{"id":25,"date":"2020-11-05T22:58:13","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T22:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homesteadinghero.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2020-11-05T23:01:48","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T23:01:48","slug":"how-long-does-it-take-to-compost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinghero.com\/how-long-does-it-take-to-compost\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Does It Take To Compost"},"content":{"rendered":"

A good quality compost is often the worst kept, but most powerful gardeners secret to a healthy and productive garden.\u00a0 A good compost will help moisture retention and improve soil structure for your plants, balancing pH levels, supporting natural soil organisms, and improving nutrients across the board.\u00a0 What\u2019s not to love?<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d happily say nothing, but it does take some extra time and work to add this beautiful black gold to your growing process.\u00a0 However, it can either be fairly fast with the right method and tools, or take longer but be pretty low effort.\u00a0 Today we\u2019ll cover all the details you\u2019ll want to know to find a composting method that will work for you, while jump starting your garden.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How Long Does It Take To Make Compost?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The short answer is that it depends.\u00a0 Depending on what\u2019s in your composting pile and how you go about tending it, it can take three weeks to three years to have good usable compost. The most import variables include:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Optimal Size For Your Compost Pile\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Compost is created by microbes carrying out chemical processes with your rich selection of decaying plant matter, turning it into high quality nutrients for growing.\u00a0 This process needs heat, but also naturally creates heat, so as the compost reaches higher temperatures it creates an ongoing acceleration in the rate of the composting process. Heat is essential for speed and efficiency for these microbes, and having the right size pile will lead to the best heat generation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A compost pile around 3\u2019x3\u2019x3\u2019 is the most efficient, giving temperatures of up to 170F in the right container.\u00a0 Piles smaller or larger will generate less heat, and therefore be slower. You can certainly go smaller or larger, just know that it will affect composting times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, having your compost bin in a warmer environment will allow it to maintain a higher temperature and a faster composting process, so if you keep your bins in the shade vs the sun, you\u2019ll have a change in composting speeds.\u00a0 Also, composting in the colder months, or simply colder climates, will naturally be a slower process.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Oxygen Levels: Turning At Appropriate Intervals\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Our compost making microbes need oxygen to do their job, and turning the compost will help sift in oxygen for them.\u00a0 Once a week is a pretty good interval most of the time (we\u2019ll discuss some other methods below).\u00a0 Poking aeration holes can work as well, but isn\u2019t as ideal, which is one reason why turning barrels for your compost are so useful (especially since turning a pile of compost is hard work without one!).\u00a0 Unturned compost will rarely be done in less than a year because of the very low levels of oxygen permeating the pile.\u00a0 Also important to remember is that when you first combine your composting ingredients, make sure to mix it thoroughly!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Compost Ingredient Ratios<\/span><\/h3>\n

Having the right ratio of composting contents (\u201cgreen to brown\u201d, and no inappropriate composting items) is vital for speed and quality of your compost.\u00a0 Every composting gardener seems to have their favorite ratio which is \u2018tried and true\u2019 for them, so you may end up playing with it over time to see what gives you the fastest result, and the happiest plants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The most common range of ideal ratios have a 20:1 to 100:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen, where your carbon (browns) rich material will include dry leaves, straw, corn stalks, and even sawdust and shredded paper, and your nitrogen (greens) will come from your garden trimmings, kitchen scraps, and even grass trimmings or seaweed.\u00a0 Nitrogen rich materials are a necessity, but too much will leave you with a slimy, smelly mass that you won\u2019t want to spread over your garden!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Appropriate Moisture Level\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Just like oxygen and heat, water is needed for the composting process to work, and there\u2019s definitely a \u2018just right\u2019 level of moisture we\u2019re looking for.\u00a0 A good thorough state of being \u2018damp\u2019 like a squeezed out sponge is a good goal to shoot for.\u00a0 Any more or any less and you\u2019ll really inhibit or even stop your composting process.\u00a0 So when stirring your compost, check for this level of moisture, and add small amounts in between turning as needed to achieve it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Size Of Composting Ingredients<\/span><\/h3>\n

Like so many things in chemical processes, surface area matters.\u00a0 Shredded plant matter will compost much faster than tossing in whole leaves and other compostables.\u00a0 Lawn mowers or leaf shredders are great for back yard compostables, and using a kitchen knife or even blender for kitchen scraps. Any sawdust should already be pretty small (choose the smallest you can get) and any paper you use (no dyes! Leave the college ruled or colored pages out) should be shredded thoroughly.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tips, And Common Composting Mistakes To Avoid?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Common Mistakes<\/span><\/h3>\n

The biggest mistakes also tend to be the most common, which are simply not supplying what your compost needs most, which we detailed above: good starting material, oxygen, moisture, and the right size for good heat.\u00a0 Following these, the most common composting mistake we see is the understandable urge to toss in all the kitchen scraps and yard waste you have.\u00a0 This can quickly mess with your 20+:1 ratio, and some items should be avoided entirely, like dairy and meat, though rinsed egg shells are great.\u00a0 You should also avoid any pet leavings that have ended up in your yard and may mix with leaves and grass you want to compost with.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re trying to get some ready compost together fairly quickly, continuing to add more fresh materials to the compost bin is going to slow down the process substantially.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t normally a problem if you\u2019re looking to build up a good compost over several months to use for the following season or year, but is not going to help you get a batch ready sooner than later.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s Talk Quality<\/span><\/h3>\n

Back to the thought of throwing in everything but the kitchen sink; when the goal of compost is to help you support healthy plants, especially if you\u2019re using them to harvest healthy produce of some kind, we want to be picky about our compostables!\u00a0 If you use shredded paper, avoid paper which has dyes and ink.\u00a0 Don\u2019t throw in any plants from your garden which have had herbicide or weed killer used on them, or other such poisons and contaminants.\u00a0 Coal and cigarette ash (wood ash is fine) is unsurprisingly a bad idea.\u00a0 Sick or diseased plants also won\u2019t be good food for your living plants! Any inorganic materials are also, obviously, a no go, as they simply won\u2019t compost and may add contaminants, so any plastics, metals, etc. should not be added to your compost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Composting<\/p>\n

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Keeping A Thought To Speed<\/span><\/h3>\n

Some plant materials are perfectly fine to compost, but will take quite a long time to do so, some of them on the order of years, so should only be included if you\u2019re looking for a longer composting time in any given batch. Remember that the size of these ingredients will always be a big factor.\u00a0 The more finely chopped, ground, or even blended the ingredients are, the faster they will compost no matter what it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

Items which may take a year or two to fully compost include: fallen autumn leaves, greens from pruned hedges, cardboard, natural fibers (like cotton\/wool\/silk clothes or sheets), nettle and the stems of herbaceous plants.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Compostables which may take three years or longer include: Pine cones and pine needles, ivy, wood shavings and chips (depending in part on size), tree twigs, wine corks, tooth picks, fruit and avocado pits.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How Do You Know When Compost Is Ready?<\/span><\/h2>\n

This one is a pretty straight forward answer: your compost should look pretty much like dirt.\u00a0 It should be dark, smooth, crumbly, and smell like soil or a wet forest.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not sure, take a hand full and put it in a plastic bag for a few days then open it up.\u00a0 If it smells like dirt, you\u2019re good to go.\u00a0 If it smells sour, or like ammonia it\u2019s not ready yet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One additional thing to watch for, is that your compost should naturally be warmer than the ambient temperature it\u2019s being stored in.\u00a0 Normally as it starts cooling down and gets closer to the ambient temperature it means the chemical processes have slowed and it\u2019s time to turn it again, but when you turn it and it doesn\u2019t heat back up to more than about 10F of your ambient temperature, your compost is about ready!<\/span><\/p>\n

Some composting materials may not actually be fully broken down yet when the rest of the compost is ready, especially bigger items like corn husks or cobs.\u00a0 In these cases you can still use the compost if it fits our above \u2018tests,\u2019 just leave these larger chunks behind to continue composting, whether they are those large corn cobs or identifiable leaves, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are still some uses, however, for compost which isn\u2019t quite done yet.\u00a0 Using compost which is nearly there as mulch for trees and shrubs can help moisture retention as a good mulch will, while also adding additional nutrients as the compost continues decomposing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of the method you use, your finished composting pile will be about \u2154 the size you started with, so keep that in mind in case you had a specific compost yield you were aiming for.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How To Speed Up Composting\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Besides getting your basics down and avoiding common mistakes, what will make compost break down faster?\u00a0 There\u2019s actually quite a lot you can do to speed up the composting process dramatically.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Use Materials That Break Down Quickly<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re looking for fast compost, the simplest way to get to a good finished compost fast, in addition to getting the basics down and optimized, is to pick materials that simply break down quickly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n