This document provides information on composting and building healthy soil. It discusses how composting recycles organic waste, improves soil structure, and creates a balanced ecosystem in the soil. The process of decomposition and the soil food web made of micro-organisms are explained. Benefits of vermicomposting with worms are outlined, including how to care for worms and harvest nutrient-dense castings. Resources for further learning about composting are also provided.

1. Compost:
The Construction of
a Living Soil System
Presented by:
Amber Dawn
Vice President
Master Gardeners
of Greater New Orleans

2. Why Compost?
• Organic Recycling • Improves soil structure
(waste reduction) – Adds aeration to clay soil and
– Stop our landfills from filling moisture and nutrient
with the perfect solution to retention in sandy soils
garden soil problems
• Improve the health of your • Creates balance
soil – Microbes and other soil life
break down organic matter
– By inoculation of microbial (OM) into usable forms for
activity plants
– Provides full range of organic – Helps create a pH buffer
macro/micro nutrients often system
not always found in chemical
fertilizers

4. What is going on?
Quick and rough overview
• Plants make their own food for growth, they are
literally are chemical factories…photosynthesis uses
elements mostly found in soil, sun and CO2 &
manufacture complex chemicals

5. Decomposition
• As plant parts return to the surface of the earth (garden
pile), microorganisms (saprophytes – eat dead plant
matter) consume these complex chemical compounds
for their colonial growth
• Mineralization: These organisms break these chemical
bonds and leave elemental forms of macro/micro
nutrients which are then available to the plant (by-
product = heat)

7. Soil Food Web

8. Micro-organisms
as many as 20,000/ teaspoon
• Bacteria
• Actinomycetes
• Fungi-Molds & yeast
• Protozoa
• Rotifers

9. Macro-organisms

10. Moral of the story
• The waste products of these organisms act in
nature to fertilize the flora life cycle.
• A healthy soil life system with dense microbial
activity will mineralize the soil and provide
plants with the nutrients needed for growth.

11. Organic Matter
• Expressed as a percentage
• Measures the resistant state of O.M. in
soil
Consider this:
An acre of soil measured to a depth of six inches
weighs about 2,000,000 pounds, (2,000 tons) meaning
that 1% organic matter in the soil would weigh about
20,000 pounds (20 tons). It takes about 10 pounds of
organic material to decompose to 1 pound of organic
matter, so it takes at least 200,000 pounds (100 tons) of
organic material applied to the soil to add 1% stable
organic matter under favorable conditions.

12. Vermicompost (Worms)

13. Worms and their castings
• Red Wigglers or Manure
Worms
(Eisenia fetida)
• FAST REPRODUCERS
• Better in bin conditions than
earthworms
• Prolific eaters: 1/2lb of OM
per day in a healthy bin

14. Benefits of Worm Compost
• Indoor/small spaces option
• More manageable/less labor than backyard bins
• Compost is nutrient dense filled with a rich organic form
of fertilizer from your own yard and kitchen
• Nitrogen- 1.5 – 2.5 %
• Calcium- 0.5 – 1.0 %
• Phosphorus- 0.9 – 1.7 %
• Magnessium- 0.2 – 0.3 %
• Potash- 1.5 – 2.4 %
• Sulphur- 0.4 - 0.5 %

15. Troubleshooting Vermicompost Bins
SYMPTOM SOLUTION
• Smell – Anaerobic bacterial takeover (rot), add
paper or dried leaves, bury food
• Moisture – Add Dry material, worms love
newspaper, shredded paper and card-
board
– Add ventilation, plenty of air holes
– Many other pests love fresh
• Pest species produce…secure lid.
• Worms escaping – Generally a sign of too much moisture,
see above

16. Worm care
Worms like: Worms DON’T like:
• Darkness • Bright light
• Air • Too much moisture
• Lots of fresh organic matter • Too dry
• Cool environment (less 75⁰) • Temperatures over (80⁰)
• Bedding:
– Peat moss
– Moist newspaper
– Soft dried leaves
– Shredded paper

17. Feeding your worms
Yum Yuck
• Bedding – paper (not • Meats, dairy, protein
shiny), dried leaves, grass
clippings
• Fried foods
• Cereals (no milk) & grains
• Citrus – limonene, toxic
• Fruits & veggies (no seeds)
• Large seeds (mango, avocado)
• coffee, tea (moderate: acid)
Stinky
• Cabbage family, garlic, onions
• Dead flowers/leaves
Slow decomposers
• potato skins, avocado skins
• Clean eggshells

18. Make your own
• Materials
• Plastic bin with lid
– Two methods: stacked bottom with AIR holes or a
second composting bin and one working bin
• Drill 1/8” bit and drill
• Small amount of garden soil
• Cardboard (bedding)
– Shredded and moistened
• Worms

19. Harvesting your compost
• Spread a 2-3” pile
• Sit for hour in light
• Hand pick top layer
• Hand pick out worms
• Let the pile dry from the
bottom of the pile
• Screening
– Hardware cloth attached
to a wood frame.

20. Resources
• LSU Ag Center – Publications
– Static Pile Composting:
• Pub # 2516
– Troubleshooting Your Compost Pile
• Pub # 2517
– Backyard composting: Wastes to Resources
• Pub # 2610-A
– Worm Composting Bin
• Pub # 2610-J

21. Further Material
personal favorites
Books:
• DIRT: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth
– William Bryant Logan
• In Defense of Food – An Eaters Manifesto
– Michael Pollan
• Teaming with Microbes – The Organic Gardener’s
Guide to the Soil Food Web
– Jeff Lowernfels & Wayne Lewis
Documentary:
• Dirt! THE MOVIE
– Gene Rosow: Director, Producer
YouTube: Setting Up a Composting Bin