Some respects for microfauna

There is a challenge to relearn to see the myriad of life forms that make up our environments, pay attention to other species because city dwellers live in a sanitized world that is uncomfortable to live on an existential, individual and collective scale. The microfauna of compost, like every scrap of reality, is an abyss of strangeness. There is the unknown and the sublime in this daily life. Composting invites us to rethink the way we co-inhabit with other forms of life.

We take a new look at composting. Beyond a logic of disposal of a waste and a soil receiving materials, we develop a practice that consists in making respects for the microorganisms of compost. This attention is a guarantee of the quality of composting.

Your focus is on creating an environment conducive to micro-organisms. These are present in the green waste that we bring to the compost.

If initially, the contents of the compost box are lifeless, it develops in a few weeks as the pieces of bio-deégrable waste are added. The compost becomes wetter, heats up a little and the pieces of waste, instead of drying out, compost that is to say disappear to turn into compost.

If you don't see this change after a few weeks, it's probably because you don't bring enough biowaste. It would then be interesting to remove a little dry matter from the box or why not use a smaller box.

You can avoid this type of readjustment by weighing the amounts of waste you produce BEFORE starting the compost box to fit the size of the compost box.

If you do not feed the compost box for a few weeks, the activity of the microorganisms will slow down during this period and it will resume when you feed the box again. So you can leave it during your absences, whatever their duration!

In order to optimize the quality of the compost, we also invite you to be attentive to the origin of the plant fiber and ash used. As far as possible, give preference to a local origin, while ensuring the promotion of materials that most facilitate the practice of composting by their characteristics (absorption of moisture, smells, etc.).

Compost and mulch are produced from:

· plants from indoor plants, balconies, gardens etc.,

· vegetable waste from food,

· gray carbonaceous material: wood ash, horticultural ash, charcoal, etc.

· brown carbonaceous material or vegetable fiber: coconut, hemp, corn, chènevotte, crushed, tofu, cardboard, etc.

We recommend that you dose the waste inputs and implement corrective actions so that they are optimal for composting.

Always mix the compost before burying waste in it. This mixture benefits from being carried out as quickly as possible after the generation of waste, to avoid generating olfactory nuisances. The aeration of this mixture of biowaste and dry matter allows composting.

Similarly, monitoring the temperature and humidity makes it possible to ensure that the composting runs smoothly and to decide whether to mix the compost again in order to aerate it.

If you choose to move to the phase following that of feeding the box, namely that of the maturation of the compost, regularly check the humidity to dose the waterings, practice the test of the semi of Cresson d'Aliénois (biological test of the compost) during the production of your first batches of compost. If the semi test is inconclusive (that is, the seeds do not germinate), if possible, take corrective actions rather than discarding the compost.