Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Composting tips

Composting process is very simple as it requires Kitchen Wet Waste (Nitrogen), dry leaves/shredded paper/cocopeat (Carbon) and Oxygen. First add a layer of crushed dry leaves or cocopeat or dry soil and then put a layer of kitchen green waste (Do not add any cooked food) and cover it again with crushed dry leaves/ shredded paper/cocopeat. Just keep on layering greens and browns every day. 

Few tips:

1. Chop materials before putting them in the compost bin. The smaller it is, the faster it will break down. 
2. Each layer should be around 2 centimeters.
3. Mix up the mixture every week so that the compost will introduce oxygen and speed up the composting process. 
4. Adding few spoons of sour buttermilk every week or 10 days will add microbes and may speed up the composting. Do not make it too wet.
5. Add some existing compost to the bin and this will speed up the process due to microbes present in the compost.
6. If it smells bad, it probably means it's not decomposing properly; maybe your pile might be too wet or you might need to readjust your ratios of greens and browns.
7. The pile should be damp, not soggy.