contain 20% or more humus rather than the more
typical 8% to 10%. All cured compost is not equal. One
cubic foot of cured compost may have double or more
the compost power! In a world with increasingly
depleted and desertified soils, sufficient amounts of
compost will be key.Note: We are finding that cold compost piles, which are built with more carbon and
can take up 4 months or more to fully cure, may produce much more cured carbon
(humus) and compost per unit of “built” carbon—possibly even double. This type of
composting process is predominantly one of moldering rather than significant heat. If
the test results prove consistent over time, the process could be essential to
maintaining global sustainable soil fertility, since sufficient humus is the essential to
making the fertility possible. You may wish to experiment with this!Many people advocate hot compost piles, because they
are said to kill weed seeds, disease organisms, and insect
larvae. Hot compost piles cure around 139°F. At this
temperature, probably only 25% of these are destroyed.
It takes a temperature of about 178°F to kill 100% of
them—and this temperature “burns o<” a lot of the
organic matter that could become cured compost, so we
are considering adopting a cooler pile approach. Such
piles make greater use of coarse materials, more
structural carbon or the mature material input (rather
than metabolic carbon), and a little more soil and water.
All this means some less nitrogen in the pile and a lower
temperature.
In fact, in multi-year tests, we have found that using