Do You Sterilize Your Compost?

[snew]

For those who make you own compost. Do you sterilize it? Every where I read it seems to be recommended to heat or microwave your compost inside.
I have used it raw (not sure what else to call it) once last winter and My results where very much as I had seen in prior grows.
I did have spider mites 5-6 months later but I would think that I would have seen them prior to that.
1. So have you use raw compost and had problems? What where they?
2. If you sterilize your compost what kind of results do you get?

I do reuse soil. I amend it and let it set for 2-6 months if that makes any difference.

Thanks

 

[Jack Harer]

Composting is the decay and break down of organic matter. The entire idea of composting is to cultivate a colony of beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. They are the critters that convert the organic matter into usable food for our plants. It seems that you understand this, so why do you even ask?

 

[snew]

Composting is the decay and break down of organic matter. The entire idea of composting is to cultivate a colony of beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. They are the critters that convert the organic matter into usable food for our plants. It seems that you understand this, so why do you even ask?

That is how I have been approaching it, however, everything I have read about using compost indoors recommends heating the compost to destroy bugs, which are numerous in outdoor compost. I really don't need critters inside.
I feel like I'm destroying the most important part by heating it though.
Do you use raw compost indoors?

 

[Jack Harer]

Yeah, But I compost in a 55 gal drum with a lid. I keep the drum in the garage, and every week or two (in other words, when I feel like it) I put the lid and band on and roll it around a few times. I get a few gnats from time to time from the lettuce, banana peels, and fruit rinds, but other than that no bugs.
I have 3 drums, and when one gets about half full, I start another. By the time I'm working on filling the 3rd, the first one is ready to bag up or use.

 

[snew]

I use 3 open bins to rotate my compost. So I find lots of bugs. I guess having spider mites 2 months ago has made me a bit skittish.

 

[Joedank]

I screen mine always very fine ... Mites eat living things not dead they run from dead plants so your mites came from elsewhere . Steaming compost is common if. Your cold composting but hot composting requires none I still get a sprouted seed now and again but not alot...

 

[snew]

I screen mine always very fine ... Mites eat living things not dead they run from dead plants so your mites came from elsewhere . Steaming compost is common if. Your cold composting but hot composting requires none I still get a sprouted seed now and again but not alot...

Thanks for the info on the mites.

I guess mine would be considered cold compost. I start with a pile of leaves in Nov-Dec and add greens, food, garden waste, etc.,10-12 months. Some I'll use that fall but most will wait until spring 15-18 months. I screen it to 1/4 inch. I did have an occasion sprout to but don't worry about that. But I hate the idea of heating the compost.

 

[Gr33nCrack]

Never do some shit like that, it will just smoke up your entire house, You don't need to sterilize it, just let it break down completely, takes around 6 weeks

 

[calibuzz]

For those who make you own compost. Do you sterilize it? Every where I read it seems to be recommended to heat or microwave your compost inside.
I have used it raw (not sure what else to call it) once last winter and My results where very much as I had seen in prior grows.
I did have spider mites 5-6 months later but I would think that I would have seen them prior to that.
1. So have you use raw compost and had problems? What where they?
2. If you sterilize your compost what kind of results do you get?

I do reuse soil. I amend it and let it set for 2-6 months if that makes any difference.

Thanks

My procedure:

1.) Buy or prep used soil months in advance.
2.) Open or place compost enhanced re-use soil and put in large buckets, bins, or containers.
3.) Add water - to start or continue natural composting.
4.) In a second - open batch - add fertilizers for the big pot transfer. Let set outside for 2 months minimum.
5.) As mites and pests typically are on the surface, remove the surface prior to entry into your space.
6.) In a quarentine area wash containers and soil with a solution made to prevent bugs and mites.
7.) One is then good to go.
8.) When the little ones are ready to go big, add the fertilized batch to the top 3 inches for filtered release. Do the same with this add batch.

I have had little problem with transfering from outside to inside. Just be on top of it for a few weeks to make sure. Any problem may be solved if caught early, and when preventitive care is used prior to planting.

Peace, and best wishes,

calibuzz

 

[snew]

Thanks calibuzz

 

[ylem]

FUCK NO! a proper compost heap should actually sterilize itself from internal heat. i have a dope old book on composting - no matter what i read these days, i always go back to this book. if youre serious about composting and can somehow aquire it it's the only book you'll ever need. its called "the increadible heap - a guide to compost gardening" by chris catton and james gray.
i've never had a problem with sterility. a properly built compost heap larger than 1 meter in any direction should heat itself up to 60-70 C before it should be turned.

 

[Wetdog]

*I* never use outdoor compost, indoors. Too easy to get a perfect storm of bugs that wouldn't happen outside, where a balance is kept.

My indoor compost, stuff from my worm bins, gets used inside. Outside too, but the compost pile never makes it indoors.

Wet

 

[hyroot]

Read Compost Tea's by Elaine Ingham. She is considered one of the fore most microbiologists in the world

 

[Afka]

Even the small athropods present in compost are beneficial to the organic cycles you're trying to emulate in the soil.

Fungi-bacteria form the bottom of the food chain, mineralizing and storing nutrients.
They are consumed by predators: protozoa, nematodes, etc. Algae sits there forming it's own energy through photosynthesis. While "dirty" looking, it's beneficial, but can attract gnats.
Those larger predators are then predated on by minuscule athropods you can see with your eyes.

Every time a smaller member of the food chain is predated on, the nutrients he stored are taken up into the bigger creature's body, some of it is released as waste. That waste is plant-available organic nutrients.

The bigger the predator, the more nutrients and minerals he's consolidated into his body.


TL;DR : Those bugs are technically little mobile organic osmocote pellets of nutrients.

 

[Gr33nCrack]

Wet dog that was a fail. where does all dirt come from? as long as you let everything "sterilize" it will work as good as any indoor soil can be. Its important to let it completely dry out if it is homemade, I add things like my urine, and a box fertilizer, you pretty much increase the potency of soil by a few times, but none the less let it all dry out under the sun and it will be perfection.

 

[$waGgEr]

compost should be allowed to break down 18 to 24 months. dont heat it that'll jus kill your micros and fungi that you need in there to support a healthy plant. never use a compost that smells sour or rotten. i spray neem oil for mites once everyother week while in veg better safe then sry right.

 

[Cooter@666]

Wet dog that was a fail. where does all dirt come from? as long as you let everything "sterilize" it will work as good as any indoor soil can be. Its important to let it completely dry out if it is homemade, I add things like my urine, and a box fertilizer, you pretty much increase the potency of soil by a few times, but none the less let it all dry out under the sun and it will be perfection.

Why would you sterilize an organic soil? Organic soils are alive and sterilizing it would kill off everything that is beneficial to the soil. I think you might have limited knowledge on how organics actually works. Since you seem interested in the topic I encourage you to go to the library or a book store and read as much about Organic gardening as possible.

 

[Wetdog]

Wet dog that was a fail. where does all dirt come from? as long as you let everything "sterilize" it will work as good as any indoor soil can be. Its important to let it completely dry out if it is homemade, I add things like my urine, and a box fertilizer, you pretty much increase the potency of soil by a few times, but none the less let it all dry out under the sun and it will be perfection.

Either you didn't read it right, or I didn't explain myself good enough.

I make my own organic/natural soil mix. The basic mix is known in the trade as a sterile/soiless mix. Sterile in this sense doesn't mean sterilized per se, but that there is no 'outside' anything. No pathogens, bugs, yada yada yada. Mainly, stuff that is soil borne.

The best advice I ever got when shown how to construct the mix, about 40 years ago, way before the internet, was to never mix 'dirt', or anything from the dirt into the mix, cause that's how most bugs are introduced.

Using thermal compost outside is great!! I do this myself. Any bugs in the compost have their opposite numbers in the garden soil, not so much in a container mix.

My 'indoor' compost is my 2 worm bins. No soil borne pathogens, no dormant bug eggs, just good *clean* worm castings. Full of micro life, just no nasties.

I'm not arguing against it, I'm just stating what *I* do.

Thermal Compost=outside on the veggie garden
Vermicompost=indoor container plants, teas, wherever you can apply if you have enough.

Wet

 

[snew]

Why would you sterilize an organic soil? Organic soils are alive and sterilizing it would kill off everything that is beneficial to the soil. I think you might have limited knowledge on how organics actually works. Since you seem interested in the topic I encourage you to go to the library or a book store and read as much about Organic gardening as possible.

Thanks for your encouragement. And I've done a bit of research on the subject. There is not much written on bring compost inside, what I have found in gardening site research, is it is not recommended to bring it inside. So I wanted to hear from people here who have done this. Have you produced compost and brought it inside? If so what where your results?

 

[snew]

Either you didn't read it right, or I didn't explain myself good enough.

I make my own organic/natural soil mix. The basic mix is known in the trade as a sterile/soiless mix. Sterile in this sense doesn't mean sterilized per se, but that there is no 'outside' anything. No pathogens, bugs, yada yada yada. Mainly, stuff that is soil borne.

The best advice I ever got when shown how to construct the mix, about 40 years ago, way before the internet, was to never mix 'dirt', or anything from the dirt into the mix, cause that's how most bugs are introduced.

Using thermal compost outside is great!! I do this myself. Any bugs in the compost have their opposite numbers in the garden soil, not so much in a container mix.

My 'indoor' compost is my 2 worm bins. No soil borne pathogens, no dormant bug eggs, just good *clean* worm castings. Full of micro life, just no nasties.

I'm not arguing against it, I'm just stating what *I* do.

Thermal Compost=outside on the veggie garden
Vermicompost=indoor container plants, teas, wherever you can apply if you have enough.

Wet

Thanks Wet. I always appreciate your input as you know. I wouldn't be asking this question except that I lost my worm bin this summer. Its time for me to mix some soil to cook and I only have about 2 ½ gallons of casting left which leaves me buy castings which I don't want to do.
I added my outside compost to my compost tea since I was mixing for a lawn application. It was very active SOOOOOOOOO, I sprayed my inside garden with it early this morning. So we'll soon see how that looks.