Complete urban farmer #4 COMPOST

Things I learnt today
* there are four main ingredients needed to make compost - Carbon, Nitrogen, Moisture & Oxygen
* the difference between hay and straw -
Hay is when the whole plant is harvested and cured, such as lucerne, this means the nitrogen is retained
Straw is the fibrous part of a plant that is left after the peas/beans have been harvested, such as pea straw, which means it is mostly carbon
* humus is the stable end product after the decomposition process, ie what compost becomes when is cooked and ready
* Nitrogen - greens, grass clippings, food waste, manure
* Carbon - straw, cardboard, wood chips, leaves
* if anaerobic (if not enough oxygen is present), it is not compost, as the beneficial fungi and bacteria are asleep or dead and some other crazy creatures have taken over
* Fungi store carbon in the soil
* fungi can send out toxins and enzymes across distances to break down leaves and organic wastes so the conditions are favourable for when they arrive there later

Making hot compost

Hot Aerobic Compost
is a method to make a lot of compost in a fairly short space of time, it involves an optimum "Carbon Nitrogen Ratio" and because of the "heat" it kills weed seeds and pathogens, which is particulary useful if the source of any of your ingredients is questionable. The heat in this process is created from microbial production, as the little single celled bacterias eat and reproduce they create heat. If they create too much heat and there is not enough oxygen for them to breathe the compost goes "anaerobic" and thus this method is quite labour intensive as you need to keep an eye on it's internal temperature, or if you have a special compost temperature probe this makes life easier. If the compost is too hot or too cold, the entire pile needs to be turned. A pitch fork is good for this. The ideal is 55-65•degrees.
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The compost our group constructed (as seen in photos above) consists of
6 month old compost (which hasn't completely decomposed)
straw
grass clippings
hand harvested weeds (nettles, grasses, mallow)
dried chicken manure
wood chips we found in a pile that had some fungi growth
400 liters of water

Complete Urban Farmer #3 SOIL

Soil is complex and INCREDIBLE!
There is so much to write and investigate and think about. I'm particulary excited about how similiar soil and plant nutrition is to human physiological and nutritive processes!

A few notes of
things I learnt today
* Snow is really rich in nitrogen and minerals, so that is part of the reason why soil in NZ is so good.
* There are nutrients in the atmosphere, rain, snow, and sunshine
* if the plant is getting what it needs you will have good yeild, it will taste good and you shouldn't have pests and disease
* sick plants send out signals for insects to come and destroy them so that they don't reproduce a genetically inferior version of themselves
* when the soil is more acidic heavy metals become more available
* Calcium opens up the soil, makes it easier to work, more pore space, activates enzymes and is really good for cell structure