She has written often that most of the samples of compost that she is given, backyard or commercial, are nearly dead, far out of balance microbially, and give mediocre to poor results in soil and teas. Most people are used to terrible compost, and although adding bad compost is probably better than adding nothing, we're mostly very cavalier about how we make it. If it doesn't get to 140-160F (60 to 70-ish C) and various other characteristics, it's not going to have the right microbe mix in it, and Elaine says we shouldn't call it compost.
I'm just sayin'. Compost is any old pile of rotting stuff, and we love it. Biochar has to be perfectly made under controlled conditions, and we still hate it. Hmmm.
Toby
http://patternliteracy.com
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.