[Market-farming] White bands in compost

Allan Balliett igg at igg.com
Thu Dec 30 08:18:03 EST 2004


>Actinomycetes, fungi responsible for part of the composting process 
>and the organisms that most people associate with the smell of 
>"soil," form a white band about a foot from the outside of a 
>well-made compost pile. They cannot live in the very hot 
>temperatures in the interior, but need some warmth, which explains 
>their location. Take a sniff--I bet they smell good. They are 
>beneficial, obviously.

Thanks, Miranda.

I want to point out that Actinomycetes is a bacteria, and not a 
fungi. As such,  according to the Soil Food Web people, it can be 
very detrimental addition to soil that requires mycorrhizal fungi.

The white, powdery 'bacterial growth' that I was referring to occurs 
early in compost piles, usually observed in the first turning, and is 
some times called 'firefang.' It is also a actinomycetes bacteria, 
but I do not believe that this one creates compounds that we 
associate with  that 'before the rain' smell  we all know and love. 
(According to Elaine Ingham, the fungi responsible for the really 
good smell of good soil (forest humus) are the basidiomycetes.)  I 
have heard stories of firefang reducing poorly managed stacks to 
dust, but I've never seen anything like this.

I better say to anyone who is just starting farm scale composting 
that the information I gave about wetting the stack with a sprayer on 
a hose during construction is effective here in compost cloth covered 
stacks in Shenandoah Valley in stacks that have a high carbon content 
(horse manure, hay, straw). Wetting like we do (you never want to wet 
enough to interfere with air passage in the stack) could be 
detrimental in  tropical areas. I point out the wetting process 
because I believe that getting enough moisture in the stack at the 
beginning has made a substantial difference in the quality of the 
compost we make.

-Allan Balliett
Shenandoah Valley




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