,ver4#aj_/jd_/ja99;,,end99 ,created by3 ,steve ,solomon ssolomonsoilandhealth4org ,organic ,gardener's ,composting by ,steve ,solomon ,foreword ,back in the '#gj's1 ,i made the momentous move from the ,east ,coast to the ,west and quickly discovered that much of my garden knowledge needed an update4 ,seattle's climate was unlike anything ,i had experienced in ,massachusetts or ,ohio or ,colorado1 and many of my favorite vegetables simply didn't grow well4 ,a friend steered me to a new seed company1 a tiny business called ,territorial ,seed1 unique in that1 rather than trying to tout its wares all over the country1 it would only sell to people living west of the ,cascade ,mountains4 ,every vegetable and cover crop listed had been carefully tested and selected by ,steve ,solomon for its performance in the maritime ,northwest4 ,the #aihj's saw the revival of regional gardening1 a concept once widely accepted1 but since lost to the sweeping homogeneity of the '#ejs and '#fjs4 ,steve ,solomon and his ,territorial ,seed ,company directly influenced the return of regional garden making by creating an awareness of climatic differences and by providing quantities of helpful information specific to this area4 ,not only could customers order regionally appropriate1 flavorful and long-lasting vegetables from the ,territorial catalog's pages1 we could also find recipes for cooking unfamiliar ones1 as well as recipes for building organic fertilizers of all sorts4 ,territorial's catalog offered information about organic or environmentally benign pest and disease controls1 seasonal cover crops1 composts and mulches1 and charts guiding us to optimal planting patterns4 ,every bit of it was the fruit of ,steve ,solomon's work and observation4 ,i cannot begin to calculate the disappointments and losses ,steve helped me to avoid1 nor the hours of effort he saved for me and countless other regional gardeners4 ,we came to rely on his word1 for we found we could2 ,if ,steve said this or that would grow in certain conditions1 by gum1 it would4 ,better yet1 if he didn't know something1 or was uncertain about it1 he said so1 and asked for our input4 ,before long1 a network of environmentally concerned gardeners had formed around ,territorial's customer base1 including several ,tilth communities1 groups of gardeners concerned with promoting earth stewardship and organic husbandry in both rural and urban settings4 ,in these days of generalized eco-awareness1 it is easy to forget that a few short years ago1 home gardeners were among the worst environmental offenders1 cheerfully poisoning anything that annoyed them with whatever dreadful chemical that came to hand1 unconscious of the long-term effects on fauna and flora1 water and soil4 ,now1 thank goodness1 many gardeners know that their mandate is to heal the bit of earth in their charge4 ,composting our home and garden wastes is one of the simplest and most beneficial things we can do1 both to cut down the quantity of wastes we produce1 and to restore health to the soil we garden upon ,i can think of no better guide to the principles and techniques of composting than ,steve ,solomon4 ,whether you live in an urban condo or farm many acres1 you will find in these pages practical1 complete and accessible information that serves your needs1 served up with the warmth and gentle humor that characterizes everything ,steve does4 ,ann ,lovejoy1 ,bainbridge ,island1 ,washington1 #aiic ,to ,my ,readers ,a few special books live on in my mind4 ,these were always enjoyable reading4 ,the author's words seemed to speak directly to me like a good friend's conversation pouring from their eyes1 heart and soul4 ,when ,i write ,i try to make the same thing happen for you4 ,i imagine that there is an audience hearing my words1 seated in invisible chairs behind my word processor4 ,you are part of that group4 ,i visualize you as solidly as ,i can4 ,i create by talking to you4 ,it helps me to imagine that you are friendly1 accepting1 and understand my ideas readily4 ,then ,i relax1 enjoy writing to you and proceed with an open heart4 ,most important1 when the creative process has been fun1 the writing still sparkles when ,i polish it up the next day4 ,i wrote my first garden book for an audience of one3 what seemed a very typical neighbor1 someone who only thought he knew a great deal about raising vegetables4 ,constitutionally1 he would only respect and learn from a capital ,a authority who would direct him step-by-step as a cookbook recipe does4 ,so that is what ,i pretended to be4 ,the result was a concise1 basic regional guide to year-round vegetable production4 ,giving numerous talks on gardening and teaching master gardener classes improved my subsequent books4 ,with this broadening1 ,i expanded my imaginary audience and filled the invisible chairs with all varieties of gardeners who had differing needs and goals4 ,this particular book gives me an audience problem4 ,simultaneously ,i have two quite different groups of composters in mind4 ,what one set wants the other might find boring or even irritating4 ,the smaller group includes serious food gardeners like me4 ,vegetable gardeners have traditionally been acutely interested in composting1 soil building1 and maintaining soil organic matter4 ,we are willing to consider anything that might help us grow a better garden and we enjoy agricultural science at a lay person's level4 ,the other larger audience1 does not grow food at all1 or if they do it is only a few tomato plants in a flower bed4 ,a few are apartment dwellers who1 at best1 keep a few house plants4 ,yet even renters may want to live with greater environmental responsibility by avoiding unnecessary contributions of kitchen garbage to the sewage treatment system4 ,similarly1 modern home owners want to stop sending yard wastes to landfills4 ,these days householders may be offered incentives 7or threatened with penalties7 by their municipalities to separate organic1 compostable garbage from paper1 from glass1 from metal or from plastic4 ,individuals who pay for trash pickup by volume are finding that they can save considerable amounts of money by recycling their own organic wastes at home4 ,the first audience is interested in learning about the role of compost in soil fertility1 better soil management methods and growing healthier1 more nutritious food4 ,much like a serious home bread baker1 audience one seeks exacting composting recipes that might result in higher quality4 ,audience two primarily wants to know the easiest and most convenient way to reduce and recycle organic debris4 ,holding two conflicting goals at once is the fundamental definition of a problem4 ,not being willing to abandon either 7or both7 goals is what keeps a problem alive4 ,different and somewhat opposing needs of these two audiences make this book somewhat of a problem4 ,to compensate ,i have positioned complex composting methods and the connections between soil fertility and plant health toward the back of the book4 ,the first two-thirds may be more than sufficient for the larger1 more casual members of my imaginary audience4 ,but ,i could not entirely divide the world of composting into two completely separate levels4 ,instead1 ,i tried to write a book so interesting that readers who do not food garden will still want to read it to the end and will realize that there are profound benefits from at-home food production4 ,these run the gamut from physical and emotional health to enhanced economic liberty4 ,even if it doesn't seem to specifically apply to your recycling needs1 it is my hope that you will become more interested in growing some of your own food4 ,i believe we would have a stronger1 healthier and saner country if more liberty-loving ,americans would grow food gardens4 ,,chapter ,,one ,what ,is ,compost ,do you know what really happens when things rot8 ,have other garden books confused you with vague meanings for words like stabilized humus8 ,this book won't4 ,are you afraid that compost making is a nasty1 unpleasant1 or difficult process8 ,it isn't4 ,a compost pile is actually a fast-track method of changing crude organic materials into something resembling soil1 called humus4 ,but the word humus is often misunderstood1 along with the words compost1 and organic matter4 ,and when fundamental ideas like these are not really defined in a person's mind1 the whole subject they are a part of may be confused4 ,so this chapter will clarify these basics4 ,compost making is a simple process4 ,done properly it becomes a natural part of your gardening or yard maintenance activities1 as much so as mowing the lawn4 ,and making compost does not have to take any more effort than bagging up yard waste4 ,handling well-made compost is always a pleasant experience4 ,it is easy to disregard compost's vulgar origins because there is no similarity between the good-smelling brown or black crumbly substance dug out of a compost pile and the manure1 garbage1 leaves1 grass clippings and other waste products from which it began4 ,precisely defined1 composting means 'enhancing the consumption of crude organic matter by a complex ecology of biological decomposition organisms4' ,as raw organic materials are eaten and re-eaten by many1 many tiny organisms from bacteria 7the smallest7 to earthworms 7the largest71 their components are gradually altered and recombined4 ,gardeners often use the terms organic matter1 compost1 and humus as interchangeable identities4 ,but there are important differences in meaning that need to be explained4 ,this stuff1 this organic matter we food gardeners are vitally concerned about1 is formed by growing plants that manufacture the substances of life4 ,most organic molecules are very large1 complex assemblies while inorganic materials are much simpler4 ,animals can break down1 reassemble and destroy organic matter but they cannot create it4 ,only plants can make organic materials like cellulose1 proteins1 and sugars from inorganic minerals derived from soil1 air or water4 ,the elements plants build with include calcium1 magnesium1 potassium1 phosphorus1 sodium1 sulfur1 iron1 zinc1 cobalt1 boron1 manganese1 molybdenum1 carbon1 nitrogen1 oxygen1 and hydrogen4 ,so organic matter from both land and sea plants fuels the entire chain of life from worms to whales4 ,humans are most familiar with large animals2 they rarely consider that the soil is also filled with animal life busily consuming organic matter or each other4 ,rich earth abounds with single cell organisms like bacteria1 actinomycetes1 fungi1 protozoa1 and rotifers4 ,soil life forms increase in complexity to microscopic round worms called nematodes1 various kinds of mollusks like snails and slugs 7many so tiny the gardener has no idea they are populating the soil71 thousands of almost microscopic soil-dwelling members of the spider family that zoologists call arthropods1 the insects in all their profusion and complexity1 and1 of course1 certain larger soil animals most of us are familiar with such as moles4 ,the entire sum of all this organic matter3 living plants1 decomposing plant materials1 and all the animals1 living or dead1 large and small is sometimes called biomass4 ,one realistic way to gauge the fertility of any particular soil body is to weigh the amount of biomass it sustains4 ,humus is a special and very important type of decomposed organic matter4 ,although scientists have been intently studying humus for a century or more1 they still do not know its chemical formula4 ,it is certain that humus does not have a single chemical structure1 but is a very complex mixture of similar substances that vary according to the types of organic matter that decayed1 and the environmental conditions and specific organisms that made the humus4 ,whatever its varied chemistry1 all humus is brown or black1 has a fine1 crumbly texture1 is very light-weight when dry1 and smells like fresh earth4 ,it is sponge-like1 holding several times its weight in water4 ,like clay1 humus attracts plant nutrients like a magnet so they aren't so easily washed away by rain or irrigation4 ,then humus feeds nutrients back to plants4 ,in the words of soil science1 this functioning like a storage battery for minerals is called cation exchange capacity4 ,more about that later4 ,most important1 humus is the last stage in the decomposition of organic matter4 ,once organic matter has become humus it resists further decomposition4 ,humus rots slowly4 ,when humus does get broken down by soil microbes it stops being organic matter and changes back to simple inorganic substances4 ,this ultimate destruction of organic matter is often called nitrification because one of the main substances released is nitrate--that vital fertilizer that makes plants grow green and fast4 ,probably without realizing it1 many non-gardeners have already scuffed up that thin layer of nearly pure humus forming naturally on the forest floor where leaves and needles contact the soil4 ,most ,americans would be repelled by many of the substances that decompose into humus4 ,but1 fastidious as we tend to be1 most would not be offended to barehandedly cradle a scoop of humus1 raise it to the nose1 and take an enjoyable sniff4 ,there seems to be something built into the most primary nature of humans that likes humus4 ,in nature1 the formation of humus is a slow and constant process that does not occur in a single step4 ,plants grow1 die and finally fall to earth where soil-dwelling organisms consume them and each other until eventually there remains no recognizable trace of the original plant4 ,only a small amount of humus is left1 located close to the soil's surface or carried to the depths by burrowing earthworms4 ,alternately1 the growing plants are eaten by animals that do not live in the soil1 whose manure falls to the ground where it comes into contact with soil-dwelling organisms that eat it and each other until there remains no recognizable trace of the original material4 ,a small amount of humus is left4 ,or the animal itself eventually dies and falls to the earth where 4444 ,composting artificially accelerates the decomposition of crude organic matter and its recombination into humus4 ,what in nature might take years we can make happen in weeks or months4 ,but compost that seems ready to work into soil may not have quite yet become humus4 ,though brown and crumbly and good-smelling and well decomposed1 it may only have partially rotted4 ,when tilled into soil at that point1 compost doesn't act at once like powerful fertilizer and won't immediately contribute to plant growth until it has decomposed further4 ,but if composting is allowed to proceed until virtually all of the organic matter has changed into humus1 a great deal of biomass will be reduced to a relatively tiny remainder of a very valuable substance far more useful than chemical fertilizer4 ,for thousands of years gardeners and farmers had few fertilizers other than animal manure and compost4 ,these were always considered very valuable substances and a great deal of lore existed about using them4 ,during the early part of this century1 our focus changed to using chemicals2 organic wastes were often considered nuisances with little value4 ,these days we are rediscovering compost as an agent of soil improvement and also finding out that we must compost organic waste materials to recycle them in an ecologically sound manner4 ,making ,compost ,the closest analogies to composting ,i can imagine are concocting similar fermented products like bread1 beer1 or sauerkraut4 ,but composting is much less demanding4 ,here ,i can speak with authority1 for during my era of youthful indiscretions ,i made homebrews good enough have visitors around my kitchen table most every evening4 ,now1 having reluctantly been instructed in moderation by a liver somewhat bruised from alcohol1 ,i am the family baker who turns out two or three large1 rye_/wheat loaves from freshly ground grain every week without fail4 ,brew is dicey4 ,everything must be sterilized and the fermentation must go rapidly in a narrow range of temperatures4 ,should stray organisms find a home during fermentation1 foul flavors and_/or terrible hangovers may result4 ,the wise homebrewer starts with the purest and best-suited strain of yeast a professional laboratory can supply4 ,making beer is a process suited to the precisionist mentality1 it must be done just so4 ,fortunately1 with each batch we use the same malt extracts1 the same hops1 same yeast1 same flavorings and1 if we are young and foolish1 the same monosaccarides to boost the octane over six percent4 ,but once the formula is found and the materials worked out1 batch after batch comes out as desired4 ,so it is with bread-making4 ,the ingredients are standardized and repeatable4 ,i can inexpensively buy several bushels of wheat- and rye-berries at one time1 enough to last a year4 ,each sack from that purchase has the same baking qualities4 ,the minor ingredients that modify my dough's qualities or the bread's flavors are also repeatable4 ,my yeast is always the same2 if ,i use sourdough starter1 my individualized blend of wild yeasts remains the same from batch to batch and ,i soon learn its nature4 ,my rising oven is always close to the same temperature2 when baking ,i soon learn to adjust the oven temperature and baking time to produce the kind of crust and doneness ,i desire4 ,precisionist1 yes4 ,i must bake every batch identically if ,i want the breads to be uniformly good4 ,but not impossibly rigorous because once ,i learn my materials and oven1 ,i've got it down pat4 ,composting is similar1 but different and easier4 ,similar in that decomposition is much like any other fermentation4 ,different in that the home composter rarely has exactly the same materials to work with from batch to batch1 does not need to control the purity and nature of the organisms that will do the actual work of humus formation1 and has a broad selection of materials that can go into a batch of compost4 ,easier because critical and fussy people don't eat or drink compost1 the soil does2 soil and most plants will1 within broad limits1 happily tolerate wide variations in compost quality without complaint4 ,some composters are very fussy and much like fine bakers or skilled brewers1 take great pains to produce a material exactly to their liking by using complex methods4 ,usually these are food gardeners with powerful concerns about health1 the nutritional quality of the food they grow and the improved growth of their vegetables4 ,however1 there are numerous simpler1 less rigorous ways of composting that produce a product nearly as good with much less work4 ,these more basic methods will appeal to the less-committed backyard gardener or the homeowner with lawn1 shrubs1 and perhaps a few flower beds4 ,one unique method suited to handling kitchen garbage--vermicomposting 7worms7--might appeal even to the ecologically concerned apartment dweller with a few house plants4 ,an ,extremely ,crude ,composting ,process ,i've been evolving a personally-adapted composting system for the past twenty years4 ,i've gone through a number of methods4 ,i've used and then abandoned power chipper_/shredders1 used home-made bins and then switched to crude heaps2 ,i've sheet composted1 mulched1 and used green manure4 ,i first made compost on a half-acre lot where maintaining a tidy appearance was a reasonable concern4 ,now1 living in the country1 ,i don't have be concerned with what the neighbors think of my heaps because the nearest neighbor's house is #hjj feet from my compost area and ,i live in the country because ,i don't much care to care what my neighbors think4 ,that's why ,i now compost so crudely4 ,there are a lot of refinements ,i could use but don't bother with at this time4 ,i still get fine compost4 ,what follows should be understood as a description of my unique1 personal method adapted to my temperament and the climate ,i live in4 ,i start this book off with such a simple example because ,i want you to see how completely easy it can be to make perfectly usable compost4 ,i intend this description for inspiration1 not emulation4 ,i am a serious food gardener4 ,starting in spring ,i begin to accumulate large quantities of vegetation that demand handling4 ,there are woody stumps and stalks of various members of the cabbage family that usually overwinter in western ,oregon's mild winters4 ,these biennials go into bloom by ,april and at that point ,i pull them from the garden with a fair amount of soil adhering to the roots4 ,these rough materials form the bottom layer of a new pile4 ,since the first principle of abundant living is to produce two or three times as much as you think you'll need1 my overly-large garden yields dozens and dozens of such stumps and still more dozens of uneaten savoy cabbages1 more dozens of three foot tall ,brussels sprouts stalks and cart loads of enormous blooming kale plants4 ,at the same time1 from our insulated but unheated garage comes buckets and boxes of sprouting potatoes and cart loads of moldy uneaten winter squashes4 ,there may be a few crates of last fall's withered apples as well4 ,sprouting potatoes1 mildewed squash1 and shriveled apples are spread atop the base of brassica stalks4 ,i grow my own vegetable seed whenever possible1 particularly for biennials such as brassicas1 beets and endive4 ,during summer these generate large quantities of compostable straw after the seed is thrashed4 ,usually there is a big dry bean patch that also produces a lot of straw4 ,there are vegetable trimmings1 and large quantities of plant material when old spring-sown beds are finished and the soil is replanted for fall harvest4 ,with the first frost in ,october there is a huge amount of garden clean up4 ,as each of these materials is acquired it is temporarily placed next to the heap awaiting the steady outpourings from our #b-a_/b gallon kitchen compost pail4 ,our household generates quite a bit of garbage1 especially during high summer when we are canning or juicing our crops4 ,but we have no flies or putrid garbage smells coming from the compost pile because as each bucketful is spread over the center of the pile the garbage is immediately covered by several inches of dried or wilted vegetation and a sprinkling of soil4 ,by ,october the heap has become about six feet high1 sixteen feet long and about seven feet wide at the base4 ,i've made no attempt to water this pile as it was built1 so it is quite dry and has hardly decomposed at all4 ,soon those winter rains that the ,maritime northwest is famous for arrive4 ,from mid-,october through mid-,april it drizzles almost every day and rains fairly hard on occasion4 ,some #de inches of water fall4 ,but the pile is loosely stacked with lots of air spaces within and much of the vegetation started the winter in a dry1 mature form with a pretty hard bark or skin that resists decomposition4 ,winter days average in the high #djs1 so little rotting occurs4 ,still1 by next ,april most of the pile has become quite wet4 ,some garbagey parts of it have decomposed significantly1 others not at all2 most of it is still quite recognizable but much of the vegetation has a grayish coating of microorganisms or has begun to turn light brown4 ,now comes the only two really hard hours of compost-making effort each year4 ,for a good part of one morning ,i turn the pile with a manure fork and shovel1 constructing a new pile next to the old one4 ,first ,i peel off the barely-rotted outer four or five inches from the old pile2 this makes the base of the new one4 ,untangling the long stringy grasses1 seed stalks1 and ,brussels sprout stems from the rest can make me sweat and even curse1 but fortunately ,i must stop occasionally to spray water where the material remains dry and catch my wind4 ,then1 ,i rearrange the rest so half-decomposed brassica stumps and other big chunks are placed in the center where the pile will become the hottest and decomposition will proceed most rapidly4 ,as ,i reform the material1 here and there ,i lightly sprinkle a bit of soil shoveled up from around the original pile4 ,when ,i've finished turning it1 the new heap is about five feet high1 six feet across at the bottom1 and about eight feet long4 ,the outside is then covered with a thin layer of crumbly1 black soil scraped up where the pile had originally stood before ,i turned it4 ,using hand tools for most kinds of garden work1 like weeding1 cultivating1 tilling1 and turning compost heaps is not as difficult or nearly as time consuming as most people think if one has the proper1 sharp tools4 ,unfortunately1 the knowledge of how to use hand tools has largely disappeared4 ,no one has a farm-bred grandfather to show them how easy it is to use a sharp shovel or how impossibly hard it can be to drive a dull one into the soil4 ,similarly1 weeding with a sharp hoe is effortless and fast4 ,but most new hoes are sold without even a proper bevel ground into the blade1 much less with an edge that has been carefully honed4 ,so after working with dull shovels and hoes1 many home food growers mistakenly conclude that cultivation is not possible without using a rotary tiller for both tillage and weeding between rows4 ,but instead of an expensive gasoline-powered machine all they really needed was a little knowledge and a two dollar file4 ,similarly1 turning compost can be an impossible1 sweat-drenching1 back-wrenching chore1 or it can be relatively quick and easy4 ,it is very difficult to drive even a very sharp shovel into a compost pile4 ,one needs a hay fork1 something most people call a pitchfork4 ,the best type for this task has a very long1 delicate handle and four1 foot long1 sharp1 thin tines4 ,forks with more than four times grab too much material4 ,if the heap has not rotted very thoroughly and still contains a lot of long1 stringy material1 a five or six tine fork will grab too much and may require too much strength4 ,spading forks with four wide-flat blades don't work well for turning heaps1 but en extremis ,i'd prefer one to a shovel4 ,also1 there are shovels and then1 there are shovels4 ,most gardeners know the difference between a spade and a shovel4 ,they would not try to pick up and toss material with a spade designed only to work straight down and loosen soil4 ,however1 did you know that there are design differences in the shape of blade and angle of handle in shovels4 ,the normal combination shovel is made for builders to move piles of sand or small gravel4 ,however1 use a combination shovel to scrape up loose1 fine compost that a fork won't hold and you'll quickly have a sore back from bending over so far4 ,worse1 the combination shovel has a decidedly curved blade that won't scrape up very much with each stroke4 ,a better choice is a flat-bladed1 square-front shovel designed to lift loose1 fine-textured materials from hard surfaces4 ,however1 even well-sharpened1 these tend to stick when they bump into any obstacle4 ,best is an irrigator's shovel4 ,this is a lightweight tool looking like an ordinary combination shovel but with a flatter1 blunter rounded blade attached to the handle at a much sharper angle1 allowing the user to stand straighter when working4 ,sharp irrigator's shovels are perfect for scooping up loosened soil and tossing it to one side1 for making trenches or furrows in tilled earth and for scraping up the last bits of a compost heap being turned over4 ,once turned1 my long-weathered pile heats up rapidly4 ,it is not as hot as piles can cook1 but it does steam on chilly mornings for a few weeks4 ,by mid-,june things have cooled4 ,the rains have also ceased and the heap is getting dry4 ,it has also sagged considerably4 ,once more ,i turn the pile1 watering it down with a fine mist as ,i do so4 ,this turning is much easier as the woody brassica stalks are nearly gone4 ,the chunks that remain as visible entities are again put into the new pile's center2 most of the bigger and less-decomposed stuff comes from the outside of the old heap4 ,much of the material has become brown to black in color and its origins are not recognizable4 ,the heap is now reduced to four feet high1 five feet wide1 and about six feet long4 ,again ,i cover it with a thin layer of soil and this time put a somewhat brittle1 recycled sheet of clear plastic over it to hold in the moisture and increase the temperature4 ,again the pile briefly heats and then mellows through the summer4 ,in ,september the heap is finished enough to use4 ,it is about thirty inches high and has been reduced to less than one-eighth of its starting volume eighteen months ago4 ,what compost ,i don't spread during fall is protected with plastic from being leached by winter rainfall and will be used next spring4 ,elapsed time3 #ah-bd months from start to finish4 ,total effort3 three turnings4 ,quality3 very useful4 ,obviously my method is acceptable to me because the pile is not easily visible to the residents or neighbors4 ,it also suits a lazy person4 ,it is a very slow system1 okay for someone who is not in a hurry to use their compost4 ,but few of my readers live on really rural properties2 hopefully1 most of them are not as lazy as ,i am4 ,at this point ,i could recommend alternative1 improved methods for making compost much like cookbook recipes from which the reader could pick and choose4 ,there could be a small backyard recipe1 the fast recipe1 the apartment recipe1 the wintertime recipe1 the making compost when you can't make a pile recipes4 ,instead1 ,i prefer to compliment your intelligence and first explore the principles behind composting4 ,i believe that an understanding of basics will enable you to function as a self-determined individual and adapt existing methods1 solve problems if they arise1 or create something personal and uniquely correct for your situation4 ,,chapter ,,two ,composting ,basics ,managing living systems usually goes better when our methods imitate nature's4 ,here's an example of what happens when we don't4 ,people who keep tropical fish in home aquariums are informed that to avoid numerous fish diseases they must maintain sterile conditions4 ,whenever the fish become ill or begin dying1 the hobbyist is advised to put antibiotics or mild antiseptics into the tank1 killing off most forms of microlife4 ,but nature is not sterile4 ,nature is healthy4 ,like many an apartment dweller1 in my twenties ,i raised tropical fish and grew house plants just to have some life around4 ,the plants did fine2 ,i guess ,i've always had a green thumb4 ,but growing tired of dying fish and bacterial blooms clouding the water1 ,i reasoned that none of the fish ,i had seen in nature were diseased and their water was usually quite clear4 ,perhaps the problem was that my aquarium had an overly simplified ecology and my fish were being fed processed1 dead food when in nature the ecology was highly complex and the fish were eating living things4 ,so ,i bravely attempted the most radical thing ,i could think of2 ,i went to the country1 found a small pond and from it brought home a quart of bottom muck and pond water that ,i dumped into my own aquarium4 ,instead of introducing countless diseases and wiping out my fish1 ,i actually had introduced countless living things that began multiplying rapidly4 ,the water soon became crystal clear4 ,soon the fish were refusing to eat the scientifically formulated food flakes ,i was supplying4 ,the profuse variety of little critters now living in the tank's gravel ate it instead4 ,the fish ate the critters and became perfectly healthy4 ,when the snails ,i had introduced with the pond mud became so numerous that they covered the glass and began to obscure my view1 ,i'd crush a bunch of them against the wall of the aquarium and the fish would gorge on fresh snail meat4 ,the angelfish and guppies especially began to look forward to my snail massacres and would cluster around my hand when ,i put it into the tank4 ,on a diet of living things in a natural ecology even very difficult species began breeding4 ,organic and biological farmers consider modern scientific farming practices to be a similar situation4 ,instead of imitating nature's complex stability1 industrial farmers use force1 attempting to bend an unnaturally simplified ecosystem to their will4 ,as a result1 most agricultural districts are losing soil at a non-sustainable rate and produce food of lowered nutritional content1 resulting in decreasing health for all the life forms eating the production of our farms4 ,including us4 ,i am well aware that these condemnations may sound quite radical to some readers4 ,in a book this brief ,i cannot offer adequate support for my concerns about soil fertility and the nation's health1 but ,i can refer the reader to the bibliography1 where books about these matters by writers far more sagely than ,i can be found4 ,i especially recommend the works of ,william ,albrecht1 ,weston ,price1 ,sir ,robert ,mc,carrison1 and ,sir ,albert ,howard4 ,making ,humus ,before we ask how to compost1 since nature is maximally efficient perhaps it would benefit us to first examine how nature goes about returning organic matter to the soil from whence it came4 ,if we do nearly as well1 we can be proud4 ,where nature is allowed to operate without human intervention1 each place develops a stable level of biomass that is inevitably the highest amount of organic life that site could support4 ,whether deciduous forest1 coniferous forest1 prairie1 even desert1 nature makes the most of the available resources and raises the living drama to its most intense and complex peak possible4 ,there will be as many mammals as there can be1 as many insects1 as many worms1 as many plants growing as large as they can get1 as much organic matter in all stages of decomposition and the maximum amount of relatively stable humus in the soil4 ,all these forms of living and decomposing organisms are linked in one complex system2 each part so closely connected to all the others that should one be lessened or increased1 all the others change as well4 ,the efficient decomposition of leaves on a forest floor is a fine example of what we might hope to achieve in a compost pile4 ,under the shade of the trees and mulched thickly by leaves1 the forest floor usually stays moist4 ,although the leaves tend to mat where they contact the soil1 the wet1 somewhat compacted layer is thin enough to permit air to be in contact with all of the materials and to enter the soil4 ,living in this very top layer of fluffy1 crumbly1 moist soil mixed with leaf material and humus1 are the animals that begin the process of humification4 ,many of these primary decomposers are larger1 insect-like animals commonly known to gardeners1 including the wood lice that we call pill bugs because they roll up defensively into hard armadillo-like shells1 and the highly intrusive earwigs my daughter calls pinch bugs4 ,there are also numerous types of insect larvae busily at work4 ,a person could spend their entire life trying to understand the ecology of a single handful of humus-rich topsoil4 ,for a century now1 numerous soil biologists have been doing just that and still the job is not finished4 ,since gardeners1 much less ordinary people1 are rarely interested in observing and naming the tiny animals of the soil1 especially are we disinterested in those who do no damage to our crops1 soil animals are usually delineated only by ,latin scientific names4 ,the variations with which soil animals live1 eat1 digest1 reproduce1 attack1 and defend themselves fills whole sections of academic science libraries4 ,during the writing of this book ,i became quite immersed in this subject and read far more deeply into soil biology and microbiology than ,i thought ,i ever would4 ,even though this area of knowledge has amused me1 ,i doubt it will entertain most of you4 ,if it does1 ,i recommend that you first consult specialist source materials listed in the bibliography for an introduction to a huge universe of literature4 ,i will not make you yawn by mentioning long1 unfamiliar ,latin names4 ,i will not astonish you with descriptions of complex reproductive methods and beautiful survival strategies4 ,gardeners do not really need this information4 ,but managing the earth so that soil animals are helped and not destroyed is essential to good gardening4 ,and there are a few qualities of soil animals that are found in almost all of them4 ,if we are aware of the general characteristics of soil animals we can evaluate our composting and gardening practices by their effect on these minuscule creatures4 ,compared to the atmosphere1 soil is a place where temperature fluctuations are small and slow4 ,consequently1 soil animals are generally intolerant to sudden temperature changes and may not function well over a very wide range4 ,that's why leaving bare earth exposed to the hot summer sun often retards plant growth and why many thoughtful gardeners either put down a thin mulch in summer or try to rapidly establish a cooling leaf canopy to shade raised beds4 ,except for a few microorganisms1 soil animals breathe oxygen just like other living things and so are dependent on an adequate air supply4 ,where soil is airless due to compaction1 poor drainage1 or large proportions of very fine clay1 soil animals are few in number4 ,the soil environment is generally quite moist2 even when the soil seems a little dryish the relative humidity of the soil air usually approaches #ajj percent4 ,soil animals consequently have not developed the ability to conserve their body moisture and are speedily killed by dry conditions4 ,when faced with desiccation they retreat deeper into the soil if there is oxygen and pore spaces large enough to move about4 ,so we see another reason why a thin mulch that preserves surface moisture can greatly increase the beneficial population of soil animals4 ,some single-cell animals and roundworms are capable of surviving stress by encysting themselves1 forming a little seed that preserves their genetic material and enough food to reactivate it1 coming back to life when conditions improve4 ,these cysts may endure long periods of severe freezing and sometimes temperatures of over #aej degree ,f4 ,inhabitants of leaf litter reside close to the surface and so must be able to experience exposure to dryer air and light for short times without damage4 ,the larger litter livers are called primary decomposers4 ,they spend most of their time chewing on the thick reserve of moist leaves contacting the forest floor4 ,primary decomposers are unable to digest the entire leaf4 ,they extract only the easily assimilable substances from their food3 proteins1 sugars and other simple carbohydrates and fats4 ,cellulose and lignin are the two substances that make up the hard1 permanent1 and woody parts of plants2 these materials cannot be digested by most soil animals4 ,interestingly1 just like in a cow's rumen1 there are a few larvae whose digestive tract contains cellulose-decomposing bacteria but these larvae have little overall effect4 ,after the primary consumers are finished the leaves have been mechanically disintegrated and thoroughly moistened1 worked over1 chewed to tiny pieces and converted into minuscule bits of moist excrement still containing active digestive enzymes4 ,many of the bacteria and fungi that were present on the leaf surfaces have passed through this initial digestion process alive or as spores waiting and ready to activate4 ,in this sense1 the excrement of the primary decomposers is not very different than manure from large vegetarian mammals like cows and sheep although it is in much smaller pieces4 ,digestive wastes of primary decomposers are thoroughly inoculated with microorganisms that can consume cellulose and lignin4 ,even though it looks like humus1 it has not yet fully decomposed4 ,it does have a water-retentive1 granular structure that facilitates the presence of air and moisture throughout the mass creating perfect conditions for microbial digestion to proceed4 ,this excrement is also the food for a diverse group of nearly microscopic soil animals called secondary decomposers4 ,these are incapable of eating anything that has not already been predigested by the primary decomposers4 ,the combination of microbes and the digestive enzymes of the primary and secondary decomposers breaks down resistant cellulose and to some degree1 even lignins4 ,the result is a considerable amount of secondary decomposition excrement having a much finer crumb structure than what was left by the primary decomposers4 ,it is closer to being humus but is still not quite finished4 ,now comes the final stage in humus formation4 ,numerous species of earthworms eat their way through the soil1 taking in a mixture of earth1 microbes1 and the excrement of soil animals4 ,all of these substances are mixed together1 ground-up1 and chemically recombined in the worm's highly active and acidic gut4 ,organic substances chemically unite with soil to form clay_/humus complexes that are quite resistant to further decomposition and have an extraordinarily high ability to hold and release the very nutrients and water that feed plants4 ,earthworm casts 7excrement7 are mechanically very stable and help create a durable soil structure that remains open and friable1 something gardeners and farmers call good tilth or good crumb4 ,earthworms are so vitally important to soil fertility and additionally useful as agents of compost making that an entire section of this book will consider them in great detail4 ,let's underline a composting lesson to be drawn from the forest floor4 ,in nature1 humus formation goes on in the presence of air and moisture4 ,the agents of its formation are soil animals ranging in complexity from microorganisms through insects working together in a complex ecology4 ,these same organisms work our compost piles and help us change crude vegetation into humus or something close to humus4 ,so1 when we make compost we need to make sure that there is sufficient air and moisture4 ,decomposition is actually a process of repeated digestions as organic matter passes and repasses through the intestinal tracts of soil animals numerous times or is attacked by the digestive enzymes secreted by microorganisms4 ,at each stage the vegetation and decomposition products of that vegetation are thoroughly mixed with animal digestive enzymes4 ,soil biologists have observed that where soil conditions are hostile to soil animals1 such as in compacted fine clay soils that exclude air1 organic matter is decomposed exclusively by microorganisms4 ,under those conditions virtually no decomposition-resistant humus_/clay complexes form2 almost everything is consumed by the bacterial community as fuel4 ,and the non-productive soil is virtually devoid of organic matter4 ,sir ,albert ,howard has been called the 'father of modern composting4' ,his first composting book 7#aica7 ,the ,waste ,products of ,agriculture1 stressed the vital importance of animal digestive enzymes from fresh cow manure in making compost4 ,when he experimented with making compost without manure the results were less than ideal4 ,most gardeners cannot obtain fresh manure but fortunately soil animals will supply similar digestive enzymes4 ,later on when we review ,howard's ,indore composting method we will see how brilliantly ,sir ,albert understood natural decomposition and mimicked it in a composting method that resulted in a very superior product4 ,at this point ,i suggest another definition for humus4 ,humus is the excrement of soil animals1 primarily earthworms1 but including that of some other species that1 like earthworms1 are capable of combining partially decomposed organic matter and the excrement of other soil animals with clay to create stable soil crumbs resistant to further decomposition or consumption4 ,nutrients in the ,compost ,pile ,some types of leaves rot much faster on the forest floor than others4 ,analyzing why this happens reveals a great deal about how to make compost piles decompose more effectively4 ,leaves from leguminous 7in the same botanical family as beans and peas7 trees such as acacia1 carob1 and alder usually become humus within a year4 ,so do some others like ash1 cherry1 and elm4 ,more resistant types take two years2 these include oak1 birch1 beech1 and maple4 ,poplar leaves1 and pine1 ,douglas fir1 and larch needles are very slow to decompose and may take three years or longer4 ,some of these differences are due to variations in lignin content which is highly resistant to decomposition1 but speed of decomposition is mainly influenced by the amount of protein and mineral nutrients contained in the leaf4 ,plants are composed mainly of carbohydrates like cellulose1 sugar1 and lignin4 ,the element carbon is by far the greater part of carbohydrates carbo7n7hydr7ogen7ates by weight4 ,plants can readily manufacture carbohydrates in large quantities because carbon and hydrogen are derived from air 7,c#jb7 and water 7,h#b,o71 both substances being available to plants in almost unlimited quantities4 ,sugar1 manufactured by photosynthesis1 is the simplest and most vital carbohydrate4 ,sugar is burned in all plant cells as the primary fuel powering all living activities4 ,extra sugar can be more compactly stored after being converted into starches1 which are long strings of sugar molecules linked together4 ,plants often have starch-filled stems1 roots1 or tubers2 they also make enzymes capable of quickly converting this starch back into sugar upon demand4 ,we homebrewers and bakers make practical use of a similar enzyme process to change starches stored in grains back to sugar that yeasts can change into alcohol4 ,c_/,n of ,various ,tree ,leaves_/,needles ,false acacia #ad3a ,fir #dh3a ,black alder #ae3a ,birch #ej3a ,gray alder #ai3a ,beech #ea3a ,ash #ba3a ,maple #eb3a ,birds's eye cherry #bb3a ,red oak #ec3a ,hornbeam #bc3a ,poplar #fc3a ,elm #bh3a ,pine #ff3a ,lime #cg3a ,douglas fir #gg3a ,oak #dg3a ,larch #aac3a ,the protein content of tree leaves is very similar to their ratio of carbon 7,c7 compared to nitrogen 7,n7 ,sometimes plants store food in the form of oil1 the most concentrated biological energy source4 ,oil is also constructed from sugar and is usually found in seeds4 ,plants also build structural materials like stem1 cell walls1 and other woody parts from sugars converted into cellulose1 a substance similar to starch4 ,very strong structures are constructed with lignins1 a material like cellulose but much more durable4 ,cellulose and lignins are permanent4 ,they cannot be converted back into sugar by plant enzymes4 ,nor can most animals or bacteria digest them4 ,certain fungi can digest cellulose and lignin1 as can the symbiotic bacteria inhabiting a cow's rumen4 ,in this respect the cow is a very clever animal running a cellulose digestion factory in the first and largest of its several stomachs4 ,there1 it cultures bacteria that eat cellulose2 then the cow digests the bacteria as they pass out of one stomach and into another4 ,plants also construct proteins1 the vital stuff of life itself4 ,proteins are mainly found in those parts of the plant involved with reproduction and photosynthesis4 ,protein molecules differ from starches and sugars in that they are larger and amazingly more complex4 ,most significantly1 while carbohydrates are mainly carbon and hydrogen1 proteins contain large amounts of nitrogen and numerous other mineral nutrients4 ,proteins are scarce in nature4 ,plants can make them only in proportion to the amount of the nutrient1 nitrogen1 that they take up from the soil4 ,most soils are very poorly endowed with nitrogen4 ,if nitrate-poor1 nutrient-poor soil is well-watered there may be lush vegetation but the plants will contain little protein and can support few animals4 ,but where there are high levels of nutrients in the soil there will be large numbers of animals1 even if the land is poorly watered and grows only scrubby grasses--verdant forests usually feed only a few shy deer while the short grass semi-desert prairies once supported huge herds of grazing animals4 ,ironically1 just as it is with carbon1 there is no absolute shortage of nitrogen on ,earth4 ,the atmosphere is nearly #hj percent nitrogen4 ,but in the form of gas1 atmospheric nitrogen is completely useless to plants or animals4 ,it must first be combined chemically into forms plants can use1 such as nitrate 7,,no#c7 or ammonia 7,,nh#c74 ,these chemicals are referred to as fixed nitrogen4 ,nitrogen gas strongly resists combining with other elements4 ,chemical factories fix nitrogen only at very high temperatures and pressures and in the presence of exotic catalysts like platinum or by exposing nitrogen gas to powerful electric sparks4 ,lightning flashes can similarly fix small amounts of nitrogen that fall to earth dissolved in rain4 ,and certain soil-dwelling microorganisms are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen4 ,but these are abundant only where the earth is rich in humus and minerals1 especially calcium4 ,so in a soil body where large quantities of fixed nitrogen are naturally present1 the soil will also be well-endowed with a good supply of mineral nutrients4 ,most of the world's supply of combined nitrogen is biologically fixed at normal temperatures and standard atmospheric pressure by soil microorganisms4 ,we call the ones that live freely in soil azobacteria and the ones that associate themselves with the roots of legumes rhizobia4 ,blue-green algae of the type that thrive in rice paddies also manufacture nitrate nitrogen4 ,we really don't know how bacteria accomplish this but the nitrogen they fix is the basis of most proteins on earth4 ,all microorganisms1 including nitrogen-fixing bacteria1 build their bodies from the very same elements that plants use for growth4 ,where these mineral elements are abundant in soil1 the entire soil body is more alive and carries much more biomass at all levels from bacteria through insects1 plants1 and even mammals4 ,should any of these vital nutrient substances be in short supply1 all biomass and plant growth will decrease to the level permitted by the amount available1 even though there is an overabundance of all the rest4 ,the name for this phenomena is the ,law of ,limiting ,factors4 ,the concept of limits was first formulated by a scientist1 ,justus von ,liebig1 in the middle of the last century4 ,although ,liebig's name is not popular with organic gardeners and farmers because misconceptions of his ideas have led to the widespread use of chemical fertilizers1 ,liebig's theory of limits is still good science4 ,liebig suggested imagining a barrel being filled with water as a metaphor for plant growth3 the amount of water held in the barrel being the amount of growth4 ,each stave represents one of the factors or requirements plants need in order to grow such as light1 water1 oxygen1 nitrogen1 phosphorus1 copper1 boron1 etc4 ,lowering any one stave of the barrel1 no matter which one1 lessens the amount of water that can be held and thus growth is reduced to the level of the most limited growth factor4 ,for example1 one essential plant protein is called chlorophyll1 the green pigment found in leaves that makes sugar through photosynthesis4 ,chlorophyll is a protein containing significant amounts of magnesium4 ,obviously1 the plant's ability to grow is limited by its ability to find enough fixed nitrogen and also magnesium to make this protein4 ,animals of all sizes from elephants to single cell microorganisms are primarily composed of protein4 ,but the greatest portion of plant material is not protein1 it is carbohydrates in one form or another4 ,eating enough carbohydrates to supply their energy requirements is rarely the survival problem faced by animals2 finding enough protein 7and other vital nutrients7 in their food supply to grow and reproduce is what limits their population4 ,the numbers and health of grazing animals is limited by the protein and other nutrient content of the grasses they are eating1 similarly the numbers and health of primary decomposers living on the forest floor is limited by the nutrient content of their food4 ,and so is the rate of decomposition4 ,and so too is this true in the compost pile4 ,the protein content of vegetation is very similar to its ratio of carbon 7,c7 compared to nitrogen 7,n74 ,quick laboratory analysis of protein content is not done by measuring actual protein itself but by measuring the amount of combined nitrogen the protein gives off while decomposing4 ,acacia1 alder1 and leaves of other proteinaceous legumes such as locust1 mesquite1 scotch broom1 vetch1 alfalfa1 beans1 and peas have low ,c_/,n ratios because legume roots uniquely can shelter clusters of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia4 ,these microorganisms can supply all the nitrate nitrogen fast-growing legumes can use if the soil is also well endowed with other mineral nutrients rhizobia need1 especially calcium and phosphorus4 ,most other plant families are entirely dependent on nitrate supplies presented to them by the soil4 ,consequently1 those regions or locations with soils deficient in mineral nutrients tend to grow coniferous forests while richer soils support forests with more protein in their leaves4 ,there may also be climatic conditions that favor conifers over deciduous trees1 regardless of soil fertility4 ,it is generally true that organic matter with a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen also will have a high ratio of carbon to other minerals4 ,and low ,c_/,n materials will contain much larger amounts of other vital mineral nutrients4 ,when we make compost from a wide variety of materials there are probably enough quantity and variety of nutrients in the plant residues to form large populations of humus-forming soil animals and microorganisms4 ,however1 when making compost primarily with high ,c_/,n stuff we need to blend in other substances containing sufficient fixed nitrogen and other vital nutrient minerals4 ,otherwise1 the decomposition process will take a very long time because large numbers of decomposing organisms will not be able to develop4 ,c_/,n of ,compostable ,materials _/-#f3a _/-#ab3a _/-#be3a _/-#ej3a _/-#ajj3a ,bone ,meal ,vegetables ,summer grass cornstalks 7dry7 ,sawdust ,meat scraps ,garden weeds ,seaweed ,straw 7grain7 ,paper ,fish waste ,alfalfa hay ,legume hulls ,hay 7low quality7 ,tree bark ,rabbit manure ,horse manure ,fruit waste ,bagasse ,chicken manure ,sewage sludge ,hay 7top quality7 ,grain chaff ,pig manure ,silage ,corn cobs ,seed meal ,cow manure ,cotton mill waste ,the lists in this table of carbon_/nitrogen ratios are broken out as general ranges of ,c_/,n4 ,it has long been an unintelligent practice of garden-level books to state precise ,c_/,n ratios for materials4 ,one substance will be #bc3a while another will be #be3a4 ,such pseudoscience is not only inaccurate but it leads readers into similar misunderstandings about other such lists1 like nitrogen contents1 or composition breakdowns of organic manures1 or other organic soil amendments4 ,especially misleading are those tables in the back of many health and nutrition books spelling out the exact nutrient contents of foods4 ,there is an old saying about this3 ',there are lies1 then there are damned lies1 and then1 there are statistics4 ,the worse lies of all can be statistics4' ,the composition of plant materials is very dependent on the level and nature of the soil fertility that produced them4 ,the nutrition present in two plants of the same species1 even in two samples of the exact same variety of vegetable raised from the same packet of seed can vary enormously depending on where the plants were grown4 ,william ,albrecht1 chairman of the ,soil ,department at the ,university of ,missouri during the #aicjs1 was1 to the best of my knowledge1 the first mainstream scientist to thoroughly explore the differences in the nutritional qualities of plants and to identify specific aspects of soil fertility as the reason why one plant can be much more nutritious than another and why animals can be so much healthier on one farm compared to another4 ,by implication1 ,albrecht also meant to show the reason why one nation of people can be much less healthy than another4 ,because his holistic outlook ran counter to powerful vested interests of his era1 ,albrecht was professionally scorned and ultimately left the university community1 spending the rest of his life educating the general public1 especially farmers and health care professionals4 ,summarized in one paragraph1 ,albrecht showed that within a single species or variety1 plant protein levels vary #be percent or more depending on soil fertility1 while a plant's content of vital nutrients like calcium1 magnesium1 and phosphorus can simultaneously move up or down as much as #cjj percent1 usually corresponding to similar changes in its protein level4 ,albrecht also discovered how to manage soil in order to produce highly nutritious food4 ,chapter ,eight has a lot more praise for ,dr4 ,albrecht4 ,there ,i explore this interesting aspect of gardening in more detail because how we make and use organic matter has a great deal to do with the resulting nutritional quality of the food we grow4 ,imagine trying to make compost from deficient materials such as a heap of pure1 moist sawdust4 ,what happens8 ,very little and very1 very slowly4 ,trees locate most of their nutrient accumulation in their leaves to make protein for photosynthesis4 ,a small amount goes into making bark4 ,wood itself is virtually pure cellulose1 derived from air and water4 ,if1 when we farmed trees1 we removed only the wood and left the leaves and bark on the site1 we would be removing next to nothing from the soil4 ,if the sawdust comes from a lumber mill1 as opposed to a cabinet shop1 it may also contain some bark and consequently small amounts of other essential nutrients4 ,thoroughly moistened and heaped up1 a sawdust pile would not heat up1 only a few primary decomposers would take up residence4 ,a person could wait five years for compost to form from pure moist sawdust and still not much would happen4 ,perhaps that's why the words compost and compot as the ,british mean it1 are connected4 ,in ,england1 a compot is a slightly fermented mixture of many things like fruits4 ,if we mixed the sawdust with other materials having a very low ,c_/,n1 then it would decompose1 along with the other items4 ,,chapter ,,three ,practical ,compost ,making ,to make compost rot rapidly you need to achieve a strong and lasting rise in temperature4 ,cold piles will eventually decompose and humus will eventually form but1 without heat1 the process can take a long1 long time4 ,getting a pile to heat up promptly and stay hot requires the right mixture of materials and a sensible handling of the pile's air and moisture supply4 ,compost piles come with some built-in obstacles4 ,the intense heat and biological activity make a heap slump into an airless mass1 yet if composting is to continue the pile must allow its living inhabitants sufficient air to breath4 ,hot piles tend to dry out rapidly1 but must be kept moist or they stop working4 ,but heat is desirable and watering cools a pile down4 ,if understood and managed1 these difficulties are really quite minor4 ,composting is usually an inoffensive activity1 but if done incorrectly there can be problems with odor and flies4 ,this chapter will show you how to make nuisance-free compost4 ,hot ,composting ,the main difference between composting in heaps and natural decomposition on the earth's surface is temperature4 ,on the forest floor1 leaves leisurely decay and the primary agents of decomposition are soil animals4 ,bacteria and other microorganisms are secondary4 ,in a compost pile the opposite occurs3 we substitute a violent fermentation by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi4 ,soil animals are secondary and come into play only after the microbes have had their hour4 ,under decent conditions1 with a relatively unlimited food supply1 bacteria1 yeasts1 and fungi can double their numbers every twenty to thirty minutes1 increasing geometrically3 #a1 #b1 #d1 #h1 #af1 #cb1 #fd1 #abh1 #bef1 #eab1 #a1jbd1 #b1jdh1 #d1jif1 etc4 ,in only four hours one cell multiplies to over four thousand4 ,in three more hours there will be two million4 ,for food1 they consume the compost heap4 ,almost all oxygen-breathing organisms make energy by burning some form of organic matter as fuel much like gasoline powers an automobile4 ,this cellular burning does not happen violently with flame and light4 ,living things use enzymes to break complex organic molecules down into simpler ones like sugar 7and others7 and then enzymatically unite these with oxygen4 ,but as gentle as enzymatic combustion may seem1 it still is burning4 ,microbes can burn starches1 cellulose1 lignin1 proteins1 and fats1 as well as sugars4 ,no engine is one hundred percent efficient4 ,all motors give off waste heat as they run4 ,similarly1 no plant or animal is capable of using every bit of energy released from their food1 and consequently radiate heat4 ,when working hard1 living things give off more heat2 when resting1 less4 ,the ebb and flow of heat production matches their oxygen consumption1 and matches their physical and metabolic activities1 and growth rates4 ,even single-celled animals like bacteria and fungi breathe oxygen and give off heat4 ,soil animals and microorganisms working over the thin layer of leaf litter on the forest floor also generate heat but it dissipates without making any perceptible increase in temperature4 ,however1 compostable materials do not transfer heat readily4 ,in the language of architecture and home building they might be said to have a high ,r value or to be good insulators ,when a large quantity of decomposing materials are heaped up1 biological heat is trapped within the pile and temperature increases1 further accelerating the rate of decomposition4 ,temperature controls how rapidly living things carry out their activities4 ,only birds and mammals are warm blooded-capable of holding the rate of their metabolic chemistry constant by holding their body temperature steady4 ,most animals and all microorganisms have no ability to regulate their internal temperature2 when they are cold they are sluggish1 when warm1 active4 ,driven by cold-blooded soil animals and microorganisms1 the hotter the compost pile gets the faster it is consumed4 ,this relationship between temperature and the speed of biological activity also holds true for organic chemical reactions in a test-tube1 the shelf-life of garden seed1 the time it takes seed to germinate and the storage of food in the refrigerator4 ,at the temperature of frozen water most living chemical processes come to a halt or close to it4 ,that is why freezing prevents food from going through those normal enzymatic decomposition stages we call spoiling4 ,by the time that temperature has increased to about #ej degree ,f1 the chemistry of most living things is beginning to operate efficiently4 ,from that temperature the speed of organic chemical reactions then approximately doubles with each #bj degree increase of temperature4 ,so1 at #gj degree ,f decomposition is running at twice the rate it does at #ej degree1 while at #ij degree four times as rapidly as at #ej degree and so on4 ,however1 when temperatures get to about #aej degree organic chemistry is not necessarily racing #cb times as fast as compared to #ej degree because many reactions engendered by living things decline in efficiency at temperatures much over #aaj degree4 ,this explanation is oversimplified and the numbers ,i have used to illustrate the process are slightly inaccurate1 however the idea itself is substantially correct4 ,you should understand that while inorganic chemical reactions accelerate with increases in temperature almost without limit1 those processes conducted by living things usually have a much lower terminal temperature4 ,above some point1 life stops4 ,even the most heat tolerant soil animals will die or exit a compost pile by the time the temperature exceeds #abj degree1 leaving the material in the sole possession of microorganisms4 ,most microorganisms cannot withstand temperatures much over #acj degree4 ,when the core of a pile heats beyond this point they either form spores while waiting for things to cool off1 or die off4 ,plenty of living organisms will still be waiting in the cooler outer layers of the heap to reoccupy the core once things cool down4 ,however1 there are unique bacteria and fungi that only work effectively at temperatures exceeding #aaj degree4 ,soil scientists and other academics that sometimes seem to measure their stature on how well they can baffle the average person by using unfamiliar words for ordinary notions call these types of organisms thermophiles1 a ,latin word that simply means heat lovers4 ,compost piles can get remarkably hot4 ,since thermophilic microorganisms and fungi generate the very heat they require to accelerate their activities and as the ambient temperature increases generate even more heat1 the ultimate temperature is reached when the pile gets so hot that even thermophilic organisms begin to die off4 ,compost piles have exceeded #afj degree4 ,you should expect the heaps you build to exceed #adj degree and shouldn't be surprised if they approach #aej degree ,other types of decomposing organic matter can get even hotter4 ,for example1 haystacks commonly catch on fire because dry hay is such an excellent insulator4 ,if the bales in the center of a large hay stack are just moist enough to encourage rapid bacterial decomposition1 the heat generated may increase until dryer bales on the outside begin to smoke and then burn4 ,wise farmers make sure their hay is thoroughly dry before baling and stacking it4 ,how hot the pile can get depends on how well the composter controls a number of factors4 ,these are so important that they need to be considered in detail4 ,particle size4 ,microorganisms are not capable of chewing or mechanically attacking food4 ,their primary method of eating is to secrete digestive enzymes that break down and then dissolve organic matter4 ,some larger single-cell creatures can surround or envelop and then swallow tiny food particles4 ,once inside the cell this material is then attacked by similar digestive enzymes4 ,since digestive enzymes attack only outside surfaces1 the greater the surface area the composting materials present the more rapidly microorganisms multiply to consume the food supply4 ,and the more heat is created4 ,as particle size decreases1 the amount of surface area goes up just about as rapidly as the number series used a few paragraphs back to illustrate the multiplication of microorganisms4 ,the surfaces presented in different types of soil similarly affect plant growth so scientists have carefully calculated the amount of surface areas of soil materials4 ,although compost heaps are made of much larger particles than soil1 the relationship between particle size and surface area is the same4 ,clearly1 when a small difference in particle size can change the amount of surface area by hundreds of times1 reducing the size of the stuff in the compost pile will3 - expose more material to digestive enzymes2 - greatly accelerate decomposition2 - build much higher temperatures4 ,oxygen supply4 ,all desirable organisms of decomposition are oxygen breathers or aerobes4 ,there must be an adequate movement of air through the pile to supply their needs4 ,if air supply is choked off1 aerobic microorganisms die off and are replaced by anaerobic organisms4 ,these do not run by burning carbohydrates1 but derive energy from other kinds of chemical reactions not requiring oxygen4 ,anaerobic chemistry is slow and does not generate much heat1 so a pile that suddenly cools off is giving a strong indication that the core may lack air4 ,the primary waste products of aerobes are water and carbon dioxide gas--inoffensive substances4 ,when most people think of putrefaction they are actually picturing decomposition by anaerobic bacteria4 ,with insufficient oxygen1 foul-smelling materials are created4 ,instead of humus being formed1 black1 tarlike substances develop that are much less useful in soil4 ,under airless conditions much nitrate is permanently lost4 ,the odiferous wastes of anaerobes also includes hydrogen sulfide 7smells like rotten eggs71 as well as other toxic substances with very unpleasant qualities4 ,heaps built with significant amounts of coarse1 strong1 irregular materials tend to retain large pore spaces1 encourage airflow and remain aerobic4 ,heat generated in the pile causes hot air in the pile's center to rise and exit the pile by convection4 ,this automatically draws in a supply of fresh1 cool air4 ,but heaps made exclusively of large particles not only present little surface area to microorganisms1 they permit so much airflow that they are rapidly cooled4 ,this is one reason that a wet firewood rick or a pile of damp wood chips does not heat up4 ,at the opposite extreme1 piles made of finely ground or soft1 wet materials tend to compact1 ending convective air exchanges and bringing aerobic decomposition to a halt4 ,in the center of an airless heap1 anaerobic organisms immediately take over4 ,surface ,area of ,one ,gram of ,soil ,particles ,particle ,size ,diameter of ,number of ,surface ,area ,particles in mm ,particles per gm per square cm ,very ,coarse ,sand #b4jj-a4jj #ij #aa ,coarse ,sand #a4jj-j4ej #gbj #bc ,medium ,sand #j4ej-j4be #e1gjj #de ,find ,sand #j4be-j4aj #df1jjj #ia ,very ,fine ,sand #j4aj-jje #ggb1jjj #bbg ,silt #j4je-j4jjb #e1ggf1jjj #ded ,composters use several strategies to maintain airflow4 ,the most basic one is to blend an assortment of components so that coarse1 stiff materials maintain a loose texture while soft1 flexible stuff tends to partially fill in the spaces4 ,however1 even if the heap starts out fluffy enough to permit adequate airflow1 as the materials decompose they soften and tend to slump together into an airless mass4 ,periodically turning the pile1 tearing it apart with a fork and restacking it1 will reestablish a looser texture and temporarily recharge the pore spaces with fresh air4 ,since the outer surfaces of a compost pile do not get hot1 tend to completely dry out1 and fail to decompose1 turning the pile also rotates the unrotted skin to the core and then insulates it with more-decomposed material taken from the center of the original pile4 ,a heap that has cooled because it has gone anaerobic can be quickly remedied by turning4 ,piles can also be constructed with a base layer of fine sticks1 smaller tree prunings1 and dry brushy material4 ,this porous base tends to enhance the inflow of air from beneath the pile4 ,one powerful aeration technique is to build the pile atop a low platform made of slats or strong hardware cloth4 ,larger piles can have air channels built into them much as light wells and courtyards illuminate inner rooms of tall buildings4 ,as the pile is being constructed1 vertical heavy wooden fence posts1 #d x #d's1 or large-diameter plastic pipes with numerous quarter-inch holes drilled in them are spaced every three or four feet4 ,once the pile has been formed and begins to heat1 the wooden posts are wiggled around and then lifted out1 making a slightly conical airway from top to bottom4 ,perforated plastic vent pipes can be left in the heap4 ,with the help of these airways1 no part of the pile is more than a couple of feet from oxygen ,moisture4 ,a dry pile is a cold pile4 ,microorganisms live in thin films of water that adhere to organic matter whereas fungi only grow in humid conditions2 if the pile becomes dry1 both bacteria and fungi die off4 ,the upwelling of heated air exiting the pile tends to rapidly dehydrate the compost heap4 ,it usually is necessary to periodically add water to a hot working heap4 ,unfortunately1 remoistening a pile is not always simple4 ,the nature of the materials tends to cause water to be shed and run off much like a thatched roof protects a cottage4 ,since piles tend to compact and dry out at the same time1 when they are turned they can simultaneously be rehydrated4 ,when ,i fork over a heap ,i take brief breaks and spray water over the new pile1 layer by layer4 ,two or three such turnings and waterings will result in finished compost4 ,the other extreme can also be an obstacle to efficient composting4 ,making a pile too wet can encourage soft materials to lose all mechanical strength1 the pile immediately slumps into a chilled1 airless mass4 ,having large quantities of water pass through a pile can also leach out vital nutrients that feed organisms of decomposition and later on1 feed the garden itself4 ,i cover my heaps with old plastic sheeting from ,november through ,march to protect them from ,oregon's rainy winter climate4 ,understanding how much moisture to put into a pile soon becomes an intuitive certainty4 ,beginners can gauge moisture content by squeezing a handful of material very hard4 ,it should feel very damp but only a few drops of moisture should be extractable4 ,industrial composters1 who can afford scientific guidance to optimize their activities1 try to establish and maintain a laboratory-measured moisture content of #ej to #fj percent by weight4 ,when building a pile1 keep in mind that certain materials like fresh grass clippings and vegetable trimmings already contain close to #ij percent moisture while dry components such as sawdust and straw may contain only #aj percent and resist absorbing water at that4 ,but1 by thoroughly mixing wet and dry materials the overall moisture content will quickly equalize4 ,size of the pile4 ,it is much harder to keep a small object hot than a large one4 ,that's because the ratio of surface area to volume goes down as volume goes up4 ,no matter how well other factors encourage thermophiles1 it is still difficult to make a pile heat up that is less than three feet high and three feet in diameter4 ,and a tiny pile like that one tends to heat only for a short time and then cool off rapidly4 ,larger piles tend to heat much faster and remain hot long enough to allow significant decomposition to occur4 ,most composters consider a four foot cube to be a minimum practical size4 ,industrial or municipal composters build windrows up to ten feet at the base1 seven feet high1 and as long as they want4 ,however1 even if you have unlimited material there is still a limit to the heap's size and that limiting factor is air supply4 ,the bigger the compost pile the harder it becomes to get oxygen into the center4 ,industrial composters may have power equipment that simultaneously turns and sprays water1 mechanically oxygenating and remoistening a massive windrow every few days4 ,even poorly-financed municipal composting systems have tractors with scoop loaders to turn their piles frequently4 ,at home the practical limit is probably a heap six or seven feet wide at the base1 initially about five feet high 7it will rapidly slump a foot or so once heating begins71 and as long as one has material for4 ,though we might like to make our compost piles so large that maintaining sufficient airflow becomes the major problem we face1 the home composter rarely has enough materials on hand to build a huge heap all at once4 ,a single lawn mowing doesn't supply that many clippings2 my own kitchen compost bucket is larger and fills faster than anyone else's ,i know of but still only amounts to a few gallons a week except during ,august when we're making jam1 canning vegetables1 and juicing4 ,garden weeds are collected a wheelbarrow at a time4 ,leaves are seasonal4 ,in the ,east the annual vegetable garden clean-up happens after the fall frost4 ,so almost inevitably1 you will be building a heap gradually4 ,that's probably why most garden books illustrate compost heaps as though they were layer cakes3 a base layer of brush1 twigs1 and coarse stuff to allow air to enter1 then alternating thin layers of grass clippings1 leaves1 weeds1 garbage1 grass1 weeds1 garbage1 and a sprinkling of soil1 repeated until the heap is five feet tall4 ,it can take months to build a compost pile this way because heating and decomposition begin before the pile is finished and it sags as it is built4 ,i recommend several practices when gradually forming a heap4 ,keep a large stack of dry1 coarse vegetation next to a building pile4 ,as kitchen garbage1 grass clippings1 fresh manure or other wet materials come available the can be covered with and mixed into this dry material4 ,the wetter1 greener items will rehydrate the dry vegetation and usually contain more nitrogen that balances out the higher carbon of dried grass1 tall weeds1 and hay4 ,if building the heap has taken several months1 the lower central area will probably be well on its way to becoming compost and much of the pile may have already dried out by the time it is fully formed4 ,so the best time make the first turn and remoisten a long-building pile is right after it has been completed4 ,instead of picturing a layer cake1 you will be better off comparing composting to making bread4 ,flour1 yeast1 water1 molasses1 sunflower seeds1 and oil aren't layered1 they're thoroughly blended and then kneaded and worked together so that the yeast can interact with the other materials and bring about a miraculous chemistry that we call dough4 ,carbon to nitrogen ratio4 ,c_/,n is the most important single aspect that controls both the heap's ability to heat up and the quality of the compost that results4 ,piles composed primarily of materials with a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen do not get very hot or stay hot long enough4 ,piles made from materials with too low a ,c_/,n get too hot1 lose a great deal of nitrogen and may burn out4 ,the compost process generally works best when the heap's starting ,c_/,n is around #be3a4 ,if sawdust1 straw1 or woody hay form the bulk of the pile1 it is hard to bring the ,c_/,n down enough with just grass clippings and kitchen garbage4 ,heaps made essentially of high ,c_/,n materials need significant additions of the most potent manures and_/or highly concentrated organic nitrogen sources like seed meals or slaughterhouse concentrates4 ,the next chapter discusses the nature and properties of materials used for composting in great detail4 ,i have already stressed that filling this book with tables listing so-called precise amounts of ,c_/,n for compostable materials would be foolish4 ,even more wasteful of energy would be the composter's attempt to compute the ratio of carbon to nitrogen resulting from any mixture of materials4 ,for those who are interested1 the sidebar provides an illustration of how that might be done4 ,balancing ,c_/,n ,here's a simple arithmetic problem that illustrates how to balance carbon to nitrogen4 ,,question3 ,i have #ajj pounds of straw with a ,c_/,n of #ff3a1 how much chicken manure 7,c_/,n of #h3a7 do ,i have to add to bring the total to an average ,c_/,n of #be3a4 ,,answer3 ,there is #a pound of nitrogen already in each #ff pounds of straw1 so there are already about #a4e pounds of ,n in #ajj pounds of straw4 #ajj pounds of straw-compost at #be3a would have about #d pounds of nitrogen1 so ,i need to add about #b4e more pounds of ,n4 ,eight pounds of chicken manure contain #a pound of ,n2 #af pounds have #b4 ,so1 if ,i add #cb pounds of chicken manure to #ajj pounds of straw1 ,i will have #acb pounds of material containing about #e4e pounds of ,n1 a ,c_/,n of #acb3e4e or about #bd3a4 ,it is far more sensible to learn from experience4 ,gauge the proportions of materials going into a heap by the result4 ,if the pile gets really hot and stays that way for a few weeks before gradually cooling down then the ,c_/,n was more or less right4 ,if1 after several turnings and reheatings1 the material has not thoroughly decomposed1 then the initial ,c_/,n was probably too high4 ,the words thoroughly decomposed mean here that there are no recognizable traces of the original materials in the heap and the compost is dark brown to black1 crumbly1 sweet smelling and most importantly1 when worked into soil it provokes a marked growth response1 similar to fertilizer4 ,if the pile did not initially heat very much or the heating stage was very brief1 then the pile probably lacked nitrogen4 ,the solution for a nitrogen-deficient pile is to turn it1 simultaneously blending in more nutrient-rich materials and probably a bit of water too4 ,after a few piles have been made novice composters will begin to get the same feel for their materials as bakers have for their flour1 shortening1 and yeast4 ,it is also possible to err on the opposite end of the scale and make a pile with too much nitrogen4 ,this heap will heat very rapidly1 become as hot as the microbial population can tolerate1 lose moisture very quickly1 and probably smell of ammonia1 indicating that valuable fixed nitrogen is escaping into the atmosphere4 ,when proteins decompose their nitrogen content is normally released as ammonia gas4 ,most people have smelled small piles of spring grass clippings doing this very thing4 ,ammonia is always created when proteins decompose in any heap at any ,c_/,n4 ,but a properly made compost pile does not permit this valuable nitrogen source to escape4 ,there are other bacteria commonly found in soil that uptake ammonia gas and change it to the nitrates that plants and soil life forms need to make other proteins4 ,these nitrification microorganisms are extremely efficient at reasonable temperatures but cannot survive the extreme high temperatures that a really hot pile can achieve4 ,they also live only in soil4 ,that is why it is very important to ensure that about #aj percent of a compost pile is soil and to coat the outside of a pile with a frosting of rich earth that is kept damp4 ,one other aspect of soil helps prevent ammonia loss4 ,clay is capable of attracting and temporarily holding on to ammonia until it is nitrified by microorganisms4 ,most soils contain significant amounts of clay4 ,the widespread presence of clay and ammonia-fixing bacteria in all soils permits industrial farmers to inject gaseous ammonia directly into the earth where it is promptly and completely altered into nitrates4 ,a very hot pile leaking ammonia may contain too little soil1 but more likely it is also so hot that the nitrifying bacteria have been killed off4 ,escaping ammonia is not only an offensive nuisance1 valuable fertility is being lost into the atmosphere4 ,weather and season4 ,you can adopt a number of strategies to keep weather from chilling a compost pile4 ,wind both lowers temperature and dries out a pile1 so if at all possible1 make compost in a sheltered location4 ,heavy1 cold rains can chill and waterlog a pile4 ,composting under a roof will also keep hot sun from baking moisture out of a pile in summer4 ,using bins or other compost structures can hold in heat that might otherwise be lost from the sides of unprotected heaps4 ,it is much easier to maintain a high core temperature when the weather is warm4 ,it may not be so easy to make hot compost heaps during a northern winter4 ,so in some parts of the country ,i would not expect too much from a compost pile made from autumn cleanup4 ,this stack of leaves and frost-bitten garden plants may have to await the spring thaw1 then to be mixed with potent spring grass clippings and other nitrogenous materials in order to heat up and complete the composting process4 ,what to do with kitchen garbage during winter in the frozen ,north makes an interesting problem and leads serious recyclers to take notice of vermicomposting4 7,see ,chapter #f47 ,in southern regions the heap may be prevented from overheating by making it smaller or not as tall4 ,chapter ,nine describes in great detail how ,sir ,albert ,howard handled the problem of high air temperature while making compost in ,india4 ,the ,fertilizing ,value of ,compost ,it is not possible for me to tell you how well your own homemade compost will fertilize plants4 ,like home-brewed beer and home-baked bread you can be certain that your compost may be the equal of or superior to almost any commercially made product and certainly will be better fertilizer than the high carbon result of municipal solid waste composting4 ,but first1 let's consider two semi-philosophical questions1 good for what8 and poor as what8 ,any compost is a social good if it conserves energy1 saves space in landfills and returns some nutrients and organic matter to the soil1 whether for lawns1 ornamental plantings1 or vegetable gardens4 ,compared to the fertilizer you would have purchased in its place1 any homemade compost will be a financial gain unless you buy expensive motor-powered grinding equipment to produce only small quantities4 ,making compost is also a personal good4 ,for a few hours a year1 composting gets you outside with a manure fork in your hand1 working up a sweat4 ,you intentionally participate in a natural cycle3 the endless rotation of carbon from air to organic matter in the form of plants1 to animals1 and finally all of it back into soil4 ,you can observe the miraculous increase in plant and soil health that happens when you intensify and enrich that cycle of carbon on land under your control4 ,so any compost is good compost4 ,but will it be good fertilizer8 ,answering that question is a lot harder3 it depends on so many factors4 ,the growth response you'll get from compost depends on what went into the heap1 on how much nitrate nitrogen was lost as ammonia during decomposition1 on how completely decomposition was allowed to proceed1 and how much nitrate nitrogen was created by microbes during ripening4 ,the growth response from compost also depends on the soil's temperature4 ,just like every other biological process1 the nutrients in compost only ,,grow the plant when they decompose in the soil and are released4 ,where summer is hot1 where the average of day and night temperatures are high1 where soil temperatures reach #hj degree for much of the frost-free season1 organic matter rots really fast and a little compost of average quality makes a huge increase in plant growth4 ,where summer is cool and soil organic matter decomposes slowly1 poorer grades of compost have little immediate effect1 or worse1 may temporarily interfere with plant growth4 ,hotter soils are probably more desperate for organic matter and may give you a marked growth response from even poor quality compost2 soils in cool climates naturally contain higher quantities of humus and need to be stoked with more potent materials if high levels of nutrients are to be released4 ,compost is also reputed to make enormous improvements in the workability1 or tilth of the soil4 ,this aspect of gardening is so important and so widely misunderstood1 especially by organic gardeners1 that most of ,chapter ,seven is devoted to considering the roles of humus in the soil4 ,g,r,o,wing the plant ,one of the things ,i enjoy most while gardening is ,g,r,o,wing some of my plants4 ,i don't ,,grow them all because there is no point in having giant parsley or making the corn patch get one foot taller4 ,making everything get as large as possible wouldn't result in maximum nutrition either4 ,but just for fun1 how about a #ajj-plus-pound pumpkin8 ,a twenty-pound savoy cabbage8 ,a cauliflower sixteen inches in diameter8 ,an eight-inch diameter beet8 ,now that's ,g,r,o,wing6 ,here's how4 ,simply remove as many growth limiters as possible and watch the plant's own efforts take over4 ,one of the best examples ,i've ever seen of how this works was in a neighbor's backyard greenhouse4 ,this retired welder liked his liquor4 ,having more time than money and little respect for legal absurdities1 he had constructed a small stainless steel pot still1 fermented his own mash1 and made a harsh1 hangover-producing whiskey from grain and cane sugar that ,appalachians call popskull4 ,to encourage rapid fermentation1 his mashing barrel was kept in the warm greenhouse4 ,the bubbling brew gave off large quantities of carbon dioxide gas4 ,the rest of his greenhouse was filled with green herbs that flowered fragrantly in ,september4 ,most of them were four or five feet tall but those plants on the end housing the mash barrel were seven feet tall and twice as bushy4 ,why8 ,because the normal level of atmospheric ,,co#b actually limits plant growth4 ,we can't increase the carbon supply outdoors4 ,but we can loosen the soil eighteen to twenty-four inches down 7or more for deeply-rooting species7 in an area as large as the plant's root system could possibly ramify during its entire growing season4 ,i've seen some ,g,r,o,wers dig holes four feet deep and five feet in diameter for individual plants4 ,we can use well-finished1 strong compost to increase the humus content of that soil1 and supplement that with manure tea or liquid fertilizer to provide all the nutrients the plant could possibly use4 ,we can allocate only one plant to that space and make sure absolutely no competition develops in that space for light1 water1 or nutrients4 ,we can keep the soil moist at all times4 ,by locating the plant against a reflective white wall we can increase its light levels and perhaps the nighttime temperatures 7plants make food during the day and use it to grow with at night74 ,textural improvements from compost depend greatly on soil type4 ,sandy and loamy soils naturally remain open and workable and sustain good tilth with surprisingly small amounts of organic matter4 ,two or three hundred pounds 7dry weight7 of compost per thousand square feet per year will keep coarse-textured soils in wonderful physical condition4 ,this small amount of humus is also sufficient to encourage the development of a lush soil ecology that creates the natural health of plants4 ,silty soils1 especially ones with more clay content1 tend to become compacted and when low in humus will crust over and puddle when it rains hard4 ,these may need a little more compost1 perhaps in the range of three to five hundred pounds per thousand square feet per year4 ,clay soils on the other hand are heavy and airless1 easily compacted1 hard to work1 and hard to keep workable4 ,the mechanical properties of clay soils greatly benefit from additions of organic matter several times larger than what soils composed of larger particles need4 ,given adequate organic matter1 even a heavy clay can be made to behave somewhat like a rich loam does4 ,perhaps you've noticed that ,i've still avoided answering the question1 how good is your compost8 ,first1 lets take a look at laboratory analyses of various kinds of compost1 connect that to what they were made from and that to the kind of growing results one might get from them4 ,i apologize that despite considerable research ,i was unable to discover more detailed breakdowns from more composting activities4 ,but the data ,i do have is sufficient to appreciate the range of possibilities4 ,considered as a fertilizer to ,,grow plants1 ,municipal ,solid ,waste 7,,msw7 compost is the lowest grade material ,i know of4 ,it is usually broadcast as a surface mulch4 ,the ingredients municipal composters must process include an indiscriminate mixture of all sorts of urban organic waste3 paper1 kitchen garbage1 leaves1 chipped tree trimmings1 commercial organic garbage like restaurant waste1 cannery wastes1 etc4 ,unfortunately1 paper comprises the largest single ingredient and it is by nature highly resistant to decomposition4 ,,msw composting is essentially a recycling process1 so no soil1 no manure and no special low ,c_/,n sources are used to improve the fertilizing value of the finished product4 ,municipal composting schemes usually must process huge volumes of material on very valuable land close to cities4 ,economics mean the heaps are made as large as possible1 run as fast as possible1 and gotten off the field without concern for developing their highest qualities4 ,since it takes a long time to reduce large proportions of carbon1 especially when they are in very decomposition-resistant forms like paper1 and since the use of soil in the compost heap is essential to prevent nitrate loss1 municipal composts tend to be low in nitrogen and high in carbon4 ,by comparison1 the poorest home garden compost ,i could find test results for was about equal to the best municipal compost4 ,the best garden sample 7,b7 is pretty fine stuff4 ,i could not discover the ingredients that went into either garden compost but my supposition is that gardener ,a incorporated large quantities of high ,c_/,n materials like straw1 sawdust and the like while gardener ,b used manure1 fresh vegetation1 grass clippings and other similar low ,c_/,n materials4 ,the next chapter will evaluate the suitability of materials commonly used to make compost4 ,analyses of ,various ,composts ,source ,n ,p ,k ,ca ,c_/,n ,vegetable trimmings paper #a4eg #j4dj #j4dj #bd3a ,municipal refuse #j4ig #j4af #j4ba #bd3a ,johnson ,city refuse #j4ia #j4bb #j4ia #a4ia #cf3a ,gainsville1 ,,fl refuse #j4eg #j4bf #j4bb #a4hh 8 ,garden compost ,a #a4dj #j4cj #j4dj #be3a ,garden compost ,b #c4ej #a4jj #b4jj #aj3a ,to interpret this chart1 let's make as our standard of comparison the actual gardening results from some very potent organic material ,i and probably many of my readers have probably used3 bagged chicken manure compost4 ,the most potent ,i've ever purchased is inexpensively sold in one-cubic-foot plastic sacks stacked up in front of my local supermarket every spring4 ,the sacks are labeled #d-c-b4 ,i've successfully grown quite a few huge1 handsome1 and healthy vegetables with this product4 ,i've also tried other similar sorts also labeled chicken manure compost that are about half as potent4 ,from many years of successful use ,i know that #ae to #bj sacks 7about #cjj-djj dry-weight pounds7 of #d-c-b chicken compost spread and tilled into one thousand square feet will grow a magnificent garden4 ,most certainly a similar amount of the high analysis ,garden ,b compost would do about the same job4 ,would three times as much less potent compost from ,garden ,a or five times as much even poorer stuff from the ,johnson ,city municipal composting operation do as well8 ,not at all6 ,neither would three times as many sacks of dried steer manure4 ,here's why4 ,if composted organic matter is spread like mulch atop the ground on lawns or around ornamentals and allowed to remain there its nitrogen content and ,c_/,n are not especially important4 ,even if the ,c_/,n is still high soil animals will continue the job of decomposition much as happens on the forest floor4 ,eventually their excrement will be transported into the soil by earthworms4 ,by that time the ,c_/,n will equal that of other soil humus and no disruption will occur to the soil's process4 ,growing vegetables is much more demanding than growing most perennial ornamentals or lawns4 ,excuse me1 flower gardeners1 but ,i've observed that even most flowers will thrive if only slight improvements are made in their soil4 ,the same is true for most herbs4 ,difficulties with ornamentals or herbs are usually caused by attempting to grow a species that is not particularly well-adapted to the site or climate4 ,fertilized with sacked steer manure or mulched with average-to-poor compost1 most ornamentals will grow adequately4 ,but vegetables are delicate1 pampered critters that must grow as rapidly as they can grow if they are to be succulent1 tasty1 and yield heavily4 ,most of them demand very high levels of available nutrients as well as soft1 friable soil containing reasonable levels of organic matter4 ,so it is extremely important that a vegetable gardener understand the inevitable disruption occurring when organic matter that has a ,c_/,n is much above #ab3a is tilled into soil4 ,organic matter that has been in soil for a while has been altered into a much studied substance1 humus4 ,we know for example that humus always has a carbon to nitrogen ratio of from #aj3a to about #ab3a1 just like compost from ,garden ,b4 ,garden writers call great compost like this1 stable humus1 because it is slow to decompose4 ,its presence in soil steadily feeds a healthy ecology of microorganisms important to plant health1 and whose activity accelerates release of plant nutrients from undecomposed rock particles4 ,humus is also fertilizer because its gradual decomposition provides mineral nutrients that make plants grow4 ,the most important of these nutrients is nitrate nitrogen1 thus soil scientists may call humus decomposition nitrification4 ,when organic material with a ,c_/,n below #ab3a is mixed into soil its breakdown is very rapid4 ,because it contains more nitrogen than stable humus does1 nitrogen is rapidly released to feed the plants and soil life4 ,along with nitrogen comes other plant nutrients4 ,this accelerated nitrification continues until the remaining nitrogen balances with the remaining carbon at a ratio of about #ab3a4 ,then the soil returns to equilibrium4 ,the lower the ,c_/,n the more rapid the release1 and the more violent the reaction in the soil4 ,most low ,c_/,n organic materials1 like seed meal or chicken manure1 rapidly release nutrients for a month or two before stabilizing4 ,what has been described here is fertilizer4 ,when organic material with a ,c_/,n higher than #ab3a is tilled into soil1 soil animals and microorganisms find themselves with an unsurpassed carbohydrate banquet4 ,just as in a compost heap1 within days bacteria and fungi can multiply to match any food supply4 ,but to construct their bodies these microorganisms need the same nutrients that plants need to grow--nitrogen1 potassium1 phosphorus1 calcium1 magnesium1 etc4 ,there are never enough of these nutrients in high ,c_/,n organic matter to match the needs of soil bacteria1 especially never enough nitrogen1 so soil microorganisms uptake these nutrients from the soil's reserves while they bloom and rapidly consume all the new carbon presented to them4 ,during this period of rapid decomposition the soil is thoroughly robbed of plant nutrients4 ,and nitrification stops4 ,initially1 a great deal of carbon dioxide gas may be given off1 as carbon is metabolically burned4 ,however1 ,,co#b in high concentrations can be toxic to sprouting seeds and consequently1 germination failures may occur4 ,when ,i was in the seed business ,i'd get a few complaints every year from irate gardeners demanding to know why every seed packet they sowed failed to come up well4 ,there were two usual causes4 ,either before sowing all the seeds were exposed to temperatures above #aaj degree or more likely1 a large quantity of high ,c_/,n manure was tilled into the garden just before sowing4 ,in soil so disturbed transplants may also fail to grow for awhile4 ,if the manure contains a large quantity of sawdust the soil will seem very infertile for a month or three4 ,sir ,albert ,howard had a unique and pithy way of expressing this reality4 ,he said that soil was not capable of working two jobs at once4 ,you could not expect it to nitrify humus while it was also being required to digest organic matter4 ,that's one reason he thought composting was such a valuable process4 ,the digestion of organic matter proceeds outside the soil2 when finished product1 humus1 is ready for nitrification1 it is tilled in4 ,rapid consumption of carbon continues until the ,c_/,n of the new material drops to the range of stable humus4 ,then decay microorganisms die off and the nutrients they hoarded are released back into the soil4 ,how long the soil remains inhospitable to plant growth and seed germination depends on soil temperature1 the amount of the material and how high its ,c_/,n is1 and the amount of nutrients the soil is holding in reserve4 ,the warmer and more fertile the soil was before the addition of high ,c_/,n organic matter1 the faster it will decompose4 ,judging by the compost analyses in the table1 ,i can see why some municipalities are having difficulty disposing of the solid waste compost they are making4 ,one governmental composting operation that does succeed in selling everything they can produce is ,lane ,county1 ,oregon4 ,their yard waste compost is eagerly paid for by local gardeners4 ,lane ,county compost is made only from autumn leaves1 grass clippings1 and other yard wastes4 ,no paper6 ,yard waste compost is a product much like a homeowner would produce4 ,and yard waste compost contains no industrial waste or any material that might pose health threats4 ,all woody materials are finely chipped before composting and comprise no more than #bj percent of the total undecayed mass by weight4 ,although no nutrient analysis has been done by the county other than testing for p,h 7around #g4j7 and1 because of the use of weed and feed fertilizers on lawns1 for #b-d;,d 7no residual trace ever found present71 ,i estimate that the overall ,c_/,n of the materials going into the windrows at #be3a4 ,i wouldn't be surprised if the finished compost has a ,c_/,n close to #ab3a4 ,incidentally1 ,lane ,county understands that many gardeners don't have pickup trucks4 ,they reasonably offer to deliver their compost for a small fee if at least one yard is purchased4 ,other local governments also make and deliver yard waste compost4 ,so what about your own home compost8 ,if you are a flower1 ornamental1 or lawn grower1 you have nothing to worry about4 ,just compost everything you have available and use all you wish to make4 ,if tilling your compost into soil seems to slow the growth of plants1 then mulch with it and avoid tilling it in1 or adjust the ,c_/,n down by adding fertilizers like seed meal when tilling it in4 ,if you are a vegetable gardener and your compost doesn't seem to provoke the kind of growth response you hoped for1 either shallowly till in compost in the fall for next year's planting1 by which time it will have become stable humus1 or read further4 ,the second half of this book contains numerous hints about how to make potent compost and about how to use complete organic fertilizers in combination with compost to grow the lushest garden imaginable4 ,,chapter ,,four ,all ,about ,materials ,in most parts of the country1 enough organic materials accumulate around an average home and yard to make all the compost a backyard garden needs4 ,you probably have weeds1 leaves1 perhaps your own human hair 7my wife is the family barber71 dust from the vacuum cleaner1 kitchen garbage and grass clippings4 ,but1 there may not be enough to simultaneously build the lushest lawn1 the healthiest ornamentals and grow the vegetables4 ,if you want to make more compost than your own land allows1 it is not difficult to find very large quantities of organic materials that are free or cost very little4 ,the most obvious material to bring in for composting is animal manure4 ,chicken and egg raisers and boarding stables often give manure away or sell it for a nominal fee4 ,for a few dollars most small scale animal growers will cheerfully use their scoop loader to fill your pickup truck till the springs sag4 ,as useful as animal manure can be in a compost pile1 there are other types of low ,c_/,n materials too4 ,enormous quantities of loose alfalfa accumulate around hay bale stacks at feed and grain stores4 ,to the proprietor this dusty chaff is a nuisance gladly given to anyone that will neatly sweep it up and truck it away4 ,to the home gardener1 alfalfa in any form is rich as gold4 ,some years1 rainy ,oregon weather is still unsettled at haying season and farmers are stuck with spoiled hay4 ,i'm sure this happens most places that grass hay is grown on natural rainfall4 ,though a shrewd farmer may try to sell moldy hay at a steep discount by representing it to still have feed value1 actually these ruined bales must be removed from a field before they interfere with working the land4 ,a hard bargainer can often get spoiled hay in exchange for hauling the wet bales out of the field ,there's one local farmer near me whose entire family tree holds a well-deserved reputation for hard1 self-interested dealing4 ,one particularly wet1 cool unsettled haying season1 after starting the spoiled-hay dicker at #ij cents per bale asked--nothing offered but hauling the soggy bales out of the field my offer--,i finally agreed to take away about twenty tons at ten cents per bale4 ,this small sum allowed the greedy b-----to feel he had gotten the better of me4 ,he needed that feeling far more than ,i needed to win the argument or to keep the few dollars ,besides1 the workings of self-applied justice that some religious philosophers call karma show that over the long haul the worst thing one person can do to another is to allow the other to get away with an evil act4 ,any dedicated composter can make contacts yielding cheap or free organic materials by the ton4 ,orchards may have badly bruised or rotting fruit4 ,small cider mills1 wineries1 or a local juice bar restaurant may be glad to get rid of pomace4 ,carpentry shops have sawdust4 ,coffee roasters have dust and chaff4 ,the microbrewery is becoming very popular these days2 mall-scale local brewers and distillers may have spent hops and mash4 ,spoiled product or chaff may be available from cereal mills4 ,city governments often will deliver autumn leaves by the ton and will give away or sell the output of their own municipal composting operations4 ,supermarkets1 produce wholesalers1 and restaurants may be willing to give away boxes of trimmings and spoiled food4 ,barbers and poodle groomers throw away hair4 ,seafood processors will sell truckloads of fresh crab1 fish and shrimp waste for a small fee4 ,of course1 this material becomes evil-smelling in very short order but might be relatively inoffensive if a person had a lot of spoiled hay or sawdust waiting to mix into it4 ,market gardeners near the ,oregon coast sheet-compost crab waste1 tilling it into the soil before it gets too high4 ,other parts of the country might supply citrus wastes1 sugar cane bagasse1 rice hulls1 etc4 ,about ,common ,materials ,alfalfa is a protein-rich perennial legume mainly grown as animal feed4 ,on favorable soil it develops a deep root system1 sometimes exceeding ten feet4 ,alfalfa draws heavily on subsoil minerals so it will be as rich or poor in nutrients as the subsoil it grew in4 ,its average ,c_/,n is around #ab3a making alfalfa useful to compensate for larger quantities of less potent material4 ,sacked alfalfa meal or pellets are usually less expensive 7and being stemmy1 have a slightly higher ,c_/,n7 than leafy1 best-quality baled alfalfa hay4 ,rain-spoiled bales of alfalfa hay are worthless as animal feed but far from valueless to the composter4 ,pelletized rabbit feed is largely alfalfa fortified with grain4 ,naturally1 rabbit manure has a ,c_/,n very similar to alfalfa and is nutrient rich1 especially if some provision is made to absorb the urine4 ,apple pomace is wet and compact4 ,if not well mixed with stiff1 absorbent material1 large clumps of this or other fruit wastes can become airless regions of anaerobic decomposition4 ,having a high water content can be looked upon as an advantage4 ,dry hay and sawdust can be hard to moisten thoroughly2 these hydrate rapidly when mixed with fruit pulp4 ,fermenting fruit pulp attracts yellow jackets so it is sensible to incorporate it quickly into a pile and cover well with vegetation or soil4 ,the watery pulp of fruits is not particularly rich in nutrients but apple1 grape1 and pear pulps are generously endowed with soft1 decomposable seeds4 ,most seeds contain large quantities of phosphorus1 nitrogen1 and other plant nutrients4 ,it is generally true that plants locate much of their entire yearly nutrient assimilation into their seeds to provide the next generation with the best possible start4 ,animals fed on seeds 7such as chickens7 produce the richest manures4 ,older books about composting warn about metallic pesticide residues adhering to fruit skins4 ,however1 it has been nearly half a century since arsenic and lead arsenate were used as pesticides and mercury is no longer used in fungicides4 ,bagasse is the voluminous waste product from extracting cane sugar4 ,its ,c_/,n is extremely high1 similar to wheat straw or sawdust1 and it contains very little in the way of plant nutrients4 ,however1 its coarse1 strong1 fibrous structure helps build lightness into a pile and improve air flow4 ,most sugar mills burn bagasse as their heat source to evaporate water out of the sugary juice squeezed from the canes4 ,at one time there was far more bagasse produced than the mills needed to burn and bagasse often became an environmental pollutant4 ,then1 bagasse was available for nothing or next to nothing4 ,these days1 larger1 modern mills generate electricity with bagasse and sell their surplus to the local power grid4 ,bagasse is also used to make construction fiberboard for subwall and insulation4 ,banana skins and stalks are soft and lack strong fiber4 ,they are moderately rich in phosphorus1 potassium1 and nitrogen4 ,consequently they rot quickly4 ,like other kitchen garbage1 banana waste should be put into the core of a compost pile to avoid attracting and breeding flies4 ,see also3 ,garbage4 ,basic slag is an industrial waste from smelting iron4 ,ore is refined by heating it with limestone and dolomite4 ,the impurities combine with calcium and magnesium1 rise to the surface of the molten metal1 and are skimmed off4 ,basic slag contains quite a bit of calcium plus a variety of useful plant nutrients not usually found in limestone4 ,its exact composition varies greatly depending on the type of ore used4 ,slag is pulverized and sold in sacks as a substitute for agricultural lime4 ,the intense biological activity of a compost pile releases more of slag's other mineral content and converts its nutrients to organic substances that become rapidly available once the compost is incorporated into soil4 ,other forms of powdered mineralized rock can be similarly added to a compost pile to accelerate nutrient release4 ,rodale ,press1 publisher of ,organic ,gardening magazine is located in ,pennsylvania where steel mills abound4 ,having more experience with slag1 ,rodale advises the user to be alert to the fact that some contain little in the way of useful nutrients and_/or may contain excessive amounts of sulfur4 ,large quantities of sulfur can acidify soil4 ,read the analysis on the label4 ,agriculturally useful slag has an average composition of #dj percent calcium and #e percent magnesium4 ,it must also be very finely ground to be effective4 ,see also3 ,lime and ,rock dust4 ,beet wastes1 like bagasse1 are a residue of extracting sugar4 ,they have commercial value as livestock feed and are sold as dry pulp in feed stores located near regions where sugar beets are grown4 ,their ,c_/,n is in the vicinity of #bj3a and they may contain high levels of potassium1 reaching as much as #d percent4 ,brewery wastes4 ,both spent hops 7dried flowers and leaves7 and malt 7sprouted barley and often other grains7 are potent nutrient sources with low ,c_/,n ratios4 ,spent malt is especially potent because brewers extract all the starches and convert them to sugar1 but consider the proteins as waste because proteins in the brew make it cloudy and opaque4 ,hops may be easier to get4 ,malt has uses as animal feed and may be contracted for by some local feedlot or farmer4 ,these materials will be wet1 heavy and frutily odoriferous 7though not unpleasantly so7 and you will want to incorporate them into your compost pile immediately4 ,buckwheat hulls4 ,buckwheat is a grain grown in the northeastern ,united ,states and ,canada4 ,adapted to poor1 droughty soils1 the crop is often grown as a green manure4 ,the seeds are enclosed in a thin-walled1 brown to black fibrous hulls that are removed at a groat mill4 ,buckwheat hulls are light1 springy1 and airy4 ,they'll help fluff up a compost heap4 ,buckwheat hulls are popular as a mulch because they adsorb moisture easily1 look attractive1 and stay in place4 ,their ,c_/,n is high4 ,oat and rice hulls are similar products4 ,canola meal4 ,see3 ,cottonseed meal4 ,castor pomace is pulp left after castor oil has been squeezed from castor bean seeds4 ,like other oil seed residues it is very high in nitrogen1 rich in other plant nutrients1 particularly phosphorus1 ,castor pomace may be available in the deep ,south2 it makes a fine substitute for animal manure4 ,citrus wastes may be available to gardeners living near industrial processors of orange1 lemon1 and grapefruit4 ,in those regions1 dried citrus pulp may also be available in feed stores4 ,dried orange skins contain about #c percent phosphorus and #bg percent potassium4 ,lemons are a little higher in phosphorus but lower in potassium4 ,fruit culls would have a similar nutrient ratio on a dry weight basis1 but they are largely water4 ,large quantities of culls could be useful to hydrate stubbornly dry materials like straw or sawdust4 ,like other byproducts of industrial farming1 citrus wastes may contain significant amounts of pesticide residues4 ,the composting process will break down and eliminate most toxic organic residues1 especially if the pile gets really hot through and through4 7,see also3 ,leaves7 ,the effect of such high levels of potassium on the nutritional qualities of my food would also concern me if the compost ,i was making from these wastes were used for vegetable gardening4 ,coffee grounds are nutrient-rich like other seed meals4 ,even after brewing they can contain up to #b percent nitrogen1 about #a_/b percent phosphorus and varying amounts of potassium usually well below #a percent4 ,its ,c_/,n runs around #ab3a4 ,coffee roasters and packers need to dispose of coffee chaff1 similar in nutrient value to used grounds and may occasionally have a load of overly roasted beans4 ,coffee grounds seem the earthworm's food of choice4 ,in worm bins1 used grounds are more vigorously devoured than any other substance4 ,if slight odor is a consideration1 especially if doing in-the-home vermicomposting1 coffee grounds should be incorporated promptly into a pile to avoid the souring that results from vinegar-producing bacteria4 ,fermenting grounds may also attract harmless fruit flies4 ,paper filters used to make drip coffee may be put into the heap or worm box where they contribute to the bedding4 ,see also3 ,paper4 ,corncobs are no longer available as an agricultural waste product because modern harvesting equipment shreds them and spits the residue right back into the field4 ,however1 home gardeners who fancy sweet corn may produce large quantities of cobs4 ,whole cobs will aerate compost heaps but are slow to decompose4 ,if you want your pile ready within one year1 it is better to dry and then grind the cobs before composting them4 ,cottonseed meal is one of this country's major oil seed residues4 ,the seed is ginned out of the cotton fiber1 ground1 and then its oil content is chemically extracted4 ,the residue1 sometimes called oil cake or seed cake1 is very high in protein and rich in ,,npk4 ,its ,c_/,n runs around #e3a1 making it an excellent way to balance a compost pile containing a lot of carboniferous materials4 ,most cottonseed meal is used as animal feed1 especially for beef and dairy cattle4 ,purchased in garden stores in small containers it is very expensive2 bought by the #ej-to #hj-pound sack from feed stores or farm coops1 cottonseed meal and other oil seed meals are quite inexpensive4 ,though prices of these types of commodities vary from year to year1 oil cakes of all kinds usually cost between #bjj to #djj per ton and only slightly higher purchased sacked in less-than-ton lots4 ,the price of any seed meal is strongly influenced by freight costs4 ,cottonseed meal is cheapest in the south and the southwest where cotton is widely grown4 ,soybean meal may be more available and priced better in the midwest4 ,canadian gardeners are discovering canola meal1 a byproduct from producing canola 7or rapeseed7 oil4 ,when ,i took a sabbatical in ,fiji1 ,i advised local gardeners to use coconut meal1 an inexpensive waste from extracting coconut oil4 ,and ,i would not be at all surprised to discover gardeners in ,south ,dakota using sunflower meal4 ,sesame seed1 safflower seed1 peanut and oil-seed corn meals may also be available in certain localities4 ,seed meals make an ideal starting point for compounding complete organic fertilizer mixes4 ,the average ,,npk analysis of most seed meals is around #f-d-b4 ,considered as a fertilizer1 oil cakes are somewhat lacking in phosphorus and sometimes in trace minerals4 ,by supplementing them with materials like bone meal1 phosphate rock1 kelp meal1 sometimes potassium-rich rock dusts and lime or gypsum1 a single1 wide-spectrum slow-release trace-mineral-rich organic fertilizer source can be blended at home having an analysis of about #e-e-e4 ,cottonseed meal is particularly excellent for this purpose because it is a dry1 flowing1 odorless material that stores well4 ,i suspect that cottonseed meal from the southwest may be better endowed with trace minerals than that from leached-out southeastern soils or soy meal from depleted midwestern farms4 ,see the last section of ,chapter ,eight4 ,some organic certification bureaucracies foolishly prohibit or discourage the use of cottonseed meal as a fertilizer4 ,the rationale behind this rigid self-righteousness is that cotton1 being a nonfood crop1 is sprayed with heavy applications of pesticides and_/or herbicides that are so hazardous that they not permitted on food crops4 ,these chemicals are usually dissolved in an emulsified oil-based carrier and the cotton plant naturally concentrates pesticide residues and breakdown products into the oily seed4 ,i believe that this concern is accurate as far as pesticide residues being translocated into the seed4 ,however1 the chemical process used to extract cottonseed oil is very efficient ,the ground seeds are mixed with a volatile solvent similar to ether and heated under pressure in giant retorts4 ,i reason that when the solvent is squeezed from the seed1 it takes with it all not only the oil1 but1 ,i believe1 virtually all of the pesticide residues4 ,besides1 any remaining organic toxins will be further destroyed by the biological activity of the soil and especially by the intense heat of a compost pile4 ,what ,i personally worry about is cottonseed oil4 ,i avoid prepared salad dressings that may contain cottonseed oil1 as well as many types of corn and potato chips1 tinned oysters1 and other prepared food products4 ,i also suggest that you peek into the back of your favorite ,oriental and fast food restaurants and see if there aren't stacks of ten gallon cottonseed oil cans waiting to fill the deep-fat fryer4 ,i fear this sort of meal as dangerous to my health4 ,if you still fear that cottonseed meal is also a dangerous product then you certainly won't want to be eating feedlot beef or drinking milk or using other dairy products from cattle fed on cottonseed meal4 ,blood meal runs #aj-ab percent nitrogen and contains significant amounts of phosphorus4 ,it is the only organic fertilizer that is naturally water soluble4 ,blood meal1 like other slaughterhouse wastes1 may be too expensive for use as a compost activator4 ,sprinkled atop soil as a side-dressing1 dried blood usually provokes a powerful and immediate growth response4 ,blood meal is so potent that it is capable of burning plants2 when applied you must avoid getting it on leaves or stems4 ,although principally a source of nitrogen1 ,i reason that there are other nutritional substances like growth hormones or complex organic phytamins in blood meal4 ,british glasshouse lettuce growers widely agree that lettuce sidedressed with blood meal about three weeks before harvest has a better finish1 a much longer shelf-life1 and a reduced tendency to brown butt compared to lettuce similarly fertilized with urea or chemical nitrate sources4 ,feathers are the birds' equivalent of hair on animals and have similar properties4 ,see ,hair ,fish and shellfish waste4 ,these proteinaceous1 high-nitrogen and trace-mineral-rich materials are readily available at little or no cost in pickup load lots from canneries and sea food processors4 ,however1 in compost piles1 large quantities of these materials readily putrefy1 make the pile go anaerobic1 emit horrid odors1 and worse1 attract vermin and flies4 ,to avoid these problems1 fresh seafood wastes must be immediately mixed with large quantities of dry1 high ,c_/,n material4 ,there probably are only a few homestead composters able to utilize a ton or two of wet fish waste at one time4 ,oregonians pride themselves for being tolerant1 slow-to-take-offense neighbors4 ,along the ,oregon coast1 small-scale market gardeners will thinly spread shrimp or crab waste atop a field and promptly till it in4 ,once incorporated in the soil1 the odor rapidly dissipates4 ,in less than one week4 ,fish meal is a much better alternative for use around the home4 ,of course1 you have to have no concern for cost and have your mind fixed only on using the finest possible materials to produce the nutritionally finest food when electing to substitute fish meal for animal manures or oil cakes4 ,fish meal is much more potent than cottonseed meal4 ,its typical nutrient analysis runs #i-f-d4 ,however1 figured per pound of nutrients they contain1 seed meals are a much less expensive way to buy ,,npk4 ,fish meal is also mildly odoriferous4 ,the smell is nothing like wet seafood waste1 but it can attract cats1 dogs1 and vermin4 ,what may make fish meal worth the trouble and expense is that sea water is the ultimate depository of all water-soluble nutrients that were once in the soil4 ,animals and plants living in the sea enjoy complete1 balanced nutrition4 ,weston ,price's classic book1 ,nutrition and ,physical ,degeneration1 attributes nearly perfect health to humans who made seafoods a significant portion of their diets4 ,back in the #aicjs--before processed foods were universally available in the most remote locations-people living on isolated sea coasts tended to live long1 have magnificent health1 and perfect teeth4 ,see also3 ,kelp meal4 ,garbage4 ,most forms of kitchen waste make excellent compost4 ,but ,americans foolishly send megatons of kitchen garbage to landfills or overburden sewage treatment plants by grinding garbage in a disposal4 ,the average ,c_/,n of garbage is rather low so its presence in a compost heap facilitates the decomposition of less potent materials4 ,kitchen garbage can also be recycled in other ways such as vermicomposting 7worm boxes7 and burying it in the garden in trenches or post holes4 ,these alternative composting methods will be discussed in some detail later4 ,putting food scraps and wastes down a disposal is obviously the least troublesome and apparently the most sanitary method1 passing the problem on to others4 ,handled with a little forethought1 composting home food waste will not breed flies or make the kitchen untidy or ill smelling4 ,the most important single step in keeping the kitchen clean and free of odor is to put wastes in a small plastic bucket or other container of one to two gallons in size1 and empty it every few days4 ,periodically adding a thin layer of sawdust or peat moss supposedly helps to prevent smells4 ,in our kitchen1 we've found that covering the compost bucket is no alternative to emptying it4 ,when incorporating kitchen wastes into a compost pile1 spread them thinly and cover with an inch or two of leaves1 dry grass1 or hay to adsorb wetness and prevent access by flies4 ,it may be advisable to use a vermin-tight composting bin4 ,granite dust4 ,see ,rock dust4 ,grape wastes4 ,see ,apple pomace4 ,grass clippings4 ,along with kitchen garbage1 grass clippings are the compostable material most available to the average homeowner4 ,even if you 7wisely7 don't compost all of your clippings 7see sidebar71 your foolish neighbors may bag theirs up for you to take away4 ,if you mulch with grass clippings1 make sure the neighbors aren't using weed and feed type fertilizers1 or the clippings may cause the plants that are mulched to die4 ,traces of the those types of broadleaf herbicides allowed in weed and feed fertilizers1 are thoroughly decomposed in the composting process4 ,it is not necessary to return every bit of organic matter to maintain a healthy lawn4 ,perhaps one-third to one-half the annual biomass production may be taken away and used for composting without seriously depleting the lawn's vigor--especially if one application of a quality fertilizer is given to the lawn each year4 ,probably the best time of year to remove clippings is during the spring while the grass is growing most rapidly4 ,once a clover_/grass mix is established it is less necessary to use nitrogen fertilizers4 ,in fact1 high levels of soil nitrates reduces the clover's ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen4 ,however1 additions of other mineral nutrients like phosphorus1 potassium1 and especially calcium may still be necessary4 ,lawn health is similar to garden health4 ,both depend on the presence of large enough quantities of organic material in the soil4 ,this organic matter holds a massive reserve of nutrition built up over the years by the growing plants themselves4 ,when1 for reasons of momentary aesthetics1 we bag up and remove clippings from our lawn1 we prevent the grass from recycling its own fertility4 ,it was once mistakenly believed that unraked lawn clippings built up on the ground as unrotted thatch1 promoting harmful insects and diseases4 ,this is a half-truth4 ,lawns repeatedly fertilized with sulfur-based chemical fertilizers1 especially ammonium sulfate and superphosphate1 become so acid and thus so hostile to bacterial decomposition and soil animals that a thatch of unrotted clippings and dead sod can build up and thus promote disease and insect problems4 ,however1 lawns given lime or gypsum to supply calcium that is so vital to the healthy growth of clover1 and seed meals and_/or dressings of finely decomposed compost or manure become naturally healthy4 ,clippings falling on such a lawn rot rapidly because of the high level of microorganisms in the soil1 and disappear in days4 ,dwarf white clover can produce all the nitrate nitrogen that grasses need to stay green and grow lustily4 ,once this state of health is developed1 broadleaf weeds have a hard time competing with the lusty grass_/clover sod and gradually disappear4 ,fertilizing will rarely be necessary again if little biomass is removed4 ,homeowners who demand the spiffy appearance of a raked lawn but still want a healthy lawn have several options4 ,they may compost their grass clippings and then return the compost to the lawn4 ,they may use a side-discharge mower and cut two days in succession4 ,the first cut will leave rows of clippings to dry on the lawn2 the second cut will disintegrate those clippings and pretty much make them disappear4 ,finally1 there are mulching mowers with blades that chop green grass clippings into tiny pieces and drops them below the mower where they are unnoticeable4 ,grass clippings1 especially spring grass1 are very high in nitrogen1 similar to the best horse or cow manure4 ,anyone who has piled up fresh grass clippings has noticed how rapidly they heat up1 how quickly the pile turns into a slimy1 airless1 foul-smelling anaerobic mess1 and how much ammonia may be given off4 ,green grass should be thoroughly dispersed into a pile1 with plenty of dry material4 ,reserve bags of leaves from the fall or have a bale of straw handy to mix in if needed4 ,clippings allowed to sun dry for a few days before raking or bagging behave much better in the compost heap4 ,greensand4 ,see ,rock dust4 ,hair contains ten times the nitrogen of most manures4 ,it resists absorbing moisture and readily compresses1 mats1 and sheds water1 so hair needs to be mixed with other wetter materials4 ,if ,i had easy access to a barber shop1 beauty salon1 or poodle grooming business1 ,i'd definitely use hair in my compost4 ,feathers1 feather meal and feather dust 7a bird's equivalent to hair7 have similar qualities4 ,hay4 ,in temperate climates1 pasture grasses go through an annual cycle that greatly changes their nutrient content4 ,lawn grasses are not very different4 ,the first cuttings of spring grass are potent sources of nitrogen1 high in protein and other vital mineral nutrients4 ,in fact1 spring grass may be as good an animal feed as alfalfa or other legume hay4 ,young ryegrass1 for example1 may exceed two percent nitrogen-equaling about #ac percent protein4 ,that's why cattle and horses on fresh spring grass frisk around and why ,june butter is so dark yellow1 vitamin-rich and good-flavored4 ,in late spring1 grasses begin to form seed and their chemical composition changes4 ,with the emergence of the seed stalk1 nitrogen content drops markedly and the leaves become more fibrous1 ligninous1 and consequently1 more reluctant to decompose4 ,at pollination ryegrass has dropped to about l percent nitrogen and by the time mature seed has developed1 to about #j4ge percent4 ,these realities have profound implications for hay-making1 for using grasses as green manures1 and for evaluating the ,c_/,n of hay you may be planning to use in a compost heap4 ,in earlier times1 making grass hay that would be nutritious enough to maintain the health of cattle required cutting the grass before1 or just at1 the first appearance of seed stalks4 ,not only did early harvesting greatly reduce the bulk yield1 it usually meant that without concern for cost or hours of labor the grass had to be painstakingly dried at a time of year when there were more frequent rains and lower temperatures4 ,in nineteenth-century ,england1 drying grass was draped by hand over low hurdles1 dotting each pasture with hundreds of small racks that shed water like thatched roofs and allowed air flow from below4 ,it is obvious to me where the sport of running hurdles came from2 ,i envision energetic young countryfolk1 pepped up on that rich spring milk and the first garden greens of the year1 exuberantly racing each other across the just-mowed fields during haying season4 ,in more recent years1 fresh wet spring grass was packed green into pits and made into silage where a controlled anaerobic fermentation retained its nutritional content much like sauerkraut keeps cabbage4 ,silage makes drying unnecessary4 ,these days1 farm labor is expensive and tractors are relatively inexpensive4 ,it seems that grass hay must be cut later when the weather is more stable1 economically dried on the ground1 prevented from molding by frequent raking1 and then baled mechanically4 ,in regions enjoying relatively rainless springs or where agriculture depends on irrigation1 this system may result in quality hay4 ,but most modern farmers must supplement the low-quality hay with oil cakes or other concentrates4 ,where ,i live1 springs are cool and damp and the weather may not stabilize until mid-,june4 ,by this date grass seed is already formed and beginning to dry down4 ,this means our local grass hay is very low in protein1 has a high ,c_/,n1 and is very woody--little better than wheat straw4 ,pity the poor horses and cattle that must try to extract enough nutrition from this stuff4 ,western ,oregon weather conditions also mean that farmers often end up with rain-spoiled hay they are happy to sell cheaply4 ,many years ,i've made huge compost piles largely from this kind of hay4 ,one serious liability from cutting grass hay late is that it will contain viable seeds4 ,if the composting process does not thoroughly heat all of these seeds1 the compost will sprout grass all over the garden4 ,one last difficulty with poor quality grass hay3 the tough1 woody stems are reluctant to absorb moisture4 ,the best way to simultaneously overcome all of these liabilities is first to permit the bales to thoroughly spoil and become moldy through and through before composting them4 ,when ,i have a ton or two of spoiled hay bales around1 ,i spread them out on the ground in a single layer and leave them in the rain for an entire winter4 ,doing this sprouts most of the grass seed within the bales1 thoroughly moistens the hay1 and initiates decomposition4 ,next summer ,i pick up this material1 remove the baling twine1 and mix it into compost piles with plenty of more nitrogenous stuff4 ,one last word about grass and how it works when green manuring4 ,if a thick stand of grasses is tilled in during spring before seed formation begins1 its high nitrogen content encourages rapid decomposition4 ,material containing #b percent nitrogen and lacking a lot of tough fiber can be totally rotted and out of the way in two weeks1 leaving the soil ready to plant4 ,this variation on green manuring works like a charm4 ,however1 if unsettled weather conditions prevent tillage until seed formation has begun1 the grasses will contain much less nitrogen and will have developed a higher content of resistant lignins4 ,if the soil does not become dry and large reserves of nitrogen are already waiting in the soil to balance the high ,c_/,n of mature grass1 it may take only a month to decompose ,but there will be so much decomposition going on for the first few weeks that even seed germination is inhibited4 ,having to wait an unexpected month or six weeks after wet weather prevented forming an early seed bed may delay sowing for so long that the season is missed for the entire year4 ,obstacles like this must be kept in mind when considering using green manuring as a soil-building technique4 ,cutting the grass close to the soil line and composting the vegetation off the field eliminates this problem4 ,hoof and horn meal4 ,did you know that animals construct their hooves and horns from compressed hair8 ,the meal is similar in nutrient composition to blood meal1 leather dust1 feather meal1 or meat meal 7tankage74 ,it is a powerful source of nitrogen with significant amounts of phosphorus4 ,like other slaughterhouse byproducts its high cost may make it impractical to use to adjust the ,c_/,n of compost piles4 ,seed meals or chicken manure 7chickens are mainly fed seeds7 have somewhat lower nitrogen contents than animal byproducts but their price per pound of actual nutrition is more reasonable4 ,if hoof and horn meal is not dispersed through a pile it may draw flies and putrefy4 ,i would prefer to use expensive slaughterhouse concentrates to blend into organic fertilizer mixes4 ,juicer pulp3 ,see ,apple pomace4 ,kelp meals from several countries are available in feed and grain stores and better garden centers1 usually in #be kg 7#ee-pound7 sacks ranging in cost from #bj to #ej4 ,considering this spendy price1 ,i consider using kelp meal more justifiable in complete organic fertilizer mixes as a source of trace minerals than as a composting supplement4 ,there is a great deal of garden lore about kelp meal's growth-stimulating and stress-fortifying properties4 ,some garden-store brands tout these qualities and charge a very high price4 ,the best prices are found at feed dealers where kelp meal is considered a bulk commodity useful as an animal food supplement4 ,i've purchased kelp meal from ,norway1 ,korea1 and ,canada4 ,there are probably other types from other places4 ,i don't think there is a significant difference in the mineral content of one source compared to another4 ,i do not deny that there may be differences in how well the packers processing method preserved kelp's multitude of beneficial complex organic chemicals that improve the growth and overall health of plants by functioning as growth stimulants1 phytamins1 and who knows what else4 ,still1 ,i prefer to buy by price1 not by mystique1 because1 after gardening for over twenty years1 garden writing for fifteen and being in the mail order garden seed business for seven ,i have been on the receiving end of countless amazing claims by touters of agricultural snake oils2 after testing out dozens of such concoctions ,i tend to disbelieve mystic contentions of unique superiority4 ,see also3 ,seaweed4 ,leather dust is a waste product of tanneries1 similar to hoof and horn meal or tankage4 ,it may or may not be contaminated with high levels of chromium1 a substance used to tan suede4 ,if only vegetable-tanned leather is produced at the tannery in question1 leather dust should be a fine soil amendment4 ,some organic certification bureaucrats prohibit its use1 perhaps rightly so in this case4 ,leaves4 ,soil nutrients are dissolved by rain and leached from surface layers1 transported to the subsoil1 thence the ground water1 and ultimately into the salty sea4 ,trees have deep root systems1 reaching far into the subsoil to bring plant nutrients back up1 making them nature's nutrient recycler4 ,because they greatly increase soil fertility1 ,j4 ,russell ,smith called trees great engines of production4 ,anyone who has not read his visionary book1 ,tree ,crops1 should4 ,though written in #aibi1 this classic book is currently in print4 ,once each year1 leaves are available in large quantity1 but aren't the easiest material to compost4 ,rich in minerals but low in nitrogen1 they are generally slow to decompose and tend to pack into an airless mass4 ,however1 if mixed with manure or other high-nitrogen amendment and enough firm material to prevent compaction1 leaves rot as well as any other substance4 ,running dry leaves through a shredder or grinding them with a lawnmower greatly accelerates their decomposition4 ,of all the materials ,i've ever put through a garden grinder1 dry leaves are the easiest and run the fastest4 ,once chopped1 leaves occupy much less volume4 ,my neighbor1 ,john1 a very serious gardener like me1 keeps several large garbage cans filled with pulverized dry leaves for use as mulch when needed4 ,were ,i a northern gardener ,i'd store shredded dry leaves in plastic bags over the winter to mix into compost piles when spring grass clippings and other more potent materials were available4 ,some people fear using urban leaves because they may contain automotive pollutants such as oil and rubber components4 ,such worries are probably groundless4 ,dave ,campbell who ran the ,city of ,portland 7,oregon7 ,bureau of ,maintenance leaf composting program said he has run tests for heavy metals and pesticide residues on every windrow of compost he has made4 ,almost all our tests so far have shown less than the background level for heavy metals1 and no traces of pesticides including chlorinated and organophosphated pesticides4444 ,it is very rare for there to be any problem4 ,campbell tells an interesting story that points out how thoroughly composting eliminates pesticide residues4 ,he said1 ,once ,i was curious about some leaves we were getting from a city park where ,i knew the trees had been sprayed with a pesticide just about a month before the leaves fell and we collected them4 ,in this case1 ,i had the uncomposted leaves tested and then the compost tested4 ,in the fresh leaves a trace of 4 4 4 residue was detected1 but by the time the composting process was finished1 no detectable level was found4 ,lime4 ,there is no disputing that calcium is a vital soil nutrient as essential to the formation of plant and animal proteins as nitrogen4 ,soils deficient in calcium can be inexpensively improved by adding agricultural lime which is relatively pure calcium carbonate 7,ca,c#jc74 ,the use of agricultural lime or dolomitic lime in compost piles is somewhat controversial4 ,even the most authoritative of authorities disagree4 ,there is no disputing that the calcium content of plant material and animal manure resulting from that plant material is very dependent on the amount of calcium available in the soil4 ,chapter ,eight contains quite a thorough discussion of this very phenomena4 ,if a compost pile is made from a variety of materials grown on soils that contained adequate calcium1 then adding additional lime should be unnecessary4 ,however1 if the materials being composted are themselves deficient in calcium then the organisms of decomposition may not develop fully4 ,while preparing this book1 ,i queried the venerable ,dr4 ,herbert ,h4 ,koepf about lime in the compost heap4 ,koepf's biodynamic books served as my own introduction to gardening in the early #aigjs4 ,he is still active though in his late seventies4 ,koepf believes that lime is not necessary when composting mixtures that contain significant amounts of manure because the decomposition of proteinaceous materials develops a more or less neutral p,h4 ,however1 when composting mixtures of vegetation without manure1 the conditions tend to become very acid and bacterial fermentation is inhibited4 ,to correct low p,h1 ,koepf recommends agricultural lime at #be pounds per ton of vegetation1 the weight figured on a dry matter basis4 ,to guestimate dry weight1 remember that green vegetation is #gj-hj percent water1 to prevent organic material like hay from spoiling it is first dried down to below #ae percent moisture4 ,there is another reason to make sure that a compost pile contains an abundance of calcium4 ,azobacteria1 that can fix nitrate nitrogen in mellowing compost piles1 depend for their activity on the availability of calcium4 ,adding agricultural lime in such a situation may be very useful1 greatly speed the decomposition process1 and improve the quality of the compost4 ,albert ,howard used small amounts of lime in his compost piles specifically to aid nitrogen fixation4 ,he also incorporated significant quantities of fresh bovine manure at the same time4 ,however1 adding lime to heating manure piles results in the loss of large quantities of ammonia gas4 ,perhaps this is the reason some people are opposed to using lime in any composting process4 ,keep in mind that a manure pile is not a compost pile4 ,although both will heat up and decay1 the starting ,c_/,n of a barnyard manure pile runs around #aj3a while a compost heap of yard waste and kitchen garbage runs #be3a to #cj3a4 ,any time highly nitrogenous material1 such as fresh manures or spring grass clippings1 are permitted to decompose without adjustment of the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio with less potent stuff1 ammonia tends to be released1 lime or not4 ,only agricultural lime or slightly better1 dolomitic lime1 are useful in compost piles4 ,quicklime or slaked lime are made from heated limestone and undergo a violent chemical reaction when mixed with water4 ,they may be fine for making cement1 but not for most agricultural purposes4 ,linseed meal4 ,see ,cottonseed meal4 ,manure4 ,fresh manure can be the single most useful addition to the compost pile4 ,what makes it special is the presence of large quantities of active digestive enzymes4 ,these enzymes seem to contribute to more rapid heating and result in a finer-textured1 more completely decomposed compost that provokes a greater growth response in plants4 ,manure from cattle and other multi-stomached ruminants also contains cellulose-decomposing bacteria4 ,soil animals supply similar digestive enzymes as they work over the litter on the forest floor but before insects and other tiny animals can eat much of a compost heap1 well-made piles will heat up1 driving out or killing everything except microorganisms and fungi4 ,all of the above might be of interest to the country dweller or serious backyard food grower but probably sounds highly impractical to most of this book's readers4 ,don't despair if fresh manure is not available or if using it is unappealing4 ,compost made with fresh1 unheated manure works only a little faster and produces just a slightly better product than compost activated with seed meals1 slaughterhouse concentrates1 ground alfalfa1 grass clippings1 kitchen garbage1 or even dried1 sacked manures4 ,compost made without any manure still makes6 ,when evaluating manure keep in mind the many pitfalls4 ,fresh manure is very valuable1 but if you obtain some that has been has been heaped up and permitted to heat up1 much of its nitrogen may already have dissipated as ammonia while the valuable digestive enzymes will have been destroyed by the high temperatures at the heap's core4 ,a similar degradation happens to digestive enzymes when manure is dried and sacked4 ,usually1 dried manure comes from feedlots where it has also first been stacked wet and gone through a violent heating process4 ,so if ,i were going to use sacked dried manure to lower the ,c_/,n of a compost pile1 ,i'd evaluate it strictly on its cost per pound of actual nitrogen4 ,in some cases1 seed meals might be cheaper and better able to drop the heap's carbon-to-nitrogen ratio even more than manure4 ,there are many kinds of manure and various samples of the same type of manure may not be equal4 ,this demonstrates the principle of what goes in comes out4 ,plants concentrate proteins and mineral nutrients in their seed so animals fed on seed 7like chickens7 excrete manure nearly as high in minerals and with a ,c_/,n like seed meals 7around #h3a74 ,alfalfa hay is a legume with a ,c_/,n around #ab3a4 ,rabbits fed almost exclusively on alfalfa pellets make a rich manure with a similar ,c_/,n4 ,spring grass and high quality hay and other leafy greens have a ,c_/,n nearly as good as alfalfa4 ,livestock fed the best hay supplemented with grain and silage make fairly rich manure4 ,pity the unfortunate livestock trying to survive as strawburners eating overly mature grass hay from depleted fields4 ,their manure will be as poor as the food and soil they are trying to live on4 ,when evaluating manure1 also consider the nature and quantity of bedding mixed into it4 ,our local boarding stables keep their lazy horses on fir sawdust4 ,the idle riding horses are usually fed very strawy local grass hay with just enough supplemental alfalfa and grain to maintain a minimal healthy condition4 ,the horse manure ,i've hauled from these stables seems more sawdust than manure4 ,it must have a ,c_/,n of #ej or #fj3a because by itself it will barely heat up4 ,manure mixed with straw is usually richer stuff4 ,often this type comes from dairies4 ,modern breeds of milk cows must be fed seed meals and other concentrates to temporarily sustain them against depletion from unnaturally high milk production4 ,after rabbit and chicken1 horse manure from well-fed animals like race horses or true1 working animals may come next4 ,certainly it is right up there with the best cow manure4 ,before the era of chemical fertilizer1 market gardeners on the outskirts of large cities took wagon loads of produce to market and returned with an equivalent weight of street sweepings4 ,what they most prized was called short manure1 or horse manure without any bedding4 ,manure and bedding mixtures were referred to as long manure and weren't considered nearly as valuable4 ,finally1 remember that over half the excretion of animals is urine4 ,and far too little value is placed on urine4 ,as early as #aijj it was well known that if you fed one ton 7dry weight7 of hay and measured the resulting manure after thorough drying1 only #hjj pounds was left4 ,what happened to the other #a1bjj pounds of dry material8 ,some1 of course1 went to grow the animal4 ,some was enzymatically burned as energy fuel and its wastes given off as ,,co#b and ,h#b,o4 ,most of it was excreted in liquid form4 ,after all1 what is digestion but an enzymatic conversion of dry material into a water solution so it can be circulated through the bloodstream to be used and discarded as needed4 ,urine also contains numerous complex organic substances and cellular breakdown products that improve the health of the soil ecology4 ,however1 urine is not easy to capture4 ,it tends to leach into the ground or run off when it should be absorbed into bedding4 ,chicken manure and the excrements of other fowl are particularly valuable in this respect because the liquids and solids of their waste are uniformly mixed so nothing is lost4 ,when ,howard worked out his system of making superior compost at ,indore1 he took full measure of the value of urine and paid great care to its capture and use4 ,paper is almost pure cellulose and has a very high ,c_/,n like straw or sawdust4 ,it can be considered a valuable source of bulk for composting if you're using compost as mulch4 ,looked upon another way1 composting can be a practical way to recycle paper at home4 ,the key to composting paper is to shred or grind it4 ,layers of paper will compress into airless mats4 ,motor-driven hammermill shredders will make short work of dry paper4 ,once torn into tiny pieces and mixed with other materials1 paper is no more subject to compaction than grass clippings4 ,even without power shredding equipment1 newsprint can be shredded by hand1 easily ripped into narrow strips by tearing whole sections along the grain of the paper1 not fighting against it4 ,evaluating ,nitrogen ,content ,a one-cubic foot bag of dried steer manure weighs #be pounds and is labeled #a percent nitrogen4 ,that means four sacks weighs #ajj pounds and contains #a pound of actual nitrogen4 ,a fifty pound bag of cottonseed meal contains six percent nitrogen4 ,two sacks weighs #ajj pounds and contains #f pounds of actual nitrogen4 ,therefore it takes #bd sacks of steer manure to equal the nitrogen contained in two sacks of cottonseed meal4 ,if steer manure costs #a4ej per sack1 six pound of actual nitrogen from steer manure costs #bd x #a4ej #cf4jj ,if fifty pounds of cottonseed meal costs #g4ej1 then six pounds of actual nitrogen from cottonseed meal costs #b x #g4ej #ae4jj4 ,now1 lets take a brief moment to see why industrial farmers thinking only of immediate financial profit1 use chemical fertilizers4 ,urea1 a synthetic form of urine used as nitrogen fertilizer contains #dh percent nitrogen4 ,so #ajj pounds of urea contains #dh pounds of nitrogen4 ,that quantity of urea also costs about #ae4jj6 ,without taking into account its value in terms of phosphorus1 potassium and other mineral contents1 nitrogen from seed meal costs at least eight times as much per pound as nitrogen from urea4 ,newspapers1 even with colored inks1 can be safely used in compost piles4 ,though some colored inks do contain heavy metals1 these are not used on newsprint4 ,however1 before beginning to incorporate newsprint into your composting1 reconsider the analyses of various types of compost broken out as a table in the previous chapter4 ,the main reason many municipal composting programs make a low-grade product with such a high ,c_/,n is the large proportion of paper used4 ,if your compost is intended for use as mulch around perennial beds or to be screened and broadcast atop lawns1 then having a nitrogen-poor product is of little consequence4 ,but if your compost is headed for the vegetable garden or will be used to grow the largest possible prized flowers then perhaps newsprint could be recycled in another way4 ,cardboard1 especially corrugated material1 is superior to newsprint for compost making because its biodegradable glues contain significant amounts of nitrogen4 ,worms love to consume cardboard mulch4 ,like other forms of paper1 cardboard should be shredded1 ground or chopped as finely as possible1 and thoroughly mixed with other materials when composted4 ,pet wastes may contain disease organisms that infect humans4 ,though municipal composting systems can safely eliminate such diseases1 home composting of dog and cat manure may be risky if the compost is intended for food gardening4 ,phosphate rock4 ,if your garden soil is deficient in phosphorus1 adding rock phosphate to the compost pile may accelerate its availability in the garden1 far more effectively than adding phosphate to soil4 ,if the vegetation in your vicinity comes from soils similarly deficient in phosphorus1 adding phosphate rock will support a healthier decomposition ecology and improve the quality of your compost4 ,five to ten pounds of rock phosphate added to a cubic yard of uncomposted organic matter is about the right amount4 ,rice hulls3 ,see ,buckwheat hulls4 ,rock dust4 ,all plant nutrients except nitrogen originally come from decomposing rock4 ,not all rocks contain equal concentrations and assortments of the elements plants use for nutrients4 ,consequently1 not all soils lustily grow healthy plants4 ,one very natural way to improve the over all fertility of soil is to spread and till in finely ground rock flour make from highly mineralized rocks4 ,this method is not a new idea4 ,limestone and dolomite--soft1 easily powdered rocks--have been used for centuries to add calcium and magnesium4 ,for over a century1 rock phosphate and kainite--a soft1 readily soluble naturally occurring rock rich in potassium1 magnesium and sulfur--have been ground and used as fertilizer4 ,other natural rock sources like ,jersey greensand have long been used in the eastern ,united ,states on some unusual potassium-deficient soils4 ,lately it has become fashionable to remineralize the earth with heavy applications of rock flours4 ,unlike most fads and trends1 this one is wise and should endure4 ,the best rocks to use are finely ground basic igneous rocks like basalts4 ,they are called basic as opposed to acid rocks because they are richer in calcium and magnesium with lesser quantities of potassium4 ,when soil forms from these materials it tends to not be acid4 ,most basic igneous rocks also contain a wide range of trace mineral nutrients4 ,i have observed marked improvements in plant growth by incorporating ordinary basalt dust that ,i personally shoveled from below a conveyor belt roller at a local quarry where crushed rock was being prepared for road building4 ,basalt dust was an unintentional byproduct4 ,though highly mineralized rock dust may be a valuable soil amendment1 its value must equal its cost4 ,application rates of one or two tons per acre are minimal4 ,john ,hamaker's ,the ,survival of ,civilization suggests eight to ten tons per acre the first application and then one or two tons every few years thereafter4 ,this means the correct price for rock dust is similar to the price for agricultural lime2 in my region that's about #fj to #hj a ton in sacks4 ,local farmers pay about #dj a ton in bulk1 including spreading on your field by the seller4 ,a fifty-pound sack of rock dust should retail for about #b4 ,these days it probably costs several times that price1 tending to keep rock dust a novelty item4 ,the activities of fungi and bacteria are the most potent forces making nutrients available to plants4 ,as useful as tilling rock powders into soil may be1 the intense biological activity of the compost pile accelerates their availability4 ,and the presence of these minerals might well make a compost pile containing nutrient-deficient vegetation work faster and become better fertilizer4 ,were the right types of rock dust available and cheap1 ,i'd make it about #e percent by volume of my heap1 and equal that with rich soil4 ,safflowerseed meal4 ,see ,cottonseed meal4 ,sawdust contains virtually nothing but carbon4 ,in small quantities it is useful to fluff up compost piles and prevent compaction4 ,however this is only true of coarse material like that from sawmills or chain saws4 ,the fine saw dust from carpentry and cabinet work may compact and become airless4 ,see ,paper for a discussion of lowering the fertilizing value of compost with high ,c_/,n materials4 ,seaweed when freshly gathered is an extraordinary material for the compost pile4 ,like most living things from the ocean seaweeds are rich in all of the trace minerals and contain significant amounts of the major nutrients1 especially potassium1 with lesser amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen4 ,seaweeds enrich the heap1 decompose very rapidly1 and assist other materials to break down4 ,though heavy and often awkward to gather and haul1 if they are available1 seaweeds should not be permitted to go to waste4 ,those with unlimited money may use sprinklings of kelp meal in the compost pile to get a similar effect4 ,however1 kelp meal may be more economically used as part of a complete organic fertilizer mixture that is worked into soil4 ,shrub and tree prunings are difficult materials to compost unless you have a shredder_/chipper4 ,even after being incorporated into one hot compost heap after another1 half-inch diameter twigs may take several years to fully decompose4 ,and turning a heap containing long branches can be very difficult4 ,but buying power equipment just to grind a few cart loads of hedge and tree prunings each year may not be economical4 ,my suggestion is to neatly tie any stick larger than your little finger into tight bundles about one foot in diameter and about #af inches long and then burn these faggots in the fireplace or wood stove4 ,this will be less work in the long run4 ,soil is an often overlooked but critically important part of the compost pile4 ,least of its numerous benefits1 soil contains infinitudes of microorganisms that help start out decomposition4 ,many compostable materials come with bits of soil already attached and few are sterile in themselves4 ,but extra soil ensures that there will initially be a sufficient number and variety of these valuable organisms4 ,soil also contains insoluble minerals that are made soluble by biological activity4 ,some of these minerals may be in short supply in the organic matter itself and their addition may improve the health and vigor of the whole decomposition ecology4 ,a generous addition of rock dust may do this even better4 ,most important1 soil contains nitrification microorganisms that readily convert ammonia gas to nitrates1 and clay that will catch and temporarily hold ammonia4 ,nitrifying bacteria do not live outside of soil4 ,finally1 a several inch thick layer of soil capping the heap serves as an extra insulator1 holding in heat1 raising the core temperature and helping seal in moisture4 ,making a compost heap as much as #aj percent soil by dry weight is the right target ,try thinking of soil somewhat like the moderators in an atomic reactor1 controlling the reaction by trapping neutrons4 ,soil won't change the ,c_/,n of a heap but not being subject to significant breakdown it will slightly lower the maximum temperature of decomposition2 while trapping ammonia emissions2 and creating better conditions for nitrogen fixing bacteria to improve the ,c_/,n as the heap cools and ripens4 ,soybean meal4 ,see ,cottonseed meal4 ,straw is a carboniferous material similar to sawdust but usually contains more nutrients4 ,it is a valuable aerator1 each stalk acting as a tube for air to enter and move through the pile4 ,large quantities of long straw can make it very difficult to turn a heap the first time4 ,i'd much prefer to have manure mixed with straw than with sawdust4 ,sunflowerseed meal4 ,see ,cottonseed meal4 ,tankage is another slaughterhouse or rendering plant waste consisting of all animal refuse except blood and fat4 ,locally it is called meat meal4 ,see ,hoof and horn meal4 ,tofu factory waste4 ,okara is the pulp left after soy milk has been squeezed from cooked1 ground soybeans4 ,small-scale tofu makers will have many gallons of okara to dispose of each day4 ,it makes good pig food so there may be competition to obtain it4 ,like any other seed waste1 okara is high in nitrogen and will be wet and readily putrefiable like brewery waste4 ,mix into compost piles immediately4 ,urine4 ,see ,manure4 ,weeds4 ,their nutrient content is highly variable depending on the species and age of the plant4 ,weeds gone to seed are both low in nitrogen and require locating in the center of a hot heap to kill off the seeds4 ,tender young weeds are as rich in nitrogen as spring grass4 ,weeds that propagate through underground stems or rhizomes like quack-grass1 ,johnsongrass1 bittersweet1 and the like are better burnt4 ,wood ash from hardwoods is rich in potassium and contains significant amounts of calcium and other minerals4 ,ash from conifers may be similarly rich in potassium but contains little else4 ,wood ashes spread on the ground tend to lose their nutrients rapidly through leaching4 ,if these nutrients are needed in your soil1 then add the ash to your compost piles where it will become an unreachable part of the biomass that will be gradually released in the garden when the compost is used4 ,wood chips are slow to decompose although they may be added to the compost pile if one is not in a hurry4 ,their chunkiness and stiff mechanical properties help aerate a heap4 ,they are somewhat more nutrient rich than sawdust4 ,wool wastes are also called shoddy4 ,see ,hair4 ,,chapter ,,five ,methods and ,variations ,a note to the internet reader3 ,in the the print-on-paper edition1 this chapter and the next one on vermicomposting are full of illustrations showing composting structures and accessories4 ,these do not reproduce well on-line and are not included4 ,growing the majority of my family's food absorbs all of the energy ,i care to put into gardening4 ,so my yard is neat but shaggy4 ,motivated by what ,i consider total rationality1 my lawn is cut only when it threatens to overwhelm the lawnmower1 and the lawn is not irrigated1 so it browns off and stops growing in summer4 ,i don't grow flowers because ,i live on a river in a beautiful countryside setting surrounded by low mountains4 ,nothing ,i created could begin to compete with what nature freely offers my eye4 ,one untidy bed of ornamentals by the front door are my bow to conventionality1 but these fit the entrances northeast aspect by being ,oregon woods natives like ferns1 salal1 ,oregon grape and an almost wild rhododendron--all these species thrive without irrigation4 ,when ,i give lectures1 ,i am confronted by the amazing gardening variations that humans are capable of4 ,some folks' raised vegetable beds are crude low mounds4 ,then1 ,i am shown photographs of squared1 paralleled vertical-walled raised beds1 uniformly wrapped in cedar planks4 ,some gardens are planted in fairly straight rows1 some are laid-out in carefully calculated interplanted hexagonal successions and some are a wild scattering of catch-as-catch-can4 ,some people don't eat many kinds of vegetables yet grow large stands of corn and beans for canning or freezing4 ,others grow small patches of a great many species1 creating a year-round gourmet produce stand for their personal enjoyment4 ,some gardeners grow ,english-style floral displays occupying every square inch of their yards and offering a constant succession of color and texture4 ,this chapter presents some of the many different ways people handle the disposal of yard and kitchen wastes4 ,compost making1 like gardening1 reflects variations in temperament4 ,you probably weren't surprised at my casual landscaping because you already read about my unkempt compost heap4 ,so ,i am similarly not surprised to discover backyard composting methods as neat as a ,german village1 as aesthetic as a ,japanese garden1 as scientific as an engineer would design and as ugly as 4 4 4 ,containers and ,other ,similar ,methods ,in my days of youthful indiscretions ,i thought ,i could improve life on ,earth by civilizing high school youth through engendering in them an understanding of history4 ,i confess ,i almost completely failed and gave up teaching after a few years4 ,however1 ,i personally learned a great deal about history and the telling of history4 ,i read many old journals1 diaries1 and travel accounts4 ,from some of these documents ,i gained little while other accounts introduced me to unique individuals who assisted me in understanding their era4 ,it seems that what differentiates good from bad reporting is how frank and honest the reporter is about their own personal opinions1 prejudices1 and outlooks4 ,the more open and direct the reporter1 the better the reader can discount inevitable distortions and get a picture of what might really have been there4 ,the more the reporter attempts to be objective by hiding their viewpoints1 the less valuable their information4 ,that is why before discussing those manufactured aids to composting that can make a consumer of you1 ,i want to inform you that ,i am a frugal person who shuns unnecessary expenditure4 ,i maintain what seems to me to be a perfect justification for my stinginess3 ,i prefer relative unemployment4 ,whenever ,i want to buy something it has become my habit first to ask myself if the desired object could possibly bring me as much pleasure as knowing that ,i don't have to get up and go to work the next morning4 ,usually ,i decide to save the money so ,i do not have to earn more4 ,en extremis1 ,i repeat the old ,yankee marching chant like a mantra3 ,make do6 ,wear it out6 ,when it is gone1 do without6 ,bum1 ,bum6 ,bum bi ,dum6 ,bum bi di ,dum1 ,bum bi ,dum6 ,so ,i do not own a shredder_/grinder when patience will take its place4 ,i do not buy or make composting containers when a country life style and not conforming to the neatness standards of others makes bins or tumblers unnecessary4 ,however1 ,i do grudgingly accept that others live differently4 ,let me warn you that my descriptions of composting aids and accessories are probably a little jaundiced4 ,i am doing my best to be fair4 ,visual appeal is the primary benefit of making compost in a container4 ,to a tidy1 northern ,european sense of order1 any composting structure will be far neater than the raw beauty of a naked heap4 ,composting container designs may offer additional advantages but no single structure will do everything possible4 ,with an enclosure1 it may be possible to heat up a pile smaller than #a' x #d' x #d' because the walls and sometimes the top of the container may be insulating4 ,this is a great advantage to someone with a postage stamp backyard that treasures every square foot4 ,similarly1 wrapping the heap retards moisture loss4 ,some structures shut out vermin4 ,on the other hand1 structures can make it more difficult to make compost4 ,using a prefabricated bin can prevent a person from readily turning the heap and can almost force a person to also buy some sort of shredder_/chipper to first reduce the size of the material4 ,also1 viewed as a depreciating economic asset with a limited life span1 many composting aids cost as much or more money as the value of all the material they can ever turn out4 ,financial cost relates to ecological cost1 so spending money on short-lived plastic or easily rusted metal may negate any environmental benefit gained from recycling yard wastes4 ,building ,your ,own ,bin ,probably the best homemade composting design is the multiple bin system where separate compartments facilitate continuous decomposition4 ,each bin is about four feet on a side and three to four feet tall4 ,usually1 the dividing walls between bins are shared4 ,always1 each bin opens completely at the front4 ,i think the best design has removable slatted separators between a series of four 7not three7 wooden bins in three declining sizes3 two large1 one medium-large and one smaller4 ,alternatively1 bins may be constructed of unmortared concrete blocks with removable wooden fronts4 ,permanently constructed bins of mortared concrete block or wood may have moisture-retentive1 rain-protective hinged lids4 ,there are two workable composting systems that fit these structures4 ,most composters obtain materials too gradually to make a large heap all at once4 ,in this case my suggestion is the four-bin system1 using one large bin as a storage area for dry vegetation4 ,begin composting in bin two by mixing the dry contents temporarily stored in bin one with kitchen garbage1 grass clippings and etc4 ,once bin two is filled and heating1 remove its front slats and the side slats separating it from bin three and turn the pile into bin three1 gradually reinserting side slats as bin three is filled4 ,bin three1 being about two-thirds the size of bin two1 will be filled to the brim4 ,a new pile can be forming in bin two while bin three is cooking4 ,when bin three has settled significantly1 repeat the process1 turning bin three into bin four1 etc4 ,by the time the material has reheated in bin four and cooled you will have finished or close-to-finished compost ,at any point during this turning that resistant1 unrotted material is discovered1 instead of passing it on1 it may be thrown back to an earlier bin to go through yet another decomposition stage4 ,perhaps the cleverest design of this type takes advantage of any significant slope or hill available to a lazy gardener and places a series of separate bins one above the next1 eliminating any need for removable side-slats while making tossing compost down to the next container relatively easy4 ,a simply constructed alternative avoids making removable slats between bins or of lifting the material over the walls to toss it from bin to bin4 ,here1 each bin is treated as a separate and discrete compost process4 ,when it is time to turn the heap1 the front is removed and the heap is turned right back into its original container4 ,to accomplish this it may be necessary to first shovel about half of the material out of the bin onto a work area1 then turn what is remaining in the bin and then cover it with what was shoveled out4 ,gradually the material in the bin shrinks and decomposes4 ,when finished1 the compost will fill only a small fraction of the bin's volume4 ,my clever students at the ,urban ,farm ,class1 ,university of ,oregon have made a very inexpensive compost bin structure of this type using recycled industrial wood pallets4 ,they are held erect by nailing them to pressure-treated fence posts sunk into the earth4 ,the removable doors are also pallets1 hooked on with bailing wire4 ,the flimsy pallets rot in a couple of years but obtaining more free pallets is easy4 ,if ,i were building a more finished three or four bin series1 ,i would use rot-resistant wood like cedar and_/or thoroughly paint the wood with a non-phytotoxic wood preservative like ,cuprinol 7copper napthanate74 ,cuprinol is not as permanent as other types of wood preservatives and may have to be reapplied every two or three years4 ,bins reduce moisture loss and wood bins have the additional advantage of being fairly good thermal insulators3 one inch of wood is as much insulation as one foot of solid concrete4 ,composting containers also have a potential disadvantage-reducing air flow1 slowing decomposition1 and possibly making the process go anaerobic4 ,should this happen air flow can be improved by supporting the heap on a slatted floor made of up-ended ,cuprinol-treated #b x #d's about three inches apart tacked into the back wall4 ,air ducts1 inexpensively made from perforated plastic septic system leach line1 are laid between the slats to greatly enhance air flow4 ,i wouldn't initially build a bin array with ducted floors2 these can be added as an afterthought if necessary4 ,much simpler bins can be constructed out of #b x #d mesh x #cf or #dh high strong1 welded wire fencing commonly called turkey wire1 or hog wire4 ,the fencing is formed into cylinders four to five feet in diameter4 ,i think a serious gardener might need one five-foot circle and two1 four-foot diameter ones4 ,turkey wire is stiff enough to support itself when formed into a circle by hooking the fencing upon itself4 ,this home-rolled wire bin system is the least expensive of all4 ,as compostable materials are available1 the wire circle is gradually filled4 ,once the bin has been loaded and has settled somewhat1 the wire may be unhooked and peeled away2 the material will hold itself in a cylindrical shape without further support4 ,after a month or two the heap will have settled significantly and will be ready to be turned into a smaller wire cylinder4 ,again1 the material is allowed to settle and then1 if desired1 the wire may be removed to be used again to form another neatly-shaped heap4 ,wire-enclosed heaps encourage air circulation1 but can also encourage drying out4 ,their proper location is in full shade4 ,in hot1 dry climates1 moisture retention can be improved by wrapping a length of plastic sheeting around the outside of the circle and if necessary1 by draping another plastic sheet over the top4 ,however1 doing this limits air flow and prevents removal of the wire support ,you may have to experiment with how much moisture-retention the heap can stand without going anaerobic4 ,to calculate the length of wire 7circumference7 necessary to enclose any desired diameter1 use the formula ,circumference ,diameter x #c4ad4 ,for example1 to make a five-foot circle3 #e x #c4ad approximately #af feet of wire4 ,with the exception of the tumbler1 commercially made compost bins are derived from one of these two systems4 ,usually the factory-made wire bins are formed into rectangles instead of circles and may be made of ,,pvc coated steel instead of galvanized wire4 ,i see no advantage in buying a wire bin over making one1 other than supporting unnecessary stages of manufacture and distribution by spending more money4 ,turkey wire fencing is relatively inexpensive and easy enough to find at farm supply and fencing stores4 ,the last time ,i purchased any it was sold by the lineal foot much as hardware cloth is dispensed at hardware and building supply stores4 ,manufactured solid-sided bins are usually constructed of sheet steel or recycled plastic4 ,in cool climates there is an advantage to tightly constructed plastic walls that retain heat and facilitate decomposition of smaller thermal masses4 ,precise construction also prevents access by larger vermin and pets4 ,mice1 on the other hand1 are capable of squeezing through amazingly small openings4 ,promotional materials make composting in pre-manufactured bins seem easy1 self-righteously ecological1 and effortless4 ,however1 there are drawbacks4 ,it is not possible to readily turn the materials once they've been placed into most composters of this type unless the entire front is removable4 ,instead1 new materials are continuously placed on top while an opening at the bottom permits the gardener to scrape out finished compost in small quantities4 ,because no turning is involved1 this method is called passive composting4 ,but to work well1 the ingredients must not be too coarse and must be well mixed before loading4 ,continuous bin composters generally work fast enough when processing mixtures of readily decomposable materials like kitchen garbage1 weeds1 grass clippings and some leaves4 ,but if the load contains too much fine grass or other gooey stuff and goes anaerobic1 a special compost aerator must be used to loosen it up4 ,manufactured passive composters are not very large4 ,compactness may be an advantage to people with very small yards or who may want to compost on their terrace or porch4 ,but if the ,c_/,n of the materials is not favorable1 decomposition can take a long1 long time and several bins may have to be used in tandem4 ,unless they are first ground or chopped very finely1 larger more resistant materials like corn1 ,brussels sprouts1 sunflower stalks1 cabbage stumps1 shrub prunings1 etc4 will constipate a top-loading1 bottom-discharging composter4 ,the compost tumbler is a clever method that accelerates decomposition by improving aeration and facilitating frequent turning4 ,a rotating drum holding from eight to eighteen bushels 7the larger sizes look like a squat1 fat1 oversized oil drum7 is suspended above the ground1 top-loaded with organic matter1 and then tumbled every few days for a few weeks until the materials have decomposed4 ,then the door is opened and finished compost falls out the bottom4 ,tumblers have real advantages4 ,frequent turning greatly increases air supply and accelerates the process4 ,most tumblers retard moisture loss too because they are made of solid material1 either heavy plastic or steel with small air vents4 ,being suspended above ground makes them immune to vermin and frequent turning makes it impossible for flies to breed4 ,tumblers have disadvantages that may not become apparent until a person has used one for awhile4 ,first1 although greatly accelerated1 composting in them is not instantaneous4 ,passive bins are continuous processors while 7with the exception of one unique design7 tumblers are batch processors1 meaning that they are first loaded and then the entire load is decomposed to finished compost4 ,what does a person do with newly acquired kitchen garbage and other waste during the two to six weeks that they are tumbling a batch8 ,one handy solution is to buy two tumblers and be filling one while the other is working1 but tumblers aren't cheap6 ,the more substantial ones cost #bej to #djj plus freight4 ,there are other less obvious tumbler disadvantages that may negate any work avoided1 time saved1 or sweaty turning with a manure fork eliminated4 ,being top-loaded means lifting compost materials and dropping them into a small opening that may be shoulder height or more4 ,these materials may include a sloppy bucket of kitchen garbage4 ,then1 a tumbler must be tumbled for a few minutes every two or three days4 ,cranking the lever or grunting with the barrel may seem like fun at first but it can get old fast4 ,decomposition in an untumbled tumbler slows down to a crawl4 ,both the passive compost bin and the highly active compost tumbler work much better when loaded with small-sized particles4 ,the purchase of either one tends to impel the gardener to also buy something to cut and_/or grind compost materials4 ,the ,u4,c4 ,method--,grinder_/,shredders ,during the #aiejs1 mainstream interest in municipal composting developed in ,america for the first time4 ,various industrial processes already existed in ,europe2 most of these were patented variations on large and expensive composting tumblers4 ,researchers at the ,university of ,california set out to see if simpler methods could be developed to handle urban organic wastes without investing in so much heavy machinery4 ,their best system1 named the ,u4 ,c4 ,fast ,compost ,method1 rapidly made compost in about two weeks4 ,no claim was ever made that ,u4 ,c4 method produces the highest quality compost4 ,the idea was to process and decompose organic matter as inoffensively and rapidly as possible4 ,no attempt is made to maximize the product's ,c_/,n as is done in slower methods developed by ,howard at ,indore4 ,most municipal composting done in this country today follows the basic process worked out by the ,university of ,california4 ,speed of decomposition comes about from very high internal heat and extreme aerobic conditions4 ,to achieve the highest possible temperature1 all of the organic material to be composted is first passed through a grinder and then stacked in a long1 high windrow4 ,generally the height is about five to six feet1 any higher causes too much compaction4 ,because the material is stacked with sides as vertical as possible1 the width takes care of itself4 ,frequent turning with machinery keeps the heap working rapidly4 ,during the initial experiments the turning was done with a tractor and front end loader4 ,these days giant ,u shaped machines may roll down windrows at municipal composting plots1 automatically turning1 reshaping the windrow and if necessary1 simultaneously spraying water4 ,some municipal waste consists of moist kitchen garbage and grass clippings4 ,most of the rest is dry paper4 ,if this mixture results in a moisture content that is too high the pile gets soggy1 sags promptly1 and easily goes anaerobic4 ,turning not only restores aerobic conditions1 but also tends to drop the moisture content4 ,if the initial moisture content is between #fj and #gj percent1 the windrow is turned every two days4 ,five such turns1 starting two days after the windrow is first formed1 finishes the processing4 ,if the moisture content is between #aj and #fj percent1 the windrow is first turned after three days and thence at three day intervals1 taking about four turns to finish the process4 ,if the moisture content is below #dj percent or drops below #dj percent during processing1 moisture is added4 ,no nuisances can develop if turning is done correctly4 ,simply flipping the heap over or adding new material on top will not do it4 ,the material must be blended so that the outsides are shifted to the core and the core becomes the skin4 ,this way1 any fly larvae1 pathogens1 or insect eggs that might not be killed by the cooler temperatures on the outside are rotated into the lethal high heat of the core every few days4 ,the speed of the ,u4,c4 method also appeals to the backyard gardener4 ,at home1 frequent turning can be accomplished either in naked heaps1 or by switching from one bin to the next and back1 or with a compost tumbler4 ,but a chipper_/shredder is also essential4 ,grinding everything that goes into the heap has other advantages than higher heat and accelerated processing4 ,materials may be initially mixed as they are ground and small particles are much easier to turn over than long twigs1 tough straw1 and other fibrous materials that tie the heap together and make it difficult to separate and handle with hand tools4 ,backyard shredders have other uses1 especially for gardeners with no land to waste4 ,composting tough materials like grape prunings1 berry canes1 and hedge trimmings can take a long time4 ,slow heaps containing resistant materials occupy precious space4 ,with a shredder you can fast-compost small limbs1 tree prunings1 and other woody materials like corn and sunflower stalks4 ,whole autumn leaves tend to compact into airless layers and decompose slowly1 but dry leaves are among the easiest of all materials to grind4 ,once smashed into flakes1 leaves become a fluffy material that resists compaction4 ,electric driven garden chipper_/shredders are easier on the neighbors' ears than more powerful gasoline-powered machines1 although not so quiet that ,i'd run one without ear protection4 ,electrics are light enough for a strong person to pick up and carry out to the composting area and keep secured in a storeroom4 ,one more plus1 there never is any problem starting an electric motor4 ,but no way to conveniently repair one either4 ,there are two basic shredding systems4 ,one is the hammermill--a grinding chamber containing a rotating spindle with steel tines or hammers attached that repeatedly beats and tears materials into smaller and smaller pieces until they fall out through a bottom screen4 ,hammermills will flail almost anything to pieces without becoming dulled4 ,soft1 green materials are beaten to shreds2 hard1 dry1 brittle stuff is rapidly fractured into tiny chips4 ,changing the size of the discharge screen adjusts the size of the final product4 ,by using very coarse screens1 even soft1 wet1 stringy materials can be slowly fed through the grinding chamber without hopelessly tangling up in the hammers4 ,like a coarse power planer in a wood shop1 the other type of machine uses sharpened blades that slice thin chips from whatever is pushed into its maw4 ,the chipper is designed to grind woody materials like small tree limbs1 prunings1 and berry canes4 ,proper functioning depends on having sharp blades4 ,but edges easily become dulled and require maintenance4 ,care must be taken to avoid passing soil and small stones through a chipper4 ,soft1 dry1 brittle materials like leaves will be broken up but aren't processed as rapidly as in a hammermill4 ,chippers won't handle soft wet stuff4 ,when driven by low horsepower electric motors1 both chippers and hammermills are light-duty machines4 ,they may be a little shaky1 standing on spindly legs or small platforms1 so materials must be fed in gently4 ,most electric models cost between #cjj and #djj4 ,people with more than a postage-stamp yard who like dealing with machinery may want a gasoline-powered shredder_/chipper4 ,these are much more substantial machines that combine both a big hammermill shredder with a side-feeding chipper for limbs and branches4 ,flailing within a hammermill or chipping limbs of two or more inches in diameter focuses a great deal of force2 between the engine noise and the deafening din as dry materials bang around the grinding chamber1 ear protection is essential4 ,so are safety goggles and heavy gloves4 ,even though the fan belt driving the spindle is shielded1 ,i would not operate one without wearing tight-fitting clothes4 ,when grinding dry materials1 great clouds of dust may be given off4 ,some of these particles1 like the dust from alfalfa or from dried-out spoiled 7moldy7 hay1 can severely irritate lungs1 eyes1 throat and nasal passages4 ,a face mask1 or better1 an army surplus gas mask with built-in goggles1 may be in order4 ,and you'll probably want to take a shower when finished4 ,fitted with the right-size screen selected from the assortment supplied at purchase1 something learned after a bit of experience1 powerful hammermills are capable of pulverizing fairly large amounts of dry material in short order4 ,but wet stuff is much slower to pass through and may take a much coarser screen to get out at all4 ,changing materials may mean changing screens and that takes a few minutes4 ,dry leaves seem to flow through as fast as they can be fed in4 ,the side-feed auxiliary chippers incorporated into hammermills will make short work of smaller green tree limbs2 but dry1 hardened wood takes a lot longer4 ,feeding large hard branches too fast can tear up chipper blades and even break the ball-bearing housings holding the spindle4 ,here ,i speak from experience4 ,though advertisements for these machines make them seem effortless and fast1 shredders actually take considerable time1 energy1 skilled attention1 constant concentration1 and experience4 ,when grinding one must attentively match the inflow to the rate of outflow because if the hopper is overfilled the tines become snarled and cease to work4 ,for example1 tangling easily can occur while rapidly feeding in thin brittle flakes of dry spoiled hay and then failing to slow down while a soft1 wet flake is gradually reduced4 ,to clear a snarled rotor without risking continued attachment of one's own arm1 the motor must be killed before reaching into the hopper and untangling the tines4 ,to clear badly clogged machines it may also be necessary to first remove and then replace the discharge screen1 something that takes a few minutes4 ,there are significant differences in the quality of materials and workmanship that go into making these machines4 ,they all look good when freshly painted2 it is not always possible to know what you have bought until a season or two of heavy use has passed4 ,one tried-and-true aid to choosing quality is to ask equipment rental businesses what brand their customers are not able to destroy4 ,another guide is to observe the brand of gasoline engine attached4 ,in my gardening career ,i've owned quite a few gas-powered rotary tillers and lawnmowers and one eight-horsepower shredder4 ,in my experience there are two grades of small gasoline engines--consumer and the genuine industrial4 ,like all consumer merchandise1 consumer-grade engines are intended to be consumed4 ,they have a design life of a few hundred hours and then are worn out4 ,most parts are made of soft1 easily-machined aluminum1 reinforced with small amounts of steel in vital places4 ,there are two genuinely superior ,american companies--,kohler and ,wisconsin-that make very durable1 long-lasting gas engines commonly found on small industrial equipment4 ,with proper maintenance their machines are designed to endure thousands of hours of continuous use4 ,i believe small gas engines made by ,yamaha1 ,kawasaki1 and especially ,honda1 are of equal or greater quality to anything made in ,america4 ,i suggest you could do worse than to judge how long the maker expects their shredder_/chipper to last by the motor it selects4 ,gasoline-powered shredder_/chippers cost from #gjj to #a1cjj4 ,back in the early #aigjs ,i wore one pretty well out in only one year of making fast compost for a half-acre ,biodynamic ,french intensive market garden4 ,when ,i amortized the cost of the machine into the value of both the compost and the vegetables ,i grew with the compost1 and considered the amount of time ,i spent running the grinder against the extra energy it takes to turn ordinary slow compost heaps ,i decided ,i would be better off allowing my heaps to take more time to mature4 ,sheet ,composting ,decomposition happens rapidly in a hot compost heap with the main agents of decay being heat-loving microorganisms4 ,decomposition happens slowly at the soil's surface with the main agents of decay being soil animals4 ,however1 if the leaves and forest duff on the floor of a forest or a thick matted sod are tilled into the topsoil1 decomposition is greatly accelerated4 ,for two centuries1 frontier ,american agriculture depended on just such a method4 ,early pioneers would move into an untouched region1 clear the forest1 and plow in millennia of accumulated nutrients held as biomass on the forest floor4 ,for a few years1 perhaps a decade1 or even twenty years if the soil carried a higher level of mineralization than the average1 crops from forest soils grew magnificently4 ,then1 unless other methods were introduced to rebuild fertility1 yields1 crop1 animal1 and human health all declined4 ,when the less-leached grassy prairies of what we now call the ,midwest were reached1 even greater bounties were mined out for more years because rich black-soil grasslands contain more mineral nutrients and sod accumulates far more humus than do forests4 ,sheet composting mimics this system while saving a great deal of effort4 ,instead of first heaping organic matter up1 turning it several times1 carting humus back to the garden1 spreading it1 and tilling it in1 sheet composting conducts the decomposition process with far less effort right in the soil needing enrichment4 ,sheet composting is the easiest method of all4 ,however1 the method has certain liabilities4 ,unless the material being spread is pure manure without significant amounts of bedding1 or only fresh spring grass clippings1 or alfalfa hay1 the carbon-nitrogen ratio will almost certainly be well above that of stable humus4 ,as explained earlier1 during the initial stages of decay the soil will be thoroughly depleted of nutrients4 ,only after the surplus carbon has been consumed will the soil ecology and nutrient profile normalize4 ,the time this will take depends on the nature of the materials being composted and on soil conditions4 ,if the soil is moist1 airy1 and warm and if it already contained high levels of nutrients1 and if the organic materials are not ligninous and tough and have a reasonable ,c_/,n1 then sheet composting will proceed rapidly4 ,if the soil is cold1 dry1 clayey 7relatively airless7 or infertile and_/or the organic matter consists of things like grain straw1 paper1 or the very worst1 barkless sawdust1 then decomposition will be slowed4 ,obviously1 it is not possible to state with any precision how fast sheet composting would proceed for you4 ,autumn leaves usually sheet compost very successfully4 ,these are gathered1 spread over all of the garden 7except for those areas intended for early spring sowing71 and tilled in as shallowly as possible before winter4 ,even in the ,north where soil freezes solid for months1 some decomposition will occur in autumn and then in spring1 as the soil warms1 composting instantly resumes and is finished by the time frost danger is over4 ,sheet composting higher ,c_/,n materials in spring is also workable where the land is not scheduled for planting early4 ,if the organic matter has a low ,c_/,n1 like manure1 a tender green manure crop not yet forming seed1 alfalfa hay or grass clippings1 quite a large volume of material can be decomposed by warm soil in a matter of weeks4 ,however1 rotting large quantities of very resistant material like sawdust can take many months1 even in hot1 moist soil4 ,most gardeners cannot afford to give their valuable land over to being a compost factory for months4 ,one way to speed the sheet composting of something with a high ,c_/,n is to amend it with a strong nitrogen source like chicken manure or seed meal4 ,if sawdust is the only organic matter you can find1 ,i recommend an exception to avoiding chemical fertilizer4 ,by adding about #hj pounds of urea to each cubic yard of sawdust1 its overall ,c_/,n is reduced from #ejj3a to about #bj3a4 ,urea is perhaps the most benign of all chemical nitrogen sources4 ,it does not acidify the soil1 is not toxic to worms or other soil animals or microorganisms1 and is actually a synthetic form of the naturally occurring chemical that contains most of the nitrogen in animal urine4 ,in that sense1 putting urea in soil is not that different than putting synthetic vitamin ,c in a human body ,burying kitchen garbage is a traditional form of sheet composting practiced by row-cropping gardeners usually in mild climates where the soil does not freeze in winter4 ,some people use a post hole digger to make a neat six-to eight-inch diameter hole about eighteen inches deep between well-spaced growing rows of plants4 ,when the hole has been filled to within two or three inches of the surface1 it is topped off with soil4 ,rarely will animals molest buried garbage1 it is safe from flies and yet enough air exists in the soil for it to rapidly decompose4 ,the local soil ecology and nutrient balance is temporarily disrupted1 but the upset only happens in this one little spot far enough away from growing plants to have no harmful effect4 ,another garbage disposal variation has been called trench composting4 ,instead of a post hole1 a long trench about the width of a combination shovel and a foot deep is gradually dug between row crops spaced about four feet 7or more7 apart4 ,as bucket after bucket of garbage1 manure1 and other organic matter are emptied into the trench1 it is covered with soil dug from a little further along4 ,next year1 the rows are shifted two feet over so that crops are sown above the composted garbage4 ,mulch ,gardening ,ruth ,stout discovered--or at least popularized this new-to-her method4 ,mulching may owe some of its popularity to ,ruth's possession of writing talent similar to her brother ,rex's1 who was a well-known mid-century mystery writer4 ,ruth's humorous book1 ,gardening ,without ,work is a fun-to-read classic that ,i highly recommend if for no other reason than it shows how an intelligent person can make remarkable discoveries simply by observing the obvious4 ,however1 like many other garden writers1 ,ruth ,stout made the mistake of assuming that what worked in her own backyard would be universally applicable4 ,mulch gardening does not succeed everywhere4 ,this easy method mimics decomposition on the forest floor4 ,instead of making compost heaps or sheet composting1 the garden is kept thickly covered with a permanent layer of decomposing vegetation4 ,year-round mulch produces a number of synergistic advantages4 ,decay on the soil's surface is slow but steady and maintains fertility4 ,as on the forest floor1 soil animals and worm populations are high4 ,their activities continuously loosen the earth1 steadily transport humus and nutrients deeper into the soil1 and eliminate all need for tillage4 ,protected from the sun1 the surface layers of soil do not dry out so shallow-feeding species like lettuce and moisture-lovers like radishes make much better growth4 ,during high summer1 mulched ground does not become unhealthfully heated up either4 ,the advantages go on4 ,the very top layer of soil directly under the mulch has a high organic matter content1 retaining moisture1 eliminating crusting1 and consequently1 enhancing the germination of seeds4 ,mulchers usually sow in well-separated rows4 ,the gardener merely rakes back the mulch and exposes a few inches of bare soil1 scratches a furrow1 and covers the seed with humusy topsoil4 ,as the seedlings grow taller and are thinned out1 the mulch is gradually pushed back around them4 ,weeds8 ,no problem6 ,except where germinating seeds1 the mulch layer is thick enough to prevent weed seeds from sprouting4 ,should a weed begin showing through the mulch1 this is taken as an indication that spot has become too thinly covered and a flake of spoiled hay or other vegetation is tossed on the unwanted plant1 smothering it4 ,oh1 how easy it seems6 ,pick a garden site4 ,if you have a year to wait before starting your garden do not even bother to till first4 ,cover it a foot deep with combinations of spoiled hay1 leaves1 grass clippings1 and straw4 ,woody wastes are not suitable because they won't rot fast enough to feed the soil4 ,kitchen garbage and manures can also be tossed on the earth and1 for a sense of tidiness1 covered with hay4 ,the mulch smothers the grass or weeds growing there and the site begins to soften4 ,next year it will be ready to grow vegetables4 ,if the plot is very infertile to begin with there won't be enough biological activity or nutrients in the soil to rapidly decompose the mulch4 ,in that case1 to accelerate the process1 before first putting down mulch till in an initial manure layer or a heavy sprinkling of seed meal4 ,forever after1 mulching materials alone will be sufficient4 ,never again till4 ,never again weed4 ,never again fertilize4 ,no compost piles to make1 turn1 and haul4 ,just keep your eye open for spoiled hay and buy a few inexpensive tons of it each year4 ,stout1 who discovered mulch gardening in ,connecticut where irregular summer rains were usually sufficient to water a widely-spaced garden1 also mistakenly thought that mulched gardens lost less soil moisture because the earth was protected from the drying sun and thus did not need irrigation through occasional drought4 ,i suspect that drought resistance under mulch has more to do with a plant's ability to feed vigorously1 obtain nutrition1 and continue growing because the surface inches where most of soil nutrients and biological activities are located1 stayed moist4 ,i also suspect that actual1 measurable moisture loss from mulched soil may be greater than from bare earth4 ,but that's another book ,i wrote1 called ,gardening ,without ,irrigation4 ,yes1 gardening under permanent year-round mulch seems easy1 but it does have a few glitches4 ,ruth ,stout did not discover them because she lived in ,connecticut where the soil freezes solid every winter and stays frozen for long enough to set back population levels of certain soil animals4 ,in the ,north1 earwigs and sow bugs 7pill bugs7 are frequently found in mulched gardens but they do not become a serious pest4 ,slugs are infrequent and snails don't exist4 ,all thanks to winter4 ,try permanent mulch in the deep ,south1 or ,california where ,i was first disappointed with mulching1 or the ,maritime northwest where ,i now live1 and a catastrophe develops4 ,during the first year these soil animals are present but cause no problem4 ,but after the first mild winter with no population setback1 they become a plague4 ,slugs 7and in ,california1 snails7 will be found everywhere1 devastating seedlings4 ,earwigs and sow bugs1 that previously only were seen eating only decaying mulch1 begin to attack plants4 ,it soon becomes impossible to get a stand of seedlings established4 ,the situation can be rapidly cured by raking up all the mulch1 carting it away from the garden1 and composting it4 ,i know this to be the truth because ,i've had to do just that both in ,california where as a novice gardener ,i had my first mulch catastrophes1 and then when ,i moved to ,oregon1 ,i gave mulching another trial with similar sad results4 ,sources for ,composters1 ,grinders and etc4 ,shredder_/,chippers and other power equipment ,i've been watching this market change rapidly since the early #aigjs4 ,manufacturers come and go4 ,equipment is usually ordered direct from the maker1 freight extra4 ,those interested in large horsepower shredder_/chippers might check the advertisements in garden-related magazines such as ,national ,gardening1 ,organic ,gardening1 ,sunset1 ,horticulture1 ,fine ,gardening1 ,country ,living 7,harrowsmith71 etc4 ,without intending any endorsement or criticism of their products1 two makers that have remained in business since ,i started gardening are3 ,kemp ,company4 #afj ,koser ,road41 ,lititz1 ,,pa #agedc4 7also compost drums7 ,troy-,bilt ,manufacturing ,company1 #ajb;,d ,st4 #ith ,ave41 ,troy1 ,,ny #abahj ,mail-order catalog sources of compost containers and garden accessories ,gardens ,alive1 #eajj ,schenley ,place1 ,lawrenceburg1 ,indiana #dgjbe ,gardener's ,supply ,company1 #abh ,intervale ,road1 ,burlington1 ,,vt #jedja ,ringer ,corporation1 #iiei ,valley ,view ,road1 ,eden ,prairie1 ,,mn #eecdd ,smith ,hawken1 #be ,corte ,madera1 ,mill ,valley1 ,,ca #idida ,,chapter ,,six ,vermicomposting ,it was #aieb and ,mr4 ,campbell had a worm bin4 ,this shallow box--about two feet wide by four feet long--resided under a worktable in the tiny storeroom_/greenhouse adjacent to our grade school science class4 ,it was full of what looked like black1 crumbly soil and zillions of small1 red wiggly worms1 not at all like the huge nightcrawlers ,i used to snatch from the lawn after dark to take fishing the next morning4 ,mr4 ,campbell's worms were fed used coffee grounds2 the worms in turn were fed to salamanders1 to ,mr4 ,campbell's favorite fish1 a fourteen-inch long smallmouth bass named ,carl1 to various snakes1 and to turtles living in aquariums around the classroom4 ,from time to time the soil in the box was fed to his lush potted plants4 ,mr4 ,campbell was vermicomposting4 ,this being before the age of ecology and recycling1 he probably just thought of it as raising live food to sustain his educational menagerie4 ,though ,i never had reason to raise worms before1 preparing to write this book perked my interest in every possible method of composting4 ,not comfortable writing about something ,i had not done1 ,i built a small worm box1 obtained a pound or so of brandling worms1 made bedding1 added worms1 and began feeding the contents of my kitchen compost bucket to the box4 ,to my secret surprise1 vermicomposting works just as ,mary ,appelhof's book ,worms ,eat ,my ,garbage said it would4 ,worm composting is amazingly easy1 although ,i admit there was a short learning curve and a few brief spells of sour odors that went away as soon as ,i stopped overfeeding the worms4 ,i also discovered that my slapdash homemade box had to have a drip catching pan beneath it4 ,a friend of mine1 who has run her own in-the-house worm box for years1 tells me that diluting these occasional1 insignificant and almost odorless dark-colored liquid emissions with several parts water makes them into excellent fertilizer for house plants or garden4 ,it quickly became clear to me that composting with worms conveniently solves several recycling glitches4 ,how does a northern homeowner process kitchen garbage in the winter when the ground and compost pile are frozen and there is no other vegetation to mix in8 ,and can an apartment dweller without any other kind of organic waste except garbage and perhaps newspaper recycle these at home8 ,the solution to both situations is vermicomposting4 ,worm castings1 the end product of vermicomposting1 are truly the finest compost you could make or buy4 ,compared to the volume of kitchen waste that will go into a worm box1 the amount of castings you end up with will be small1 though potent4 ,apartment dwellers could use worm castings to raise magnificent house plants or scatter surplus casts under the ornamentals or atop the lawn around their buildings or in the local park4 ,in this chapter1 ,i encourage you to at least try worm composting4 ,i also answer the questions that people ask the most about using worms to recycle kitchen garbage4 ,as the ever-enthusiastic ,mary ,applehof said3 ,i hope it convinces you that you1 too1 can vermicompost1 and that this simple process with the funny name is a lot easier to do than you thought4 ,after all1 if worms eat my garbage1 they will eat yours1 too4 ,locating the ,worms ,the species of worm used for vermicomposting has a number of common names3 red worms1 red wigglers1 manure worms1 or brandling worms4 ,redworms are healthy and active as long as they are kept above freezing and below #he degree4 ,even if the air temperature gets above #he degree1 their moist bedding will be cooled by evaporation as long as air circulation is adequate4 ,they are most active and will consume the most waste between #ee-gg degree--room temperatures4 ,redworms need to live in a moist environment but must breath air through their skin4 ,keeping their bedding damp is rarely the problem2 preventing it from becoming waterlogged and airless can be a difficulty4 ,in the ,south or along the ,pacific coast where things never freeze solid1 worms may be kept outside in a shallow shaded pit 7as long as the spot does not become flooded7 or in a box in the garage or patio4 ,in the ,north1 worms are kept in a container that may be located anywhere with good ventilation and temperatures that stay above freezing but do not get too hot4 ,good spots for a worm box are under the kitchen sink1 in the utility room1 or in the basement4 ,the kitchen1 being the source of the worm's food1 is the most convenient1 except for the danger of temporary odors4 ,if you have one1 a basement may be the best location because it is out of the way4 ,while you are learning to manage your worms there may be occasional short-term odor problems or fruit flies2 these won't be nearly as objectionable if the box is below the house4 ,then too1 a vermicomposter can only exist in a complex ecology of soil animals4 ,a few of these may exit the box and be harmlessly found about the kitchen4 ,ultra-fastidious housekeepers may find this objectionable4 ,basements also tend to maintain a cooler temperature in summer4 ,however1 it is less convenient to take the compost bucket down to the basement every few days4 ,containers ,redworms need to breathe oxygen1 but in deep containers bedding can pack down and become airless1 temporarily preventing the worms from eating the bottom material4 ,this might not be so serious because you will stir up the box from time to time when adding new food4 ,but anaerobic decomposition smells bad4 ,if aerobic conditions are maintained1 the odor from a worm box is very slight and not particularly objectionable4 ,i notice the box's odor only when ,i am adding new garbage and get my nose up close while stirring the material4 ,a shallow box will be better aerated because it exposes much more surface area4 ,worm bins should be from eight to twelve inches deep4 ,i constructed my own box out of some old plywood4 ,a top is not needed because the worms will not crawl out4 ,in fact1 when worm composting is done outdoors in shallow pits1 few redworms exit the bottom by entering the soil because there is little there for them to eat4 ,because air flow is vital1 numerous holes between #a_/d and #a_/b inch in diameter should be made in the bottom and the box must then have small legs or cleats about #a_/b to #c_/d of an inch thick to hold it up enough to let air flow beneath4 ,having a drip-catcher--a large cookie tray works well--is essential4 ,worms can also be kept in plastic containers 7like dish pans7 with holes punched in the bottom4 ,as this book is being written1 one mail-order garden supply company even sells a tidy-looking #ai by #bd by about #ab deep green plastic vermicomposting bin with drip pan1 lid1 and an initial supply of worms and bedding4 ,if worm composting becomes more popular1 others will follow suit4 ,unless you are very strong do not construct a box larger than #b x #d feet because they will need to be lifted from time to time4 ,wooden boxes should last three or four years4 ,if built of plywood1 use an exterior grade to prevent delamination4 ,it is not advisable to make containers from rot-resistant redwood or cedar because the natural oils that prevent rotting also may be toxic to worms4 ,sealed with polyurethane1 epoxy1 or other non-toxic waterproofing material1 worm boxes should last quite a bit longer4 ,how big a box or how many boxes do you need8 ,each cubic foot of worm box can process about one pound of kitchen garbage each week4 ,naturally1 some weeks more garbage will go into the box than others4 ,the worms will adjust to such changes4 ,you can estimate box size by a weekly average amount of garbage over a three month time span4 ,my own home-garden-supplied kitchen feeds two vegetableatarian adults4 ,being year-round gardeners1 our kitchen discards a lot of trimmings that would never leave a supermarket and we throw out as old1 salad greens that are still fresher than most people buy in the store4 ,i'd say our #b-a_/b gallon compost bucket is dumped twice a week in winter and three times in summer4 ,from ,may through ,september while the garden is on1 a single1 #b foot x #d foot by #ab inch tall 7#h cubic foot7 box is not enough for us4 ,bedding ,bedding is a high ,c_/,n material that holds moisture1 provides an aerobic medium worms can exist in1 and allows you to bury the garbage in the box4 ,the best beddings are also light and airy1 helping to maintain aerobic conditions4 ,bedding must not be toxic to worms because they'll eventually eat it4 ,bedding starts out dry and must be first soaked in water and then squeezed out until it is merely very damp4 ,several ordinary materials make fine bedding4 ,you may use a single material bedding or may come to prefer mixtures4 ,if you have a power shredder1 you can grind corrugated cardboard boxes4 ,handling ground up cardboard indoors may be a little dusty until you moisten it4 ,shredded cardboard is sold in bulk as insulation but this material has been treated with a fire retardant that is toxic4 ,gasoline-powered shredders can also grind up cereal straw or spoiled grass hay 7if it is dry and brittle74 ,alfalfa hay will decompose too rapidly4 ,similarly1 shredded newsprint makes fine bedding4 ,the ink is not toxic1 being made from carbon black and oil4 ,by tearing with the grain1 entire newspaper sections can rapidly be ripped into inch-wide shreds by hand4 ,other shredded paper may be available from banks1 offices1 or universities that may dispose of documents4 ,ground-up leaves make terrific bedding4 ,here a power shredder is not necessary4 ,an ordinary lawnmower is capable of chopping and bagging large volumes of dry leaves in short order4 ,these may be prepared once a year and stored dry in plastic garbage bags until needed4 ,a few #cj-;gallon bags will handle your vermicomposting for an entire year4 ,however1 dry leaves may be a little slower than other materials to rehydrate4 ,peat moss is widely used as bedding by commercial worm growers4 ,it is very acid and contains other substances harmful to worms that are first removed by soaking the moss for a few hours and then hand-squeezing the soggy moss until it is damp4 ,then a little lime is added to adjust the p,h4 ,soil ,redworms are heat-tolerant litter dwellers that find little to eat in soil4 ,mixing large quantities of soil into worm bedding makes a very heavy box4 ,however1 the digestive system of worms grinds food using soil particles as the abrasive grit in the same way birds chew in their crop4 ,a big handful of added soil will improve a worm box4 ,a couple of tablespoonfuls of powdered agricultural lime does the same thing while adding additional calcium to nourish the worms4 ,redworms ,the scientific name of the species used in vermicomposting is ,eisenia foetida4 ,they may be purchased by mail from breeders1 from bait stores1 and these days1 even from mail-order garden supply companies4 ,redworms may also be collected from compost and manure piles after they have heated and are cooling4 ,nightcrawlers and common garden worms play a very important part in the creation and maintenance of soil fertility4 ,but these species are soil dwellers that require cool conditions4 ,they cannot survive in a shallow worm box at room temperatures4 ,redworms are capable of very rapid reproduction at room temperatures in a worm box4 ,they lay eggs encased in a lemon-shaped cocoon about the size of a grain of rice from which baby worms will hatch4 ,the cocoons start out pearly white but as the baby worms develop over a three week period1 the eggs change color to yellow1 then light brown1 and finally are reddish when the babies are ready to hatch4 ,normally1 two or three young worms emerge from a cocoon4 ,hatchlings are whitish and semi-transparent and about one-half inch long4 ,it would take about #aej1jjj hatchlings to weigh one pound4 ,a redworm hatchling will grow at an explosive rate and reach sexual maturity in four to six weeks4 ,once it begins breeding a redworm makes two to three cocoons a week for six months to a year2 or1 one breeding worm can make about #ajj babies in six months4 ,and the babies are breeding about three months after the first eggs are laid4 ,though this reproductive rate is not the equal of yeast 7capable of doubling every twenty minutes71 still a several-hundred-fold increase every six months is amazingly fast4 ,when vermicomposting1 the worm population increase is limited by available food and space and by the worms' own waste products or casts4 ,worm casts are slightly toxic to worms4 ,when a new box starts out with fresh bedding it contains no casts4 ,as time goes on1 the bedding is gradually broken down by cellulose-eating microorganisms whose decay products are consumed by the worms and the box gradually fills with casts4 ,as the proportion of casts increases1 reproduction slows1 and mature worms begin to die4 ,however1 you will almost never see a dead worm in a worm box because their high-protein bodies are rapidly decomposed4 ,you will quickly recognize worm casts4 ,once the bedding has been consumed and the box contains only worms1 worm casts1 and fresh garbage it is necessary to empty the casts1 replace the bedding1 and start the cycle over4 ,how to do this will be explained in a moment4 ,but first1 how many worms will you need to begin vermicomposting8 ,you could start with a few dozen redworms1 patiently begin by feeding them tiny quantities of garbage and in six months to a year have a box full4 ,however1 you'll almost certainly want to begin with a system that can consume all or most of your kitchen garbage right away4 ,so for starters you'll need to obtain two pounds of worms for each pound of garbage you'll put into the box each day4 ,suppose in an average week your kitchen compost bucket takes in seven pounds of waste or about one gallon4 ,that averages one pound per day4 ,you'll need about two pounds of worms4 ,you'll also need a box that holds six or seven cubic feet1 or about #b x #c feet by #ab inches deep4 ,each pound of worms needs three or four cubic feet of bedding4 ,a better way to estimate box size is to figure that one cubic foot of worm bin can digest about one pound of kitchen waste a week without going anaerobic and smelling bad4 ,redworms are small and consequently worm growers sell them by the pound4 ,there are about #a1jjj mature breeders to the pound of young redworms4 ,bait dealers prefer to sell only the largest sizes or their customers complain4 ,red wigglers from a bait store may only count #fjj to the pound4 ,worm raisers will sell pit run that costs much less4 ,this is a mix of worms of all sizes and ages4 ,often the largest sizes will have already been separated out for sale as fish bait4 ,that's perfectly okay4 ,since hatchlings run #aej1jjj to the pound and mature worms count about #fjj-gjj1 the population of a pound of pit run can vary greatly4 ,a reasonable pit run estimate is #b1jjj to the pound4 ,actually it doesn't matter what the number is1 it is their weight that determines how much they'll eat4 ,redworms eat slightly more than their weight in food every day4 ,if that is so1 why did ,i recommend first starting vermicomposting with two pounds of worms for every pound of garbage8 ,because the worms you'll buy will not be used to living in the kind of bedding you'll give them nor adjusted to the mix of garbage you'll feed them4 ,initially there may be some losses4 ,after a few weeks the surviving worms will have adjusted4 ,most people have little tolerance for outright failure4 ,but if they have a record of successes behind them1 minor glitches won't stop them4 ,so it is vital to start with enough worms4 ,the only time vermicomposting becomes odoriferous is when the worms are fed too much4 ,if they quickly eat all the food that they are given the system runs remarkably smoothly and makes no offense4 ,please keep that in mind since there may well be some short-lived problems until you learn to gauge their intake4 ,setting ,up a ,worm ,box ,redworms need a damp but not soggy environment with a moisture content more or less #ge percent by weight4 ,but bedding material starts out very dry4 ,so weigh the bedding and then add three times that weight of water4 ,the rule to remember here is a pint's a pound the world 'round1 or one gallon of water weighs about eight pounds4 ,as a gauge1 it takes #a to #a-a_/b pounds of dry bedding for each cubic foot of box4 ,preparing bedding material can be a messy job ,the best container is probably an empty garbage can1 though in a pinch it can be done in a kitchen sink or a couple of five gallon plastic buckets4 ,cautiously put half the 7probably dusty7 bedding in the mixing container4 ,add about one-half the needed water and mix thoroughly4 ,then add two handfuls of soil1 the rest of the bedding1 and the balance of the water4 ,continue mixing until all the water has been absorbed4 ,then spread the material evenly through your empty worm box4 ,if you've measured correctly no water should leak out the bottom vent holes and the bedding should not drip when a handful is squeezed moderately hard4 ,then add the worms4 ,spread your redworms over the surface of the bedding4 ,they'll burrow under the surface to avoid the light and in a few minutes will be gone4 ,then add garbage4 ,when you do this the first time1 ,i suggest that you spread the garbage over the entire surface and mix it in using a three-tined hand cultivator4 ,this is the best tool to work the box with because the rounded points won't cut worms4 ,then cover the box4 ,mary ,applehof suggests using a black plastic sheet slightly smaller than the inside dimensions of the container4 ,black material keeps out light and allows the worms to be active right on the surface4 ,you may find that a plastic covering retains too much moisture and overly restricts air flow4 ,when ,i covered my worm box with plastic it dripped too much4 ,but then1 most of what ,i feed the worms is fresh vegetable material that runs #hj-ij percent water4 ,other households may feed dryer material like stale bread and leftovers4 ,i've found that on our diet it is better to keep the box in a dimly lit place and to use a single sheet of newspaper folded to the inside dimensions of the box as a loose cover that encourages aeration1 somewhat reduces light on the surface1 and lessens moisture loss yet does not completely stop it4 ,feeding the ,worms ,redworms will thrive on any kind of vegetable waste you create while preparing food4 ,here's a partial list to consider3 potato peelings1 citrus rinds1 the outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage1 spinach stems1 cabbage and cauliflower cores1 celery butts1 plate scrapings1 spoiled food like old baked beans1 moldy cheese and other leftovers1 tea bags1 egg shells1 juicer pulp4 ,the worms' absolute favorite seems to be used coffee grounds though these can ferment and make a sour smell4 ,drip coffee lovers can put the filters in too4 ,this extra paper merely supplements the bedding4 ,large pieces of vegetable matter can take a long time to be digested4 ,before tossing cabbage or cauliflower cores or celery butts into the compost bucket1 cut them up into finer chunks or thin slices4 ,it is not necessary to grind the garbage4 ,everything will break down eventually4 ,putting meat products into a worm box may be a mistake4 ,the odors from decaying meat can be foul and it has been known to attract mice and rats4 ,small quantities cut up finely and well dispersed will digest neatly4 ,bones are slow to decompose in a worm box4 ,if you spread the worm casts as compost it may not look attractive containing whitened1 picked-clean bones4 ,chicken bones are soft and may disappear during vermicomposting4 ,if you could grind bones before sending them to the worm bin1 they would make valuable additions to your compost4 ,avoid putting non-biodegradable items like plastic1 bottle caps1 rubber bands1 aluminum foil1 and glass into the worm box4 ,do not let your cat use the worm bin as a litter box44 ,the odor of cat urine would soon become intolerable while the urine is so high in nitrogen that it might kill some worms4 ,most seriously1 cat manure can transmit the cysts of a protozoan disease organism called ,toxoplasma gondii1 although most cats do not carry the disease4 ,these parasites may also be harbored in adult humans without them feeling any ill effects4 ,however1 transmitted from mother to developing fetus1 ,toxoplasma gondii can cause brain damage4 ,you are going to handle the contents of your worm bin and won't want to take a chance on being infected with these parasites4 ,most people use some sort of plastic jar1 recycled half-gallon yogurt tub1 empty waxed paper milk carton1 or similar thing to hold kitchen garbage4 ,odors develop when anaerobic decomposition begins4 ,if the holding tub is getting high1 don't cover it1 feed it to the worms4 ,it is neater to add garbage in spots rather than mixing it throughout the bin4 ,when feeding garbage into the worm bin1 lift the cover1 pull back the bedding with a three-tine hand cultivator1 and make a hole about the size of your garbage container4 ,dump the waste into that hole and cover it with an inch or so of bedding4 ,the whole operation only takes a few minutes4 ,a few days later the kitchen compost bucket will again be ready4 ,make and fill another hole adjacent to the first4 ,methodically go around the box this way4 ,by the time you get back to the first spot the garbage will have become unrecognizable1 the spot will seem to contain mostly worm casts and bedding1 and will not give off strongly unpleasant odors when disturbed4 ,seasonal ,overloads ,on festive occasions1 holidays1 and during canning season it is easy to overload the digestive capacity of a worm bin4 ,the problem will correct itself without doing anything but you may not be willing to live with anaerobic odors for a week or two4 ,one simple way to accelerate the healing of an anaerobic box is to fluff it up with your hand cultivator4 ,vegetableatarian households greatly increase the amount of organic waste they generate during summer4 ,so do people who can or freeze when the garden is on4 ,one vermicomposting solution to this seasonal overload is to start up a second1 summertime-only outdoor worm bin in the garage or other shaded location4 ,appelhof uses an old1 leaky galvanized washtub for this purpose4 ,the tub gets a few inches of fresh bedding and then is inoculated with a gallon of working vermicompost from the original bin4 ,extra garbage goes in all summer4 ,mary says3 ,i have used for a worm bin annex an old leaky galvanized washtub1 kept outside near the garage4 ,during canning season the grape pulp1 corn cobs1 corn husks1 bean cuttings and other fall harvest residues went into the container4 ,it got soggy when it rained and the worms got huge from all the food and moisture4 ,we brought it inside at about the time of the first frost4 ,the worms kept working the material until there was no food left4 ,after six to eight months1 the only identifiable remains were a few corn cobs1 squash seeds1 tomato skins and some undecomposed corn husks4 ,the rest was an excellent batch of worm castings and a very few hardy1 undernourished worms4 ,vacations ,going away from home for a few weeks is not a problem4 ,the worms will simply continue eating the garbage left in the bin4 ,eventually their food supply will decline enough that the population will drop4 ,this will remedy itself as soon as you begin feeding the bin again4 ,if a month or more is going to pass without adding food or if the house will be unheated during a winter sabbatical1 you should give your worms to a friend to care for4 ,fruit ,flies ,fruit flies can1 on occasion1 be a very annoying problem if you keep the worm bins in your house4 ,they will not be present all the time nor in every house at any time but when they are present they are a nuisance4 ,fruit flies aren't unsanitary1 they don't bite or seek out people to bother4 ,they seek out over-ripe fruit and fruit pulp4 ,usually1 fruit flies will hover around the food source that interests them4 ,in high summer we have accepted having a few share our kitchen along with the enormous spread of ripe and ripening tomatoes atop the kitchen counter4 ,when we're making fresh ,v-#g juice on demand throughout the day1 they tend to congregate over the juicer's discharge pail that holds a mixture of vegetable pulps4 ,if your worm bin contains these types of materials1 fruit flies may find it attractive4 ,appelhof suggests sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner hose if their numbers become annoying4 ,fruit flies are a good reason for those of ,teutonic tidiness to vermicompost in the basement or outside the house if possible4 ,maintenance ,after a new bin has been running for a few weeks1 you'll see the bedding becoming darker and will spot individual worm casts4 ,even though food is steadily added1 the bedding will gradually vanish4 ,extensive decomposition of the bedding by other small soil animals and microorganisms begins to be significant4 ,as worm casts become a larger proportion of the bin1 conditions deteriorate for the worms4 ,eventually the worms suffer and their number and activity begins to drop off4 ,differences in bedding1 temperature1 moisture1 and the composition of your kitchen's garbage will control how long it takes but eventually you must separate the worms from their castings and put them into fresh bedding4 ,if you're using vermicomposting year-round1 it probably will be necessary to regenerate the box about once every four months4 ,there are a number of methods for separating redworms from their castings4 ,hand sorting works well after a worm box has first been allowed to run down a bit4 ,the worms are not fed until almost all their food has been consumed and they are living in nearly pure castings4 ,then lay out a thick sheet of plastic at least four feet square on the ground1 floor1 or on a table and dump the contents of the worm box on it4 ,make six to nine cone-shaped piles4 ,you'll see worms all over4 ,if you're working inside1 make sure there is bright light in the room4 ,the worms will move into the center of each pile4 ,wait five minutes or so and then delicately scrape off the surface of each conical heap1 one after another4 ,by the time you finish with the last pile the worms will have retreated further and you can begin with the first heap again4 ,you repeat this procedure1 gradually scraping away casts until there is not much left of the conical heaps4 ,in a surprisingly short time1 the worms will all be squirming in the center of a small pile of castings4 ,there is no need to completely separate the worms from all the castings4 ,you can now gather up the worms and place them in fresh bedding to start anew without further inconvenience for another four months4 ,use the vermicompost on house plants1 in the garden1 or save it for later4 ,hand sorting is particularly useful if you want to give a few pounds of redworms to a friend4 ,dividing the box is another1 simpler method4 ,you simply remove about two-thirds of the box's contents and spread it on the garden4 ,then refill the box with fresh bedding and distribute the remaining worms1 castings1 and food still in the box4 ,plenty of worms and egg cocoons will remain to populate the box4 ,the worms that you dumped on the garden will probably not survive there4 ,a better method of dividing a box prevents wasting so many worms4 ,all of the box's contents are pushed to one side1 leaving one-third to one-half of the box empty4 ,new bedding and fresh food are put on the new side4 ,no food is given to the old side for a month or so4 ,by that time virtually all the worms will have migrated to the new side4 ,then the old side may be emptied and refilled with fresh bedding4 ,people in the ,north may want to use a worm box primarily in winter when other composting methods are inconvenient or impossible4 ,in this case1 start feeding the bin heavily from fall through spring and then let it run without much new food until mid-summer4 ,by that time there will be only a few worms left alive in a box of castings4 ,the worms may then be separated from their castings1 the box recharged with bedding and the remaining worms can be fed just enough to increase rapidly so that by autumn there will again be enough to eat all your winter garbage4 ,garbage ,can ,composting ,here's a large-capacity vermicomposting system for vegetableatarians and big families4 ,it might even have sufficient digestive capacity for serious juice makers4 ,you'll need two or three1 #bj to #cj gallon garbage cans1 metal or plastic4 ,in two of them drill numerous half-inch diameter holes from bottom to top and in the lid as well4 ,the third can is used as a tidy way to hold extra dry bedding4 ,begin the process with about #aj inches of moist bedding material and worms on the bottom of the first can4 ,add garbage on top without mixing it in and occasionally sprinkle a thin layer of fresh bedding4 ,eventually the first can will be full though it will digest hundreds of gallons of garbage before that happens4 ,when finally full1 the bulk of its contents will be finished worm casts and will contain few if any worms4 ,most of the remaining activity will be on the surface where there is fresh food and more air4 ,filling the first can may take six months to a year4 ,then1 start the second can by transferring the top few inches of the first1 which contains most of the worms1 into a few inches of fresh bedding on the bottom of the second can4 ,i'd wait another month for the worms left in the initial can to finish digesting all the remaining garbage4 ,then1 you have #be to #cj gallons of worm casts ready to be used as compost4 ,painting the inside of metal cans with ordinary enamel when they have been emptied will greatly extend their life4 ,really high-volume kitchens might run two vermicomposting garbage cans at once4 ,,part ,,two ,composting ,for ,the ,food ,gardener ,introduction ,there is a great deal of confusion in the gardening world about compost1 organic matter1 humus1 fertilizer and their roles in soil fertility1 plant health1 animal health1 human health and gardening success4 ,some authorities seem to recommend as much manure or compost as possible4 ,most show inadequate concern about its quality4 ,the slick books published by a major petrochemical corporation correctly acknowledge that soil organic matter is important but give rather vague guidelines as to how much while focusing on chemical fertilizers4 ,organic gardeners denigrate chemicals as though they were of the devil and like ,j4,i4 ,rodale in ,the ,organic ,front1 advise3 ,is it practical to run a garden exclusively with the use of compost1 without the aid of so-called chemical or artificial fertilizers8 ,the answer is not only yes1 but in such case you will have the finest vegetables obtainable1 vegetables fit to grace the table of the most exacting gourmet4 ,since the #aiejs a government-funded laboratory at ,cornell ,university has cranked out seriously flawed studies proving that food raised with chemicals is just as or even more nutritious than organically grown food4 ,the government's investment in scientific research was made to counter unsettling 7to various economic interest groups7 nutritional and health claims that the organic farming movement had been making4 ,for example1 in ,the ,living ,soil1 ,lady ,eve ,balfour observed3 ,i have lived a healthy country existence practically all my life1 and for the last #be years of it ,i have been actively engaged in farming4 ,i am physically robust1 and have never suffered a major illness1 but until #aich ,i was seldom free in winter from some form of rheumatism1 and from ,november to ,april ,i invariably suffered from a continual succession of head colds4 ,i started making compost by ,howard's method using it first on the vegetables for home consumption4444 ,that winter ,i had no colds at all and almost for the first time in my life was free from rheumatic pains even in prolonged spells of wet weather4 ,fifty years later there still exists an intensely polarized dispute about the right way to garden and farm4 ,people who are comfortable disagreeing with ,authority and that believe there is a strong connection between soil fertility and the consequent health of plants1 animals1 and humans living on that soil tend to side with the organic camp4 ,people who consider themselves practical or scientific tend to side with the mainstream agronomists and consider chemical agriculture as the only method that can produce enough to permit industrial civilization to exist4 ,for many years ,i was confused by all this4 ,have you been too8 ,or have you taken a position on this controversy and feel that you don't need more information8 ,i once thought the organic camp had all the right answers but years of explaining soil management in gardening books made me reconsider and reconsider again questions like why is organic matter so important in soil8 and how much and what kind do we need8 ,i found these subjects still needed to have clearer answers4 ,this book attempts to provide those answers and puts aside ideology4 ,a ,brief ,history of the ,organic ,movement ,how did all of this irresolvable controversy begin over something that should be scientifically obvious8 ,about #aijj1 experts increasingly encouraged farmers to use chemical fertilizers and to neglect manuring and composting as unprofitable and unnecessary4 ,at the time this advice seemed practical because chemicals did greatly increase yields and profits while chemistry plus motorized farm machinery minus livestock greatly eased the farmer's workload1 allowed the farmer to abandon the production of low-value fodder crops1 and concentrate on higher value cash crops4 ,perplexing new farming problems--diseases1 insects and loss of seed vigor--began appearing after ,world ,war #a4 ,these difficulties did not seem obviously connected to industrial agriculture1 to abandonment of livestock1 manuring1 composting1 and to dependence on chemistry4 ,the troubled farmers saw themselves as innocent victims of happenstance1 needing to hire the chemical plant doctor much as sick people are encouraged by medical doctors to view themselves as victims1 who are totally irresponsible for creating their condition and incapable of curing it without costly and dangerous medical intervention4 ,farming had been done holistically since before ,roman times4 ,farms inevitably included livestock1 and animal manure or compost made with manure or green manures were the main sustainers of soil fertility4 ,in #aijj productive farm soils still contained large reserves of humus from millennia of manuring4 ,as long as humus is present in quantity1 small1 affordable amounts of chemicals actually do stimulate growth1 increase yields1 and up profits4 ,and plant health doesn't suffer nor do diseases and insects become plagues4 ,however1 humus is not a permanent material and is gradually decomposed4 ,elimination of manuring steadily reduced humus levels and consequently decreased the life in the soil4 ,and 7as will be explained a little later7 nitrogen-rich fertilizers accelerate humus loss4 ,with the decline of organic matter1 new problems with plant and animal health gradually developed while insect predation worsened and profits dropped because soils declining in humus need ever larger amounts of fertilizer to maintain yields4 ,these changes developed gradually and erratically1 and there was a long lag between the first dependence on chemicals1 the resulting soil addiction1 and steady increases in farm problems4 ,a new alliance of scientific experts1 universities1 and agribusiness interests had self-interested reasons to identify other causes than loss of soil humus for the new problems4 ,the increasingly troubled farmer's attention was thus fixated on fighting against plant and animal diseases and insects with newer and better chemicals4 ,just as with farm animals1 human health also responds to soil fertility4 ,industrial agriculture steadily lowered the average nutritional quality of food and gradually increased human degeneration1 but these effects were masked by a statistical increase in human life span due to improved public sanitation1 vaccinations1 and1 starting in the #aicjs1 the first antibiotics4 ,as statistics1 we were living longer but as individuals1 we were feeling poorer4 ,actually1 most of the statistical increase in lifespan is from children that are now surviving childhood diseases4 ,i contend that people who made it to seven years old a century ago had a chance more-or-less equal to ours1 of surviving past seventy with a greater probability of feeling good in middle-and old age4 ,people have short memories and tend to think that things always were as they are in the present4 ,slow but continuous increases in nutritionally related diseases like tooth decay1 periodontal disease1 diabetes1 heart disease1 birth defects1 mental retardation1 drug addiction or cancer are not generally seen as a new problem1 while subtle reductions in the feeling of well-being go unnoticed4 ,during the #aicjs a number of far-seeing individuals began to worry about the social liabilities from chemically dependent farming4 ,drs4 ,robert ,mc,carrison and ,weston ,price addressed their concerns to other health professionals4 ,rudolf ,steiner1 observing that declines in human health were preventing his disciples from achieving spiritual betterment started the gentle biodynamic farming movement4 ,steiner's principal ,english speaking followers1 ,pfeiffer and ,koepf1 wrote about biological farming and gardening extensively and well4 ,professor ,william ,albrecht1 ,chairman of the ,soil ,department of the ,university of ,missouri1 tried to help farmers raise healthier livestock and made unemotional but very explicit connections between soil fertility1 animal1 and human health4 ,any serious gardener or person interested in health and preventive medicine will find the books of all these unique individuals well worth reading4 ,i doubt that the writings and lectures of any of the above individuals would have sparked a bitter controversy like the intensely ideological struggle that developed between the organic gardening and farming movement and the agribusiness establishment4 ,this was the doing of two energetic and highly puritanical men3 ,sir ,albert ,howard and his ,american disciple1 ,j4,i4 ,rodale4 ,howard's criticism was correctly based on observations of improved animal and human health as a result of using compost to build soil fertility4 ,probably concluding that the average farmer's weak ethical condition would be unable to resist the apparently profitable allures of chemicals unless their moral sense was outraged1 ,howard undertook an almost religious crusade against the evils of chemical fertilizers4 ,notice the powerful emotional loading carried in this brief excerpt from ,howard's ,soil and ,health3 ,artificial fertilizers lead to artificial nutrition1 artificial animals and finally to artificial men and women4 ,do you want to be artificial8 ,rodale's contentious ,organic ,front makes readers feel morally deficient if they do not agree about the vital importance of recycling organic matter4 ,the ,chinese do not use chemical fertilizers4 ,they return to the land every bit of organic matter they can find4 ,in ,china if you burned over a field or a pile of vegetable rubbish you would be severely punished4 ,there are many fantastic stories as to the lengths the ,chinese will go to get human excremental matter4 ,a traveler told me that while he was on the toilet in a ,shanghai hotel two men were waiting outside to rush in and make way with the stuff4 ,perhaps you too should be severely punished for wasting your personal organic matter4 ,rodale began proselytizing for the organic movement about #aidb4 ,with an intensity unique to ideologues1 he attacked chemical companies1 attacked chemical fertilizers1 attacked chemical pesticides1 and attacked the scientific agricultural establishment4 ,with a limited technical education behind him1 the well-meaning ,rodale occasionally made overstatements1 wrote oversimplification as science1 and uttered scientific absurdities as fact4 ,and he attacked1 attacked1 attacked all along a broad organic front4 ,so the objects of his attacks defended1 defended1 defended4 ,a great deal of confusion was generated from the contradictions between ,rodale's self-righteous and sometimes scientifically vague positions and the amused defenses of the smug scientific community4 ,donald ,hopkins' ,chemicals1 ,humus and the ,soil is the best1 most humane1 and emotionally generous defense against the extremism of ,rodale4 ,hopkins makes hash of many organic principles while still upholding the vital role of humus4 ,anyone who thinks of themselves as a supporter of organic farming and gardening should first dig up this old1 out-of-print book1 and come to terms with ,hopkins' arguments4 ,organic versus establishment hostilities continued unabated for many years4 ,after his father's death1 ,rodale's son and heir to the publishing empire1 ,robert1 began to realize that there was a sensible middle ground4 ,however1 ,i suppose ,robert ,rodale perceived communicating a less ideological message as a problem3 most of the readers of ,organic ,gardening and ,farming magazine and the buyers of organic gardening books published by ,rodale ,press weren't open to ambiguity4 ,i view organic gardeners largely as examples of ,american ,puritanism who want to possess an clear1 simple system of capital ,t truth1 that brooks no exceptions and has no complications or gray areas4 ,organic as a movement had come to be defined by ,rodale publications as growing food by using an approved list of substances that were considered good and virtuous while shunning another list that seemed to be considered 'of the devil1' similar to kosher and non-kosher food in the orthodox ,jewish religion4 ,and like other puritans1 the organic faithful could consider themselves superior humans4 ,but other agricultural reformers have understood that there are gray areas--that chemicals are not all bad or all good and that other sane and holistic standards can be applied to decide what is the best way to go about raising crops4 ,these people began to discuss new agricultural methods like ,integrated ,pest ,management ,,ipm or ,low ,input ,sustainable ,agriculture ,,lisa1 systems that allowed a minimal use of chemistry without abandoning the focus on soil organic matter's vital importance4 ,my guess is that some years back1 ,bob ,rodale came to see the truth of this1 giving him a problem--he did not want to threaten a major source of political and financial support4 ,so he split off the farming from ,organic ,gardening and ,farming magazine and started two new publications1 one called ,the ,new ,farm where safely away from less educated unsophisticated eyes he could discuss minor alterations in the organic faith without upsetting the readers of ,organic ,gardening4 ,today's ,confusions ,i have offered this brief interpretation of the organic gardening and farming movement primarily for the those gardeners who1 like me1 learned their basics from ,rodale ,press4 ,those who do not now cast this heretical book down in disgust but finish it will come away with a broader1 more scientific understanding of the vital role of organic matter1 some certainty about how much compost you really need to make and use1 and the role that both compost and fertilizers can have in creating and maintaining the level of soil fertility needed to grow a great vegetable garden4 ,,chapter ,,seven ,humus and ,soil ,productivity ,books about hydroponics sound plausible4 ,that is1 until you actually see the results4 ,plants grown in chemical nutrient solutions may be huge but look a little off4 ,sickly and weak somehow4 ,without a living soil1 plants can not be totally healthy or grow quite as well as they might4 ,by focusing on increasing and maximizing soil life instead of adding chemical fertility1 organic farmers are able to grow excellent cereals and fodder4 ,on richer soils they can even do this for generations1 perhaps even for millennia without bringing in plant nutrients from elsewhere4 ,if little or no product is sent away from the farm1 this subsistence approach may be a permanent agricultural system4 ,but even with a healthy ecology few soils are fertile enough by themselves to permit continuous export of their mineral resources by selling crops at market4 ,take one step further4 ,cereals are mostly derived from hardy grasses while other field crops have similar abilities to thrive while being offered relatively low levels of nutrients4 ,with good management1 fertile soils are able to present these lower nutritional levels to growing plants without amendment or fortification with potent1 concentrated nutrient sources4 ,but most vegetables demand far higher levels of support4 ,few soils1 even fertile soils that have never been farmed1 will grow vegetables without improvement4 ,farmers and gardeners must increase fertility significantly if they want to grow great vegetables4 ,the choices they make while doing this can have a strong effect1 not only on their immediate success or failure1 but on the actual nutritional quality of the food that they produce4 ,how ,humus ,benefits ,soil ,the roots of plants1 soil animals1 and most soil microorganisms need to breathe oxygen4 ,like other oxygen burners1 they expel carbon dioxide4 ,for all of them to grow well and be healthy1 the earth must remain open1 allowing air to enter and leave freely4 ,otherwise1 carbon dioxide builds up to toxic levels4 ,imagine yourself being suffocated by a plastic bag tied around your neck4 ,it would be about the same thing to a root trying to live in compacted soil4 ,a soil consisting only of rock particles tends to be airless4 ,a scientist would say it had a high bulk density or lacked pore space4 ,only coarse sandy soil remains light and open without organic matter4 ,few soils are formed only of coarse sand1 most are mixtures of sand1 silt and clay4 ,sands are sharp-sided1 relatively large rock particles similar to table salt or refined white sugar4 ,irregular edges keep sand particles separated1 and allow the free movement of air and moisture4 ,silt is formed from sand that has weathered to much smaller sizes1 similar to powdered sugar or talcum powder4 ,through a magnifying lens1 the edges of silt particles appear rounded because weak soil acids have actually dissolved them away4 ,a significant amount of the nutrient content of these decomposed rock particles has become plant food or clay4 ,silt particles can compact tightly1 leaving little space for air4 ,as soil acids break down silts1 the less-soluble portions recombine into clay crystals4 ,clay particles are much smaller than silt grains4 ,it takes an electron microscope to see the flat1 layered structures of clay molecules4 ,shales and slates are rocks formed by heating and compressing clay4 ,their layered fracture planes mimic the molecules from which they were made4 ,pure clay is heavy1 airless and a very poor medium for plant growth4 ,humusless soils that are mixtures of sand1 silt1 and clay can become extremely compacted and airless because the smaller silt and clay particles sift between the larger sand bits and densely fill all the pore spaces4 ,these soils can also form very hard crusts that resist the infiltration of air1 rain1 or irrigation water and prevent the emergence of seedlings4 ,surface crusts form exactly the same way that concrete is finished4 ,have you ever seen a finisher screed a concrete slab8 ,first1 smooth boards and then1 large trowels are run back and forth over liquid concrete4 ,the motion separates the tiny bits of fine sand and cement from denser bits of gravel4 ,the fines rise to the surface where they are trowelled into a thin smooth skin4 ,the same thing happens when humusless soil is rained on or irrigated with sprinklers emitting a coarse1 heavy spray4 ,the droplets beat on the soil1 mechanically separating the lighter fines 7in this case silt and clay7 from larger1 denser particles4 ,the sand particles sink1 the fines rise and dry into a hard1 impenetrable crust4 ,organic matter decomposing in soil opens and loosens soil and makes the earth far more welcoming to plant growth4 ,its benefits are both direct and indirect4 ,decomposing organic matter mechanically acts like springy sponges that reduce compaction4 ,however1 rotting is rapid and soon this material and its effect is virtually gone4 ,you can easily create this type of temporary result by tilling a thick dusting of peat moss into some poor soil4 ,a more significant and longer-lasting soil improvement is created by microorganisms and earthworms1 whose activities makes particles of sand1 silt1 and clay cling strongly together and form large1 irregularly-shaped grains called aggregates or crumbs that resist breaking apart4 ,a well-developed crumb structure gives soil a set of qualities farmers and gardeners delightfully refer to as good tilth4 ,the difference between good and poor tilth is like night and day to someone working the land4 ,for example1 if you rotary till unaggregated soil into a fluffy seedbed1 the first time it is irrigated1 rained on1 or stepped on it slumps back down into an airless mass and probably develops a hard crust as well4 ,however1 a soil with good tilth will permit multiple irrigations and a fair amount of foot traffic without compacting or crusting4 ,crumbs develop as a result of two similar1 interrelated processes4 ,earthworms and other soil animals make stable humus crumbs as soil1 clay and decomposing organic matter pass through their digestive systems4 ,the casts or scats that emerge are crumbs4 ,free-living soil microorganisms also form crumbs4 ,as they eat organic matter they secrete slimes and gums that firmly cement fine soil particles together into long lasting aggregates4 ,i sadly observe what happens when farmers allow soil organic matter to run down every time ,i drive in the country4 ,soil color that should be dark changes to light because mineral particles themselves are usually light colored or reddish2 the rich black or chestnut tone soil can get is organic matter4 ,puddles form when it rains hard on perfectly flat humusless fields and may stand for hours or days1 driving out all soil air1 drowning earthworms1 and suffocating crop roots4 ,on sloping fields the water runs off rather than percolating in4 ,evidence of this can be seen in muddy streams and in more severe cases1 by little rills or mini-gullies across the field caused by fast moving water sweeping up soil particles from the crusted surface as it leaves the field4 ,later1 the farmers will complain of drought or infertility and seek to support their crops with irrigation and chemicals4 ,actually1 if all the water that had fallen on the field had percolated into the earth1 the crops probably would not have suffered at all even from extended spells without rain4 ,these same humusless fields lose a lot more soil in the form of blowing dust clouds when tilled in a dryish state4 ,the greatest part of farm soil erosion is caused by failing to maintain necessary levels of humus4 ,as a nation1 ,america is losing its best cropland at a nonsustainable rate4 ,no civilization in history has yet survived the loss of its prime farmland4 ,before industrial technology placed thousands of times more force into the hands of the farmer1 humans still managed to make an impoverished semi-desert out of every civilized region within #a1jjj-a1ejj years4 ,this sad story is told in ,carter and ,dale's fascinating1 but disturbing1 book called ,topsoil and ,civilization that ,i believe should be read by every thoughtful person4 ,unless we significantly alter our improved farming methods we will probably do the same to ,america in another century or two4 ,the ,earthworm's ,role in ,soil ,fertility ,soil fertility has been gauged by different measures4 ,howard repeatedly insisted that the only good yardstick was humus content4 ,others are so impressed by the earthworm's essential functions that they count worms per acre and say that this number measures soil fertility4 ,the two standards of evaluation are closely related4 ,when active1 some species of earthworms daily eat a quantity of soil equal to their own body weight4 ,after passing through the worm's gut1 this soil has been chemically altered4 ,minerals1 especially phosphorus which tends to be locked up as insoluble calcium phosphate and consequently unavailable to plants1 become soluble in the worm's gut1 and thus available to nourish growing plants4 ,and nitrogen1 unavailably held in organic matter1 is altered to soluble nitrate nitrogen4 ,in fact1 compared to the surrounding soil1 worm casts are five times as rich in nitrate nitrogen2 twice as rich in soluble calcium2 contain two and one-half times as much available magnesium2 are seven times as rich in available phosphorus1 and offer plants eleven times as much potassium4 ,earthworms are equally capable of making trace minerals available4 ,highly fertile earthworm casts can amount to a large proportion of the entire soil mass4 ,when soil is damp and cool enough to encourage earthworm activity1 an average of #gjj pounds of worm casts per acre are produced each day4 ,over a year's time in the humid eastern ,united ,states1 #ajj1jjj pounds of highly fertile casts per acre may be generated4 ,imagine6 ,that's like #ej tons of low-grade fertilizer per acre per year containing more readily available ,,npk1 ,ca1 ,mg and so forth1 than farmers apply to grow cereal crops like wheat1 corn1 or soybeans4 ,a level of fertility that will grow wheat is not enough nutrition to grow vegetables1 but earthworms can make a major contribution to the garden4 ,at age #bh1 ,charles ,darwin presented ,on the ,formation of ,mould to the ,geological ,society of ,london4 ,this lecture illustrated the amazing churning effect of the earthworm on soil4 ,darwin observed some chunks of lime that had been left on the surface of a meadow4 ,a few years later they were found several inches below the surface4 ,darwin said this was the work of earthworms1 depositing castings that sooner or later spread out and cover any object left on the surface4 ,in a later book1 ,darwin said1 ,the plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions2 but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms4 ,it may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world1 as have these lowly organized creatures4 ,earthworms also prevent runoff4 ,they increase percolation of water into fine-textured soils by making a complex system of interconnected channels or tunnels throughout the topsoil4 ,in one study1 soil lacking worms had an absorption rate of #j4b inches of rainfall per minute4 ,earthworms were added and allowed to work over that soil sample for one month4 ,then1 infiltration rates increased to #j4i inches of rainfall per minute4 ,much of what we know about earthworms is due to ,dr4 ,henry ,hopp who worked for the ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture during the #aidjs4 ,dr4 ,hopp's interesting booklet1 ,what ,every ,gardener ,should ,know ,about ,earthworms4 is still in print4 ,in one ,hopp research project1 some very run-down clay soil was placed in six large flowerpots4 ,nothing was done to a pair of control pots1 fertilizer was blended in and grass sod grown on two others1 while mulch was spread over two more4 ,then worms were added to one of each pair of pots4 ,in short order all of the worms added to the unimproved pot were dead4 ,there was nothing in that soil to feed them4 ,the sod alone increased percolation but where the sod or mulch fed a worm population1 infiltration of water was far better4 ,amendment to clay soil ,percolation rate in inches per minute ,without worms ,with worms ,none #j4j #j4j ,grass and fertilizer #j4b #j4h ,mulch #j4j #a4e ,most people who honestly consider these facts conclude that the earthworm's activities are a major factor in soil productivity4 ,study after scientific study has shown that the quality and yield of pastures is directly related to their earthworm count4 ,so it seems only reasonable to evaluate soil management practices by their effect on earthworm counts4 ,earthworm populations will vary enormously according to climate and native soil fertility4 ,earthworms need moisture2 few if any will be found in deserts4 ,highly mineralized soils that produce a lot of biomass will naturally have more worms than infertile soils lacking humus4 ,dr4 ,hopp surveyed worm populations in various farm soils4 ,the table below shows what a gardener might expect to find in their own garden by contrasting samples from rich and poor soils4 ,the data also suggest a guideline for how high worm populations might be usefully increased by adding organic matter4 ,the worms were counted at their seasonal population peak by carefully examining a section of soil exactly one foot square by seven inches deep4 ,if you plan to take a census in your own garden1 keep in mind that earthworm counts will be highest in spring4 ,earthworms are inhibited by acid soils and_/or soils deficient in calcium4 ,far larger populations of worms live in soils that weathered out of underlying limestone rocks4 ,in one experiment1 earthworm counts in a pasture went up from #ea1jjj per acre in acid soil to #dda1jjj per acre two years after lime and a non-acidifying chemical fertilizer was spread4 ,rodale and ,howard loudly and repeatedly contended that chemical fertilizers decimate earthworm populations4 ,swept up in what ,i view as a self-righteous crusade against chemical agriculture1 they included all fertilizers in this category for tactical reasons4 ,location ,worms per sq4 ft4 ,worms per acre ,marcellus1 ,,ny #ch #a1fjj1jjj ,ithica1 ,,ny #d #aij1jjj ,frederick1 ,,md #ej #b1bjj1jjj ,beltsville1 ,,md #h #cej1jjj ,zanesville1 ,,oh #cg #a1fjj1jjj ,coshocton1 ,,oh #e #bbj1jjj ,mayaquez1 ,p4,r499 #f #bfj1jjj 99,because of the high rate of bacterial decomposition1 few earthworms are found in tropical soils unless they are continuously ammended with substantial quantities of organic matter4 ,howard especially denigrated sulfate of ammonia and single superphosphate as earthworm poisons4 ,both of these chemical fertilizers are made with sulfuric acid and have a powerful acidifying reaction when they dissolve in soil4 ,rodale correctly pointed out that golf course groundskeepers use repeated applications of ammonium sulfate to eliminate earthworms from putting greens4 7,small mounds of worm casts made by nightcrawlers ruin the greens' perfectly smooth surface so these worms are the bane of greenskeepers47 ,however1 ammonium sulfate does not eliminate or reduce worms when the soil contains large amounts of chalk or other forms of calcium that counteract acidity4 ,the truth of the matter is that worms eat decaying organic matter and any soil amendment that increases plant growth without acidifying soil will increase earthworm food supply and thus worm population4 ,using lime as an antidote to acid-based fertilizers prevents making the soil inhospitable to earthworms4 ,and many chemical fertilizers do not provoke acid reactions4 ,the organic movement loses this round-but not the battle4 ,and certainly not the war4 ,food supply primarily determines earthworm population4 ,to increase their numbers it is merely necessary to bring in additional organic matter or add plant nutrients that cause more vegetation to be grown there4 ,in one study1 simply returning the manure resulting from hay taken off a pasture increased earthworms by one-third4 ,adding lime and superphosphate to that manure made an additional improvement of another #cc percent4 ,every time compost is added to a garden1 the soil's ability to support earthworms increases4 ,some overly enthusiastic worm fanciers believe it is useful to import large numbers of earthworms4 ,i do not agree4 ,these same self-interested individuals tend to breed and sell worms4 ,if the variety being offered is ,eisenia foetida1 the brandling1 red wiggler1 or manure worm used in vermicomposting1 adding them to soil is a complete waste of money4 ,this species does not survive well in ordinary soil and can breed in large numbers only in decomposing manure or other proteinaceous organic waste with a low ,c_/,n4 ,all worm species breed prolifically4 ,if there are any desirable worms present in soil1 their population will soon match the available food supply and soil conditions4 ,the way to increase worm populations is to increase organic matter1 up mineral fertility1 and eliminate acidity4 ,earthworms and their beneficial activities are easily overlooked and left out of our contemplations on proper gardening technique4 ,but understanding their breeding cycle allows gardeners to easily assist the worms efforts to multiply4 ,in temperate climates1 young earthworms hatch out in the fall when soil is cooling and moisture levels are high4 ,as long as the soil is not too cold they feed actively and grow4 ,by early spring these young worms are busily laying eggs4 ,with summer's heat the soil warms and dries out4 ,even if the gardener irrigates1 earthworms naturally become less active4 ,they still lay a few eggs but many mature worms die4 ,during high summer the few earthworms found will be small and young4 ,unhatched eggs are plentiful but not readily noticed by casual inspection so gardeners may mistakenly think they have few worms and may worry about how to increase their populations4 ,with autumn the population cycle begins anew4 ,soil management can greatly alter worm populations4 ,but1 how the field is handled during summer has only a slight effect4 ,spring and summer tillage does kill a few worms but does not damage eggs4 ,by mulching1 the soil can be kept cooler and more favorable to worm activities during summer while surface layers are kept moister4 ,irrigation helps similarly4 ,doing these things will allow a gardener the dubious satisfaction of seeing a few more worms during the main gardening season4 ,however1 soil is supposed to become inhospitably hot and dry during summer 7worm's eye view7 and there's not much point in struggling to maintain large earthworm populations during that part of the year4 ,unfortunately1 summer is when gardeners pay the closest attention to the soil4 ,worms maintain their year-round population by overwintering and then laying eggs that hatch late in the growing season4 ,the most harm to worm multiplication happens by exposing bare soil during winter4 ,worm activity should be at a peak during cool weather4 ,though worms inadvertently pass a lot of soil through their bodies as they tunnel1 soil is not their food4 ,garden worms and nightcrawlers intentionally rise to the surface to feed4 ,they consume decaying vegetation lying on the surface4 ,without this food supply they die off4 ,and in northern winters worms must be protected from suddenly experiencing freezing temperatures while they harden off and adapt themselves to surviving in almost frozen soil4 ,under sod or where protected by insulating mulch or a layer of organic debris1 soil temperature drops gradually as winter comes on4 ,but the first day or two of cold winter weather may freeze bare soil solid and kill off an entire field full of worms before they've had a chance to adapt4 ,almost any kind of ground cover will enhance winter survival4 ,a layer of compost1 manure1 straw1 or a well-grown cover crop of ryegrass1 even a thin mulch of grass clippings or weeds can serve as the food source worms need4 ,dr4 ,hopp says that soil tilth can be improved a great deal merely by assisting worms over a single winter4 ,gardeners can effectively support the common earthworm without making great alterations in the way we handle our soil4 ,from a worm's viewpoint1 perhaps the best way to recycle autumn leaves is to till them in very shallowly over the garden so they serve as insulation yet are mixed with enough soil so that decomposition is accelerated4 ,perhaps a thorough garden clean-up is best postponed until spring1 leaving a significant amount of decaying vegetation on top of the soil4 7,of course1 you'll want to remove and compost any diseased plant material or species that may harbor overwintering pests47 ,the best time to apply compost to tilled soil may also be during the autumn and the very best way is as a dressing atop a leaf mulch because the compost will also accelerate leaf decomposition4 ,this is called sheet composting and will be discussed in detail shortly4 ,certain pesticides approved for general use can severely damage earthworms4 ,carbaryl 7,sevin71 one of the most commonly used home garden chemical pesticides1 is deadly to earthworms even at low levels4 ,malathion is moderately toxic to worms4 ,diazinon has not been shown to be at all harmful to earthworms when used at normal rates4 ,just because a pesticide is derived from a natural source and is approved for use on crops labeled organically grown is no guarantee that it is not poisonous to mammals or highly toxic to earthworms4 ,for example1 rotenone1 an insecticide derived from a tropical root called derris1 is as poisonous to humans as organophosphate chemical pesticides4 ,even in very dilute amounts1 rotenone is highly toxic to fish and other aquatic life4 ,great care must be taken to prevent it from getting into waterways4 ,in the tropics1 people traditionally harvest great quantities of fish by tossing a handful of powdered derris 7a root containing rotenone7 into the water1 waiting a few minutes1 and then scooping up stunned1 dead1 and dying fish by the ton4 ,rotenone is also deadly to earthworms4 ,however1 rotenone rarely kills worms because it is so rapidly biodegradable4 ,sprayed on plants to control beetles and other plant predators1 its powerful effect lasts only a day or so before sun and moisture break it down to harmless substances4 ,but once ,i dusted an entire raised bed of beetle-threatened bush bean seedlings with powdered rotenone late in the afternoon4 ,the spotted beetles making hash of their leaves were immediately killed4 ,unexpectedly1 it rained rather hard that evening and still-active rotenone was washed off the leaves and deeply into the soil4 ,the next morning the surface of the bed was thickly littered with dead earthworms4 ,i've learned to treat rotenone with great caution4 ,microbes and ,soil ,fertility ,there are still other holistic standards to measure soil productivity4 ,with more than adequate justification the great ,russian soil microbiologist ,n4,s4 ,krasilnikov judged fertility by counting the numbers of microbes present4 ,he said1 4 4 soil fertility is determined by biological factors1 mainly by microorganisms4 ,the development of life in soil endows it with the property of fertility4 ,the notion of soil is inseparable from the notion of the development of living organisms in it4 ,soil is created by microorganisms4 ,were this life dead or stopped1 the former soil would become an object of geology not biology4 ,louise ,howard1 ,sir ,albert's second wife1 made a very similar judgment in her book1 ,sir ,albert ,howard in ,india4 ,a fertile soil1 that is1 a soil teeming with healthy life in the shape of abundant microflora and microfauna1 will bear healthy plants1 and these1 when consumed by animals and man1 will confer health on animals and man4 ,but an infertile soil1 that is1 one lacking in sufficient microbial1 fungous1 and other life1 will pass on some form of deficiency to the plants1 and such plant1 in turn1 who pass on some form of deficiency to animal and man4 ,although the two quotes substantively agree1 ,krasilnikov had a broader understanding4 ,the early writers of the organic movement focused intently on mycorrhizal associations between soil fungi and plant roots as the hidden secret of plant health4 ,krasilnikov1 whose later writings benefited from massive ,soviet research did not deny the significance of mycorrhizal associations but stressed plant-bacterial associations4 ,both views contain much truth4 ,krasilnikov may well have been the greatest soil microbiologist of his era1 and ,russians in general seem far ahead of us in this field4 ,it is worth taking a moment to ask why that is so4 ,american agricultural science is motivated by agribusiness1 either by direct subsidy or indirectly through government because our government is often strongly influenced by major economic interests4 ,american agricultural research also exists in a relatively free market where at this moment in history1 large quantities of manufactured materials are reliably and cheaply available4 ,western agricultural science thus tends to seek solutions involving manufactured inputs4 ,after all1 what good is a problem if you can't solve it by profitably selling something4 ,but any ,soviet agricultural researcher who solved problems by using factory products would be dooming their farmers to failure because the ,u4,s4,s4,r4's economic system was incapable of regularly supplying such items4 ,so logically1 ,soviet agronomy focused on more holistic1 low-tech approaches such as manipulating the soil microecology4 ,for example1 ,americans scientifically increase soil nitrogen by spreading industrial chemicals2 the ,russians found low-tech ways to brew bacterial soups that inoculated a field with slightly more efficient nitrogen-fixing microorgamsms4 ,soil microbiology is also a relatively inexpensive line of research that rewards mental cleverness over massive investment4 ,multimillion dollar laboratories with high-tech equipment did not yield big answers when the study was new4 ,perhaps in this biotech era1 recombinant genetics will find high-tech ways to tailor make improved microorganisms and we'll surpass the ,russians4 ,soil microorganism populations are incredibly high4 ,in productive soils there may be billions to the gram4 7,one gram of fluffy soil might fill #a_/b teaspoon47 ,krasilnikov found great variations in bacterial counts4 ,light-colored nonproductive earths of the ,north growing skimpy conifer trees or poor crops don't contain very many microorganisms4 ,the rich1 black1 grain-producing soils of the ,ukraine 7like our midwestern corn belt7 carry very large microbial populations4 ,one must be clever to study soil microbes and fungi4 ,their life processes and ecological interactions can't be easily observed directly in the soil with a microscope4 ,usually1 scientists study microorganisms by finding an artificial medium on which they grow well and observe the activities of a large colony or pure culture--a very restricted view4 ,there probably are more species of microorganisms than all other living things combined1 yet we often can't identify one species from another similar one by their appearance4 ,we can generally classify bacteria by shape3 round ones1 rod-shaped ones1 spiral ones1 etc4 ,we differentiate them by which antibiotic kills them and by which variety of artificial material they prefer to grow on4 ,pathogens are recognized by their prey4 ,still1 most microbial activities remain a great mystery4 ,krasilnikov's great contribution to science was discovering how soil microorganisms assist the growth of higher plants4 ,bacteria are very fussy about the substrate they'll grow on4 ,in the laboratory1 one species grows on protein gel1 another on seaweed4 ,one thrives on beet pulp while another only grows on a certain cereal extract4 ,plants understand this and manipulate their soil environment to enhance the reproduction of certain bacteria they find desirable while suppressing others4 ,this is accomplished by root exudates4 ,for every #ajj grams of above-ground biomass1 a plant will excrete about #be grams of root exudates1 creating a chemically different zone 7rhizosphere7 close to the root that functions much like the culture medium in a laboratory4 ,certain bacteria find this region highly favorable and multiply prolifically1 others are suppressed4 ,bacterial counts adjacent to roots will be in hundreds of millions to billions per gram of soil4 ,a fraction of an inch away beyond the influence of the exudates1 the count drops greatly4 ,why do plants expend energy culturing bacteria8 ,because there is an exchange1 a quid pro quo4 ,these same bacteria assist the plant in numerous ways4 ,certain types of microbes are predators4 ,instead of consuming dead organic matter they attack living plants4 ,however1 other species1 especially actinomycetes1 give off antibiotics that suppress pathogens4 ,the multiplication of actinomycetes can be enhanced by root exudates4 ,perhaps the most important benefit plants receive from soil bacteria are what ,krasilnikov dubbed phytamins1 a word play on vitamins plus phyta or plant in ,greek4 ,helpful bacteria exude complex water-soluble organic molecules that plants uptake through their roots and use much like humans need certain vitamins4 ,when plants are deprived of phytamins they are less than optimally healthy1 have lowered disease resistance1 and may not grow as large because some phytamins act as growth hormones4 ,keep in mind that beneficial microorganisms clustering around plant roots do not primarily eat root exudates2 exudates merely optimize environmental conditions to encourage certain species4 ,the main food of these soil organisms is decaying organic matter and humus4 ,deficiencies in organic matter or soil p,h outside a comfortable range of #e4ge-g4e greatly inhibit beneficial microorganisms4 ,for a long time it has been standard chemical ag science to deride the notion that plant roots can absorb anything larger than simple1 inorganic molecules in water solution4 ,this insupportable view is no longer politically correct even among adherents of chemical usage4 ,however1 if you should ever encounter an expert still trying to intimidate others with these old arguments merely ask them1 since plant roots cannot assimilate large organic molecules1 why do people succeed using systemic chemical pesticides8 ,systemics are large1 complex poisonous organic molecules that plants uptake through their roots and that then make the above-ground plant material toxic to predators4 ,ornamentals1 like roses1 are frequently protected by systemic chemical pesticides mixed into chemical fertilizer and fed through the soil4 ,root exudates have numerous functions beyond affecting microorganisms4 ,one is to suppress or encourage the growth of surrounding plants ,gardeners experience this as plant companions and antagonists4 ,walnut tree root exudates are very antagonistic to many other species4 ,and members of the onion family prevent beans from growing well if their root systems are intermixed4 ,many crop rotational schemes exist because the effects of root exudates seem to persist for one or even two years after the original plant grew ,that's why onions grow very well when they are planted where potatoes grew the year before4 ,and why farmers grow a three year rotation of hay1 potatoes and onions4 ,that is also why onions don't grow nearly as well following cabbage or squash4 ,farmers have a much easier time managing successions4 ,they can grow #dj acres of one crop followed by #dj acres of another4 ,but squash from #ajj square feet may overwhelm the kitchen while carrots from the same #ajj square feet the next year may not be enough4 ,unless you keep detailed records1 it is hard to remember exactly where everything grew as long as two years ago in a vegetable garden and to correlate that data with this year's results4 ,but when ,i see half a planting on a raised bed grow well and the adjacent half grow poorly1 ,i assume the difficulty was caused by exudate remains from whatever grew there one1 or even1 two years ago4 ,in #aiij1 half of crop ,f grew well1 half poorly4 this was due to the presence of crop ,d in #aihi4 ,the gardener might remember that ,d was there last year4 ,but in #aiia1 half of crop ,g grew well1 half poorly4 ,this was also due to the presence of crop ,d two years ago4 ,few can make this association4 ,these effects were one reason that ,sir ,albert ,howard thought it was very foolish to grow a vegetable garden in one spot for too many years4 ,he recommended growing healing grass for about five years following several years of vegetable gardening to erase all the exudate effects and restore the soil ecology to normal4 ,mycorrhizal association is another beneficial relationship that should exist between soil organisms and many higher plants4 ,this symbiotic relationship involves fungi and plant roots4 ,fungi can be pathogenic1 consuming living plants4 ,but most of them are harmless and eat only dead1 decaying organic matter4 ,most fungi are soil dwellers though some eat downed or even standing trees4 ,most people do not realize that plant roots adsorb water and water-soluble nutrients only through the tiny hairs and actively growing tips near the very end of the root4 ,the ability for any new root to absorb nutrition only lasts a short time1 then the hairs slough off and the root develops a sort of hard bark4 ,if root system growth slows or stops1 the plant's ability to obtain nourishment is greatly reduced4 ,roots cannot make oxygen out of carbon dioxide as do the leaves4 ,that's why it is so important to maintain a good supply of soil air and for the soil to remain loose enough to allow rapid root expansion4 ,when roots are cramped1 top growth slows or ceases1 health and disease resistance drops1 and plants may become stressed despite applications of nutrients or watering4 ,other plants that do not seem to be competing for light above ground may have ramified 7filled with roots7 far wider expanses soil than a person might think4 ,once soil is saturated with the roots and the exudates from one plant1 the same space may be closed off to the roots of another4 ,gardeners who use close plantings and intensive raised beds often unknowingly bump up against this limiting factor and are disappointed at the small size of their vegetables despite heavy fertilization1 despite loosening the earth two feet deep with double digging1 and despite regular watering4 ,thought about in this way1 it should be obvious why double digging improves growth on crowded beds by increasing the depth to which plants can root4 ,the roots of plants have no way to aggressively breakdown rock particles or organic matter1 nor to sort out one nutrient from another4 ,they uptake everything that is in solution1 no more1 no less while replacing water evaporated from their leaves4 ,however1 soil fungi are able to aggressively attack organic matter and even mineral rock particles and extract the nutrition they want4 ,fungi live in soil as long1 complexly interconnected hair-like threads usually only one cell thick4 ,the threads are called hyphae4 ,food circulates throughout the hyphae much like blood in a human body4 ,sometimes1 individual fungi can grow to enormous sizes2 there are mushroom circles hundreds of feet in diameter that essentially are one single very old organism4 ,the mushrooms we think of when we think fungus are actually not the organism1 but the transitory fruit of a large1 below ground network4 ,certain types of fungi are able to form a symbiosis with specific plant species4 ,they insert a hyphae into the gap between individual plant cells in a root hair or just behind the growing root tip4 ,then the hyphae drinks from the vascular system of the plant1 robbing it of a bit of its life's blood4 ,however1 this is not harmful predation because as the root grows1 a bark develops around the hyphae4 ,the bark pinches off the hyphae and it rapidly decays inside the plant1 making a contribution of nutrients that the plant couldn't otherwise obtain4 ,hyphae breakdown products may be in the form of complex organic molecules that function as phytamins for the plant4 ,not all plants are capable of forming mycorrhizal associations4 ,members of the cabbage family1 for example1 do not4 ,however1 if the species can benefit from such an association and does not have one1 then despite fertilization the plant will not be as healthy as it could be1 nor grow as well4 ,this phenomenon is commonly seen in conifer tree nurseries where seedling beds are first completely sterilized with harsh chemicals and then tree seeds sown4 ,although thoroughly fertilized1 the tiny trees grow slowly for a year or so4 ,then1 as spores of mycorrhizal fungi begin falling on the bed and their hyphae become established1 scattered trees begin to develop the necessary symbiosis and their growth takes off4 ,on a bed of two-year-old seedlings1 many individual trees are head and shoulders above the others4 ,this is not due to superior genetics or erratic soil fertility4 ,these are the individuals with a mycorrhizal association4 ,like other beneficial microorganisms1 micorrhizal fungi do not primarily eat plant vascular fluid1 their food is decaying organic matter4 ,here's yet another reason to contend that soil productivity can be measured by humus content4 ,,chapter ,,eight ,maintaining ,soil ,humus ,organic matter benefits soil productivity not because it is present1 but because all forms of organic matter in the soil1 including its most stable form--humus--are disappearing4 ,mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacterial colonies around plant roots can exist only by consuming soil organic matter4 ,the slimes and gums that cement soil particles into relatively stable aggregates are formed by microorganisms as they consume soil organic matter4 ,scats and casts that are soil crumbs form only because organic matter is being consumed4 ,if humus declines1 the entire soil ecology runs down and with it1 soil tilth and the health and productivity of plants4 ,if you want to manage your garden soil wisely1 keep foremost in mind that the rate of humus loss is far more important than the amount of humus present4 ,however1 natural processes remove humus without our aid or attention while the gardener's task is to add organic matter4 ,so there is a very understandable tendency to focus on addition1 not subtraction4 ,but1 can we add too much8 ,and if so1 what happens when we do8 ,how ,much ,humus is ,soil ,supposed to ,have8 ,if you measured the organic matter contents of various soils around the ,united ,states there would be wide differences4 ,some variations on crop land are due to great losses that have been caused by mismanagement4 ,but even if you could measure virgin soils never used by humans there still would be great differences4 ,hans ,jenny1 a soil scientist at the ,university of ,missouri during the #aidjs1 noticed patterns in soil humus levels and explained how and why this occurs in a wonderfully readable book1 ,factors in ,soil ,formation4 ,these days1 academic agricultural scientists conceal the basic simplicity of their knowledge by unnecessarily expressing their data with exotic verbiage and higher mathematics4 ,in ,jenny's time it was not considered demeaning if an intelligent layman could read and understand the writings of a scientist or scholar4 ,any serious gardener who wants to understand the wide differences in soil should become familiar with ,factors in ,soil ,formation4 ,about organic matter in virgin soils1 ,jenny said3 ,within regions of similar moisture conditions1 the organic matter content of soil 4 4 4 decreases from north to south4 ,for each fall of #aj degree ,c 7#ah degree ,f7 in annual temperature the average organic matter content of soil increases two or three times1 provided that soil moisture is kept constant4 ,moist soil during the growing season encourages plant growth and thus organic matter production4 ,where the soil becomes dry during the growing season1 plant growth slows or stops4 ,so1 all things being equal1 wet soils contain more organic matter than dry ones4 ,all organic matter eventually rots1 even in soil too dry to grow plants4 ,the higher the soil temperature the faster the decomposition4 ,but chilly 7not frozen7 soils can still grow a lot of biomass4 ,so1 all things being equal1 hot soils have less humus in them than cold ones4 ,cool1 wet soils will have the highest levels2 hot1 dry soils will be lowest in humus4 ,this model checks out in practice4 ,if we were to measure organic matter in soils along the ,mississippi ,river where soil moisture conditions remain pretty similar from south to north1 we might find #b percent in sultry ,arkansas1 #c percent in ,missouri and over #d percent in ,wisconsin1 where soil temperatures are much lower4 ,in ,arizona1 unirrigated desert soils have virtually no organic matter4 ,in central and southern ,california where skimpy and undependable winter rains peter out by ,march1 it is hard to find an unirrigated soil containing as much as #a percent organic matter while in the cool ,maritime northwest1 reliable winter rains keep the soil damp into ,june and the more fertile farm pastures or natural prairies may develop as much as #e percent organic matter4 ,other factors1 like the basic mineral content of the soil or its texture1 also influence the amount of organic matter a spot will create and will somewhat increase or decrease the humus content compared to neighboring locations experiencing the same climate4 ,but the most powerfully controlling influences are moisture and temperature4 ,on all virgin soils the organic matter content naturally sustains itself at the highest possible level4 ,and1 average annual additions exactly match the average annual amount of decomposition4 ,think about that for a moment4 ,imagine that we start out with a plot of finely-ground rock particles containing no life and no organic matter4 ,as the rock dust is colonized by life forms that gradually build in numbers it becomes soil4 ,the organic matter created there increases nutrient availability and accelerates the breakdown of rock particles1 further increasing the creation of organic matter4 ,soil humus steadily increases4 ,eventually a climax is sustained where there is as much humus in the soil as there can be4 ,the peak plant and soil ecology that naturally lives on any site is usually very healthy and is inevitably just as abundant as there is moisture and soil minerals to support it4 ,to me this suggests how much organic matter it takes to grow a great vegetable garden4 ,my theory is that in terms of soil organic matter1 vegetables grow quite well at the humus level that would peak naturally on a virgin site4 ,in semi-arid areas ,i'd modify the theory to include an increase as a result of necessary irrigation4 ,expressed as a rough rule of thumb1 a mere #b percent organic matter in hot climates increasing to #e percent in cool ones will supply sufficient biological soil activities to grow healthy vegetables if the mineral nutrient levels are high enough too4 ,recall my assertion that what is most important about organic matter is not how much is present1 but how much is lost each year through decomposition4 ,for only by decomposing does organic matter release the nutrients it contains so plants can uptake them2 only by being consumed does humus support the microecology that so markedly contributes phytamins to plant nutrition1 aggressively breaks down rock particles and releases the plant nutrients they contain2 only by being eaten does soil organic matter support bacteria and earthworms that improve productivity and create better tilth4 ,here's something ,i find very interesting4 ,temperate climates having seasons and winter1 vary greatly in average temperature4 ,comparing annual decomposition loss from a hot soil carrying #b percent humus with annual decomposition loss from a cooler soil carrying #e percent1 roughly the same amount of organic matter will decay out of each soil during the growing season4 ,this means that in temperate regions we have to replace about the same amount of organic matter no matter what the location4 ,like other substantial colleges of agriculture1 the ,university of ,missouri ran some very valuable long-term studies in soil management4 ,in #ahhh1 a never-farmed field of native prairie grasses was converted into test plots4 ,for fifty succeeding years each plot was managed in a different but consistent manner4 ,the series of experiments that ,i find the most helpful recorded what happens to soil organic matter as a consequence of farming practices4 ,the virgin prairie had sustained an organic matter content of about #c4e percent4 ,the lines on the graph show what happened to that organic matter over time4 ,timothy grass is probably a slightly more efficient converter of solar energy into organic matter than was the original prairie4 ,after fifty years of feeding the hay cut from the field and returning all of the livestock's manure1 the organic matter in the soil increased about #a_/b percent4 ,obviously1 green manuring has very limited ability to increase soil humus above climax levels4 ,growing oats and returning enough manure to represent the straw and grain fed to livestock1 the field held its organic matter relatively constant4 ,growing small grain and removing everything but the stubble for fifty years greatly reduced the organic matter4 ,keep in mind that half the biomass production in a field happens below ground as roots4 ,and keep in mind that the charts don't reveal the sad appearance the crops probably had once the organic matter declined significantly4 ,nor do they show that the seed produced on those degenerated fields probably would no longer sprout well enough to be used as seedgrain1 so new seed would have been imported into the system each season1 bringing with it new supplies of plant nutrients4 ,without importing that bushel or so of wheat seed on each acre each year1 the curves would have been steeper and gone even lower4 ,corn is the hardest of the cereals on soil humus4 ,the reason is1 wheat is closely broadcast in fall and makes a thick grassy overwintering stand that forms biomass out of most of the solar energy striking the field from spring until early summer when the seed forms4 ,leafy oats create a little more biomass than wheat4 ,corn1 on the other hand1 is frost tender and can't be planted early4 ,it is also not closely planted but is sown in widely-spaced rows4 ,corn takes quite a while before it forms a leaf canopy that uses all available solar energy4 ,in farming lingo1 corn is a row crop4 ,vegetables are also row crops4 ,many types don't form dense canopies that soak up all solar energy for the entire growing season like a virgin prairie4 ,as with corn1 the ground is tilled bare1 so for much of the best part of the growing season little or no organic matter is produced4 ,of all the crops that a person can grow1 vegetables are the hardest on soil organic matter4 ,there is no way that vegetables can maintain soil humus1 even if all their residues are religiously composted and returned4 ,soil organic matter would decline markedly even in an experiment in which we raised some small animals exclusively on the vegetables and returned all of their manure and urine too4 ,when growing vegetables we have to restore organic matter beyond the amount the garden itself produces4 ,the curves showing humus decline at the ,university of ,missouri give us a good hint as to how much organic matter we are going to lose from vegetable gardening4 ,let's make the most pessimistic possible estimate and suppose that vegetable gardening is twice as hard on soil as was growing corn and removing everything but the stubble and root systems4 ,with corn1 about #dj percent of the entire organic matter reserve is depleted in the first ten years4 ,let's suppose that vegetables might remove almost all soil humus in ten years1 or #aj percent each year for the first few years4 ,this number is a crude4 and for most places in ,america1 a wildly pessimistic guess4 ,however1 #aj percent loss per year may understate losses in some places4 ,i have seen old row crop soils in ,california's central valley that look like white-colored blowing dust4 ,nor does a #aj percent per year estimate quite allow for the surprising durability ,i observe in the still black and rich-looking old vegetable seed fields of western ,washington ,state's ,skaget ,valley4 ,these cool-climate fields have suffered chemical farming for decades without having been completely destroyed--yet4 ,how much loss is #aj percent per year8 ,let's take my own garden for example4 ,it started out as an old hay pasture that hadn't seen a plow for twenty-five or more years and where1 for the five years ,i've owned the property1 the annual grass production is not cut1 baled1 and sold but is cut and allowed to lie in place4 ,each year's accumulation of minerals and humus contributes to the better growth of the next year's grass4 ,initially1 my grass had grown a little higher and a little thicker each year4 ,but the steady increase in biomass production seems to have tapered off in the last couple of years4 ,i suppose by now the soil's organic matter content probably has been restored and is about #e percent4 ,i allocate about one acre of that old pasture to garden land4 ,in any given year my shifting gardens occupy one-third of that acre4 ,the other two-thirds are being regenerated in healing grass4 ,i measure my garden in fractions of acres4 ,most city folks have little concept of an acre2 its about #dj1jjj square feet1 or a plot #bjj' x #bjj'4 ,give or take some1 the plow pan of an acre weighs about two million pounds4 ,the plow pan is that seven inches of topsoil that is flipped over by a moldboard plow1 the seven inches where most biological activity occurs1 where virtually all of the soil's organic matter resides4 ,two million pounds equals one thousand tons of topsoil in the first seven inches of an acre4 ,five percent of that one thousand tons can be organic matter1 up to fifty priceless tons of life that changes #iej tons of dead dust into a fertile1 productive acre4 ,if #aj percent of that fifty tons is lost as a consequence of one year's vegetable gardening1 that amounts to five tons per acre per year lost or about #be pounds lost per #ajj square feet4 ,patience1 reader4 ,there is a very blunt and soon to be a very obvious point to all of this arithmetic4 ,visualize this6 ,lime is spread at rates up to four tons per acre4 ,have you ever spread #a ,t_/,a or #ej pounds of lime over a garden #cc x #cc feet8 ,mighty hard to accomplish6 ,even #bjj pounds of lime would barely whiten the ground of a #a1jjj square-foot garden4 ,it is even harder to spread a mere #e tons of compost over an acre or only #be pounds on a #ajj-square-foot bed4 ,it seems as though nothing has been accomplished1 most of the soil still shows1 there is no layer of compost1 only a thin scattering4 ,but for the purpose of maintaining humus content of vegetable ground at a healthy level1 a thin scattering once a year is a gracious plenty4 ,even if ,i were starting with a totally depleted1 dusty1 absolutely humusless1 ruined old farm field that had no organic matter whatsoever and ,i wanted to convert it to a healthy vegetable garden1 ,i would only have to make a one-time amendment of #ej tons of ripe compost per acre or #b1ejj pounds per #a1jjj square feet4 ,now #b1ejj pounds of humus is a groaning1 spring-sagging1 long-bed pickup load of compost heaped up above the cab and dripping off the sides4 ,spread on a small garden1 that's enough to feel a sense of accomplishment about4 ,before ,i knew better ,i used to incorporate that much composted horse manure once or twice a year and when ,i did add a half-inch thick layer that's about what ,i was applying4 ,fertilizing ,vegetables with ,compost ,will a five ton per acre addition of compost provide enough nutrition to grow great vegetables8 ,unfortunately1 the answer usually is no4 ,in most gardens1 in most climates1 with most of what passes for compost1 it probably won't4 ,that much compost might well grow decent wheat4 ,the factors involved in making this statement are numerous and too complex to fully analyze in a little book like this one4 ,they include the intrinsic mineralization of the soil itself1 the temperature of the soil during the growing season1 and the high nutritional needs of the vegetables themselves4 ,in my experience1 a few alluvial soils that get regular1 small additions of organic matter can grow good vegetable crops without additional help4 ,however1 these sites are regularly flooded and replenished with highly mineralized rock particles4 ,additionally1 they must become very warm during the growing season4 ,but not all rock particles contain high levels of plant nutrients and not all soils get hot enough to rapidly break down soil particles4 ,soil temperature has a great deal to do with how effectively compost can act as fertilizer4 ,sandy soils warm up much faster in spring and sand allows for a much freer movement of air1 so humus decomposes much more rapidly in sand4 ,perhaps a sunny1 sandy garden on a south-facing slope might grow pretty well with small amounts of strong compost4 ,as a practical matter1 if most people spread even the most potent compost over their gardens at only twenty-five pounds per #ajj square feet1 they would almost certainly be disappointed4 ,well then1 if five tons of quality compost to the acre isn't adequate for most vegetables1 what about using ten or twenty tons of the best4 ,will that grow a good garden8 ,again1 the answer must allow for a lot of factors but is generally more positive4 ,if the compost has a low ,c_/,n and that compost1 or the soil itself1 isn't grossly deficient in some essential nutrient1 and if the soil has a coarse1 airy texture that promotes decomposition1 then somewhat heavier applications will grow a good-looking garden that yields a lot of food4 ,however1 one question that is rarely asked and even more rarely answered satisfactorily in the holistic farming and gardening lore is3 ,precisely how much organic matter or humus is needed to maximize plant health and the nutritional qualities of the food we're growing8 ,an almost equally important corollary of this is3 ,can there be too much organic matter8 ,this second question is not of practical consequence for biological grain_/livestock farmers because it is almost financially impossible to raise organic matter levels on farm soils to extraordinary amounts4 ,large-scale holistic farmers must grow their own humus on their own farm4 ,their focus cannot be on buying and bringing in large quantities of organic matter2 it must be on conserving and maximizing the value of the organic matter they produce themselves4 ,where you do hear of an organic farmer 7not vegetable grower but cereal_/livestock farmer7 building extraordinary fertility by spreading large quantities of compost1 remember that this farmer must be located near an inexpensive source of quality material4 ,if all the farmers wanted to do the same there would not be enough to go around at an economic price unless1 perhaps1 the entire country became a closed system like ,china4 ,we would have to compost every bit of human excrement and organic matter and there still wouldn't be enough to meet the demand4 ,even if we became as efficient as ,china1 keep in mind the degraded state of ,china's upland soils and the rapid desertification going on in their semi-arid west4 ,china is robbing ,peter to pay ,paul and may not have a truly sustainable agriculture either4 ,i've frequently encountered a view among devotees of the organic gardening movement that if a little organic matter is a good thing1 then more must be better and even more better still4 ,in ,organic ,gardening magazine and ,rodale garden books we read eulogies to soils that are so high in humus and so laced with earthworms that one can easily shove their arm into the soft earth elbow deep but must yank it out fast before all the hairs have been chewed off by worms1 where one must jump away after planting corn seeds lest the stalk poke you in the eye1 where the pumpkins average over #ajj pounds each1 where a single trellised tomato vine covers the entire south side of a house and yields bushels4 ,all due to compost4 ,i call believers of the organic faith capital ,o organic gardeners4 ,these folks almost inevitably have a pickup truck used to gather in their neighborhood's leaves and grass clippings on trash day and to haul home loads from local stables and chicken ranches4 ,their large yards are ringed with compost bins and their annual spreadings of compost are measured in multiples of inches4 ,i was one once1 myself4 ,there are two vital and slightly disrespectful questions that should be asked about this extreme of gardening practice4 ,is this much humus the only way to grow big1 high-yielding organic vegetable gardens and two1 are vegetables raised on soils super-high in humus maximally nutritious4 ,if the answer to the first question is no1 then a person might avoid a lot of work by raising the nutrient level of their soil in some other manner acceptable to the organic gardener4 ,if the answer to the second question is less nutritious1 then serious gardeners and homesteaders who are making home-grown produce into a significant portion of their annual caloric intake had better reconsider their health assumptions4 ,a lot of organic gardeners cherish ideas similar to the character ,woody ,allen played in his movie1 ,sleeper4 ,do you recall that movie8 ,it is about a contemporary ,american who1 coming unexpectedly close to death1 is frozen and then reanimated and healed #bjj years in the future4 ,however1 our hero did not expect to die or be frozen when he became ill and upon awakening believes the explanation given to him is a put on and that his friends are conspiring to make him into a fool4 ,the irritated doctor in charge tells ,woody to snap out of it and be prepared to start a new life4 ,this is no joke1 says the doctor1 all of ,woody's friends are long since dead4 ,woody's response is a classic line that earns me a few chuckles from the audience every time ,i lecture3 'all my friends can't be dead6 ,i owned a health food store and we all ate brown rice4' ,humus and the ,nutritional ,quality of ,food ,i believe that the purpose of food is not merely to fill the belly or to provide energy1 but to create and maintain health4 ,ultimately1 soil fertility should be evaluated not by humus content1 nor microbial populations1 nor earthworm numbers1 but by the long-term health consequences of eating the food4 ,if physical health degenerates1 is maintained1 or is improved we have measured the soil's true worth4 ,the technical name for this idea is a biological assay4 ,evaluating soil fertility by biological assay is a very radical step1 for connecting long-term changes in health with the nutritional content of food and then with soil management practices invalidates a central tenet of industrial farming3 that bulk yield is the ultimate measure of success or failure4 ,as ,newman ,turner1 an ,english dairy farmer and disciple of ,sir ,albert ,howard1 put it3 ,the orthodox scientist normally measures the fertility of a soil by its bulk yield1 with no relation to effect on the ultimate consumer4 ,i have seen cattle slowly lose condition and fall in milk yield when fed entirely on the abundant produce of an apparently fertile soil4 ,though the soil was capable of yielding heavy crops1 those crops were not adequate in themselves to maintain body weight and milk production in the cow1 without supplements4 ,that soil1 though capable of above-average yields1 and by the orthodox quantitative measure regarded as fertile1 could not1 by the more complete measure of ultimate effect on the consumer1 be regarded but anything but deficient in fertility4 ,fertility therefore1 is the ability to produce at the highest recognized level of yield1 crops of quality which1 when consumed over long periods by animals or man1 enable them to sustain health1 bodily condition and high level of production without evidence of disease or deficiency of any kind4 ,fertility cannot be measured quantitatively4 ,any measure of soil fertility must be related to the quality of its produce4 4 4 4 the most simple measure of soil fertility is its ability to transmit1 through its produce1 fertility to the ultimate consumer4 ,howard also tells of creating a super-healthy herd of work oxen on his research farm at ,indore1 ,india4 ,after a few years of meticulous composting and restoration of soil life1 ,howard's oxen glowed with well-being4 ,as a demonstration he intentionally allowed his animals to rub noses across the fence with neighboring oxen known to be infected with hoof and mouth and other cattle plagues4 ,his animals remained healthy4 ,i have read so many similar accounts in the literature of the organic farming movement that in my mind there is no denying the relationship between the nutritional quality of plants and the presence of organic matter in soil4 ,many other organic gardeners reach the same conclusion4 ,but most gardeners do not understand one critical difference between farming and gardening3 most agricultural radicals start farming on run-down land grossly deficient in organic matter4 ,the plant and animal health improvements they describe come from restoration of soil balance1 from approaching a climax humus level much like ,i've done in my pasture by no longer removing the grass4 ,but home gardeners and market gardeners near cities are able to get their hands on virtually unlimited quantities of organic matter4 ,encouraged by a mistaken belief that the more organic matter the healthier1 they enrich their soil far beyond any natural capacity4 ,often this is called building up the soil4 ,but increasing organic matter in gardens well above a climax ecology level does not further increase the nutritional value of vegetables and in many circumstances will decrease their value markedly4 ,for many years ,i have lectured on organic gardening to the ,extension ,service's master gardener classes4 ,part of the master gardener training includes interpreting soil test results4 ,in the early #aihjs when ,oregon ,state government had more money1 all master gardener trainees were given a free soil test of their own garden4 ,inevitably1 an older gentlemen would come up after my lecture and ask my interpretation of his puzzling soil test4 ,ladies1 please excuse me4 ,lecturing in this era of women's lib ,i've broken my politically incorrect habit of saying the gardener1 he 444 but in this case it was always a man1 an organic gardener who had been building up his soil for years4 ,the average soils in our region test moderately-to strongly acid2 are low in nitrogen1 phosphorus1 calcium1 and magnesium2 quite adequate in potassium2 and have #c-d percent organic matter4 ,mr4 ,organic's soil test showed an organic matter content of #ae to #bj percent with more than adequate nitrogen and a p,h of #g4b4 ,however there was virtually no phosphorus1 calcium or magnesium and four times the amount of potassium that any farm agent would ever recommend4 ,on the bottom of the test1 always written in red ink1 underlined1 with three exclamation points1 ,no more wood ashes for five years666 ,because so many people in the ,maritime northwest heat with firewood1 the soil tester had mistakenly assumed that the soil became alkaline and developed such a potassium imbalance from heavy applications of wood ashes4 ,this puzzled gardener couldn't grasp two things about his soil test report4 ,one1 he did not use wood ashes and had no wood stove and two1 although he had been building up his soil for six or seven years1 the garden did not grow as well as he had imagined it would4 ,perhaps you see why this questioner was always a man4 ,mr4 ,organic owned a pickup and loved to haul organic matter and to make and spread compost4 ,his soil was full of worms and had a remarkably high humus level but still did not grow great crops4 ,it was actually worse than he understood4 ,plants uptake as much potassium as there is available in the soil1 and concentrate that potassium in their top growth4 ,so when vegetation is hauled in and composted or when animal manure is imported1 large quantities of potassium come along with them4 ,as will be explained shortly1 vegetation from forested regions like western ,oregon is even more potassium-rich and contains less of other vital nutrients than vegetation from other areas4 ,by covering his soil several inches thick with manure and compost every year he had totally saturated the earth with potassium4 ,its cation exchange capacity or in non-technical language1 the soil's ability to hold other nutrients had been overwhelmed with potassium and all phosphorus1 calcium1 magnesium1 and other nutrients had largely been washed away by rain4 ,it was even worse than that6 ,the nutritional quality of the vegetables grown on that superhumusy soil was very1 very low and would have been far higher had he used tiny amounts of compost and1 horror of all horrors1 chemical fertilizer4 ,climate and the ,nutritional ,quality of ,food ,over geologic time spans1 water passing through soil leaches or removes plant nutrients4 ,in climates where there is barely enough rain to grow cereal crops1 soils retain their minerals and the food produced there tends to be highly nutritious4 ,in verdant1 rainy climates the soil is leached of plant nutrients and the food grown there is much less nutritious4 ,that's why the great healthy herds of animals were found on scrubby1 semi-arid grasslands like the ,american prairies2 in comparison1 lush forests carry far lower quantities of animal biomass4 ,some plant nutrients are much more easily leached out than others4 ,the first valuable mineral to go is calcium4 ,semi-arid soils usually still retain large quantities of calcium4 ,the nutrient most resistant to leaching is potassium4 ,leached out forest soils usually still retain relatively large amounts of potassium4 ,william ,albrecht observed this data and connected with it a number of fairly obvious and vital changes in plant nutritional qualities that are caused by these differences in soil fertility4 ,however obvious they may be1 ,albrecht's work was not considered politically correct by his peers or the interest groups that supported agricultural research during the mid-twentieth century and his contributions have been largely ignored4 ,worse1 his ideas did not quite fit with the ideological preconceptions of ,j4l4 ,rodale1 so organic gardeners and farmers are also ignorant of ,albrecht's wisdom4 ,albrecht would probably have approved of the following chart that expresses the essential qualities of dryland and humid soils4 ,soil ,mineral ,content by ,climate ,area ,plant ,nutrient ,dryland ,prairie ,soil ,humid ,forest ,soil nitrogen high low phosphorus high low potassium high moderately high calcium very high low p,h neutral acid ,dryland soils contain far higher levels of all minerals than leached soils4 ,but ,albrecht speculated that the key difference between these soils is the ratio of calcium to potassium4 ,in dryland soils there is much more calcium in the soil than there is potassium while in wetter soils there is as much or more potassium than calcium4 ,to test his theory he grew some soybeans in pots4 ,one pot had soil with a high amount of calcium relative to the amount of potassium1 imitating dryland prairie soil4 ,the other pot had just as much calcium but had more potassium1 giving it a ratio similar to a high quality farm soil in the eastern ,united ,states4 ,both soils grew good-looking samples of soybean plants1 but when they were analyzed for nutritional content they proved to be quite different4 ,soil ,yield ,calories ,protein ,calcium ,phosphorus ,potassium ,humid #ag4h gm ,high #ac #j4bg #j4ad #b4ae ,dryland #ad4g gm ,medium #ag #j4gd #j4be #a4ja ,the potassium-fortified soil gave a #be percent higher bulk yield but the soybeans contained #be percent less protein4 ,the consumer of those plants would have to burn off approximately #cj percent more carbohydrates to obtain the same amount of vital amino acids essential to all bodily functions4 ,wet-soil plants also contain only one-third as much calcium1 an essential nutrient1 whose lack over several generations causes gradual reduction of skeletal size and dental deterioration4 ,they also contain only half as much phosphorus1 another essential nutrient4 ,their oversupply of potassium is not needed2 humans eating balanced diets usually excrete large quantities of unnecessary potassium in their urine4 ,albrecht then analyzed dozens of samples of vegetation that came from both dryland soils and humid soils and noticed differences in them similar to the soybeans grown under controlled conditions4 ,the next chart1 showing the average composition of plant vegetation from the two different regions1 is taken directly from ,albrecht's research4 ,the figures are averages of large numbers of plant samples1 including many different food crops from each climate4 ,average ,nutritional ,content by ,climate ,nutrient ,dryland ,soil ,humid ,soil ,potassium #b4dd #a4bg ,calcium #a4ib #j4bh ,phosphorus #j4gh #j4db ,total mineral nutrition #e4ad #a4ig ,ratio of ,potassium to ,calciuim #a4bj_/a #d4ej_/a ,analyzed as a whole1 these data tell us a great deal about how we should manage our soil to produce the most nutritious food and about the judicious use of compost in the garden as well4 ,i ask you to refer back to these three small charts as ,i point out a number of conclusions that can be drawn from them4 ,the basic nutritional problem that all animals have is not about finding energy food1 but how to intake enough vitamins1 minerals and usable proteins4 ,what limits our ability to intake nutrients is the amount of bulk we can process--or the number of calories in the food4 ,with cows1 for example1 bulk is the limiter4 ,the cow will completely fill her digestive tract at all times and will process all the vegetation she can digest every day of her life4 ,her health depends on the amount of nutrition in that bulk4 ,with humans1 our modern lifestyle limits most of us to consuming #a1ejj to #a1hjj calories a day4 ,our health depends on the amount of nutrients coming along with those calories4 ,so ,i write the fundamental equation for human health as follows3 ,,health ,,nutrition ,,in ,,food ,,divided ,,by ,,calories ,,in ,,that ,,food ,if the food that we eat contains all of the nutrients that food could possibly contain1 and in the right ratios1 then we will get sufficient nutrition while consuming the calories we need to supply energy4 ,however1 to the degree that our diet contains denatured food supplying too much energy1 we will be lacking nutrition and our bodies will suffer gradual degeneration4 ,this is why foods such as sugar and fat are less healthful because they are concentrated sources of energy that contain little or no nutrition4 ,nutritionless food also contributes to hidden hungers since the organism craves something that is missing4 ,the body overeats1 and becomes fat and unhealthy4 ,albrecht's charts show us that food from dry climates tends to be high in proteins and essential minerals while simultaneously lower in calories4 ,food from wet climates tends to be higher in calories while much lower in protein and essential mineral nutrients4 ,albrecht's writings1 as well as those of ,weston ,price1 and ,sir ,robert ,mc,carrison listed in the bibliography1 are full of examples showing how human health and longevity are directly associated with these same variations in climate1 soil1 and food nutrition4 ,albrecht pointed out a clear example of soil fertility causing health or sickness4 ,in #aidj1 when ,america was preparing for ,world ,war ,,ii1 all eligible men were called in for a physical examination to determine fitness for military service4 ,at that time1 ,americans did not eat the same way we do now4 ,food was produced and distributed locally4 ,bread was milled from local flour4 ,meat and milk came from local farmers4 ,vegetables and potatoes did not all come from ,california4 ,regional differences in soil fertility could be seen reflected in the health of people4 ,albrecht's state1 ,missouri1 is divided into a number of distinct rainfall regions4 ,the northwestern part is grassy prairie and receives much less moisture than the humid1 forested southeastern section4 ,if soil tests were compared across a diagonal line drawn from the northwest to the southeast1 they would exactly mimic the climate-caused mineral profile differences ,albrecht had identified4 ,not unexpectedly1 #bjj young men per #a1jjj draftees were medically unfit for military service from the northwest part of ,missouri while #djj per #a1jjj were unfit from the southeastern part4 ,and #cjj per #a1jjj were unfit from the center of the state4 ,another interesting1 and rather frightening1 conclusion can be drawn from the second chart4 ,please notice that by increasing the amount of potassium in the potting soil1 ,albrecht increased the overall yield by #be percent while simultaneously lowering all of the other significant nutritional aspects4 ,most of this increase of yield was in the form of carbohydrates1 that in a food crops equates to calories4 ,agronomists also know that adding potassium fertilizer greatly and inexpensively increases yield4 ,so ,american farm soils are routinely dosed with potassium fertilizer1 increasing bulk yield and profits without consideration for nutrition1 or for the ultimate costs in public health4 ,organic farmers often do not understand this aspect of plant nutrition either and may use organic forms of potassium to increase their yields and profits4 ,buying organically grown food is no guarantee that it contains the ultimate in nutrition4 ,so1 if health comes from paying attention to the ratio of nutrition to calories in our food1 then as gardeners who are in charge of creating a significant amount of our own fodder1 we can take that equation a step further3 ,,health ,nutrition_/,calories ,calcium_/,potassium ,when we decide how to manage our gardens we can take steps to imitate dryland soils by keeping potassium levels lower while maintaining higher levels of calcium4 ,now take another close look at the third chart4 ,average vegetation from dryland soils contains slightly more potassium than calcium 7#a4b3a7 while average vegetation from wetland soils contains many more times more potassium than calcium 7#d4e3a74 ,when we import manure or vegetation into our garden or farm soils we are adding large quantities of potassium4 ,those of us living in rainy climates that were naturally forested have it much worse in this respect than those of us gardening on the prairies or growing irrigated gardens in desert climates because the very vegetation and manure we use to build up our gardens contains much more potassium while most of our soils already contain all we need and then some4 ,it should be clear to you now why some organic gardeners receive the soil tests like the man at my lecture4 ,even the soil tester1 although scientifically trained and university educated1 did not appreciate the actual source of the potassium overdose4 ,the tester concluded it must have been wood ashes when actually the potassium came from organic matter itself4 ,i conclude that organic matter is somewhat dangerous stuff whose use should be limited to the amount needed to maintain basic soil tilth and a healthy1 complex soil ecology4 ,fertilizing ,gardens ,organically ,scientists analyzing the connections between soil fertility and the nutritional value of crops have repeatedly remarked that the best crops are grown with compost and fertilizer4 ,not fertilizer alone and not compost alone4 ,the best place for gardeners to see these data is ,werner ,schupan's book 7listed in the bibliography74 ,but say the word fertilizer to an organic gardener and you'll usually raise their hackles4 ,actually there is no direct linkage of the words fertilizer and chemical4 ,a fertilizer is any concentrated plant nutrient source that rapidly becomes available in the soil4 ,in my opinion1 chemicals are the poorest fertilizers2 organic fertilizers are far superior4 ,the very first fertilizer sold widely in the industrial world was guano4 ,it is the naturally sun-dried droppings of nesting sea birds that accumulates in thick layers on rocky islands off the coast of ,south ,america4 ,guano is a potent nutrient source similar to dried chicken manure1 containing large quantities of nitrogen1 fair amounts of phosphorus1 and smaller quantities of potassium4 ,guano is more potent than any other manure because sea birds eat ocean fish1 a very high protein and highly mineralized food4 ,other potent organic fertilizers include seed meals2 pure1 dried chicken manure2 slaughterhouse wastes2 dried kelp and other seaweeds2 and fish meal4 ,composition of ,organic ,fertilizers ,material ,nitrogen ,phos4 ,potassium ,alfalfa meal #b4e #j4e #b4a ,bone meal 7raw7 #c4e #ba4j #j4b ,bone meal 7steamed7 #b4j #ba4j #j4b ,chicken manure 7pure1 fresh7 #b4f #a4be #j4ge ,cottonseed meal #g4j #c4j #b4j ,blood meal #ab4j #c4j -- ,fish meal #h4j #g4j -- ,greensand -- #a4e #g4j ,hoof and ,horn #ab4e #b4j -- ,kelp meal #a4e #j4ge #d4i ,peanut meal #c4f #j4g #j4e ,tankage #aa4j #e4j -- ,growing most types of vegetables requires building a level of soil fertility that is much higher than required by field crops like cereals1 soybeans1 cotton and sunflowers4 ,field crops can be acceptably productive on ordinary soils without fertilization4 ,however1 because we have managed our farm soils as depreciating industrial assets rather than as relatively immortal living bodies1 their ability to deliver plant nutrients has declined and the average farmer usually must add additional nutrients in the form of concentrated1 rapidly-releasing fertilizers if they are going to grow a profitable crop4 ,vegetables are much more demanding than field crops4 ,they have long been adapted to growing on potent composts or strong manures like fresh horse manure or chicken manure4 ,planted and nourished like wheat1 most would refuse to grow or if they did survive in a wheat field1 vegetables would not produce the succulent1 tender parts we consider valuable4 ,building higher than normal levels of plant nutrients can be done with large additions of potent compost and manure4 ,in semi-arid parts of the country where vegetation holds a beneficial ratio of calcium to potassium food grown that way will be quite nutritious4 ,in areas of heavier rainfall1 increasing soil fertility to vegetable levels is accomplished better with fertilizers4 ,the data in the previous section gives strong reasons for many gardeners to limit the addition of organic matter in soil to a level that maintains a healthy soil ecology and acceptable tilth4 ,instead of supplementing compost with low quality chemical fertilizers1 ,i recommend making and using a complete organic fertilizer mix to increase mineral fertility4 ,making and ,using ,complete ,organic ,fertilizer ,the basic ingredients used for making balanced organic fertilizers can vary and what you decide on will largely depend on where you live4 ,seed meal usually forms the body of the blend4 ,seed meals are high in nitrogen and moderately rich in phosphorus because plants concentrate most of the phosphorus they collect during their entire growth cycle into their seeds to serve to give the next generation a strong start4 ,seed meals contain low but more than adequate amounts of potassium4 ,the first mineral to be removed by leaching is calcium4 ,adding lime can make all the difference in wet soils4 ,dolomite lime also adds magnesium and is the preferable form of lime to use in a fertilizer blend on most soils4 ,gypsum could be substituted for lime in arid areas where the soils are naturally alkaline but still may benefit from additional calcium4 ,kelp meal contains valuable trace minerals4 ,if ,i were short of money1 first ,i'd eliminate the kelp meal1 then the phosphate source4 ,all ingredients going into this formula are measured by volume and the measurements can be very rough3 by sack1 by scoop1 or by coffee can4 ,you can keep the ingredients separated and mix fertilizer by the bucketful as needed or you can dump the contents of half a dozen assorted sacks out on a concrete sidewalk or driveway and blend them with a shovel and then store the mixture in garbage cans or even in the original sacks the ingredients came in4 ,this is my formula4 #d parts by volume3 ,any seed meal such as cottonseed meal1 soybean meal1 sunflower meal1 canola meal1 linseed meal1 safflower1 peanut meal or coconut meal4 ,gardeners with deep pocketbooks and insensitive noses can also fish meal4 ,gardeners without vegetarian scruples may use meat meal1 tankage1 leather dust1 feather meal or other slaughterhouse waste4 #a part by volume3 ,bone meal or rock phosphate #a part by volume3 ,lime1 preferably dolomite on most soils4 7,soils derived from serpentine rock contain almost toxic levels of magnesium and should not receive dolomite4 ,alkaline soils may still benefit from additional calcium and should get gypsum instead of ordinary lime47 #a_/b part by volume3 kelp meal or other dried seaweed4 ,to use this fertilizer1 broadcast and work in about one gallon per each #ajj square feet of growing bed or #ej feet of row4 ,this is enough for all low-demand vegetables like carrots1 beans and peas4 ,for more needy species1 blend an additional handful or two into about a gallon of soil below the transplants or in the hill4 ,if planting in rows1 cut a deep furrow1 sprinkle in about one pint of fertilizer per #aj-ae row feet1 cover the fertilizer with soil and then cut another furrow to sow the seeds in about two inches away4 ,locating concentrations of nutrition close to seeds or seedlings is called banding4 ,i have a thick file of letters thanking me for suggesting the use of this fertilizer blend4 ,if you've been building up your soil for years1 or if your vegetables never seem to grow as large or lustily as you imagine they should1 ,i strongly suggest you experiment with a small batch of this mixture4 ,wouldn't you like heads of broccoli that were #h-ab inches in diameter8 ,or zucchini plants that didn't quit yielding8 ,,chapter ,,nine ,making ,superior ,compost ,the potency of composts can vary greatly4 ,most municipal solid waste compost has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio and when tilled into soil temporarily provokes the opposite of a good growth response until soil animals and microorganisms consume most of the undigested paper4 ,but if low-grade compost is used as a surface mulch on ornamentals1 the results are usually quite satisfactory even if unspectacular4 ,if the aim of your own composting is to conveniently dispose of yard waste and kitchen garbage1 the information in the first half of the book is all you need to know4 ,if you need compost to make something that dependably ,,grows plants like it was fertilizer1 then this chapter is for you4 ,a ,little ,history ,before the twentieth century1 the fertilizers market gardeners used were potent manures and composts4 ,the vegetable gardens of country folk also received the best manures and composts available while the field crops got the rest4 ,so ,i've learned a great deal from old farming and market gardening literature about using animal manures4 ,in previous centuries1 farmers classified manures by type and purity4 ,there was long and short manure1 and then1 there was the supreme plant growth stimulant1 chicken manure4 ,chicken manure was always highly prized but usually in short supply because preindustrial fowl weren't caged in factories or permanently locked in hen houses and fed scientifically formulated mixes4 ,the chicken breed of that era was usually some type of bantam1 half-wild1 broody1 protective of chicks1 and capable of foraging4 ,a typical pre-#aijj small-scale chicken management system was to allow the flock free access to hunt their own meals in the barnyard and orchard1 luring them into the coop at dusk with a bit of grain where they were protected from predators while sleeping helplessly4 ,some manure was collected from the hen house but most of it was dropped where it could not be gathered4 ,the daily egg hunt was worth it because1 before the era of pesticides1 having chickens range through the orchard greatly reduced problems with insects in fruit4 ,the high potency of chicken manure derives from the chickens' low ,c_/,n diet3 worms1 insects1 tender shoots of new grass1 and other proteinaceous young greens and seeds4 ,twentieth-century chickens living in egg and meat factories must still be fed low ,c_/,n foods1 primarily grains1 and their manure is still potent4 ,but anyone who has savored real free-range eggs with deep orange yokes from chickens on a proper diet cannot be happy with what passes for eggs these days4 ,fertilizing with pure chicken manure is not very different than using ground cereal grains or seed meals4 ,it is so concentrated that it might burn plant leaves like chemical fertilizer does and must be applied sparingly to soil4 ,it provokes a marked and vigorous growth response4 ,two or three gallons of dry1 pure fresh chicken manure are sufficient nutrition to ,,grow about #ajj square feet of vegetables in raised beds to the maximum4 ,exclusively incorporating pure chicken manure into a vegetable garden also results in rapid humus loss1 just as though chemical fertilizers were used4 ,any fertilizing substance with a ,c_/,n below that of stabilized humus1 be it a chemical or a natural substance1 accelerates the decline in soil organic matter4 ,that is because nitrate nitrogen1 the key to constructing all protein1 is usually the main factor limiting the population of soil microorganisms4 ,when the nitrate level of soil is significantly increased1 microbe populations increase proportionately and proceeds to eat organic matter at an accelerated rate4 ,that is why small amounts of chemical fertilizer applied to soil that still contains a reasonable amount of humus has such a powerful effect4 ,not only does the fertilizer itself stimulate the growth of plants1 but fertilizer increases the microbial population4 ,more microbes accelerate the breakdown of humus and even more plant nutrients are released as organic matter decays4 ,and that is why holistic farmers and gardeners mistakenly criticize chemical fertilizers as being directly destructive of soil microbes4 ,actually1 all fertilizers1 chemical or organic1 indirectly harm soil life1 first increasing their populations to unsustainable levels that drop off markedly once enough organic matter has been eaten4 ,unless1 of course1 the organic matter is replaced4 ,chicken manure compost is another matter4 ,mix the pure manure with straw1 sawdust1 or other bedding1 compost it and1 depending on the amount and quantity of bedding used and the time allowed for decomposition to occur1 the resultant ,c_/,n will be around #ab3a or above4 ,any ripened compost around #ab3a still will ,,grow plants beautifully4 ,performance drops off as the ,c_/,n increases4 ,since chicken manure was scarce1 most pre-twentieth century market gardeners depended on seemingly unlimited supplies of short manure1 generally from horses4 ,the difference between the long and the short manure was bedding4 ,long manure contained straw from the stall while short manure was pure street sweepings without adulterants4 ,hopefully1 the straw portion of long manure had absorbed a quantity of urine4 ,people of that era knew the fine points of hay quality as well as people today know their gasoline4 ,horses expected to do a day's work were fed on grass or grass_/clover mixes that had been cut and dried while they still had a high protein content4 ,leafy hay was highly prized while hay that upon close inspection revealed lots of stems and seed heads would be rejected by a smart buyer4 ,the working horse's diet was supplemented with a daily ration of grain4 ,consequently1 uncomposted fresh short manure probably started out with a ,c_/,n around #ae3a4 ,however1 don't count on anything that good from horses these days4 ,most horses aren't worked daily so their fodder is often poor4 ,judging from the stemmy1 cut-too-late grass hay our local horses have to try to survive on1 if ,i could find bedding-free horse manure it would probably have a ,c_/,n more like #bj3a4 ,manure from physically fit thoroughbred race horses is probably excellent4 ,using fresh horse manure in soil gave many vegetables a harsh flavor so it was first composted by mixing in some soil 7a good idea because otherwise a great deal of ammonia would escape the heap74 ,market gardeners raising highly demanding crops like cauliflower and celery amended composted short manure by the inches-thick layer4 ,lesser nutrient-demanding crops like snap beans1 lettuce1 and roots followed these intensively fertilized vegetables without further compost4 ,long manures containing lots of straw were considered useful only for field crops or root vegetables4 ,wise farmers conserved the nitrogen and promptly composted long manures4 ,after heating and turning the resulting ,c_/,n would probably be in a little below #bj3a4 ,after tilling it in1 a short period of time was allowed while the soil digested this compost before sowing seeds4 ,lazy farmers spread raw manure load by load as it came from the barn and tilled it in once the entire field was covered4 ,this easy method allows much nitrogen to escape as ammonia while the manure dries in the sun4 ,commercial vegetable growers had little use for long manure4 ,one point of this brief history lesson is ,,gigo3 garbage in1 garbage out4 ,the finished compost tends to have a ,c_/,n that is related to the ingredients that built the heap4 ,growers of vegetables will wisely take note4 ,anyone interested in learning more about preindustrial market gardening might ask their librarian to seek out a book called ,french ,gardening by ,thomas ,smith1 published in ,london about #aije4 ,this fascinating little book was written to encourage ,british market gardeners to imitate the ,parisian marcier1 who skillfully earned top returns growing out-of-season produce on intensive1 double-dug raised beds1 often under glass hot or cold frames4 ,our trendy ,american ,biodynamic ,french ,intensive gurus obtained their inspiration from ,england through this tradition4 ,curing the ,heap ,the easiest and most sure-fire improver of compost quality is time4 ,making a heap with predominantly low ,c_/,n materials inevitably results in potent compost if nitrate loss is kept to a minimum4 ,but the ,c_/,n of almost any compost heap1 even one starting with a high ,c_/,n will eventually lower itself4 ,the key word here is eventually4 ,the most dramatic decomposition occurs during the first few turns when the heap is hot4 ,many people1 including writers of garden books1 mistakenly think that the composting ends when the pile cools and the material no longer resembles what made up the heap4 ,this is not true4 ,as long as a compost heap is kept moist and is turned occasionally1 it will continue to decompose4 ,curing or ripening are terms used to describe what occurs once heating is over4 ,a different ecology of microorganisms predominates while a heap is ripening4 ,if the heap contains #e to #aj percent soil1 is kept moist1 is turned occasionally so it stays aerobic1 and has a complete mineral balance1 considerable bacterial nitrogen fixation may occur4 ,most gardeners are familiar with the microbes that nodulate the roots of legumes4 ,called rhizobia1 these bacteria are capable of fixing large quantities of nitrate nitrogen in a short amount of time4 ,rhizobia tend to be inactive during hot weather because the soil itself is supplying nitrates from the breakdown of organic matter4 ,summer legume crops1 like cowpeas and snap beans1 tend to be net consumers of nitrates1 not makers of more nitrates than they can use4 ,consider this when you read in carelessly researched garden books and articles about the advantages of interplanting legumes with other crops because they supposedly generate nitrates that help their companions4 ,but during spring or fall when lowered soil temperatures retard decomposition1 rhizobia can manufacture from #hj to #bjj pounds of nitrates per acre4 ,peas1 clovers1 alfalfa1 vetches1 and fava beans can all make significant contributions of nitrate nitrogen and smart farmers prefer to grow their nitrogen by green manuring legumes4 ,wise farmers also know that this nitrate1 though produced in root nodules1 is used by legumes to grow leaf and stem4 ,so the entire legume must be tilled in if any net nitrogen gain is to be realized4 ,this wise practice simultaneously increases organic matter4 ,rhizobia are not capable of being active in compost piles1 but another class of microbes is4 ,called azobacteria1 these free-living soil dwellers also make nitrate nitrogen4 ,their contribution is not potentially as great as rhizobia1 but no special provision must be made to encourage azobacteria other than maintaining a decent level of humus for them to eat1 a balanced mineral supply that includes adequate calcium1 and a soil p,h between #e4ge and #g4be4 ,a high-yielding crop of wheat needs #fj-hj pounds of nitrates per acre4 ,corn and most vegetables can use twice that amount4 ,azobacteria can make enough for wheat1 though an average nitrate contribution under good soil conditions might be more like #cj-ej pounds per year4 ,once a compost heap has cooled1 azobacteria will proliferate and begin to manufacture significant amounts of nitrates1 steadily lowering the ,c_/,n4 ,and carbon never stops being digested1 further dropping the ,c_/,n4 ,the rapid phase of composting may be over in a few months1 but ripening can be allowed to go on for many more months if necessary4 ,feeding unripened compost to worms is perhaps the quickest way to lower ,c_/,n and make a potent soil amendment4 ,once the high heat of decomposition has passed and the heap is cooling1 it is commonly invaded by redworms1 the same species used for vermicomposting kitchen garbage4 ,these worms would not be able to eat the high ,c_/,n material that went into a heap1 but after heating1 the average ,c_/,n has probably dropped enough to be suitable for them4 ,the municipal composting operation at ,fallbrook1 ,california makes clever use of this method to produce a smaller amount of high-grade product out of a larger quantity of low-grade ingredients4 ,mixtures of sewage sludge and municipal solid waste are first composted and after cooling1 the half-done high ,c_/,n compost is shallowly spread out over crude worm beds and kept moist4 ,more crude compost is added as the worms consume the waste1 much like a household worm box4 ,the worm beds gradually rise4 ,the lower portion of these mounds is pure castings while the worm activity stays closer to the surface where food is available4 ,when the beds have grown to about three feet tall1 the surface few inches containing worms and undigested food are scraped off and used to form new vermicomposting beds4 ,the castings below are considered finished compost4 ,by laboratory analysis1 the castings contain three or four times as much nitrogen as the crude compost being fed to the worms4 ,the marketplace gives an excellent indicator of the difference between their crude compost and the worm casts4 ,even though ,fallbrook is surrounded by large acreages devoted to citrus orchards and row crop vegetables1 the municipality has a difficult time disposing of the crude product4 ,but their vermicompost is in strong demand4 ,sir ,albert ,howard's ,indore ,method ,nineteenth-century farmers and market gardeners had much practical knowledge about using manures and making composts that worked like fertilizers1 but little was known about the actual microbial process of composting until our century4 ,as information became available about compost ecology1 one brilliant individual1 ,sir ,albert ,howard1 incorporated the new science of soil microbiology into his composting and by patient experiment learned how to make superior compost ,during the #aibjs1 ,albert ,howard was in charge of a government research farm at ,indore1 ,india4 ,at heart a ,peace ,corps volunteer1 he made ,indore operate like a very representative ,indian farm1 growing all the main staples of the local agriculture3 cotton1 sugar cane1 and cereals4 ,the farm was powered by the same work oxen used by the surrounding farmers4 ,it would have been easy for ,howard to demonstrate better yields through high technology by buying chemical fertilizers or using seed meal wastes from oil extraction1 using tractors1 and growing new1 high-yielding varieties that could make use of more intense soil nutrition4 ,but these inputs were not affordable to the average ,indian farmer and ,howard's purpose was to offer genuine help to his neighbors by demonstrating methods they could easily afford and use4 ,in the beginning of his work at ,indore1 ,howard observed that the district's soils were basically fertile but low in organic matter and nitrogen4 ,this deficiency seemed to be due to traditionally wasteful practices concerning manures and agricultural residues4 ,so ,howard began developing methods to compost the waste products of agriculture1 making enough high-quality fertilizer to supply the entire farm4 ,soon1 ,indore research farm was enjoying record yields without having insect or disease problems1 and without buying fertilizer or commercial seed4 ,more significantly1 the work animals1 fed exclusively on fodder from ,indore's humus-rich soil1 become invulnerable to cattle diseases4 ,their shining health and fine condition became the envy of the district4 ,most significant1 ,howard contended that his method not only conserved the nitrogen in cattle manure and crop waste1 not only conserved the organic matter the land produced1 but also raised the processes of the entire operation to an ecological climax of maximized health and production4 ,conserving the manure and composting the crop waste allowed him to increase the soil's organic matter which increased the soil's release of nutrients from rock particles that further increased the production of biomass which allowed him to make even more compost and so on4 ,what ,i have just described is not surprising1 it is merely a variation on good farming that some humans have known about for millennia4 ,what was truly revolutionary was ,howard's contention about increasing net nitrates4 ,with gentle understatement1 ,howard asserted that his compost was genuinely superior to anything ever known before4 ,indore compost had these advantages3 no nitrogen or organic matter was lost from the farm through mishandling of agricultural wastes2 the humus level of the farm's soils increased to a maximum sustainable level2 and1 the amount of nitrate nitrogen in the finished compost was higher than the total amount of nitrogen contained in the materials that formed the heap4 ,indore compost resulted in a net gain of nitrate nitrogen4 ,the compost factory was also a biological nitrate factory4 ,howard published details of the ,indore method in #aica in a slim book called ,the ,waste ,products of ,agriculture4 ,the widely read book brought him invitations to visit plantations throughout the ,british ,empire4 ,it prompted farmers world-wide to make compost by the ,indore method4 ,travel1 contacts1 and new awareness of the problems of ,european agriculture were responsible for ,howard's decision to create an organic farming and gardening movement4 ,howard repeatedly warned in ,the ,waste ,products of ,agriculture that if the underlying fundamentals of his process were altered1 superior results would not occur4 ,that was his viewpoint in #aica4 ,however1 humans being what we are1 it does not seem possible for good technology to be broadcast without each user trying to improve and adapt it to their own situation and understanding4 ,by #aidj1 the term lndore compost had become a generic term for any kind of compost made in a heap without the use of chemicals1 much as ,rototiller has come to mean any motor-driven rotarytiller4 ,howard's #aica concerns were correct--almost all alterations of the original ,indore system lessened its value--but ,howard of #aida did not resist this dilutive trend because in an era of chemical farming any compost was better than no compost1 any return of humus better than none4 ,still1 ,i think it is useful to go back to the ,indore research farm of the #aibjs and to study closely how ,albert ,howard once made the world's finest compost1 and to encounter this great man's thoughts before he became a crusading ideologue1 dead set against any use of agricultural chemicals4 ,a great many valuable lessons are still contained in ,the ,waste ,products of ,agriculture4 ,unfortunately1 even though many organic gardeners are familiar with the later works of ,sir ,albert ,howard the reformer1 ,albert ,howard the scientist and researcher1 who wrote this book1 is virtually unknown today4 ,at ,indore1 all available vegetable material was composted1 including manure and bedding straw from the cattle shed1 unconsumed crop residues1 fallen leaves and other forest wastes1 weeds1 and green manures grown specifically for compost making4 ,all of the urine from the cattle shed-in the form of urine earth--and all wood ashes from any source on the farm were also included4 ,being in the tropics1 compost making went on year-round4 ,of the result1 ,howard stated that ,the product is a finely divided leafmould1 of high nitrifying power1 ready for immediate use without temporarily inhibiting plant growth4 ,the fine state of division enables the compost to be rapidly incorporated and to exert its maximum influence on a very large area of the internal surface of the soil4 ,howard stressed that for the ,indore method to work reliably the carbon to nitrogen ratio of the material going into the heap must always be in the same range4 ,every time a heap was built the same assortment of crop wastes were mixed with the same quantities of fresh manure and urine earth4 ,as with my bread-baking analogy1 ,howard insured repeatability of ingredients4 ,any hard1 woody materials--,howard called them refractory--must be thoroughly broken up before composting1 otherwise the fermentation would not be vigorous1 rapid1 and uniform throughout the process4 ,this mechanical softening up was cleverly accomplished without power equipment by spreading tough crop wastes like cereal straw or pigeon pea and cotton stalks out over the farm roads1 allowing cartwheels1 the oxens' hooves1 and foot traffic to break them up4 ,decomposition must be rapid and aerobic1 but not too aerobic4 ,and not too hot4 ,quite intentionally1 ,indore compost piles were not allowed to reach the highest temperatures that are possible4 ,during the first heating cycle1 peak temperatures were about #adj degree4 ,after two weeks1 when the first turn was made1 temperatures had dropped to about #abe degree1 and gradually declined from there4 ,howard cleverly restricted the air supply and thermal mass so as to bank the fires of decomposition4 ,this moderation was his key to preventing loss of nitrogen4 ,provisions were made to water the heaps as necessary1 to turn them several times1 and to use a novel system of mass inoculation with the proper fungi and bacteria4 ,i'll shortly discuss each of these subjects in detail4 ,howard was pleased that there was no need to accept nitrogen loss at any stage and that the reverse should happen4 ,once the ,c_/,n had dropped sufficiently1 the material was promptly incorporated into the soil where nitrate nitrogen will be best preserved4 ,but the soil is not capable of doing two jobs at once4 ,it can't digest crude organic matter and simultaneously nitrify humus4 ,so compost must be finished and completely ripe when it was tilled in so that3 4 4 4 there must be no serious competition between the last stages of decay of the compost and the work of the soil in growing the crop4 ,this is accomplished by carrying the manufacture of humus up to the point when nitrification is about to begin4 ,in this way the ,chinese principle of dividing the growing of a crop into two separate processes--7#a7 the preparation of the food materials outside the field1 and 7#b7 the actual growing of the crop-can be introduced into general agricultural practice4 ,and because he actually lived on a farm1 ,howard especially emphasized that composting must be sanitary and odorless and that flies must not be allowed to breed in the compost or around the work cattle4 ,country life can be quite idyllic--without flies4 ,the ,indore ,compost ,factory ,at ,indore1 ,howard built a covered1 open-sided1 compost-making factory that sheltered shallow pits1 each #cj feet long by #ad feet wide by #b feet deep with sloping sides4 ,the pits were sufficiently spaced to allow loaded carts to have access to all sides of any of them and a system of pipes brought water near every one4 ,the materials to be composted were all stored adjacent to the factory4 ,howard's work oxen were conveniently housed in the next building4 ,soil and ,urine ,earth ,howard had been raised on an ,english farm and from childhood he had learned the ways of work animals and how to make them comfortable4 ,so1 for the ease of their feet1 the cattle shed and its attached1 roofed loafing pen had earth floors4 ,all soil removed from the silage pits1 dusty sweepings from the threshing floors1 and silt from the irrigation ditches were stored near the cattle shed and used to absorb urine from the work cattle4 ,this soil was spread about six inches deep in the cattle stalls and loafing pen4 ,about three times a year it was scraped up and replaced with fresh soil1 the urine-saturated earth then was dried and stored in a special covered enclosure to be used for making compost4 ,the presence of this soil in the heap was essential4 ,first1 the black soil of ,indore was well-supplied with calcium1 magnesium1 and other plant nutrients4 ,these basic elements prevented the heaps from becoming overly acid4 ,additionally1 the clay in the soil was uniquely incorporated into the heap so that it coated everything4 ,clay has a strong ability to absorb ammonia1 preventing nitrogen loss4 ,a clay coating also holds moisture4 ,without soil1 an even and vigorous mycelial growth is never quickly obtained4 ,howard said the fungi are the storm troops of the composting process1 and must be furnished with all the armament they need4 ,crop ,wastes ,crop wastes were protected from moisture1 stored dry under cover near the compost factory4 ,green materials were first withered in the sun for a few days before storage4 ,refractory materials were spread on the farm's roads and crushed by foot traffic and cart wheels before stacking4 ,all these forms of vegetation were thinly layered as they were received so that the dry storage stacks became thoroughly mixed4 ,care was taken to preserve the mixing by cutting vertical slices out of the stacks when vegetation was taken to the compost pits4 ,howard said the average ,c_/,n of this mixed vegetation was about #cc3a4 ,every compost heap made year-round was built with this complex assortment of vegetation having the same properties and the same ,c_/,n4 ,special preliminary treatment was given to hard1 woody materials like sugarcane1 millet stumps1 wood shavings and waste paper4 ,these were first dumped into an empty compost pit1 mixed with a little soil1 and kept moist until they softened4 ,or they might be soaked in water for a few days and then added to the bedding under the work cattle4 ,great care was taken when handling the cattle's bedding to insure that no flies would breed in it4 ,manure ,though crop wastes and urine-earth could be stored dry for later use1 manure1 the key ingredient of ,indore compost1 had to be used fresh4 ,fresh cow dung contains bacteria from the cow's rumen that is essential to the rapid decomposition of cellulose and other dry vegetation4 ,without their abundant presence composting would not begin as rapidly nor proceed as surely4 ,charging the ,compost ,pits ,every effort was made to fill a pit to the brim within one week4 ,if there wasn't enough material to fill an entire pit within one week1 then a portion of one pit would be filled to the top4 ,to preserve good aeration1 every effort was made to avoid stepping on the material while filling the pit4 ,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 factory4 ,each layer was thoroughly wet down with a clay slurry made of three ingredients3 water1 urine-earth1 and actively decomposing material from an adjacent compost pit that had been filled about two weeks earlier4 ,this insured that every particle within the heap was moist and was coated with nitrogen-rich soil and the microorganisms of decomposition4 ,today1 we would call this practice mass inoculation4 ,pits ,versus ,heaps ,india has two primary seasons4 ,most of the year is hot and dry while the monsoon rains come from dune through ,september4 ,during the monsoon1 so much water falls so continuously that the earth becomes completely saturated4 ,even though the pits were under a roof1 they would fill with water during this period4 ,so in the monsoon1 compost was made in low heaps atop the ground4 ,compared to the huge pits1 their dimensions were smaller than you would expect3 #g x #g feet at the top1 #h x #h feet at the base and no more than #b feet high4 ,when the rains started1 any compost being completed in pits was transferred to above-ground heaps when it was turned4 ,howard was accomplishing several things by using shallow pits or low but very broad heaps4 ,one1 thermal masses were reduced so temperatures could not reach the ultimate extremes possible while composting4 ,the pits were better than heaps because air flow was further reduced1 slowing down the fermentation1 while their shallowness still permitted sufficient aeration4 ,there were enough covered pits to start a new heap every week4 ,temperature ,range in ,normal ,pit ,age in days ,temperature in degree ,c #c #fc #d #fj #f #eh #aa #ee #ab #ec #ac #di #ad #di ,first ,turn #ah #di #bj #ea #bb #dh #bd #dg #bi #df ,second ,turn #cg #di #ch #de #dj #dj #dc #ci #eg #ci ,third ,turn #fa #da #ff #ci #gf #ch #hb #cf #ij #cc ,period in days for each fall of #e;i ,c ,temperature ,range ,no4 of ,days #fe degree-#fj degree #d #fj degree-#ee degree #g #ee degree-#ej degree #a #ej degree-#de degree #be #de degree-#dj degree #b #dj degree-#ce degree #dd #ce degree-#cj degree #ad ,total #ig days ,turning ,turning the compost was done three times3 ,to insure uniform decomposition1 to restore moisture and air1 and to supply massive quantities of those types of microbes needed to take the composting process to its next stage4 ,the first turn was at about sixteen days4 ,a second mass inoculation equivalent to a few wheelbarrows full of #cj day old composting material was taken from an adjacent pit and spread thinly over the surface of the pit being turned4 ,then1 one half of the pit was dug out with a manure fork and placed atop the first half4 ,a small quantity of water was added1 if needed to maintain moisture4 ,now the compost occupied half the pit1 a space about #ae x #ad and was about three feet high1 rising out of the earth about one foot4 ,during the monsoons when heaps were used1 the above-ground piles were also mass inoculated and then turned so as to completely mix the material1 and as we do today1 placing the outside material in the core and vice-versa4 ,one month after starting1 or about two weeks after the first turn1 the pit or heap would be turned again4 ,more water would be added4 ,this time the entire mass would be forked from one half the pit to the other and every effort would be made to fluff up the material while thoroughly mixing it4 ,and a few loads of material were removed to inoculate a #ae-;day-old pit4 ,another month would pass1 or about two months after starting1 and for the third time the compost would be turned and then allowed to ripen4 ,this time the material is brought out of the pit and piled atop the earth so as to increase aeration4 ,at this late stage there would be no danger of encouraging high temperatures but the increased oxygen facilitated nitrogen fixation4 ,the contents of several pits might be combined to form a heap no larger than #aj x #aj at the base1 #i x #i on top1 and no more than #c-a_/b feet high4 ,again1 more water might be added4 ,ripening would take about one month4 ,howard's measurements showed that after a month's maturation the finished compost should be used without delay or precious nitrogen would be lost4 ,however1 keep in mind when considering this brief ripening period that the heap was already as potent as it could become4 ,howard's problem was not further improving the ,c_/,n1 it was conservation of nitrogen4 ,the ,superior ,value of ,indore ,compost4 ,howard said that finished ,indore compost was twice as rich in nitrogen as ordinary farmyard manure and that his target was compost with a ,c_/,n of #aj3a4 ,since it was long manure he was referring to1 let's assume that the ,c_/,n of a new heap started at #be3a4 ,the ,c_/,n of vegetation collected during the year is highly variable4 ,young grasses and legumes are very high in nitrogen1 while dried straw from mature plants has a very high ,c_/,n4 ,if compost is made catch-as-catch-can by using materials as they come available1 then results will be highly erratic4 ,howard had attempted to make composts of single vegetable materials like cotton residues1 cane trash1 weeds1 fresh green sweet clover1 or the waste of field peas4 ,these experiments were always unsatisfactory4 ,so ,howard wisely mixed his vegetation1 first withering and drying green materials by spreading them thinly in the sun to prevent their premature decomposition1 and then taking great care to preserve a uniform mixture of vegetation types when charging his compost pits4 ,this strategy can be duplicated by the home gardener4 ,howard was surprised to discover that he could compost all the crop waste he had available with only half the urine earth and about one-quarter of the oxen manure he had available4 ,but fresh manure and urine earth were essential4 ,during the #aibjs a patented process for making compost with a chemical fertilizer called ,adco was in vogue and ,howard tried it4 ,of using chemicals he said3 ,the weak point of ,adco is that it does nothing to overcome one of the great difficulties in composting1 namely the absorption of moisture in the early stages4 ,in hot weather in ,india1 the ,adco pits lose moisture so rapidly that the fermentation stops1 the temperature becomes uneven and then falls4 ,when1 however1 urine earth and cow-dung are used1 the residues become covered with a thin colloidal film1 which not only retains moisture but contains combined nitrogen and minerals required by the fungi4 ,this film enables the moisture to penetrate the mass and helps the fungi to establish themselves4 ,another disadvantage of ,adco is that when this material is used according to the directions1 the carbon-nitrogen ratio of the final product is narrower than the ideal #aj3a4 ,nitrogen is almost certain to be lost before the crop can make use of it ,fresh cow manure contains digestive enzymes and living bacteria that specialize in cellulose decomposition4 ,having a regular supply of this material helped initiate decomposition without delay4 ,contributing large quantities of actively growing microorganisms through mass inoculation with material from a two-week-old pile also helped4 ,the second mass inoculation at two weeks1 with material from a month-old heap provided a large supply of the type of organisms required when the heap began cooling4 ,city gardeners without access to fresh manure may compensate for this lack by imitating ,howard's mass inoculation technique1 starting smaller amounts of compost in a series of bins and mixing into each bin a bit of material from the one further along at each turning4 ,the passive backyard composting container automatically duplicates this advantage4 ,it simultaneously contains all decomposition stages and inoculates the material above by contact with more decomposed material below4 ,using prepared inoculants in a continuous composting bin is unnecessary4 ,city gardeners cannot readily obtain urine earth4 ,nor are ,american country gardeners with livestock likely to be willing to do so much work4 ,remember that ,howard used urine earth for three reasons4 ,one1 it contained a great deal of nitrogen and improved the starting ,c_/,n of the heap4 ,second1 it is thrifty4 ,over half the nutrient content of the food passing through cattle is discharged in the urine4 ,but1 equally important1 soil itself was beneficial to the process4 ,of this ,howard said1 where there may be insufficient dung and urine earth for converting large quantities of vegetable wastes which are available1 the shortage may be made up by the use of nitrate of soda 4 4 4 ,if such artificials are employed1 it will be a great advantage to make use of soil4 ,i am sure he would have made very similar comments about adding soil when using chicken manure1 or organic concentrates like seed meals1 as cattle manure substitutes4 ,control of the air supply is the most difficult part of composting4 ,first1 the process must stay aerobic4 ,that is one reason that single-material heaps fail because they tend to pack too tightly4 ,to facilitate air exchange1 the pits or heaps were never more than two feet deep4 ,where air was insufficient 7though still aerobic7 decay is retarded but worse1 a process called denitrification occurs in which nitrates and ammonia are biologically broken down into gasses and permanently lost4 ,too much manure and urine-earth can also interfere with aeration by making the heap too heavy1 establishing anaerobic conditions4 ,the chart illustrates denitrification caused by insufficient aeration compared to turning the composting process into a biological nitrate factory with optimum aeration4 ,making ,indore ,compost in ,deep and ,shallow ,pits ,pit #d feet deep ,pit #b feet deep ,amount of material 7lb4 wet7 in pit at start #d1ejj #d1ead ,total nitrogen 7lb7 at start #ca4be #bi4ab ,total nitrogen at end #bi4di #cb4cf ,loss or gain of nitrogen 7lb7 -#a4gf #c4bd ,percentage loss or gain of nitrogen -#f4a #aa4a ,finally1 modern gardeners might reconsider limiting temperature during composting4 ,india is a very warm climate with balmy nights most of the year4 ,heaps two or three feet high will achieve an initial temperature of about #ade degree4 ,the purchase of a thermometer with a long probe and a little experimentation will show you the dimensions that will more-or-less duplicate ,howard's temperature regimes in your climate with your materials4 ,inoculants ,howard's technique of mass inoculation with large amounts of biologically active material from older compost heaps speeds and directs decomposition4 ,it supplies large numbers of the most useful types of microorganisms so they dominate the heap's ecology before other less desirable types can establish significant populations4 ,i can't imagine how selling mass inoculants could be turned into a business4 ,but just imagine that seeding a new heap with tiny amounts of superior microorganisms could speed initial decomposition and result in a much better product4 ,that could be a business4 ,such an approach is not without precedent4 ,brewers1 vintners1 and bread makers all do that4 ,and ever since composting became interesting to twentieth-century farmers and gardeners1 entrepreneurs have been concocting compost starters that are intended to be added by the ounce7s7 to the cubic yard4 ,unlike the mass inoculation used at ,indore1 these inoculants are a tiny population compared to the microorganisms already present in any heap4 ,in that respect1 inoculating compost is very different than beer1 wine1 or bread4 ,with these food products there are few or no microorganisms at the start4 ,the inoculant1 small as it might be1 still introduces millions of times more desirable organisms than those wild types that might already be present4 ,but the materials being assembled into a new compost heap are already loaded with microorganism4 ,as when making sauerkraut1 what is needed is present at the start4 ,a small packet of inoculant is not likely to introduce what is not present anyway4 ,and the complex ecology of decomposition will go through its inevitable changes as the microorganisms respond to variations in temperature1 aeration1 p,h1 etc4 ,this is one area of controversy where ,i am comfortable seeking the advice of an expert4 ,in this case1 the authority is ,clarence ,golueke1 who personally researched and developed ,u4,c4 fast composting in the early #aiejs1 and who has been developing municipal composting systems ever since4 ,the bibliography of this book lists two useful works by ,golueke4 ,golueke has run comparison tests of compost starters of all sorts because1 in his business1 entrepreneurs are constantly attempting to sell inoculants to municipal composting operations4 ,of these vendors1 ,golueke says with thinly disguised contempt3 ,most starter entrepreneurs include enzymes when listing the ingredients of their products4 ,the background for this inclusion parallels the introduction of purportedly advanced versions of starters-i4e41 advanced in terms of increased capacity1 utility and versatility4 ,thus in the early #aiej's 7when ,i made my appearance on the compost scene71 starters were primarily microbial and references to identities of constituent microbes were very vague4 ,references to enzymes were extremely few and far between4 ,as early 7pioneer7 researchers began to issue formal and informal reports on microbial groups 7e4g41 actinomycetes7 observed by them1 they also began to conjecture on the roles of those microbial groups in the compost process4 ,the conjectures frequently were accompanied by surmises about the part played by enzymes4 ,coincidentally1 vendors of starters in vogue at the time began to claim that their products included the newly reported microbial groups as well as an array of enzymes4 ,for some reason1 hormones were attracting attention at the time1 and so most starters were supposedly laced with hormones4 ,in time1 hormones began to disappear from the picture1 whereas enzymes were given a billing parallel to that accorded to the microbial component4 ,golueke has worked out methods of testing starters that eliminates any random effects and conclusively demonstrates their result4 ,inevitably1 and repeatedly1 he found that there was no difference between using a starter and not using one4 ,and he says1 ,although anecdotal accounts of success due to the use of particular inoculum are not unusual in the popular media1 we have yet to come across unqualified accounts of successes in the refereed scientific and technical literature4 ,i use a variation of mass inoculation when making compost4 ,while building a new heap1 ,i periodically scrape up and toss in a few shovels of compost and soil from where the previous pile was made4 ,frankly1 if ,i did not do this ,i don't think the result would be any worse4 ,bibliography ,on composting and soil organic matter ,workshop on the ,role of ,earthworms in the ,stabilization of ,organic ,residues1 ,vol4 ,i and ,,ii4 ,edited by ,mary ,appelhof4 ,kalamazoo1 ,michigan3 ,beech ,leaf ,press of the ,kalamazoo ,nature ,center1 #aiha4 ,if ever there was a serious investigation into the full range of the earthworm's potential to help ,homo ,sapiens1 this conference explored it4 ,volume ,,ii is the most complete bibliography ever assembled on the earthworm4 ,appelhof1 ,mary4 ,worms ,eat ,my ,garbage4 ,kalamazoo1 ,michigan3 ,flower ,press1 #aihb4 ,a delightful1 slim1 easy reading1 totally positive book that offers enthusiastic encouragement to take advantage of vermicomposting4 ,barrett1 ,dr4 ,thomas ,j4 ,harnessing the ,earthworm4 ,boston3 ,wedgewood ,press1 #aiei4 ,the ,biocycle ,guide to the ,art ,science of ,composting4 ,edited by the ,staff of ,biocycle3 ,journal of ,waste ,recycling4 ,emmaus1 ,pennsylvania3 ,j4,g4 ,press1 #aiia4 ,the focus of this book is on municipal composting and other industrial systems4 ,though imprinted ,emmaus this is not the ,rodale organization1 but a group that separated from ,rodale ,press over ten years ago4 included on the staff are some old ,organic ,gardening and ,farming staffers from the #aigjs1 including ,gene ,logdson and ,jerome ,goldstein4 ,a major section discussing the biology and ecology of composting is written by ,clarence ,golueke4 ,there are articles about vermicomposting1 anaerobic digestion and biogasification1 and numerous descriptions of existing facilities4 ,campbell1 ,stu4 ,let ,it ,rot6 ,pownal1 ,vermont3 ,storey ,communications1 ,inc41 #aige4 ,next to my book1 the best in-print at-home compost making guide4 ,darwin1 ,charles ,r4 ,the ,formation of ,vegetable ,mould through the ,action of ,worms with ,observations on their ,habits4 ,london3 ,john ,murray ,co41 #ahha4 ,dindal1 ,daniel ,l4 ,ecology of ,compost4 ,syracuse1 ,new ,york3 ,n4,y4 ,state ,council of ,environmental ,advisors and ,,suny ,college of ,environmental ,science and ,forestry1 #aigb4 ,actually1 a little booklet but very useful4 ,golueke1 ,clarence ,g41 ,ph4,d4 ,composting3 ,a ,study of the ,process and its ,principles4 ,emmaus3 ,rodale ,press1 #aigb4 ,golueke1 writing in scientific says much of what my book does in one-third as many words that are three times as long4 ,he is ,america's undisputed authority on composting4 ,hopkins1 ,donald ,p4 ,chemicals1 ,humus and the ,soil4 ,brooklyn3 ,chemical ,publishing ,company1 #aidh4 ,any serious organic gardener should confront ,donald ,hopkins' thoughtful critique of ,albert ,howard's belief system4 ,this book demolishes the notion that chemical fertilizers are intrinsically harmful to soil life while correctly stressing the vital importance of humus4 ,hopp1 ,henry4 ,what ,every ,gardener ,should ,know ,about ,earthworms4 ,charlotte1 ,vermont3 ,garden ,way ,publishing ,company1 #aigc4 ,hopp was a world-recognized expert on the earthworm4 ,howard1 ,albert and ,yeshwant ,d4 ,wad4 ,the ,waste ,products of ,agriculture3 ,their ,utilization as ,humus4 ,london3 ,oxford ,university ,press1 #aica4 ,many organic gardeners have read ,howard's ,an ,agricultural ,testament1 but almost none have heard of this book4 ,it is the source of my information about the original ,indore composting system4 ,an ,agricultural ,testament4 ,london ,new ,york3 ,oxford ,university ,press1 #aidj4 ,describes ,howard's early crusade to restore humus to industrial farming4 ,the ,soil and ,health4 ,new ,york3 ,devin ,adair1 #aidg4 ,also published in ,london by ,faber ,faber1 titled ,farming and ,gardening for ,health or ,disease4 ,a full development of ,howard's theme that humus is health for plants1 animals and people4 ,howard1 ,louise ,e4 ,the ,earth's ,green ,carpet4 ,emmaus3 ,rodale ,press1 #aidg4 ,an oft-overlooked book by ,howard's second wife4 ,this one1 slim volume expresses with elegant and passionate simplicity all of the basic beliefs of the organic gardening and farming movement4 ,see also her ,albert ,howard in ,india4 ,kevan1 ,d4 ,keith4 ,soil ,animals4 ,london3 ,h4 ,f4 ,g4 ,witherby ,ltd41 #aifb4 ,soil zoology for otherwise well-schooled layreaders4 ,king1 ,f4,h4 ,farmers of ,forty ,centuries or ,permanent ,agriculture in ,china1 ,korea and ,japan4 ,emmaus3 ,rodale ,press1 first published #aiaa4 ,treasured by the organic gardening movement for its description of a long-standing and successful agricultural system based completely on composting4 ,it is a great travel_/adventure book4 ,koepf1 ,h4,h41 ,b4,d4 ,petterson1 and ,w4 ,shaumann4 ,bio-,dynamic ,agriculture3 ,an ,introduction4 ,spring ,valley1 ,new ,york3 ,anthroposophic ,press1 #aigf4 ,a good introduction to this philosophical_/mystical system of farming and gardening that uses magical compost inoculants4 ,krasilnikov1 ,n ,a4 ,soil ,microorganisms and ,higher ,plants4 ,translated by ,y4,a4 ,halperin4 ,jerusalem3 ,israel ,program for ,scientific ,translations1 #aifa4 ,organic gardeners have many vague beliefs about how humus makes plants healthy4 ,this book scientifically explains why organic matter in soil makes plants healthy4 ,unlike most translations of ,russian1 this one is an easy read4 ,kuhnelt1 ,wilhelm4 ,soil ,biology3 with special reference to the animal kingdom4 ,east ,lansing3 ,michigan ,state ,university ,press1 #aigf4 ,soil zoology at a level assuming readers have university-level biology1 zoology and microbiology4 ,still1 very interesting to well-read lay persons who are not intimidated by ,latin taxonomy4 ,minnich1 ,jerry4 ,the ,earthworm ,book3 ,how to ,raise and ,use ,earthworms for ,your ,farm and ,garden4 ,emmaus3 ,rodale ,press1 #aigg4 ,this book is a thorough and encyclopedic survey of the subject ,minnich1 ,jerry and ,marjorie ,hunt4 ,the ,rodale ,guide to ,composting4 ,emmaus1 ,pennsylvania3 ,rodale ,press1 #aigi4 ,a very complete survey of composting at home1 on the farm1 and in municipalities4 ,the book has been through numerous rewritings since the first edition2 this version is the best4 ,it is more cohesive and less seeming like it was written by a committee than the version in print now4 ,organic ,gardening and ,farming magazine may have been at its best when ,minnich was a senior editor4 ,oliver1 ,george ,sheffield4 ,our ,friend the ,earthworm4 ,library no4 #bf4 ,emmaus3 ,rodale ,press1 #aide4 ,during the #aidjs ,rodale ,press issued an inexpensive pamphlet library2 this is one of the series4 ,pfeiffer1 ,e4,e4 ,biodynamic ,farming and ,gardening4 ,spring ,valley1 ,new ,york3 ,anthroposophic ,press1 #aich4 ,poincelot1 ,r4,p4 ,the ,biochemistry and ,methodology of ,composting4 ,vol4 ,bull4 #gbg4 ,conn4 ,agric4 ,expt4 ,sta41 #aigb4 ,a rigorous but readable review of scientific literature and known data on composting through #aigb including a complete bibliography4 ,russell1 ,sir ,e4 ,john4 ,soil ,conditions and ,plant ,growth4 ,eighth ,ed41 ,new ,york3 ,longmans1 ,green ,co41 #aiej4 ,the best soil science text ,i know of4 ,avoid the recent in-print edition that has been revised by a committee of current ,british agronomists4 ,they enlarged ,russell's book and made more credible to academics by making it less comprehensible to ordinary people with good education and intelligence through the introduction of unnecessary mathematical models and stilted prose4 it lacks the human touch and simpler explanations of ,russell's original statements4 ,schaller1 ,friedrich4 ,soil ,animals4 ,ann ,arbor3 ,university of ,michigan1 #aifh4 ,soil zoology for ,american readers without extensive scientific background4 ,shaler was ,kuhnelt's student4 ,stout1 ,ruth4 ,gardening ,without ,work3 ,for the ,aging1 the ,busy and the ,indolent4 ,old ,greenwich1 ,connecticut3 ,devin ,adair1 #aifa4 ,the original statement of mulch gardening4 ,fun to read4 ,her disciple1 ,richard ,clemence1 wrote several books in the late #aigjs that develop the method further4 ,of interest to the serious food gardener ,i have learned far more from my own self-directed studies than my formal education4 ,from time to time ,i get enthusiastic about some topic and voraciously read about it4 ,when ,i started gardening in the early #aigjs l quickly devoured everything labeled organic in the local public library and began what became a ten-year subscription to ,organic ,gardening and ,farming magazine4 ,during the early #aihjs the garden books that ,i wrote all had the word organic in the title4 ,in the late #aihjs my interest turned to what academics might call 'the intellectual history of radical agriculture4' ,i reread the founders of the organic gardening and farming movement1 only to discover that they1 like ,mark ,twain's father1 had become far more intelligent since l last read them fifteen years back4 l began to understand that one reason so many organic gardeners misunderstood ,albert ,howard was that he wrote in ,english1 not ,american4 l also noticed that there were other related traditions of agricultural reform and followed these back to their sources4 ,this research took over eighteen months of heavy study4 l really gave the interlibrary loan librarian a workout4 ,herewith are a few of the best titles l absorbed during that research4 l never miss an opportunity to help my readers discover that older books were written in an era before all intellectuals were afflicted with lifelong insecurity caused by cringing from an imaginary critical and nattery college professor standing over their shoulder4 ,older books are often far better than new ones1 especially if you'll forgive them an occasional error in point of fact4 ,we are not always discovering newer1 better1 and improved4 ,often we are forgetting and obscuring and confusing what was once known1 clear and simple4 ,many of these extraordinary old books are not in print and not available at your local library4 ,however1 a simple inquiry at the ,interlibrary ,loan desk of most libraries will show you how easy it is to obtain these and most any other book you become interested in4 ,albrecht1 ,william ,a4 ,the ,albrecht ,papers1 ,vols #a #b4 ,kansas ,city3 ,acres1 ,,usa #aige4 ,albert ,howard1 ,weston ,price1 ,sir ,robert ,mc,carrison1 and ,william ,albrecht share equal responsibility for creating this era's movement toward biologically sound agriculture4 ,howard is still well known to organic gardeners1 thanks to promotion by the ,rodale organization while ,price1 ,mc,carrison1 and ,albrecht have faded into obscurity4 ,albrecht was chairman of the ,soil ,department at the ,university of ,missouri during the #aicjs4 ,his unwavering investigation of soil fertility as the primary cause of health and disease was considered politically incorrect by the academic establishment and vested interests that funded agricultural research at that time4 ,driven from academia1 he wrote prolifically for nonscientific magazines and lectured to farmers and medical practitioners during the #aidjs and #aiejs4 ,albrecht was willing to consider chemical fertilizers as potentially useful though he did not think chemicals were as sensible as more natural methods4 ,this view was unacceptable to ,j4l4 ,rodale1 who ignored ,albrecht's profound contributions4 ,balfour1 ,lady ,eve ,b4 ,the ,living ,soil4 ,london3 ,faber and ,faber1 #aidc4 ,lady ,balfour was one of the key figures in creating the organic gardening and farming movement4 ,she exhibited a most remarkable intelligence and understanding of the science of health and of the limitations of her own knowledge4 ,balfour is someone any serious gardener will want to meet through her books4 ,lady ,balfour proved ,woody ,allen right about eating organic brown rice2 she died only recently in her late #ijs1 compus mentis to the end4 ,borsodi1 ,ralph4 ,flight from the ,city3 ,an ,experiment in ,creative ,living on the ,land4 ,new ,york3 ,harper and ,brothers1 #aicc4 ,a warmly human back-to-the-lander whose pithy critique of industrial civilization still hits home4 ,borsodi explains how production of life's essentials at home with small-scale technology leads to enhanced personal liberty and security4 ,homemade is inevitably more efficient1 less costly1 and better quality than anything mass-produced4 ,readers who become fond of this unique individualist's sociology and political economy will also enjoy ,borsodi's ,this ,ugly ,civilization and ,the ,distribution ,age4 ,brady1 ,nyle ,c4 ,the ,nature and ,properties of ,soils1 ,eighth ,edition4 ,new ,york3 ,macmillan1 #aigd4 ,through numerous editions and still the standard soils text for ,american agricultural colleges4 ,every serious gardener should attempt a reading of this encyclopedia of soil knowledge every few years4 ,see also ,foth1 ,henry ,d4 ,fundamentals of ,soil ,science4 ,bromfield1 ,louis4 ,malibar ,farm4 ,new ,york3 ,harper ,brothers1 #aidg4 ,here is another agricultural reformer who did not exactly toe the ,organic ,party line as promulgated by ,j4l4 ,rodale4 ,consequently his books are relatively unknown to today's gardening public4 ,if you like ,wendell ,berry you'll find ,bromfield's emotive and ,iyrical prose even finer and less academically contrived4 ,his experiments with ecological farming are inspiring4 ,see also ,bromfield's other farming books3 ,pleasant ,valley1 ,in ,my ,experience1 and ,out of the ,earth4 ,carter1 ,vernon ,gill and ,dale1 ,tom4 ,topsoil and ,civilization4 ,norman3 ,university of ,oklahoma ,press1 #aigd4 7first edition1 #aied7 ,this book surveys seven thousand years of world history to show how each place where civilization developed was turned into an impoverished1 scantily-inhabited semi-desert by neglecting soil conservation4 ,will ours' survive any better8 ,readers who wish to pursue this area further might start with ,wes ,jackson's ,new ,roots for ,agriculture4 ,ernle1 7,prothero7 ,lord4 ,english ,farming ,past and ,present1 #fth edition4 ,first published ,london3 ,longmans1 ,green ,co41 ,ltd41 #aiab1 and many subsequent editions4 ,chicago3 ,quadrangle ,books1 #aifb4 ,some history is dry as dust4 ,ernle's writing lives like that of ,francis ,parkman or ,gibbon4 ,anyone serious about vegetable gardening will want to know all they can about the development of modern agricultural methods4 ,foth1 ,henry ,d4 ,fundamentals of ,soil ,science1 ,eighth ,edition4 ,new ,york3 ,john ,wylie ,sons1 #aiij4 ,like ,brady's text1 this one has also been through numerous editions for the past several decades4 ,unlike ,brady's work however1 this book is a little less technical1 an easier read as though designed for non-science majors4 ,probably the best starter text for someone who wants to really understand soil4 ,hall1 ,bolton4 ,three ,acres and ,liberty4 ,new ,york3 ,macmillan1 #aiah4 ,bolton ,hall marks the start of our modern back-to-the-land movement4 ,he was ,ralph ,borsodi's mentor and inspiration4 ,where ,ralph was smooth and intellectual1 ,hall was crusty and ,twainesque4 ,hamaker1 ,john4 ,d4 ,the ,survival of ,civilization4 ,annotated by ,donald ,a4 ,weaver4 ,michigan_/ ,california3 ,hamaker-,weaver ,publishers1 #aihb4 ,forget global warming1 ,hamaker believably predicts the next ice age is coming4 ,glaciers will be upon us sooner than we know unless we reverse intensification of atmospheric carbon dioxide by remineralization of the soil4 ,very useful for its exploration of the agricultural use of rock flours4 ,helps one stand back from the current global warming panic and ask if we really know what is coming4 ,or are we merely feeling guilty for abusing ,earth8 ,hopkins1 ,cyril ,g4 ,soil ,fertility and ,permanent ,agriculture4 ,boston3 ,ginn and ,company1 #aiaj4 ,though of venerable lineage1 this book is still one of the finest of soil manuals in existence4 ,hopkins' interesting objections to chemical fertilizers are more economic than moral4 ,the ,story of the ,soil3 ,from the ,basis of ,absolute ,science and ,real ,life4 ,boston3 ,richard ,g4 ,badger1 #aiaa4 ,a romance of soil science similar to ,ecotopia or ,looking ,backward4 ,no better introduction exists to understanding farming as a process of management of overall soil mineralization4 ,people who attempt this book should be ready to forgive that ,hopkins occasionally expresses opinions on race and other social issues that were acceptable in his era but today are considered objectionable by most ,americans4 ,jenny1 ,hans4 ,factors of ,soil ,formation3 a ,system of ,quantitative ,pedology4 ,new ,york3 ,mc,graw ,hill1 #aida4 ,don't let the title scare you4 ,jenny's masterpiece is not hard to read and still stands in the present as the best analysis of how soil forms from rock4 ,anyone who is serious about growing plants will want to know this data4 ,mc,carrison1 ,sir ,robert4 ,the ,work of ,sir ,robert ,mc,carrison4 ed4 ,h4 ,m4 ,sinclair4 ,london ,faber and ,faber1 #aiec4 ,one of the forgotten discoverers of the relationship between soil fertility and human health4 ,mc,carrison1 a physician and medical researcher1 worked in ,india contemporaneously with ,albert ,howard4 ,he spent years trekking around the ,hunza and conducted the first bioassays of food nutrition by feeding rat populations on the various national diets of ,india4 ,and like the various nations of ,india1 some of the rats became healthy1 large1 long-lived1 and good natured while others were small1 sickly1 irritable1 and short-lived4 ,nearing1 ,helen ,scott4 ,living the ,good ,life3 ,how to ,live ,sanely and ,simply in a ,troubled ,world4 ,first published in #aiej4 ,new ,york3 ,schocken ,books1 #aigj4 ,continuing in ,borsodi's footsteps1 the ,nearings homesteaded in the thirties and began proselytizing for the self-sufficient life-style shortly thereafter4 ,scott was a very dignified old political radical when he addressed my high school in ,massachusetts in #aifa and inspired me to dream of country living4 ,he remained active until nearly his hundredth birthday4 ,see also3 ,continuing the ,good ,life and ,the ,maple ,sugar ,book4 ,parnes1 ,robert4 ,organic and ,inorganic ,fertilizers4 ,mt4 ,vernon1 ,maine3 ,woods ,end ,agricultural ,institute1 #aihf4 ,price1 ,weston ,a4 ,nutrition and ,physical ,degeneration4 ,la ,mesa1 ,california3 ,price-,pottenger ,nutrition ,foundation1 reprinted #aigj4 7#aici7 ,sits on the family bible shelf in my home along with ,albrecht1 ,mc,carrison1 and ,howard4 ,price1 a dentist with strong interests in prevention1 wondered why his clientele1 #aibjs midwest bourgeoisie1 had terrible teeth when prehistoric skulls of aged unlettered savages retained all their teeth in perfect condition4 ,so he traveled to isolated parts of the ,earth in the early #aicjs seeking healthy humans4 ,and he found them--belonging to every race and on every continent4 ,and found out why they lived long1 had virtually no degeneration of any kind including dental degeneration4 ,full of interesting photographs1 anthropological data1 and travel details4 ,a trail-blazing work that shows the way to greatly improved human health4 ,rodale1 ,j4,i4 ,the ,organic ,front4 ,emmaus3 ,rodale ,press1 #aidh4 ,an intensely ideological statement of the basic tenets of the ,organic faith4 ,rodale established the organic gardening and farming movement in the ,united ,states by starting up ,organic ,gardening and ,farming magazine in #aidb4 ,his views1 limitations and preferences have defined organic ever since4 ,see also3 ,pay ,dirt4 ,schuphan1 ,werner4 ,nutritional ,values in ,crops and ,plants4 ,london3 ,faber and ,faber1 #aife4 ,a top-rate scientist asks the question3 ,is organically grown food really more nutritious8 ,the answer is3 yes1 and no4 ,smith1 ,j4 ,russell4 ,tree ,crops3 ,a ,permanent ,agriculture4 ,new ,york3 ,harcourt1 ,brace and ,company1 #aibi4 ,no bibliography of agricultural alternatives should overlook this classic critique of farming with the plow4 ,delightfully original6 ,solomon1 ,steve4 ,growing ,vegetables ,west of the ,cascades4 ,seattle1 ,washington3 ,sasquatch ,books1 #aihi4 ,my strictly regional focus combined with the reality that the climate west of the ,cascades is radically different than the rest of the ,united ,states has made this vegetable gardening text virtually unknown to ,american gardeners east of the ,cascades4 ,it has been praised as the best regional garden book ever written4 ,its analysis of soil management1 and critique of ,rodale's version of the organic gardening and farming philosophy are also unique4 ,i founded and ran ,territorial ,seed ,company1 a major1 mail-order vegetable garden seed business2 no other garden book has ever encompassed my experience with seeds and the seed world4 ,waterwise ,gardening4 ,seattle1 ,sasquatch ,books1 #aiib4 ,how to grow vegetables without dependence on irrigation4 ,make your vegetables able to survive long periods of drought and still be very productive4 ,my approach is extensive1 old fashioned and contrarian1 the opposite of today's intensive1 modern1 trendy postage-stamp living4 ,turner1 ,frank ,newman4 ,fertility1 ,pastures and ,cover ,crops ,based on ,nature's ,own ,balanced ,organic ,pasture ,feeds4 reprinted from3 ,faber and ,faber1 #aiee4 ed41 ,san ,diego3 ,rateaver1 #aige4 ,an encouragement to farm using long rotations and green manuring systems from a follower of ,albert ,howard4 ,turner offered a remarkably sensible definition for soil fertility1 in essence1 if my livestock stay healthy1 live long1 breed well1 and continue doing so for at least four generations1 then my soil was fertile4 ,voisin1 ,andre4 ,better ,grassland ,sward4 ,london3 ,crosby ,lockwood and ,sons1 ,ltd41 #aifj4 ,the first half is an amazing survey of the role of the earthworm in soil fertility4 ,the rest is just ,voisin continuing on at his amazing best4 ,no one interested in soil and health should remain unfamiliar with ,voisin's intelligence4 ,see also3 ,grass ,tetany1 ,grass ,productivity1 and ,soil1 ,grass and ,cancer4