1. Composting For All:
Straight-forward tips for farmers and
home gardeners
Christine Ziegler
Rodale Institute Agroecologist and Science Editor
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©2010 Rodale Institute

2. Why compost?
Composting helps you to:
•
Recycle yard, garden, and farm
waste
•
Adds beneficial organisms to
soil
•
Reduce agricultural nutrient
losses
•
•
•
•
Increase soil carbon content
Improve soil water retention
Reduce soil erosion
Improve plant growth (even
during drought)
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3. Feed the soil, not the plant!
When you use compost to
build your soil organic
matter content, you’re
feeding soil microbes that
increase nutrient cycling in
your soil.
You also improve your soil’s tilth,
creating more stable soil clumps to
resist erosion and form pores
within the soil that hold both air
and water for your plants’ roots.
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4. What is soil?
"The soil is not, as many suppose, a dead, inert
substance. It is very much alive and dynamic. It
teems with bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi,
molds, yeasts, protozoa, algae and other minute
organisms."
~J.I. Rodale
Pay Dirt:
Farming and
Gardening
with Composts
(1945)
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5. Four key elements of soil
1. Soil is composed of three sizes of mineral
particles: sand (large), silt (medium), and clay
(small)
2. The other important group of soil particles is
called organic matter
3. In addition to these particles, soil is comprised of
a lot of empty spaces, called pores, and these
pores are important for holding air or water
4. Soil is full of living organisms, both large and
microscopic
If a soil is missing any one of these key elements,
then it’s just “dirt”!
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6. The Soil Food Web
First trophic level:
Photosynthesizers
Second trophic level:
Decomposers, Mutualists,
Pathogens, Parasites, Rootfeeders
Third trophic level:
Shredders, Predators,
Grazers
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Fourth and higher trophic levels:
Hither level predators

7. What the Soil Food Web does…
• Organisms do the work in soil and compost – make nutrients plant-available
– build soil structure
– suppress diseases and pests
• Organisms are fed and supported by plants
through root exudates and dead plant material
• Protozoa, nematodes, earthworms and microarthropods eat bacteria and fungi to release
nutrients in plant-available forms
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8. The benefits of a healthy soil food web
• Improves soil structure so that
roots can grow deeper
• Increases soil water holding
capacity, reducing need for
irrigation
• Reduces or eliminates disease
organisms
• Provides balanced, slow-release
nutrients for plants
• Mediates the relationships
between plants, which is why
plant relationships are different
in different soils
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9. The Soil Texture Triangle
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10. It’s compost’s organic matter and microbes
that make the difference!
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11. Compost’s basic features
Compost - “the controlled decomposition of
organic residues into a humus-like end product.”
1. 6:5:1 mix of “brown” materials (Cbased) and “green” materials (sugarbased), and high nitrogen materials
(manures or legumes)
2. 50% moisture
3. Temperatures 131 - 165°F (55 - 65°C)
or more during active decomposition
4. Usually requires repeated mixing
5. Takes 8 weeks to 2 years (depending
on the above factors)
Made in windrows, piles or
containers (large or small).
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12. Composting at Rodale Institute
… in our global organic
demonstration garden
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13. Composting at Rodale Institute
… in small research
piles to perfect the
recipes and
microbial balance…
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14. Composting at Rodale Institute
… and on the farm.
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15. Compost stabilizes nitrogen in the soil,
reducing nitrate leaching
Cumulative Percent of N Leached from Four Treatments
of the Compost Utilization Trial, 1994-2002
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16. Compost also supports comparable
crop yields
Average Corn and Wheat Yields from the
Compost Utilization Trial 1994-2002
b
b
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17. Don’t use too much!
Compost is not a mulch.
It’s a soil amendment
that adds microorganisms to improve
nutrient cycling.
Treatment
Tons per
Acre
Fresh Poultry Manure
Aged Poultry Manure
10.7
Std Poultry Compost
15.6
Amend Poultry Compost
10.7
Fresh Dairy Manure
17.9
Aged Dairy Manure
18.1
Std Dairy Compost
23.5
Amend Dairy Compost
vario MAX
11.4
26.4
A little bit goes a long way!
©2010 Rodale Institute
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18. Recommended soil-improving
gardening practices
• Keep your soil covered throughout the year, as much
as possible, with crops, cover crops, and mulches retains moisture, prevents erosion, adds organic matter, reduces
weeding
• Grow a diversity of crops, and rotate them into
different locations in your garden each year - prevents
excessive loss of individual soil nutrients and build-up of plant-specific
diseases and pests
• Don’t dig too much! Some digging is good, but too
much breaks down organic matter and soil structure
• If you garden on a slope, plant your rows horizontally
across the slope to help stop water run-off and
erosion
• Add compost to increase organic matter, microbial
activity, and nutrient availability
©2010 Rodale Institute
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19. Different kinds of homemade bins
and
wood slat bin
Building instructions for
these designs can be
found in the CalRecycle
web Fact Sheet:
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Pub
lications/Organics/44295054.pdf
wood and wire portable bin
rotating barrel
composter
portable mesh bin
©2010 Rodale Institute
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