01-27-83 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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METHODOLOGY OF COMPOSTING Continued: • The windrow constructed as outlined, makes a near perfect environment for 1 bacteria, fungi, and other microbial life to thrive. The microbes can actually double in number in as little as twenty minutes. At this rate of growth their respiration can raise the temperatures of the windrow to pastuerizing temperatures. The heat is sufficient to kill weed seeds and most harmful organisms. With this 111/1 method, man's work is kept to a minimum. The leaves have to be raked off the streets anyway, the extra time is organizing the windrows. The size windrow is critical (10 to 12 feet wide) as it controls the air intake, to keep an aerobic J environment. The volume of the pile is important, sufficient to hold heat, even when ambient temperatures falls to 300F. below zero. The windrow will retain heat right into the following summer without danger of spontaneous combustion. Water seldom need be applied unless you are in an area of less than 40 inches of annual rainfall. After building the windrows they should be left standing, undisturbed, for at least 10 months. Some authorities recommend turning the windrows during the summer. This would reduce composting time but time saved doesn't merit the labor cost. We never find the space that limited or costly, even in metropolitan areas. By mid summer, when windrows have been built about 8_months, weeds begin to 1 cover the pile but don't let them set seed. Apply one spraying of a biodegradable i herbicide spray. By the end of summer the windrows will have shrunk to about one d third their original size, becoming a nice black fibrous mulching material. Just before the following fall's leaf season, pick up all the windrows with a front end leader, don't dig into the original site grade. The thinest layer of decaying leafmold should be left on the surface of the ground, to inoculate the next years windrows with microorganisms. Each succeeding year you will find the windrows will decay a little faster and/or have a better decay. It is best to restack the composted leaves in a hugh high windrow around the perimeter of the site, forming a berm. The width of the berm is not critical, it can be much more 111/1 than 12 feet. The berm will then go into a second heat, retaining higher than ambient temperatures for at least two years! After two years, the leaves in the berm will have reduced to only 10% of the original windrow volume. Now when used for mulching, additional shrinkage will be negligible. The berms make a storage area as well as a sound and wind barrier.and the mulch is always accessible. MARKETING OF MUNICIPAL COMPOST: In our introductory facts and figures, one can easily see, organic -matter is necessary on the land. When our farmlands have less than 1% organic matter no fertilizer made will still bring forth crops: Organic matter is the storehouse I of water which in turn prevents soil erosion. Synthetic fertilizers require huge amounts of petroleum products and these costs have risen as much as 800% in the last decade. A revolution in agriculture is in the making as modern technology will bring about hugh amounts of poultry wastes from concentrated operations so these wastes will make cheaper fertilizers than the synthetic or chemical kinds of the immediate past. These concentrated organic wastes asleaves,sewage sludgg, farm wastes etc. will become a cheaper source of fertilizer, at the same time a solution to the management of wastes. Nothing should be called wastes, it costs too much to dispose of it: Leaves will not escape this market. theyhavegood bufferingaction, ideal P high nutrient level but they have not found a popular demand. Everyone buys top i soil and if more municipalities restricted the movement of top-sbil, leafmold could then best be processed into a reconstituted topsoil. Reconstituted topsoil will be the topsoil of the future: Leafmold, an excellent source of humus making up about one third of the mix. Composted farm wastes or digested sludge in addition 111/1 j to sand, silt, clay or subsoil could be the other ingredients. Balance out the formula according to the waste products you have. Stack and blend the materials together in a pile, using a front end loader and then through a Royer shredder which will further mix and blend as well as remove trash and debris. This will yield a nice friable homogenous soil comparible to a 1/2 inch screened material.