• Disinfectants and chemicals;
• Residues and waste products of animal origin that cause decay;
• Affected by diseases and pests of plants to be burned;
• Roots and stems with seeds of weeds, since during the process of re-ligation they do not lose their germination.

Green Elements

Components of the compost heap can be divided into two categories:

• "Green", which contains a significant amount of nitrogen;
• "Brown", which practically does not have nitrogen, but includes a lot of fiber.

The green group includes kitchen waste, tops, bird droppings, hay beans, green leaves, squeezes, various fruits. The processes of decay of these components are quite fast, occur with heating and rising temperatures inside. For the most favorable flow, it is necessary to properly prepare raw materials.

To prepare compost from the grass, the greens and leaves before pouring into the compost podvyvayut. If this is not done, the mass in the compost heap will be compacted, and air will not pass, which will lead not to decay, but to sour, and a poisonous fertilizer will turn out. Also layers of greenery are shifted by dry foliage and sawdust.

An excellent basis for compost is hay, but it must be remembered that each of its layers must be covered with ready-made humus or wetted with herbal tincture for faster bacterial growth and, therefore, acceleration of the composting process. The dried hay is watered with a solution of manure, kitchen waste or water.

Kitchen remnants and fruits are shifted by brown elements, and the bird droppings are diluted with water.

"Brown" component of the compost heap

The brown category includes the bark, the husk of sunflower seeds, paper, dry leaves. Also included are sawdust, corn cobs, straw, chaff, manure. The compost containing these components acquires the necessary porosity, since they play the role of disintegrating agents and retain air and moisture.

The processes of entangling these components are quite long and occur without the formation of heat. During their rotting, the amount of nitrogen decreases slightly in the compost. Therefore, when forming a heap, brown ingredients should act as auxiliary layers that feed the bacteria. A good way to maintain this process is to pour a pile of urea in a proportion of one and a half to two kilograms per cubic meter of heap.

The most suitable manure for compost is straw, or horse, worse - pig. When using the latter, it should be shifted with straw, sawdust or husks, before lining, make liming in the ratio of a couple kilograms per cubic meter of raw material and withstand until full maturation.

Proper application of fertilizer

After ripening the compost and converting it into organic fertilizer it is important to use it correctly, with benefit for plants. Councils for gardeners and truck farmers can be given the following:

• With the finished compost mixed with ash, it is possible to dig in the trunks of young seedlings, if they are weak and grow poorly. Stir a layer of earth about twenty centimeters.
• It is necessary to add compost under the bushes of currant and gooseberry, in the aisle of bushes of raspberries and strawberries.
• Preliminarily adding compost to lime, mix the cabbage and cucumber, mixing with a layer of earth ten centimeters.
• Fertilization of land in the fall can be made by introducing immature compost into the soil, covering these places with a film for winter so that valuable substances can not be precipitated. By spring, the fertilizer will mature.

Composting dimensions

Ingredients for cooking in a certain way are added in the compost. If the bookmark is made correctly, the heap will not release harmful substances into the ground, and also will not annoy with a strong unpleasant smell.

Therefore, complying with the dimensions of the compost is a very important point, otherwise a comfortable temperature and wet regime will not be created for ripening the compost. The most acceptable dimensions of the compost can be considered a one and a half meter wide and about twenty meters high. The length is optional, but more than one and a half meters. A pile of smaller sizes can not warm up well and will lose moisture quickly, which will slow the maturation of the fertilizer.

It is also advisable to arrange a compost at all times in the same place. This will lead to the multiplication of the necessary microorganisms and the rapid occupation of new heaps.

How to arrange a compost pyramid

Fertilizing soil in autumn It is of great importance for the maturation of a good crop. Therefore, it is the task of any gardener to properly organize a compost to obtain a useful organic fertilizer.

Recommendations will be as follows:

1. In the shaded area of the site, select a site for composting and prepare it: align, remove extraneous roots (especially weeds).
2. Place a fence with planks, slate or shields.
3. For unimpeded drainage of liquid to the bottom, drainage consisting of sand, gravel, or a fine grid or grid should be put.
4. Then put a layer of already matured last year's fertilizer - it will become a source of bacteria for fermentation.
5. Components for the bookmark are required to be shredded.
6. The brown and green layers are stacked alternately, not forgetting that the green mass should not be more than a third of the total volume.
7. Between layers, you can add a little litter, manure or a fermentation stimulant.
8. Closer to the top, the heap width should converge conically.
9. The top of the pile is covered with straw or planks (for air access).

Fertilization maturation conditions

Horticulture and gardening are quite common, but for their successful management it is necessary to have some knowledge, including how compost ripens.

Fermentation and compost maturation lasts from several months to a couple of years, depending on the conditions created and the preparation of components: pile volume, size of the crushed ingredients, fermentation regime.

It is important that the temperature inside the heap reaches sixty and above degrees Celsius, which will speed up the process of re-planting, killing pests. No less significant is the sufficient air access and moistening of the constituent pyramids.

Tips for gardeners and truck farmers on the arrangement of the compost pile

Some tips for caring for the compost pyramid:

1. With the onset of heat and drought, on the morning on a clear day, a bunch is abundantly watered with the addition of fermentation accelerators to wet all layers, which requires a lot of water.
2. A couple of times a season, the heap needs careful layer shading.
3. Leave compost for winter is to be insulated - covered with humus or peat and covered with straw. Next year, this "cover" is useful for a new heap.
4. Use compost can only mature, having a loose, homogeneous structure with the smell of moist earth and leaves (without mold and fungus).
5. You can not arrange a compost in the pit to avoid rotting due to stagnant water.

The article considers what compost is, how to properly prepare and use it. This knowledge is important for people engaged in gardening, because they depend on the fertility of the land and the abundance of the harvest.