A new view on compost
I think it’s time for us to change how we view compost.
We often focus on compost recipes while overlooking the biology those recipes create.
On paper, two compost piles can appear very similar. They may have roughly the same carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and contain many of the same ingredients.
Yet the biology that develops inside those piles can be very different.
Why?
Because composting is not just about getting the right ratio.
A compost pile is a living, changing environment where one group of organisms prepares the material for the next group to take over. As conditions change, so does the biology.
Manures, coffee grounds, crop residue, food scraps, wood chips, animal carcasses, and straw behave differently in a compost pile. Some ingredients compact.
Some break down rapidly.
Some drive intense microbial activity while others slow it down.
The result is that two piles with similar ratios can follow very different biological pathways.
[Video Link] → Here’s a video I recently created that talks about this. ←
One observation I continue to make is how quickly a pile can change when temperatures rise too aggressively.
[Video Link] → Here’s a different video on why hot compost is not always good compost. ←
A pile that heats too rapidly can burn through the available oxygen in a short time.
As oxygen becomes scarce, the biology in the pile's core begins to shift. Moisture decreases. Valuable nutrients such as nitrogen may be lost. Odours can develop, such as when strong ammonia smells leak out of the pile (that’s a loss of valuable nitrogen). And the biological community may become less diverse than intended.
I saw this recently with a client.
He’s been making compost using the same recipe for the last four years, but other farm priorities pulled him away at critical turning points. He left the pile too hot for too long. Oxygen became limited, and the biological community was compromised.
The unfortunate thing was that the compost pile would be his primary input for this year’s growing season.
It was a useful reminder.
When making compost, the priority is not simply getting the right ratios or the pile hot (although this was something I got really excited about when I first started learning about this process).
The priority is creating conditions where beneficial organisms can grow, stabilize, and remain useful by the time the compost is applied to soil or used to make extracts and teas.
For farms trying to reduce dependence on costly external inputs, this distinction matters.
Even small amounts of well-managed compost can go a surprisingly long way.
Learning how to read and manage biological systems like these is one of the reasons Ian Finley, Cathy Finley, and I decided to reboot our field-based event in Creston, BC.
Learn more here: https://www.rootshootsoils.com/creston-2027
