Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Hi Phil,

We have a very primitive outdoor contraption.  Except for a few nature 
freaks, most paying guests probably wouldn’t like using it, not least because 
it’s a squatting down toilet, which I think is healthier.  But there is no 
odor and there are no flies because we cover with some material after each 
use.  First we use a bit of saw dust or clay soil to cover the fresh feces 
and then we add dry leaves to aerate the pile and prevent it from getting too 
compact.  Neighbors of ours have an indoor compost toilet and that works fine 
too.  Some people use perforated ventilation pipes and electric ventilators 
to provide air, but I find it’s much better to keep the pile loose with 
enough leaves or other material from the beginning.  We only have one 
composting chamber which I empty about once or twice a year.  The toilet is 
on the slope of a hillside and I rake out the material from a discharge 
opening on the lower side down-hill.  From there it goes to the
 composting area in the garden, where I let it sit for another year or so, 
usually together with grass, weeds or other materials.

If you use a two-chamber system you can rake out the finished product from 
the chamber not in use and never come in contact with fresh feces, which I 
don’t mind at all.  Our dog never needs a doctor; when she finishes her 
business, she just turns around to sniff at her feces and makes a detailed 
and instant analysis of its constituents much swifter and better than any 
lab.  Unfortunately our noses aren’t as good as that. 

The bottom of the composting chamber needs to have a slope with a drain (or 
discharge opening) at the lowest point to prevent fluids from accumulating 
and anaerobic conditions from occurring.  If you do it with a building 
permission, you probably need a concrete floor.  I just use a clay bottom.

I have never noticed high temperature in the composting chamber, but that 
depends on what materials you use at what ratio.  In my compost heaps in the 
garden I used to measure temps of 60 deg. C or higher.  But now I don’t do 
high temperature composting anymore because there is too much loss of 
nutrients.  According to some US government regulations, compost heaps ought 
to be above 55 C for several days and above 60 C for at least a few hours so 
that all pathogens are killed.  But that is purely theoretical and just 
applies to large public facilities.  You don’t have to worry about that.  If 
you leave your compost pile under aerobic conditions for a year or two there 
are no pathogens that will pose any problems.

Initially, I thought I would use our humanure for non-food plants only, but 
when I got the first batch ready, it felt much better than the cow manure we 
used to get from a neighboring cattle farmer.  

We sometimes let ourselves become paranoid by reports of people getting 
terribly sick due to some pathogens, but deep down I always know there is no 
problem because I grew up on a small farm more than 50 years ago.  There was 
an outdoor toilet which was basically just a hole in the ground.  My 
grandfather would empty out that hole and pour the contents, which was a 
disgusting soup of pure feces with nothing else, on the dung heap on top of 
all the bedding from the cow shed and the pigsty.  There was a terrible 
stench for a day or two, but after that it returned to normal.  After the 
war, my grandfather was too poor to buy fertilizers and all fertility came 
from that dung heap.  Except for salt, pepper and fish, the family produced 
everything it ate.  I don’t remember that any member of our extended family 
ever needed a doctor in those days.  That only came after the farm was 
abandoned and people moved to more sanitary conditions in the city.

My favorite spot as a small kid was a bench in the narrow space between the 
cow shed and the dung heap.  When the afternoon sun burnt down on the heap, 
the air would vibrate in the heat and buzz with the sound of innumerable 
insects.  I would breathe in the odorous air and be happy.

Dieter Brand
Portugal


 
> > Are there unpleasant odors associated with the early
> stages of composting? My wife is going to be renting rooms
> to tourists at the finca and we need to keep the aesthetics
> in line with that service :-) Also becoming old codgers we
> don't want to commit to a system that would require a lot of
> physical effort we cannot depend upon ourselves to provide
> at some point. This would include moving the resources far
> enough away from the house to avoid odors. Also is your
> composting thermophilic?
> > 
> > With regard to the spread of pathogens this depends on
> the presence of the critter, the density and susceptibility
> of the population, and a means of transmission. These are
> fairly easy to manage on a small scale and in relative
> isolation but when communities become involved things change
> rapidly. It sounds to me like you are well aware of these
> issues.
> > 
> > Phil
> >