Harvesting the compost

Farmers can use easily available equipment like troughs, shovels and a steel/bamboo mesh to sieve compost.

Compost being sieved through a steel mesh.

Compost usually takes 3 weeks to 3 months to get ready and be harvested.

How to know if the compost is ready for use:

• No rotten or bad smell

• No original form of materials can be seen

• There should be no heat when hand is entered in the compost

• Colour is dark – brownish black and not sticky

• Light weight

• Cool to touch and a little moist - compost should make a clump in your fist

Harvesting

(Source - Compiled by Rini Dutta using resources from https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/org_farm/orgfarm_composting.html and https://indianestates.co.in/composting-of-on-farm-wastes/)

• The time for composting varies depending on location, climate, materials being used and process of composting.

• That said, compost is usually ready for harvesting when some physical signs are noted. These include

• Volume reduction of waste material: When the waste material is composted, the compost heap height will be reduced significantly. Its is also lighter.

• Color change in waste material : Waste materials are turned to black in color and the waste particle size is reduce

• Change in smell : Composted material emits earthy odour - like the soil and not of rotting garbage or of initial composting materials

• Change in Temperature : Compost should feel cool to touch and not hotter that the soil

• Change in moisture content : Compost should feel damp to touch and should clump slightly when held in a fist. It should not be wet or slimy or dry.

• When compost is ready to harvest, the farmer can either use it directly or doing a process of sieving.

• Sieving makes it ready to use and removes all particles like glass shards, plastic, stone etc which may have entered the compost pile by mistake

• It also removes twigs, bone shards and other elements which take much longer to compost compared to other waste materials.

• If the compost is not used immediately, it should be stored in a open, cool place, to retain the moisture, so that the beneficial microorganism present in the compost will not die. Some farmers store the compost in jute bags to ensure aeration.

• Once in a month, water is sprinkled over the compost material to maintain the moisture.

• Care should be taken while removing compost from the pit / pile as worms and other organisms may live in the compost. Some of these may be harmful to humans so the farmer should extract compost using spade and not hands. This is another reason why sieving is recommended.