Composting: The Easy Way - Ram Velamuri (sci fi books to read .txt) 📗

 

Make sure you keep the 3-4:1 brown:green ratio. Leave the lid of the composting bin open for about 30 minutes each day. Do this preferably in the afternoon, where the sunlight can speed up reactions in the compost, and make it degrade faster.  Leave the compost out of the rain.  Keep the compost moist. Every time you add material to the composting bin, sprinkle a handful of water in the composting bin, turn the compost, and sprinkle a bit more. Keeping the compost moist makes the material degrade faster.  Leave the composting bin outside. Leaving it indoors is fine, too. However, leaving it outside would allow for more fresh air to circulate through the compost through the holes in the bin. Use compost booster every 3 days. Add about 2-4 tablespoons, depending on the amount of compost in the bin. If your compost smells, or starts to attract bugs, add more browns.

 

 

 

Overall, to maintain my compost bin, I found myself taking 1-2 minutes out of my day to hydrate and mix my compost. This is ideal, as a lot of people have busy schedules, and can afford to take only 1-2 minutes per day for composting. 

 

Compost heats up naturally. As you mix the compost, temperatures could vary from about 40 degrees C, and could even reach 80-100 degrees C in the right conditions!

If your compost isn't heating up, add more greens.

 

 

Well, that's it! With these steps and tips, you're ready to make your own composting bin!

The First Layer

For the first layer of compost, I used cocopeat, which is a type of soil made from coconut husks. It's pretty cheap, and is great for starting off your compost.

It might be a little tricky to use cocopeat, so below are a few steps you can use to put cocopeat in your composting bin. 

 

Place the cocopeat block in a tray or large pan.  Cocopeat comes in a block which needs to be hydrated in order to be used.  Take a glass of water, and slowly pour it on the cocopeat block. You should see that the block starts to expand.  After the block expands, use your hand to break up the cocopeat into little bits. You should get something like this:

The cocopeat should be moist. but not too moist. If you take a little bit in your hand and squeeze it, there shouldn't be more than a few drops of water coming out. If the cocopeat seems watery, then leave it out in the sun for about 6-10 hours. This may take up to a day.

Then, you're done! You can use cocopeat as some of your browns in compost, but make sure you use it in the first layer (put about 4-6 inches depending on the size of your composting bin. 

Results

 

My final product turned out to be something like this:

 

You can see here that I left the composting bin outside to aerate every day, for around 30 minutes. Also, if I didn't have enough space inside, I left the composting bin outside. 

 

Originally, my first layer looked like this: 

Then, after layering more and more, as well as adding a little bit of compost booster, I mixed my compost. 

Eventually, after around 2 weeks, my compost looked something like this:

As I stir the compost, you can see how the lighter shades indicate compost that needs more water, and the darker shades of brown depict parts of the compost that are hydrated enough. 

 

 

Well, that's it! As you stir the compost, you should see less and less of the material that you put in, and more compost. If you see this, that means you've done it right!

I observed that about 80% of the organic waste that my family threw out was composted, and that's a huge success overall. If you observe similar results, the composting bin is successful for you too.

 

 

Well, we made compost. So, what can we do with it?

You can use it to:

Start a garden of your own Maintain your garden Substitute for potting soil Maintain the pH of your soil Contribute to a local or community garden and many more things!

 

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Publication Date: 03-13-2020

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