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  • PermaSolarPotterPermaSolarPotter@mastodon.green
    Oct 13, 2026, 8:32 PM

    @gardening Now I understand why my plants starved when I tried to grow them in kitchen scrap #compost. You lose tons of nitrogen in the composting process. It’s not that #composting is useless, it’s just not the best way to feed soil. I find this to be a relief because composting can be really labor intensive and slow. Living plants do a much better job of building SOM.

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  • Oliver Brendelolibrendel@scicomm.xyz
    Oct 14, 2026, 4:33 PM

    @PermaSolarPotter @gardening that's why if you want nitrogen rich compost, you build a compost heap with the right mixture between nitrogen and carbon rich material, turn it over regulalry, congrol the humidity and you use it after 3 months.

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  • PermaSolarPotterPermaSolarPotter@mastodon.green
    Oct 14, 2026, 5:01 PM

    @olibrendel I do compost in my garden, but based on what I've recently learned, I think your assessment of building nitrogen-rich compost is incorrect. Did you happen to watch the webinar? It provides us all with an updated way of thinking about soil fertility.

    Edit: I am specifically talking about kitchen (vegetable) scrap compost without the addition of animal manure.

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  • soaprootsoaproot@sfba.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 5:22 PM

    @PermaSolarPotter The mention of "carbon rich material" is saying you should mix those kitchen scraps 50/50 (or some such ratio) with something like leaves/sawdust/paper/etc. (But I didn't watch the webinar and I'm guessing based on what you reported here they'd still say you'd be better off with cover crops) @olibrendel

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  • PermaSolarPotterPermaSolarPotter@mastodon.green
    Oct 14, 2026, 5:42 PM

    @soaproot @olibrendel @soaproot Yes, I understand. I’ve been composting for a while. If you don’t mix with carbon, you get smelly slime. The webinar helped me understand why, even with my nice, moist black compost, I was getting stunted plant growth.

    Hilariously, he claims we have a “compost fetish” that we need to get over 😂 I’m not a soil scientist so don’t take it from me. Hope you make time to watch the webinar.

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