COMPOSTING PLANT RESIDUESES
IN
the last article we talked about the season for vegetables and how farmers can make themselves busy during the period of vegetable production.
Compost was mentioned as an alternative to chemical fertilizer. Today let us talk about this compost and its benefits to the vegetables as they are growing. Artificial manure produced by composting plant residues such as leaves, straw, weeds under the favorable conditions of moisture, temperature and aeration.
The residues we are talking about are low in nitrogen, phosphorus and lime which are necessary for rapid de-composition of the organic materials by micro- organisms. These three elements nitrogen, phosphorus and lime in readily available substances must be added to the compost.
How then do we prepare this compost.
A compost pile can be prepared by successive layers of organic materials, soil and fertilizer as already mentioned. The mixture should be in the following order, each layer of organic materials should be about 15 centimeters thick, the fertilizer and soil are sprinkled over each layer making the pile 1 to 2 meters high if necessary. Excessive heating may result if the compost is over 1.5 to 2 meters wide. Benefits of compost
The main benefits are: -
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The improvement of aeration
Water easily drains through the better physical conditions of the soil thus created. The compost pile should be kept moist all the time, but not soaked. The heap should be turned with the shovel or folk at three week intervals over a period of three months.
Farmers in the past indicated that the capacity to produce the crops on any land was more or less directly related to the amount of organic matter which it contained. Likewise, the farmer of today in designating soils which are or which he considers highly fertile usually selects the dark colored ones. He makes this choice because experience has taught him that such soils are usually more productive than light colored ones and hence, in selecting dark colored soils the farmer is involuntarily paying tribute to the value of organic matter in the soil.
In general, it can be said that organic plant exerts a controlling influence on soil properties including productivity and without it, the surface layer of the earth could hardly be designated as soil. The organic matter content of soil is one of our most important and also one of our most easily exhaustible resource.
Decomposition of organic matter, if the crude organic materials added to soils in the plants and animals remains, did not decompose, they would be of little value in crop production or soil improvement. The plant nutrients in these materials are converted into usable forms only through decaying processes. Likewise, the tissue of higher plants and animals in its natural structure contributes little to the physical or chemical improvement of the soil. These structures must be broken down and the chemical makeup changed before they serve to improve soil tilth and aid in desirable chemical process in the soil.
Soils that are easily worked are considered as having good tilth. Soils pack that are thought to have lost their tilth. Soils rich in organic matter generally have good soil tilth and soils with good tilth are generally described as friable, which means that they are easily crumbled or pulverized.
Organic matter promotes granulation by binding the soil into granules. Adding organic matter to the heavy soils makes them sticky, soils with good tilth can absorb and hold moisture, deeper root growth take place in soils with good tilth. Rain and irrigation water have difficult in penetrating soils with poor tith.
Soils with good tilth permit air to enter the soil. Air is needed by soil micro- organisms and plant roots. Sandy soils having too much aeration however, tend to dry out. Organic matter added to sandy soils will lessen excess aeration and increase moisture holding capacity. Organic matter helps to bind the particles of soil together.
Continuous cultivation can lower the tilth of many soils because much of the organic matter and humus in the soil which at one time had good drainage now had to be tilled as a result of less good soil tilth.
Subsoil exposed to erosion often have poor tilth because they lack organic matter. Field spots showing higher subsoil thus usually have poor soil tilth at the bottom. Sandy soils become more subjected to droughts from loss of organic matter and consequently lower water holding capacity. Cultivated soils with good tilth are less subjected to water and wind erosion. The surface soil is held together in granule by organic matter. Water penetrates these soils better and the granules are more resistance to the forces of wind and water erosion than smaller soil particles.
This is how compost when added to the different types of soils would help that kind of soil to be more useful to crop production. Composting, the artificial plant manure produced by composting plant residues.