When is My Compost Finished? How to Store Finished Compost? Can I Use it House Plants?
Question
August 17, 2024
I just discovered the NMSU webinar series and watched John Zarola's great lecture on composting from October of 2023. I learned SO much! Here are a few questions I hope you'll have a moment to help me with (I live in Albuquerque by the way).
1. So, just before I watched the lecture I had sifted out all the soil from my little pile and returned the bulk materials to the area along with about 4 cups of green material.
However...I had not been adding the correct ratio of brown material to the pile all along, so I am wondering if I should return what I've sifted out and add the brown matter and let it sit a little longer..?
2. I probably had not kept the entire pile moist on a consistent basis. I'd add water about 2-3 times per week and had only covered it over with some dried twigs as a sort of "roof." So, is the composted soil OK since I hadn't added water consistently and kept it covered better?
3. Is it OK to use compost in indoor plants?
4. Last question: what's the best way to store the soil while I'm waiting to begin a container garden in the spring?
It's funny but I had written "soil" on my to do list this weekend, planning only to combine adn store my potting mixes for the winter...then I read the Valencia County News Bulletin on line (I write the Paw it Forward column) and discovered all this great gardening information. I'm psyched!
Thanks in advance for anyone having the time to help me along with this.
Answer(s)
Answer by WR: Thanks for contacting us through our website. It's great to hear you learned so much from John Zarola's lecture and that you are composting with enthusiasm. My number one advice is don't worry too much. Often the advice we give as master composters is how to speed up the composting process or how to be efficient with water in our dry climate. But, compost happens no matter what we do and it isn't a perfect science.
So the things you are concerned about didn't stop compost from happening. All is fine. In the future, if you keep your pile covered better, there will be less water evaporation but, not covering it did not harm the compost itself. If you didn't water enough, it probably slowed down the process but didn't otherwise do harm. One thing to know is that, if the compost (what you call soil, I think) smells good and looks like soil, then it is ready to use on your garden or even on your house plants. Just take out any bits that might be unfinished, especially before putting it on your houseplants. Put those back into your compost pile to finish turning to compost. I'm going to copy this to a group of master composters who answer email questions and I think you'll get other, possibly different, answers to all your various questions.
Response from questioner: Aw! Thank you so much for your answers and encouragement. And yes, my compost smells wonderful! I love the smell of Earth. I'm already adding more browns to my pile along with my fruit and veggie scraps. My second mission is to find a way to store my potting mixes and compost so I don't get roaches in my apartment. I found info about that at one of the college extension sites as the moderator for John's lecture recommended. Thank you again for easing my mind.
Response by WR: it's great to hear this info was helpful. As to storing your finished compost ... well, I'm pretty lazy and just leave it in a pile next to my active compost pile until I'm ready to use it. But I think others I'm copying this to might have better suggestions. If there is concern about roaches, I wouldn't store the finished compost indoors, but it should be fine outdoors. If it is finished, the roaches probably won't want to hang out in it much, especially if there is an active pile nearby. And the roaches don't do any harm outdoors. (If you want to read more about critters in the compost, we have this web page: https://www.nmcomposters.org/critters ).
Stay in touch and let us know how it goes.