Composting: an easy compost to make at home

What do you usually do with leftover fruit and vegetable shells and seeds, coffee grounds and eggshells left in your home? If you are like most people, probably the answer was:? Play in the trash! Right?? Wrong! Did you know that some of these items that have trash as a final destination in many homes can still be reused?

We are talking about composting, an eco-friendly, fully economical organic fertilizer manufacturing technique that ensures better soil quality, reduced use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture and reduced waste in landfills.

According to Embrapa researcher Adriana Maria de Aquino,? Composting is a process that can be used to transform different types of organic waste into compost that, when added to the soil, improves its physical, physicochemical and biological characteristics. Although widely used in large plantations, composting is useful for all crops and plants, ie it can be used in your pots and garden.

Learn about the benefits of composting and learn how to make an easy compost at home.

Composting Benefits

Composting improves the physical structure of the soil, providing greater water and nutrient retention. It also increases the population of beneficial microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, which make soil mineral nutrients available to plants:

• Compost improves soil quality;
• Reduces contamination and environmental pollution;
• Encourages the exercise of citizenship by contributing to the reduction of waste destined to landfills;
• Improves the efficiency of chemical fertilizers;
• Saves physical space in landfills;
• Recycles the nutrients;
• Eliminates pathogens from household waste.

What is necessary?

Composting requires nitrogen-rich organic household waste, an important nutrient for the biochemical process of composting, and grass, straw, leaves, dry earth or any other carbon-rich material, explains Adriana. .

Check out what can and cannot be used for composting:

Can

• Leftover fruit, vegetables and eggshells;
• Spent filters and coffee grounds and tea bags;
• Garden Debris: Branches, Straw, Grass, Flowers and Tree Bark;

Can not

• Cooked foods and animal foods such as meat, fish, fat and cheese as they may attract animals;
• Sick plants;
• Non-organic material such as glass, metals, plastics, leather, rubber and fabrics;
• Chemicals;
• Cigarette ashes, wood and charcoal;
• Content of vacuum cleaner;
• Animal feces, toilet paper and diapers.

How about putting the tips into practice? Check out the walkthrough nutrition student Yolanda Lopes da Silva has prepared for you to make a compost at home:

Composting step by step

1. Buy a low plastic organizer box (25 to 30 liters);
2. Make small holes with a nail or penknife in the bottom (15 holes), in the lid (15 holes) and in the sides (2 to 4 holes on each side);
3. Pack two 4-liter jars of chopped organic ice cream in the fridge. Use only raw vegetable scraps. Do not put anything of animal origin or food that has been fried, cooked, baked or seasoned; leaves of your plants are welcome, as well as coffee grounds on top;
4. To assemble the box, place a layer of dry earth (that of a pot in which the plant is no longer healthy), a layer of the same volume of chopped vegetable remains and a layer of black earth (also known as humus or manure, which will serve as a source of microorganisms);
5. Make two to three layers with this arrangement;
6. On top, spread coffee grounds, which will prevent insects and ants;
7. Close the box and reopen to roll the compost every 2 or 3 days; if you have worms you can turn less often;
8. In about 60 days the compost is ready.

When ready, use compost in your pots and garden. You can reuse the container to prepare a new fertilizer.

Composting 101: Stupid-Easy Compost Making in Piles & Bins (May 2024)