Compost: an easy fertilizer to make at home

What do you usually do with leftover fruit and vegetable husks and seeds, coffee grounds and eggshells? If you’re like most people, the answer was probably, “I throw it in the trash! Right?” Wrong! Did you know that some of these items that have garbage as their final destination in many homes can still be reused?

We are talking about composting, an ecologically correct and totally economical technique for the manufacture of organic fertilizer that guarantees more quality to the soil, the reduction of the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture and the reduction of waste deposited in sanitary landfills.

According to Embrapa researcher Adriana Maria de Aquino, “composting is a process that can be used to transform different types of organic waste into fertilizer that, when added to the soil, improves its physical, physical-chemical and biological characteristics.” Despite being widely used in large plantations, compost is useful for all crops and plants, that is, it can be used in your vases and garden.

Discover the benefits of composting and learn how to make easy compost at home.

Benefits of Composting

Composting improves the physical structure of the soil, providing greater retention of water and nutrients. It also increases the population of beneficial microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, which make mineral nutrients from the soil available to plants:

• Compost improves soil quality;
• Reduces environmental contamination and pollution;
• Stimulates the exercise of citizenship by contributing to the reduction of waste destined for sanitary landfills;
• Improves the efficiency of chemical fertilizers;
• It saves physical spaces in sanitary landfills;
• Recycles nutrients;
• Eliminates pathogens from household waste.

What is necessary?

To compost organic household waste, which is rich in nitrogen, an important nutrient for the biochemical process of composting, and leftover grass, straw, leaves, dry earth or any other material rich in carbon, explains Adriana .

Below, check out what can and cannot be used to compost:

He can

• Leftovers from fruits, vegetables and eggshells;
• Used coffee filters and powder and tea bags;
• Garden debris: twigs, straw, grass, flowers and tree bark;

Can not

• Cooked foods and foods of animal origin, such as meat, fish, fat and cheese, as they can attract animals;
• Diseased plants;
• Non-organic material such as glass, metals, plastics, leather, rubber and fabrics;
• Chemicals;
• Cigarette ash, wood and charcoal;
• Vacuum cleaner content;
• Animal feces, toilet paper and diapers.

How about putting the tips into practice? Check out the step by step that nutrition student Yolanda Lopes da Silva prepared for you to compost at home:

step by step composting

1. Buy a low plastic organizer box (25 to 30 liters);
2. Make small holes with a nail or pocket knife in the bottom (15 holes), on the lid (15 holes) and on the sides (2 to 4 holes on each side);
3. Accumulate two ice cream pots (4 liters) of chopped organics in the fridge. Only use raw vegetable scraps. Do not place anything of animal origin or foods that have been fried, boiled, roasted or seasoned; leaves from your plants are welcome, as well as coffee grounds on top;
4. To assemble the box, place a layer of dry soil (from a pot where the plant is no longer so healthy), a layer of the same volume of chopped vegetable remains and a layer of black soil (also known as humus or fertilized soil, which will serve as a source of microorganisms);
5. Make two to three layers with this arrangement;
6. On top, spread coffee grounds, which will avoid insects and ants;
7. Close the box and open it again to turn the compost, every 2 or 3 days; if you have worms you can turn them less often;
8. In about 60 days the compost is ready.

When you’re ready, use the compost in your pots and garden. You can reuse the container to prepare a new fertilizer.