Composting is an effective way to manage garden and kitchen waste to create healthy soil. However, sometimes you may feel frustrated with the long composting time.

The good news is that you don't have to wait that long with the right methods. We will share three ways on how to speed up the process.  

How Long does Compost Take to Decompose?

The time taken by compost materials to decompose isn't constant. A compost pile can take a couple of weeks, several months, or even years. It all depends on how you manage the compost pile, the type of compost materials, your composting method, and the timing of the compost. 

Remember: don't feed any material directly into your compost pile. The first step to having a successful compost is to choose the right compost materials.

1. Have the right ratio of brown to green materials

When choosing composting materials, you need to properly balance your brown and green materials. The brown materials refer to long-dead woodier materials, like twigs, straw, wood chips, fall leaves, shredded cardboard, newspaper, and cornstalks. The browns have a higher content of carbon than nitrogen.

Green materials refer to recently dried plant materials and can include food scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings, plant trimmings, and even manure. Greens have a higher content of nitrogen than carbon. 

The quick decomposition of compost material requires the activities of both fungi and bacteria. While bacteria like to feed on greens, fungi thrive on brown materials. When you don't balance the greens and browns, the pile won't compost efficiently. For example, if the compost develops a sharp smell (ammonia), it means you have fewer browns in the pile, and when you have fewer green materials, the pile won't heat up. Most gardeners propose the ratio of browns to greens at 4:1; however, you can still tweak the ratio depending on what you add to the compost pile. 

2. Shred the materials

Just having the right balance of browns and green in the composting materials isn't enough; before you feed the material to the heap, you need to shred them into pieces. 

Cutting weeds or leaves into smaller bits makes them decompose faster than when they're whole. Depending on what you wish to shred, you can use a lawnmower, leaf shredder, or chipper to break down the materials into smaller bits. Shredding the materials also helps to create air pockets in the bits of leaves, grass, and twigs. As a result, it boosts the aeration of the compost hip and thus increases the decomposition rate. 

As for kitchen waste, you can pass it through the blender first. Besides breaking them into bits, it also moisturizes them.

3. Try composting with worms

This green gardening method makes use of worms' natural diet, normally called vermicomposting. The process for vermicomposting is easy: you use food scraps and garden wastes, put them in the worm bins, and let worms go to work. 

With the right food, temperature, and moisture conditions, worms will eat, multiply, and excrete the beneficial worm castings after a few weeks. Worm castings have many benefits; they not only help break down organic materials faster, but also increase soil fertility and help plants become disease resistant.

Meanwhile, vermicomposting also produces liquid fertilizer known as worm wee or worm farm leachate. Combine one part worm wee with ten parts water, you can get  nutrient-rich fertilizer for your indoor and outdoor plants.

Happy composting!

‍

Author Bio:

Tiffany Lei is the founder at Garden Guidepost. She is passionate about gardening and hopes to inspire more people to adapt to the gardening lifestyle and start composting as a way to recycle organic materials.