permaculture

[Linda Kruhmin <lindakruhmin@gmail.com>]

We use spent mash from a local micro-brewery on our urban farm.  We layer
it in our 4'x4'x4' wooden pallet bins with straw, about 1 part mash to 3 or
4 parts oat straw (2" of mash to 6 to 8" of straw [or dried leaves from the
fall]).  It gets turned 2 or 3 times within a 3 month period and it is
ready.  Using less straw/leaves leaves a pretty smelly mix.  We try to add
compost tea periodically.


On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 2:26 PM, Dieter Brand <brand.dieter2015@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On 27/05/2016, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Because depending on weather, rain, site considerations, drainage the
> pile
> > could go anaerobic.
>
> I'm trying to question the assumption that anaerobic decomposition is
> always bad. I don't believe it is. There are numerous situations in
> which organic mater is broken down under anaerobic conditions, for
> example, in lower soil layers, in the digestive tracks of animals and
> humans, etc. Even a so-called aerobic compost pile often contains
> anaerobic parts. For example, under freshly cut grass whitish mold
> will typically occur because the grass tends to cut out air. All of
> that doesn't matter. The whitish mold will turn aerobic immediately
> when it comes into contact with air.
>
> The great advantage of anaerobic decomposition is that it involves
> fewer losses. The disadvantage is that it takes longer than aerobic
> decomposition.
>
> The last time I had my neighbor deliver a load of cow manure (which is
> more than 10 years ago), the stuff he brought was a mass of solid
> sh*t. I don't know what he did, perhaps he didn't use any straw as
> bedding. Anyways, the stuff was so solid that it was impossible to
> turn, let alone mix it with other material. I just let it sit for a
> couple of years. After which it was perfectly good compost, which I
> kept on using for years. It decomposed very well even without
> aeration.
>
> I'm not saying that anaerobic composting is the thing to do in this
> case. That depends on many factors. But I think it is good to question
> received ideas sometimes.  People just keep on repeating that this or
> that is bad because everybody says so. I think we shouldn't be so
> afraid of anaerobic decomposition.
>
> Dieter
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