Compost for fertilizing your dacha can be prepared at home. Making compost at home helps you benefit from the huge amount of food waste that is usually thrown away.

Thrifty owners, instead of throwing peelings and cores into the trash, put them in a special container and fill them with liquid for composting. The output is a high-quality organic product on which you can grow houseplants or use it as fertilizer in the garden.

What is compost

Compost is a fertilizer obtained from organic components as a result of their decomposition by microorganisms under aerobic conditions, that is, with access to air. Compost can be prepared from any organic matter, including feces, household and industrial waste. After decomposition of the components, the waste is converted into a substance containing macro- and microelements in a form accessible to plants: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, magnesium, boron and others.

Properly made compost has pleasant organoleptic characteristics. It is loose, homogeneous, does not stick to your hands, and does not release moisture when compressed. Compost looks like a dark, crumbly mass. It smells like fresh earth.

For composting you need:

• positive temperature;
• oxygen access;
• optimal degree of moisture.

There are many compost recipes in which superphosphate, gypsum, lime and other, sometimes unexpected, substances are added to organic matter. But ordinary compost is made from only organic matter. This mass is a universal fertilizer on which any cultivated plant will grow by leaps and bounds.

Usually compost is prepared at the dacha or personal plot, in open-air areas. Organic waste is placed in a heap, pile or compost bin from which it can be conveniently removed. The last condition is mandatory, since the compost has to be mixed several times a season so that in the center of the heap there are no compacted places that do not receive oxygen. Mixing compost accelerates ripening, that is, the decomposition of organic matter and the transformation of stems, leaves, branches and peelings into a homogeneous loose mass that does not resemble the original raw material in smell and color.

When does it make sense to make home compost? This may be useful for indoor plant lovers who want to feed their plants with a natural substance. Or for avid summer residents who can prepare several bags of fertilizer over a long winter, saving on the purchase of humus or manure.

Types of compost

Peat manure compost made from peat and manure, taken equally. You can take any manure: horse, sheep, cattle, chicken and rabbit manure. Except for pigs - due to their feeding habits, their manure contains an prohibitive amount of nitrogen - this will ruin any soil.

Sawdust and slurry compost- instant fertilizer. It can be used to feed plants a month and a half after laying the compost heap. For composting, slurry is poured between peat or sawdust sides. 100 liters of slurry require 100 kilograms of bulk materials. After the peat or sawdust has absorbed the slurry, a pile is formed from the mass, in which composting processes will immediately begin. It is useful to add phosphorus to the mixture at the rate of 2 kg of superphosphate per hundredweight of organic matter.

Peat-fecal compost done like the previous one, but instead of slurry, the contents are used country toilets. It will not be possible to replace peat with sawdust, since sawdust does not absorb odors so well. This compost is not used on vegetables, but for gardens and perennial plants, including ornamental crops, it will do.

There is no need to worry about helminthiasis. In the compost heap the mixture is heated to 80 degrees. At this temperature, human helminths die along with their eggs and larvae.

Garden multi-component compost- universal fertilizer for gardens and vegetable gardens. Garden waste is used for composting: weeds, cut shoots, fallen leaves, tops. The result is a black, odorless mixture with a fine-grained structure and oily feel. As some gardeners say, looking at such compost, “I could eat it myself.”

In order for the composting process to produce good compost, the pile must be shoveled at least twice a season and moved to another place. The fertilizer will be ready in at least a year.

Manure-earth compost- Instead of peat, use ordinary soil. There should be 30 parts soil to 70 parts manure. The components are stacked in layers. The soil will absorb the solution released from the manure and will not allow the nitrogen to “escape” from the manure pile as a gas (ammonia).

Manure-earth compost contains 3 times more nitrogen than humus obtained by overheating manure in heaps. By laying a manure-earth pile in the spring, you can get high-quality, highly nutritious compost in the fall.

To prepare compost in your apartment, you don’t have to use peat or soil. One of the advantages of the technology is that compost can be made from kitchen waste alone. The fertilizer prepares itself. To prepare it, you don’t need to buy anything special except a plastic bucket - that’s why it’s sometimes called “ plastic compost».

Let's take a closer look at how to prepare compost in an apartment. The fertilizer matures in a suitable compost container under the influence of a starter culture made from special microorganisms. You need to put a grate on the bottom of the bucket. The top of the container should be tightly closed with a lid. Experts call the fertilizer obtained in this way “urgasa”.

Any food waste is suitable for preparing compost: vegetable peelings, dried bread, banana peels, eggshells, melon peels, etc. The more components there are in the compost mixture, the higher the nutritional value.

Protein products and fats are not suitable for producing compost in plastic buckets: meat, fish (including bones), seeds, pits, sunflower seeds, nut kernels, dairy products.

Steps for making compost yourself:

1. Place the grate in a plastic bucket.
2. Use an awl to make 5 holes in the garbage bag - the liquid formed as a result of fermentation will drain through them.
3. Insert the bag into the bucket so that its bottom is on the grate.
4. Place food scraps in a bag, chopping them so that each piece is no more than 3 centimeters in size.
5. Lay the waste in layers, moisten each layer with a solution of the EM drug from a spray bottle.
6. Squeeze the air out of the bag and place a weight on top.
7. Fill the bag with waste as it accumulates in the kitchen.

EM liquid is a preparation containing strains of microorganisms that quickly decompose organic waste. Known EM liquids:

• Baikal,
• Urgas,
• Humisol,
• Tamir.

Having filled the bag to the top (this can be done gradually, as kitchen waste accumulates), it is kept at room temperature for a week and then transferred to the balcony.

By this time, liquid will have accumulated at the bottom of the bucket - this is not a production waste, but a valuable substance, enriched with bacteria that can be of great benefit to household. After treating the toilet or cat litter with this liquid, it disappears. bad smell. For the same purpose, liquid can be poured into sewer pipes. In addition, it is suitable for watering indoor plants.

Compost produced at home with the help of preparations is taken to the dacha in the spring. By this time, a dozen or two plastic bags with urgas have accumulated on the balconies. It is applied to the beds in the same quantities as regular compost.

Features of compost preparation

Compost at the dacha can be prepared in a homemade composter, made in the form of a box, or in a converted old 200-liter metal barrel. Stores sell garden or landscape composters. They are neat containers with a lid that fit well into the surrounding landscape.

Composters can only be used in warm time of the year. When frost occurs, the container is emptied of its contents.

The thermocomposter is designed differently - in such a device you can process vegetation into fertilizer 365 days a year. Thermocomposters work even in cold weather. They are a large thermos in which the heat released during the decomposition of organic matter is accumulated.

A vermicomposter is another compost making device that is offered in stores. In it, not microorganisms, but soil worms will work to make compost, transforming vegetation and kitchen waste into humus. The vermicomposter can be installed at home, as it does not emit an unpleasant odor. Earthworms and Californian worms are used to decompose waste.

Composting in a heap or composter consists of several stages.

1. At the first stage - mesophilic- raw materials need to be moistened. Colonies of microorganisms can only develop in a humid environment. The more the raw material is crushed, the more water will be required for moistening, but the compost will ripen several months faster. The fact that the mesophilic stage is completed will be indicated by the subsidence of the heap.
2. Second phase - thermophilic. The temperature in the pile rises. It can heat up to 75 degrees, while harmful bacteria and weed seeds die, and the heap decreases in size. The thermophilic phase lasts from 1 to 3 months. At the thermophilic stage, the compost pile needs to be shaken at least once after the temperature drops. After moving the mass to a new location, the temperature will rise again, as the bacteria will receive oxygen and increase activity. This is a normal process.
3. Third stage - cooling, it lasts 5-6 months. During this time, the cooled raw materials overheat and turn into compost.

Conditions for compost maturation:

• The heap or composter is placed in the shade, since the ingredients will dry out in the sun and will have to be watered frequently, doing extra work.
• There is no point in starting a small compost heap - if there is a lack of raw materials, bacteria will not be able to develop and the plants, instead of rotting and turning into fertilizer, will dry out.
• The optimal height of the heap is one and a half meters, width is a meter. Larger sizes make it difficult for oxygen to enter the heap and instead of aerobic bacteria, putrefactive ones will multiply there. That is, instead of fragrant crumbly compost, you get foul-smelling mucus.
• Throughout the season, add any plant debris to your compost pile. If the plot is small and there are not enough weeds and tops for the volume of the pile, borrow from neighbors who did not think of starting a composter.

Is it possible to put weeds that have managed to inseminate into compost? cultivated plants with signs of disease, for example, tomato tops affected by late blight? After heating in a compost heap, weed seeds and spores of harmful microorganisms lose their ability to germinate, so plant residues can be put into composting. The exception is plants infected with viruses. They must be burned immediately after removal from the garden.

Sometimes it is advised to lay compost on a bed of clay, peat or sand. If the heap is laid without feces and slurry, then a cushion is not needed, as it will prevent earthworms from penetrating into the heap, and without them the maturation of the compost will be delayed.

Microbiological preparations or bird droppings will help speed up the maturation of compost. Plant material is either sprayed with liquid or transferred with moistened broiler manure. Such heaps will have to be watered more often.

How to use compost correctly

Compost at the dacha can be applied to all soils, for any crops, in the same dosage as humus. Mature compost is applied to the furrows when planting seedlings and sowing seeds. It can be used to form high beds.

The most common way to use compost is to mulch any cultural plantings: from trees to lawns. The compost will serve as both food and mulch.

Using a regular aquarium aerator, you can make compost tea from compost - a liquid saturated with beneficial microorganisms. Compost tea is used for foliar feeding. The liquid not only serves as a source of nutrients for plants, but also protects against fungal and bacterial diseases, since tea microorganisms are antagonists of pathological microbes.

Compost obtained in bags in winter is added to mixtures for growing seedlings. Seeds are not sown in clean compost, as it is a concentrate. But if you dilute it with peat or garden soil so that the compost in the mixture is 25-30%, you will get a mass that is optimal in terms of acidity, mechanical composition and nutrient content in which any seedlings will grow.

Growing plants directly in compost is possible. Summer residents traditionally sow cucumbers, pumpkins or melons directly on the heap, but by this time the maturation of the compost should be completed.

A compost heap, in which thermophilic processes take place, can be used to obtain early harvests of cucumbers. To do this, deep (40 cm) holes are made in the heated mass, filled with fertile garden soil, into which cucumber seedlings are planted. This technique allows you to jump into growing vegetables for at least 1 month. If you place wire arcs on the compost heap and stretch a film over the plants, you can get a harvest 2 months earlier.

Compost is indispensable when growing carrots. Manure and humus cannot be added to the beds where carrots will be sown - because of them, the root crops are deformed, take on an ugly shape, and branch. Compost is another matter. It can be applied even in the spring before sowing carrot seeds in the garden bed, at a rate of 2 kg per square meter. m.

Mulching with compost increases productivity and improves the taste of vegetables and strawberries. The product acquires a pronounced taste typical for the variety and gains more sugar.

By laying a compost heap on your site or installing a composting container, you will create a waste-free production in which plant residues will be returned to the soil, and it will never become scarce.

Organic living farming technology allows you to preserve and use valuable substances and fertilizers even at home. Home composting is especially important for summer residents with a vegetable garden on a windowsill, balcony, or small garden plot that is visited only on weekends.

Where to use home compost

Food residues are valuable organic raw materials. Once in landfills, organic matter begins to rot and poison the soil and groundwater with decomposition products, releasing the so-called. harmful landfill gas.

1. Homemade compost can be used for preparing seedling soil. For 10 kg of soil you will need only 100 g of compost (4 tbsp.). The soil mixture is left for 10-14 days to mature. During this time, effective microorganisms actively multiply. Then you can sow seeds for seedlings in this nutritious soil.
2. Homemade compost is great pre-sowing fertilizer when planting potatoes. One handful of compost is placed in the hole. On top is a layer of earth and a sprouted potato tuber.
3. Home compost accelerates the formation of humus. As they say, worms flock to EM bacteria like cats to valerian. In addition, compost increases the temperature and promotes better and faster warming of the soil.
4. Compost prevents the proliferation of harmful microorganisms, does not contain weed seeds (like manure) and suppresses pathogenic microflora.
5. By sending leftover food and vegetables into compost, we not only prepare valuable natural fertilizer, but also saving local lands from excessive pollution and improve environmental situation in a region that we love and cherish.

What can you use to make home compost?

At home, ordinary ones go into compost. household waste from the kitchen table. Any waste that does not contain a lot of water is suitable for creating home compost.

• Peels of potatoes, vegetables, fruits
• Rinds of watermelons, melons, zucchini, pumpkins
• Seed husks, etc.

The following cannot be used for making home compost:

• Inorganic residues
• Cigarette butts
• Matches
• Fruit and fish bones

Methods for making homemade compost

1. Freezing
This is one of the simplest and available ways, which is convenient to use in cold weather. In winter, when it is not possible to regularly go to the dacha, kitchen leftovers can be frozen and stored on the balcony. In the spring, take it all to the site and put it in the compost heap.

2. Drying
Drying is suitable in the warm season, summer and spring. When the sun generously shines on the windows and balcony on the south side, it is easy to turn household waste into valuable organic material. In the sun, fruit and vegetable peels, tea leaves, and eggshells quickly dry out, but retain their valuable organic properties.

3. EM technologies

Both drying and freezing are more suitable for those who have a small family, and there is not much food leftover in the kitchen. To cope with large volumes of kitchen organics without unnecessary hassle, EM composters, EM containers, and EM preparations are suitable.
____________________________________________________________________

EM technologies for compost

1. The abbreviation EM means effective microorganisms. These are living beneficial bacteria that participate in the natural processing of organic matter in the soil. Thanks to their work, the lands become fertile and rich in humus.
2. Once upon a time in Japan, scientists carefully studied and selected entire 80 varieties of effective bacteria, which actively work in the soil, processing organic residues.
3. Now I'm like this in Japan (and in America, for example, too) containers with EM bacteria are in every school canteen. Well, the Japanese know how to value garbage, because they built an entire island out of it! But that's a completely different story, let's get back to compost.
4. Nowadays, not only Japanese ones are available for sale EM drugs, but also similar developments of our Russian scientists.
5. EM bacteria added to compost cause it accelerated maturation, and the compost is ready in one season. Experienced summer residents know that naturally composting of plant residues occurs within 2-3 years.

___________________________________________________________________

EM containers for home compost

• The action of EM containers is based on the work of living bacteria, effective microorganisms. The compost container is made of special EM plastic. Its composition does not allow organic waste to rot, but promotes fermentation and the transformation of waste into compost.
• The EM container is a large plastic container (15 liters) that looks like a bucket. It is equipped with a grid bottom and a tap for draining liquid, an intermediate lid for compacting compost and a sealed lid that does not allow oxygen to pass through.
• In addition to large 15-liter containers, there are small 4-liter buckets, also made from EM plastic.

___________________________________________________________________

How EM containers work

1. Organic waste is placed on a grid bottom. Excess liquid, which is formed during the fermentation of food waste, seeps through the holes and accumulates in a special compartment. Then you can water indoor flowers and garden plants with this liquid, and feed seedlings. Some people suggest using compost liquid to prevent clogged pipes.
2. The top of the waste is covered with a sealed lid, which prevents the access of oxygen. As a result, a special environment is created inside the container, a favorable microclimate for the proliferation of useful, effective microorganisms that process residues into useful fertilizer.
3. The residues placed in the container are watered with EM preparations.
4. As those who have composted waste at home assure, proper fermentation produces a pleasant pickle smell.

• If you are using an EM container in winter time. The accumulated compost can also be frozen and left on the balcony. Simply transfer the already fermented contents of the EM container into bags and leave them on the balcony until you leave for the country.
• A family of 3-4 people can prepare up to 500 kg of compost from food waste during the autumn-winter period, i.e. turn half a ton of waste into valuable organic food for soil and plants.

DIY EM compost containers

Instead of special containers, you can also use ordinary buckets, adapting them in a special way and modernizing them as EM containers. The main thing is that there is a system for draining and collecting compost liquid, and a tightly closing lid to prevent the access of oxygen.

1. A grid is placed at the bottom of the bucket, then a plastic bag with holes made to drain excess liquid.
2. The waste is placed in the bag in layers: dry first, wet on top. Then the waste is watered with an EM preparation.
3. Can be used for irrigation plastic bottle with holes made in the lid.
4. Then you need to remove excess air from the bag (by tightly twisting the bag) and press it down with a weight on top. In this way, the compost will be ready in a week.

Until spring, accumulated composted waste can be stored on the balcony, in the pantry or basement.

DIY EM preparations for compost

Some summer residents refuse industrial drugs and find an alternative at home.

1. Yeast solution:

• Dissolve yeast briquette in 2 liters of water room temperature from 2 tbsp. l. Sahara.
• Leave overnight.
• To obtain a working solution, pour into a 10-liter bucket and use the liquid for watering, irrigation and spraying

____________________________________________________________________

5. Rice milk solution

• Pour 1 tbsp. l. rice with 1 glass of water. To stir thoroughly. Drain the whitened water into a separate container and leave in a warm place for a week.
• After 5-7 days, strain the rice water and add milk in a ratio of 10:1 (10 parts milk to 1 part rice water). And leave it again for a week.
• Express the curdled milk and add 1 tbsp to the remaining liquid. l sugar.

This way we get a concentrated infusion, which must then be diluted 20 times.

6. Kombucha infusion

If someone lives and thrives in the kitchen tea mushroom V three liter jar, the liquid in which it floats can be used as an EM drug. Some believe that it also contains bacteria beneficial to the soil and plants.

Disposer

Under-sink food waste disposer

The easiest way to recycle organic waste in your apartment is to install a disposer. The principle of operation is this: the device is installed under the sink, and every time you need to process a new portion of waste, you need to throw it into the drain hole and turn it on cold water and the disposer itself. After processed food goes down the drain without unpleasant odor and the risk of pipe clogging.

The grinder is quite omnivorous: you can load all organic debris into it, even small bones, eggshells, tea bags (only the bag itself, without thread), but large bones and inorganic debris (films, plastic bags) should not be thrown into the device. The fact is that a chopper does not work by cutting food using blades, like a blender, for example, but grinds it into a liquid mass. Also, it's best not to use household chemicals containing alkali and chlorine, manufacturers say. The market leader from the moment of its foundation and still is the American company InSinkErator.

Composters

ZERA Food Recycler

Full processing cycle per day

The company has developed a new kitchen appliance, which will not only reduce the volume of daily food waste, but also turn it into fertilizer. The container holds about eight kilograms of organic matter, which is first crushed, then mixed and exposed to oxygen, moisture, heat and a special composition plant origin(coconut shells and soda) are processed into compost - the whole process takes 24 hours. If you let the finished mixture brew for about two more weeks, you can get the ideal fertilizer for your plants and even the whole garden.

The composter is not on sale yet. The developers have the necessary funds to launch ZERA on the Indiegogo platform (they have already managed to raise more than $550,000). They also promise that the device can be controlled remotely using a mobile application.

FoodCycler FC-30

Miniature food processing assistant

Food Cycle Science has released a composter that can hold a kilogram of waste and is suitable for even the smallest kitchen. The principle of operation is the same as that of other composters - it processes organic waste, but it copes with this much faster than many similar devices. All you have to do is put the leftovers in the FoodCycler and voila, three hours later you have great dry fertilizer. Even if compost as such is not needed, the resulting mass does not have any unpleasant odors, so throwing it in the trash can will get rid of this unpleasant nuance. The gadget also has a removable bucket that can be loaded into the dishwasher. On the official website, delivery is available to the USA, Canada, UK and Germany.

NatureMill Pro

Dry and liquid fertilizer

NatureMill Pro feeds food waste into top part device, and you need to take the resulting mass from the bottom. The device produces two types of compost at the output: liquid (convenient for watering plants) and pressed residue. When the indicator lights up, you can add a new portion to the top tray. The built-in carbon filter eliminates unpleasant odors (it turns out soft and organic), and the energy released during the processing process destroys pathogenic substances and prevents seed germination. The complete recycling process takes 10 days. With this composter you can process up to 55 kg of food waste per month. The device is convenient to store both in an apartment and outside the city - in the house or on the street, even in snow, rain or frost.

Vermicomposters

Worm Cafe

Worm farm at home

This method of recycling waste is more suitable for suburban areas, but there are also those who place vermicomposters in the apartment. The point is that they do not work using electricity, but using special worms that process waste. Worms eat not only food waste, but also dust from a vacuum cleaner, hair, animal hair, newspapers, and packaging cardboard, such as eggs or milk. Vermicomposters are a multi-level design: garbage is placed in the first tray, and when the worms eat it, a second one is placed on top - with a special bottom, into which a new portion of waste is placed, then you need to install a third tray and then the process is repeated. The output is 100% natural vermicompost. The disadvantage of this method is that it is often necessary to grind the food before sending it to the worms. They have difficulty handling large or very hard foods. Also, if used incorrectly, small midges or mold may develop. That is why it is better to place such a container on a summer cottage.

In addition to this, the Australian company has several other models of vermicomposters that generally work on the same principle. Buying vermicomposters from this and other companies is quite simple: they are sold in almost all gardening stores. Worms (well, you never know, they suddenly ran out) can be

It’s been a long time since we discussed how far technology has come.

Typically, food waste in urban areas either goes into regular garbage or into a food waste grinder, that is, into the sewer.

Loughborough University graduate Benjamin Cullis Watson developed trash container, which quickly converts food waste into compost for the garden and liquid fertilizer for houseplants.

His work is based on bokashi, a Japanese method that uses fermentation to break down waste without leaving an odor. The Taihi container automatically sprays an accelerator mixture to decompose waste. The result is a liquid that is stored in a sealed watering can and compost, which is fed into a separate container.

A double lid system and a set of rubber seals prevent odor, and the container itself has an easy-to-clean coating. Unlike other composting systems, waste does not need to be turned and supported necessary conditions storage

To start fermentation, you need to add the bokashi mixture.

Containers for processing food waste using live worms have already found their connoisseurs on the market (for example, Worm Cafe from the Australian company Tumbleweed and the American VermiHut), as well as the automatic NatureMill.

The K100 containers from SCD Probiotics (the composter is designed for 19 kg of food waste) and the Urban composter are based on the bokashi technology.