Organic compost for vegetable gardens is a crucial component of organic gardening. Organic compost can be a good alternative to synthetic chemical fertilizers and other soil additives, depending on the methods utilized. While chemical fertilizers stimulate plant growth quickly, they are deficient in micronutrients, minerals, and beneficial organisms that plants require for long-term growth. Synthetic fertilizers can harm soil creatures such as earthworms, causing havoc with soil health and ecosystems.
Some typical misunderstandings about home organic composting include that it is too difficult, smells bad, and is messy. All of this is true if you compost incorrectly. Organic composting properly is fortunately pretty simple: Simply layer organic materials with a pinch of soil to make a humus-producing mixture.
You may then use compost to beautify your flower garden, fertilize your grass, feed your growing vegetables, and more. Once your compost pile is up and running, you’ll discover that it’s a simple way to turn food scraps and other organic materials into something that may help your plants thrive.
Despite the fact that compost is made up of organic materials, not all composts are technically “organic” – at least not in the strictest sense. Pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and other non-organic substances should not be present in truly organic compost.
Making organic compost for vegetable gardens
One of the main methods of making organic compost for vegetable gardens is vermicompost. In this method, earthworms are used to create the compost. These worms produce castings, which are high in nitrogen when they eat your food leftovers.
Worms for composting can be found for a reasonable price online or at a garden supply store. The vermi wash produced along with the vermicompost is also a very rich source of nutrients to the plants.
Organic composting is a method to repurpose items in your refrigerator that have beyond their sell-by date, reducing waste. It’s simple to collect your composting materials by keeping a container in your kitchen, such as this white ceramic compost bucket.
You can create your own indoor or outdoor compost bin if you don’t want to buy one. The ingredients needed to begin your compost pile are vegetable scraps, Fruit scraps, grinds of coffee, shells of eggs (though they can take a while to break down), clippings of grass and plants, leaves that have been dried, wood and bark chips, finely chopped, straw, wood sawdust that hasn’t been treated.
What not to add in compost?
Anything meat, oil, fat, or grease in it, plant materials that have been infected, dog or cat feces, sawdust or chips from pressure-treated wood, seed-bearing weeds, products derived from milk, etc should not be used for composting.
These materials will not only cause issues in your garden, but they will also make your compost smell terrible, attracting animals and bugs. If you want to have a successful compost pile, stay away from these products.
Two types of making organic compost for vegetable gardens
Recognize that there are two types of composting: cold and hot composting before you start putting it on.
Cold composting
Collecting yard waste or taking out organic materials in your trash (such as fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds and filters, and eggshells) and corralling them in a mound or bin is all it takes to start cold composting. The substance will disintegrate over the course of a year or so.
Hot composting
Hot composting necessitates a greater level of involvement on your part, but the payoff is a speedier process: you’ll get compost in one to three months during warm weather. The four elements required for fast-cooking hot organic compost for vegetable gardens are nitrogen, carbon, air, and water.
When these elements are mixed, microorganisms are fed, hastening the degradation process.
In the spring or fall, when there is a lot of garden waste, you can produce a big batch of compost and then start another one while the first cooks.
HOT COMPOSTING STEPS
1.Mix the green and brown materials in compost.
Wait until you have enough materials to build a 3-foot-deep pile before starting your own hot-compost heap. Combining your moist, green goods with your dry, brown items is a good idea.
Dried plant debris, fallen leaves, shredded tree branches, cardboard, or newspaper, hay or straw, and wood shavings, which add carbon, are examples of “brown” materials.
Kitchen wastes and coffee grounds, animal manures (not from dogs or cats), and fresh plant and grass trimmings, all of which supply nitrogen, are examples of “green” resources.
Start by mixing three parts of brown and one part of green materials in your compost pile for the best results.
If your compost pile appears to be excessively wet and stinks, add more brown items or aerate it more frequently. Moisten it with green items and water if it appears to be extremely brown and dry.
1.Water the Pile
Sprinkle water over the pile on a regular basis until it resembles a damp sponge. The microorganisms in your pile will become saturated and drown if you add too much water.
Your pile will rot instead of composting if this happens. Check the temperature of your pile with a thermometer to ensure that the objects are deteriorating appropriately. Alternatively, simply extend your palm into the center of the compost pile; it should be warm to the touch.
2. Stir the pile
Using a garden fork, flip the pile once a week during the growing season to feed it with oxygen. When the core of the pile feels warm or a thermometer reads between 130 and 150°F, it’s time to flip the compost.
Stirring the pile helps it cook faster and prevents the material from becoming matted and odor-producing. The layers have accomplished their goal of mixing equal amounts of green and brown ingredients throughout the pile at this time, so stir thoroughly.
To speed up the composting process, slice and shred raw components into smaller pieces in addition to aerating them on a regular basis.
The organic compost for vegetable gardens is fully ready when it no longer emits heat and turns dry, brown, and crumbly, and is ready to be fed to the garden. At the start of each planting season, add about 4 to 6 inches of compost to your flower beds and pots.
Conclusion
Organic compost is a key supply of nutrients for organic vegetable gardens, and it is a supplementary nitrogen source for conventional vegetable gardens, which provides additional nitrogen to give a more sustainable farming system.
Making organic compost for vegetable gardens will improve the soil properties and thus increases soil fertility. Moving completely to an organic system will help to retain the good health of mother earth as well as the human beings.