Compost

This week on the farm, and in the classroom, we learned quite a bit about composting and soil. During class on Monday and Tuesday, we watched a video called The Symphony of soil, which detailed different soil and land types across the world, as well as an intricate explanation of how the soil quality effects the life that inhabits it. A lot of farmers and producers all noted the use of compost in their farms, which went together with the notes we had taken in class the prior week. The video emphasized the importance of composting because of how it improves soil structure, absorbency, and, of course, returns key nutrients to the soil. It acts as a natural fertilizer.

In the most recent cycle of management jobs, my group has been in charge of the compost pile. In the beginning, we began to build a pile using a lot of dried shrubs and sunflower husks as our "browns". According to our notes and the video, it should account for about 45% of the piles volume. Our "greens" that we used came mostly from the CEA's bin of excess food. Like the browns, the greens should account for approximately 45% of the volume. The remaining 10% should come from an inoculant. We used older compost, but found that we needed to add more as we built the pile because we exhibited a lower temperature than what is desired for a compost pile. The internal temperature rose about seven or eight degrees Fahrenheit within a week of adding more inoculant.

Because we did not have class on Wednesday this week, we will be returning to the farm and working on our pile on Friday.

Monica K