[USCC] compost starters

[John A. Crockett]

Why use a compost starter?   I just monitored the rate of air flow on some
compost that I did the pre-processing on last Saturday morning, food
residuals and paper, co-shredded to about 1/8".   

As of 11:40 this morning, the CO2  in the off-gas is 2%, and the rate of air
flow is 38.4 times the volume of the compost, in fresh air every hour.  The
temperature 18" from the point of air entry is 160.4°F, 144.2° 6" in from
the point of air entry.  Ambient temperature in our compost research silo
lab is 60°.  The compost was turned at 7:30 this morning.  The CO2  went up
to 5% so we increased the rate of air flow.  This compost is on 'negative
pressure' aeration, with the vacuum being 0.176"wc. 

While we haven't assayed the population of active bacteria in that compost
this morning, the rate of oxygen consumption leads me to guess that we're up
over 4.0E+9 active bacteria, per gram, dry weight, which is about a
teaspoonful. If you're new to scientific numbers, that is 4 billion active
bacteria, per teaspoonful of compost, which in this case is four days old.

I think we ought to be looking at the population and bio-mass of our
microbial master composters.   Short of that, rate of oxygen consumption
seems like a good indicator of how well we're managing the composting
process.

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