A garden that is green and healthy is built on a foundation of compost. However; not many have the ideal conditions to make good compost. There are numerous issues that arise while composing and having a soggy compost is one of them. So today we will be discussing about the various kinds of issues you compost could potentially face and how you can handle it in the simplest way.
Ideal compost
An ideal compost is fine, pleasant with an earthy smell, more like what you experience on the floor of the forest. It also has a texture that is crumbly. When you look at an ideal compose you would not be able to talk about the ingredients that were utilized to make it because, they have been processed well. The compost will have turned into an organic dark-looking matter and its consistency will be even. If the compost is mature, it is 100% considered gold to gardeners. Many of them use it as mulch around the plants, also spread or dug into the soil to enhance the capacity of the soil to hold moisture and the content of nutrients. You can also use it as potting soil.
Compost issues
A handful of gardeners will be successful in getting the idea to compose every time. There are certain common issues that occur with a composition that includes, the compost bin is smelly, slimy, ingredients have become very wet or the compost has to stop rotting before it’s fully ready.
Compost that is too wet
This is a very popular issue where the compost has excessive moisture that causes bad odors, harmful substances, and fleas. When you add excessive fresh materials and do not have a proper balance of dry materials it will lead to this situation.
Fresh materials are nothing but, bad grass clippings, vegetables and fruit peels, leftover foods, etc. All these matters retain a lot of water making them very heavy. If you add too much of these fresh materials to the compost heap all at once it will get compacted. This reduces the flow of air filling up all the spaces of air with water. This turns into an anaerobic condition that enables microbes that are extremely harmful to thrive. These microbes are responsible for the bad odor that is emitted from the bin. All fresh organic matter is known as greens. Greens have nitrogen content that is extremely high. Therefore, it is very essential for you to mix a sufficient number of browns. Browns are high in carbon, so when you add brown to a wet compost heap it will help to sort out the issue.
However, if the compost pile is extremely wet, you should dig the entire pile out completely. At this point give it a good mix in order to increase the flow of air within these matters prior to restocking. You can now add more dry brown materials in order to dry the pile. When you have a balanced mix of browns and greens it avoids the compost heap from clogging and enhances drainage.
You can utilize ingredients that include cardboard, straw, sawdust, and shredded pruning’s. Always make sure to cut them into small pieces, allowing the flow of air and discouraging the accumulation of moisture. If you have newspapers at hand, you could scrunch them up and it would be an excellent addition.
Well, that’s all for now. I do hope this article helps you understand how to handle compost that is too wet. All the best!