Plants love mature compost

Healthy soil is a definite must for plants. It is full of microbes and other living organisms. When blended with soil, mature compost supplies a variety of microbes and nutrients to boost soil health and help your plants grow strongly.

Why is it better to let my compost mature?

Composting is basically a 2-stage process. The first stage occurs in a well-aerated compost equipment. A group of microbes break down wastes into sticky solid matter - compost soil. Nutrients are unlocked but aren’t in a form that plants can use.

Fresh compost soil hasn’t yet unlocked its full potential. To transform it into its final crumbly form, special maturation microbes must be allowed to carry out the second composting stage. Plants can take up readily the nutrients in this mature compost.

Humus is produced during maturation. It plays important roles in soil, e.g. stimulates the good microbes, retains nutrients and water, and improves soil structure for better drainage and aeration. Your plants and garden will flourish with more humus in compost.

Humus is also rich in carbon. As it can hold on to its carbon for a long time, producing humus can help us keep carbon in soil and out of the atmosphere. This is practical climate action.

If you don’t complete the maturation step, then use (immature) compost soil carefully, e.g. to top dress soil beneath a layer of normal garden mulch. Immature compost will fight plants for oxygen and pull nitrogen out of soil if it is buried near plant roots. It can harm rather than enhance plant growth. In contrast, you can plant directly in mature compost blended with soil or potting mix.

Compost maturation is simple to do

Compost maturation takes time. Although you can’t hurry the process, the maturation microbes are happy to finish composting for you when left undisturbed in a suitable setting.

Let us consider this example. After wastes in a tumbler or compost bin have all turned into immature compost (with very little original waste matter in it), stop mixing and leave the solids alone for a few months. Keep moist and you can end up with mature compost.

While resting unfinished compost in an existing tumbler or compost bin, you may want another system to handle fresh waste. Why not think about using Bioverter with its ability to compost kitchen waste fast and odour free?

In addition, you produce compost solids that self-descend into a slide out collector. Harvest the collected solids from Bioverter and rest them in a stationary tumbler, compost bin or redundant worm tray.

Alternatively, you can rest immature compost in a sheltered plant pot. If it is partially buried, garden earthworms will make their way to the maturing compost - a sign of increasing value to soil ecology. (Unlike the surface feeders in worm farms, free-range earthworms tunnel deep below the soil surface. Tunnelling allows water and air to reach plant roots, and helps disperse nutrients.)

Maturation is inherently slow but it is worth the wait to produce mature compost, a superb soil-improver.

Healthy soil, happy plants

Healthy soil is teeming with microbial life and other soil organisms. Collectively, they play an important role in plant health.

Plants grow well in healthy soil - they’ll look better, and will be less prone to pests and diseases. Plants growing strongly remove more carbon dioxide from the air.

Mature compost looks like soil and makes it healthier, more fertile and drought resistant. Add it to your soil or potting mix to grow happy plants. You can save money on fertilisers and pesticides by making your own soil superfood.

Compost juice is Bioverter’s liquid harvest. It contains soluble nutrients and microbes. Plants take up its nutrients readily and benefit from increased microbial activity with the return of microbes to their natural habitat. Compost juice enhances soil health.

Water plants in your garden and pots with diluted compost juice. You miss out on the benefits of compost juice composting with tumblers and open-ended bins, since you can only make compost solids with them.

Get the best out of your compost for maximum benefit to your plants and the environment. Set aside your harvest of compost solids to mature. Produce compost juice with Bioverter to obtain a steady supply of a liquid version of mature compost.

To help your plants and garden prosper, use mature compost to enrich the soil intensely in selected spots, and water the garden with compost juice to boost soil health.