Resolving Composting Problems

Vermicomposting is a process of producing vermicompost. Vermicompost is a nutrient rich natural fertilizer obtained as the end product of the breakdown of organic matter by worms. During preparation of compost or thereafter, one may come across lots of problems. These problems may include bad smell, heating up, attracting unwanted animals and flies.

Fixing the Problems:

Composting process may involve different problems, which result in low grade fertilizer. To avoid the problems, necessary steps should be taken while preparing the compost pile.

Bad Smell of compost pile

A composite pile can smell like rotten eggs or ammonia. If the pile is too wet, it will smell like rotten eggs. Add dry ingredients such as soil, dried leaves and shredded newspaper. If the pile has too much of nitrogen content, it will smell like ammonia (acidic). To avoid such smell, add materials containing carbon like ash, sawdust or dolomite. If the bad smell still persists, turn the pile to push air through the heap.

Avoiding heating up

To get a good fertilizer from the compost, the foremost criterion is to keep the optimum moisture level of the pile. This can be done by adding high nitrogen materials like fresh grass or vegetable scraps and also by increasing the size of the pile.

Inhibiting animals and flies -

If suitable ingredients are not added in the compost then it may lead to attract animals like dogs, cats, rodents or blowflies. To avoid these, adding meat, fishes, bones and diary products should be prohibited. Each layer of food should be covered with a layer of soil. Setting rodent traps around the bin could be another way to stop attracting rodents. Ants are attracted to the pile if it is dry in condition. Add water to moisten the pile.

Difficult to break the pile -

The pile becomes difficult to break when it is too dry. Adding moisture-rich and nitrogen-rich fruit and vegetable scraps helps in speeding up the process. It can also occur due to improper passage for air. To avoid this situation, one must use bins which have number of holes in it. Air passage can be inhibited by adding green twigs and plant stems. Therefore, one must avoid mixing such materials in the bins.

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