3.5 Composting Techniques

• The meaning and importance of composting
• Materials for making compost
• Factors that influence the quality of compost
• Conventional composting: pit and heap methods
• Innovative composting methods
• The role of compost in soil improvement

• describe composting in the production of organic manure
• examine the factors that influence the quality of compost manure
• carry out conventional composting methods for the production of organic manure
• carry out innovative composting methods for the production of organic manure
• appreciate the role of composting in soil improvement

“Why is composting relevant in soil improvement?”

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1. Composting techniques
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Turning farm and kitchen waste into rich organic manure by composting, the factors that make good compost, the methods of making it, and its role in improving the soil.
2. Why Kenyan farms compost
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Why composting is relevant on Kenyan shambas: it recycles crop and kitchen waste, cuts fertiliser bills, and rebuilds the topsoil that chemical fertiliser does not build.
3. Materials for Kenyan compost
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Greens for nitrogen, browns for carbon and air, and a little animal waste or old compost as a starter - using wastes a Kenyan shamba already has.
4. What not to compost
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Keeping plastics, diseased plants, chemical residues, meat on an open heap, human waste and cold-heap persistent weeds out of school and home compost.
5. Factors that make compost good
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   How to examine compost quality: moisture, air, mix, piece size, warmth and heap size, and time - and how to tell ready compost from a sour or dry failure.
6. The heap method
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Carrying out conventional heap composting: a shaded site, coarse base, layered brown-green-dung-soil, watering, covering and turning until the pile is ready.
7. The pit method
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Carrying out pit composting for dry Kenyan counties: the same layers as a heap, built in a dug pit that holds moisture against sun and wind.
8. Vermicomposting
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Using composting worms in a shaded bin to turn kitchen peelings into rich castings - an innovative method that fits a school farm or a small Kenyan garden.
9. Bin, sack and bokashi composting
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Innovative composting in a ventilated bin or gunny sack, and bokashi fermentation in a sealed bucket - methods for school kitchens and small urban plots.
10. Using compost to improve soil
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How to tell compost is ready, how to apply it on a Kenyan bed, and why that application is soil improvement - humus, structure, water-holding and life - not a one-season fertiliser trick.