Garotta Compost Maker, 3.5 kg

Product Information

In gardening, the term compost activator is used to cover many products with names such as compost maker, accelerator, inoculator, catalyst, and humification agent also being used. In this article, we define the terms more precisely and use these to look at what they contain (the ingredients) and how well they work. The blog was updated in December 2022. There are then a number of what we call limiting factors that can limit or totally prevent decomposition. For example: if you have no nitrogen (or not enough) the reaction cannot proceed. Ifyou have no micronutrients in your waste, some of the bacterial enzymes cannot be made/proceed. If you have no oxygen or water aerobic composting cannot proceed or can be limited. To accelerate means to increase the speed (rate), so they should increase the speed of composting (ie reduce the time it takes to make good quality compost. We can define a compost accelerator as a product that increases the speed (rate) of decomposition. We do not believe commercial compost accelerators accelerate the rate of garden composting to any meaningful degree. (We explain why and the detail below). The only meaningful way to accelerate(increase the rate) of decompositionis to increase the heap temperature.

Using the above definitions of 'activator' and 'inoculator', the SoilFixer Compost Humification Agent (CHA) is both an activator and inoculator. We are not aware of any other compost additive that acts to increase humification. It also helps to reduce compost odours, lower nitrous oxide and methane (potent climate change gases).This is a new term introduced by SoilFixer. During composting, compounds known as humus (or colloidal humus) are formed. These compounds are the real active items in compost (read here). Typically compost contains less than 1-5% of these valuable compounds. A humification agent increases the amount of colloidal humus in your final compost typically to 15-30%. You will often see urine (pee) listed as a compost activator. We are highly dubious of the real value of adding pee to compost. Urine has a tiny amount of urea, which in turn has tiny amounts of nitrogen. If you are hot composting - the addition of +99% water (which takes heat to remove it as steam) is negative. In a cold composting system, if the heap is very dry urine is OK. If the heap is damp, it compounds aeration issues. Our expertise says those seeing really positive impact probably have compost bins that were too dry and the water is improving the process.

By keeping the compost heap at a higher temperature Compost Accelerator helps to break down waste in to smaller pieces, whilst retaining all of the nutrients needed to help plants grow. We only use natural ingredients in Compost Accelerator which makes it 100% organic. This can give you the reassurance that it will help produce healthy, organic compost that can contribute to the growth of organic plants. It also contains a source of Chitin which provides plant health benefits when using your new compost. The science behind how and why biochar works is constantly developing (e.g. new information on DIET (direct interspecies electron transfer) is speeding the process by0-30%).If heat (temperature) is the secret tofast composting, what benefit do all the compostingactivators on sale really have? The one exception is when you are trying to create a biochar super compost - which requires the addition of a biochar and or compost humification agent (e.g. SoilFixer's CHA).

You can use this 'rough rule thumb': take the length of time your composting takes at ambient temperature in months (e.g. 36, 18, 12, six months) and convert to days (so 36, 18, 12, six days) for how long it will take for hot composting. If your current compost takes 18 months (cold system) it will take approx 18 days at 60C (hot). It’s best not to add fresh food waste to the pile like meat, fish or diary. Not only do they make the pile smell bad, but it can also invite unwanted pests to your garden. Too Slow?

It contains microbial feed which gives microbes a boost of immediately available nutrients. This microbe food speeds up the process of decomposition. Never add cooked food of any kind as this can attract vermin. Shred or cut waste into smaller pieces where possible, especially woody stems.