Compost

[Occam]

There's a fascinating article in the Guardian about "biocyclic humus soil" - in other words an advanced form of composting - on a farm near Kalamata. The principles appear to be pretty similar to those of normal composting - organic material, air, water, heat - but with added time. It appears, it can be used a s a growing medium on its own, rather than as a mulch. I've never seen much evidence of composting and mulching in Greece and a it strikes me that a lot of potentially useful organic material is wasted as a result, especially from grape and olive production. Hopefully that will change - albeit slowly I suppose. No doubt the increasing commercial attractions of producing food acceptable to vegans will encourage use with farmers, but compost made from plant materials is useful to everyone, gardeners and farmers alike on a small or large scale, whether they are growing for vegans or not.


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... mal-manure

[omegendorph]

Interesting article, I am always a bit skeptical when they claim that "science can't explain it", but there is no doubt about the overall benefits of compost, especially as most of our soils in the Mani are badly nutrient depleted and carbon poor. I have shredder and compost all my kitchen, garden and orchard waste, including a large volume of olive prunings. It usually takes a couple of years for it to ripen in any case due to the very dry climate, so you need a fairly large storage capacity. There is a huge volume of biomass lying around now that so much agricultural land is abandoned. It takes a long time to biodegrade and is a big fire hazard in the meantime.