[USCC] Critical Thinking leading to Excellence in Composting

[John A. Crockett]

Are you a critical thinker, or just following the crowd when it comes to
composting, how you compost?

What is "Aerobic"?  Some people believe that 5% oxygen is "aerobic".  Well,
we've never assayed over 3 billion active bacteria, per gram, dry weight, of
compost (about a teaspoonful), when the CO2 was over 4%, which means the
oxygen was probably around 15-17%.

We very frequently need to provide the microbes with a volume of fresh air,
over 20 times the volume of the compost, EVERY HOUR, to provide our microbes
with enough oxygen. Admittedly, we're dealing with food residuals and close
to zero Lignin, and we're shredding to less than ¼".

Over Eleven years ago we learned, through extensive hands on, cross section
profile, oxygen and CO2 monitoring of windrows, that passive aeration is
grossly inadequate, even in a very porous feedstock.  That data has been on
our website since May of 1998, available to all, in easy to understand bar
graphs.

It was January of 1996 that we did our first oxygen depletion test, and
found that the microbes can deplete the oxygen from 19%, down to 2%, in just
fifteen minutes.  That hands on research taught us that we had to not only
go to full time forced aeration, but that also had to massively expand our
own hands on research.   Why would one composter even consider doing over $1
million of in-house, hands on research?  Might it be one of the best
business investments a composter could make?

While interns have to make a significant commitment in time and energy to
learn in our lab, within days they can earn their way up to learning how to
do the direct estimates of active and total bacteria in samples of compost,
how to make up the solutions, take samples, do the serial dilutions,
staining, and then the actual counting under a microscope, using 1000X
Epi-fluorescence microscopy.

As I've asked before, I'd like to see any data that shows significantly
different cross section profile oxygen and CO2 levels in passively aerated
windrows.  To be really scientific, we ought to also be checking the
population of active bacteria at those same monitoring points.  Would you,
or someone you know, like to do that research, as part of an intern project?

While research is expensive, we believe that ignorance if far more expensive
and unaffordable. 

Foul odors from composting are avoidable, and totally unacceptable.

Working Together to Create a Sustainable Environment,
John A. Crockett, a.k.a. Dr. Mike Robe
Mother Nature's Farms, Inc.
(845) 225-7763
http://www.magicsoil.com/
jac at magicsoil.com