Composting

What is Compost?

Compost is soil made out of things that used to be alive. Plants love it. It is the organic matter in the soil that provides a repository for nutrients as well as a home to the many beneficial organisms that help to decompose dead organic matter, make nutrients available to plant material , provide aeration , regulate moisture retention and soil temperature and provide a system of checks and balances between the harmful and beneficial components of the soil.

What goes into a compost heap?

• Air
• Water
• Garden waste
• Kitchen waste
• Manure
  
  - Compost needs air, don't enclose it in an airtight container. You can mix the compost weekly to speed development , but an unturned pile will work eventually.
  
  - Water your compost once a week.
  
  - Put your garden waste in to your compost. Grass clippings , leaves and weeds are good (no grass runners).
  Include some ordinary soil , because it contains organisms that help the compost break down, alternatively add a compost activator which includes beneficial micro-organisms.
  
  - Kitchen waste makes great compost. Anything you normally put in the garbage can go into the compost instead. Keep a container in your kitchen and dump it into the compost every day. Good materials include : peels and rinds , egg shells , fruit and vegetable trimmings, leftovers, coffee grounds and stale bread. Avoid meats and sweets and greasy foods because they attract pests.
  
  - Plants like animal wastes , such as carbon dioxide that animals exhale, and manure which they excrete. Manure speeds up and enriches the development of compost. Avoid doggy doo (you can put it under a non-food tree). Avoid manure from any animal that eats meat. Good manure comes from chickens, cows , horses , pigs , sheep and goats.
  

Small scale composting system

What is vermicompost?

The terms vermicompost and worm castings have been used interchangeably to identify the resulting worm worked material produced by earthworms. While the term castings identifies the worm's excreta, or worm manure as it has been called, the term vermicompost allows for the presence of material left undigested by earthworms in the harvested product. As an agricultural activity, the practice of vermiculture results in production not only of earthworms but earthworm by-products and castings. In the sense that cows produce milk and bees produce honey, earthworms produce castings as a marketable product.

Vermicomposting for home use

- Produces super A grade compost.
- Eliminates unwanted household waste.
- The product has excellent: soil structure, porosity, aeration and         water retention capabilities.

How can we be of service to you?

We are offering information to individuals who may desire to enter the potentially lucrative compost or worm industry. Our primary goal is to establish networks of independent composters and growers who will learn the basics of composting and vermiculture to provide what will be needed in the coming years.

More about us

Mission Statement: Our purpose is to provide information, service, and products that will further the growth of vermiculture composting and vermicomposting to all interest groups.

While the emphasis of vermiculture is upon the breeding of earthworms for sale, vermicomposting is the focus upon the process of transforming organic waste into a marketable end product, vermicompost, also known as worm castings.

There are four main interest groups:

1. Residential. The home composter or vermicomposter is generally someone who is interested in reducing household organic waste disposal and/or producing worm castings for use in the home garden. We provide information and instruction for the home composter or vermicomposter as well as redworms and worm bins.

2. Educational. Teachers and students are exploring the benefits of earthworms in the classroom. We offer instructional materials for teachers and students, ranging from single classroom projects to multi-class or school-wide programs for recycling food waste.

3. Institutional. Organic waste generated by institutions such as hospitals, military bases, prisons, or any facility producing food waste may choose to vermicompost their organic residuals through in-vessel vermi-technology systems available through us.

4. Commercial. Commercial scale operations look at profitability and large scale problem solving. Whether as individual entrepreneurs or municipal scale solid waste managers, the advantages of using composting and /or vermicomposting in waste management are many, not the least of which is the production of a high quality soil amendment. We provide information and consultation to individuals and private businesses as well as to municipalities seeking an innovative means for waste management.

Community composting project involving two 6m x 30m compost heaps.

The Zululand Centre for Sustainable Development