[USCC] food waste, low pH & vinager smell

[John A. Crockett]

Hi Steve,

when you do cross section profile oxygen and CO2 monitoring, what values are 
you getting.  Fermenting is an ANAEROBIC reaction and can produce acids. 
My own research, doing cross section profile oxygen and CO2 monitoring on 
passively aerated windrows is that the passive aeration is grossly 
inadequate... if you e-mail me directly, I can send you graphs, or, you can 
see the graphs on our website.... the research is 10 - 8 years old, and has 
been available to all of you at www.magicsoil.com since May of 1998.

When we've done oxygen depletion tests, it hasn't been uncommon for the 
microbes to strip the oxygen from 19% down to 2% in 15 minutes.    Based on 
that, if you turn the compost only 4 times every hour, you're expecting the 
microbes to be able to work on up / down oxygen.  Do you think you could 
function well under those conditions?

As I've said before, we've never assayed more than 3,0E+9 (3 billion) active 
bacteria, per gram, dry weight, when the CO2 was over 4%.

Working together to create a sustainable environment,
John Crockett
jac at magicsoil.com
www.magicsoil.com