Soil Detective

Assembled a compost pile for a client last night. 18 hours later and it's almost up to 132ºF! That is the fastest I've seen a pile heat up!

The client didn't collect as much manure as our recipe called for so we added a mix of vetch, clover and trefoil to aid the pile with more high nitrogen materials.

I posted calls out on social media to friends and local neighbors to invite help to turn my compost piles. Some neighbor made a comment that I'd invited people "to stir up 💩." While I understand that the common image of compost is stinky and gross full of unknown materials. This is not true for me anymore.

Since learning about the Soil Food Web identified by Dr. Elaine, I've learned that thermophilic composting is like cooking. We start by carefully crafting a recipe of ingredients for our pile.

These recipe is based on three things.
1. materials we have access to (preferably for free)
2. a diversity of organic materials and
3. a specific ratio of green, woody and high nitrogen materials.

The intended recipients of the "meal" is bacteria and fungi.

The high nitrogen materials are easy for bacteria to break down. These are the "party foods" to get things started. Once bacteria start consuming these, they begin to reproduce, growing their population. Then predator organisms (protozoa, nematodes, ameobe) move in to feed on the bacteria.

My point is, I'm not just throwing a bunch of random food scraps and brown leaves in a bin and hoping for the best.

Each pile we create is based on a carefully crafted recipe and contains the equivalent of FIFTY (50) 5-gallon buckets of materials.

We carefully source and measure each input so we can learn over time which recipes produce the results we want (biologically complete compost with a full Soil Food Web).

It takes several days to collect the volume and diversity of materials. We prepare our materials the day before Assembly day. Measure. Soak. Divide into portions to ensure even distribution of ingredients when mixed.

I take great care to know the source of each and every ingredient. Much of it is organic matter from my garden or close neighbors (who don't use chemicals or fertilzers). Much of the woody ingredients are recycled industrial waste such as cardboard, spent mushroom kits, woodchips from local businesses.

I used some in 2 of my earliest piles, but I don't use any manure these days as I don't want to handle it or the inquiry to determine if it's uncontaminated.

Once a pile is assembled, I tend to it EVERYDAY for at least a month while the organisms complete processing into soil. I track the internal temperature ensuring the pile is hot enough, long enough to kill weeds, seeds and pathogens. (Just like when we cook foods for ourselves). I track moisture to ensure microorganisms have the environmental conditions they need to thrive. (Just like humans.)

And I must say, I have the BEST smelling compost you'll ever smell!

So why go through all this effort? Because soil that is biologically complete holds water, has great structure, supports healthy plants and microorganisms (both essential to human and animal health) and reduce the risks of flood, fire, drought, landslides and famine. What could more important than that?!

Tonight I'm been cutting garden greens to restart the Izabella compost. Elderberry, daisies, lovage, Oregano, grass, weeds, tansy, grape vines, horehound, etc for a diversity of greens. Bird's-foot trefoil, vetch and clover for high nitrogen. More to gather in the morning before reassembling Izabella and turning Josie

This isn't just composting. I'm farming beneficial microorganisms

Then I verify each pile under the microscope to ensure there is beneficial life in the soil.

These piles are being recomposted because they are incomplete.

Healthy soil requires a diversity of microorganisms in the Soil Food Web to make it.

It's important to me to offer the healthiest soil you can buy. It's nothing like what comes in plastic bags from big box stores. (Beneficial organisms, if they were ever present, suffocate in plastic.) And the compost I've analyzed from local landscape facilities is high in minerals but lacking organic matter and fungi.

They literally make soil by eating organic materials and each other. As they consume more carbon than their bodies need, they p**p it out creating p**p glues. Mobile organisms and fungi move these glues around and soil aggregates are formed.

THIS IS how soil is made.

I'm an urban microorganism farmer!