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How to Make Superior Compost

By: Steve Solomon, Published: 2011-02-22, Parent Category: How-to Tutorials

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Charging the Compost Pits


Every effort was made to fill a pit to the brim within one week. If there wasn't enough material to fill an entire pit within one week, then a portion of one pit would be filled to the top. To preserve good aeration, every effort was made to avoid stepping on the material while filling the pit. As mixtures of manure and bedding were brought out from the cattle shed they were thinly layered atop thin layers of mixed vegetation brought in from the dried reserves heaped up adjacent to the compost factory. Each layer was thoroughly wet down with a clay slurry made of three ingredients: water, urine-earth, and actively decomposing material from an adjacent compost pit that had been filled about two weeks earlier. This insured that every particle within the heap was moist and was coated with nitrogen-rich soil and the microorganisms of decomposition. Today, we would call this practice "mass inoculation."

Pits Versus Heaps

India has two primary seasons. Most of the year is hot and dry while the monsoon rains come from dune through September. During the monsoon, so much water falls so continuously that the earth becomes completely saturated. Even though the pits were under a roof, they would fill with water during this period. So in the monsoon, compost was made in low heaps atop the ground. Compared to the huge pits, their dimensions were smaller than you would expect: 7 x 7 feet at the top, 8 x 8 feet at the base and no more than 2 feet high. When the rains started, any compost being completed in pits was transferred to above-ground heaps when it was turned.

Howard was accomplishing several things by using shallow pits or low but very broad heaps. One, thermal masses were reduced so temperatures could not reach the ultimate extremes possible while composting. The pits were better than heaps because air flow was further reduced, slowing down the fermentation, while their shallowness still permitted sufficient aeration. There were enough covered pits to start a new heap every week.

Temperature Range in Normal Pit

Age in days Temperature in degree C
3 63
4 60
6 58
11 55
12 53
13 49
14 49
First Turn
18 49
20 51
22 48
24 47
29 46
Second Turn
37 49
38 45
40 40
43 39
57 39
Third Turn
61 41
66 39
76 38
82 36
90 33

Period in days for each fall of 5i C

Temperature Range No. of Days
65 degree-60 degree 4
60 degree-55 degree 7
55 degree-50 degree 1
50 degree-45 degree 25
45 degree-40 degree 2
40 degree-35 degree 44
35 degree-30 degree 14

Total 97 days

Turning the Compost»
« The Indore Compost Factory
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