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Composting
Home Organic Composting (picture with explanation)
OPTION 1 : Flower pot anaerobic cum vermi-composting
Buy two or there earthen flower pots
Deposit wet natured vegetable fruit peels and waste flowers in one of the pots.
Top it either with mud ( a thin layer), garden soil or kitchen ash.
Deposit the waste everyday and repeat the exercise of topping it with a thin layer of soil.
For a family of 5, it will take 30 to 40 days for the pot to get filled.
Once the pot is filled to the brim, sprinkle little water and top it with garden soil or cow dung and keep it fully covered.
The temperature inside the pot will rise.
It will take 10 days for the heat to subside.
Once the heat subsides introduce 10 to 15 earth worms.
Maintain the moisture content in the pot by sprinkling little water everyday.
On the 25th day after the introduction of earth worms the waste would have converted into very fertile home made organic manure.
Once the first pot is full, start on the second & then third and so on.
OPTION 2 : Flower Pot AnaerobicComposting
Requirements: 12” tall earthen pots and a small blue colour bucket with dry soil (10 litters) A few earthen flowerpots of minimum 12 inches height are used. After dumping the kitchen waste of the day into the pot and levelling it with a small stick, a little dry soil from the blue colour bucket is sprinkled on top. Non-vegetarian waste may be avoided. The process is continued till the pot is filled up. Once filled a one–inch layer of dry soil is put on top and a little water is sprinkled. The pot is left undisturbed for three months. After this period, the material is sieved for manure in a half – inch mesh sieve. The material retained by the sieve is put into the pot, which is presently under filling. After one pot is filled up, continue the process with next pot. The calculation for the number of pots required for a household will be one pot per person subject to a minimum of two pots. The pot under filling should be covered by a weld – mesh of size 15” X 15” in order to prevent any disturbance from birds, cats etc. The process is predominantly anaerobic, maintaining the top layer alone aerobic and it is important to keep the pots protected from direct rainwater. Once the waste gets composted, the pot can be again used for composting. Use beautiful Handicraft Compost Water Pot
COMPOST DEVICES ARE MADE MOSTLY FROM WASTE MATERIALS ARE THEREFORE FREE. USE YOUR IMAGINATION FIND ONE OR EVEN MAKE ONE.
OPTION 3: Drum Composting:
Requirements: 200 litre plastic / HDPE drum with the top & bottom open, with 36, 10 mm Diameter holes on the surface. The Drum is kept on bricks for support. A lid is provided. This bin is primarily meant for processing garden waste into manure. However, a small quantity (around 10%) of Kitchen waste can also be mixed. Dump the waste into the drum, level it and sprinkle a little soil on top. Sprinkle water to maintain 60% moisture. However, rainwater should not enter the bin. A lid is provided mainly for this purpose. Manure can be removed from the bottom as and when it forms, and can be sieved through a half-inch sieve. Alternatively, a bin can be made from concrete rings as well (See www.exnorainternational.org for more options).
Option 4: Vermi composting:
Composting can be done either in pits or concrete tanks or well rings or in wooden or plastic creates appropriate to a given situation. It is preferable to select a composting site under a shed, on an elevated level, to prevent water stagnation in pits during rains. Regions with rainfall should avoid pits. In places where rainfall is confined only to a few days in a year, flooding of pits by rain does not cause much harm as local varieties of earthworms are used. Vermi – Composting is set up by first placing a basal layer of vermi bed comprising of broken bricks or pebbles (3-4 cms) followed by a layer of coarse sand with a total thickness of 6 – 7 cms to ensure proper drainage. This is followed by a 15 cms moist layer of loamy soil. 100 earthworms collected in the locality (about 50 surface and 50 subsurface varieties) are inoculated inot the soil. Small lumps of cattle dung (fresh or dry) are then scattered over the soil and covered with a 10 cm layer of hay.
