I am re-reading Bill Mollison's discussion of composting in his Introduction to Permaculture.
In short, it is a whole lot of work for maximum loss of nutrients. Use sheet mulching instead to preserve the nutrients in the composted material.
http://www.barkingfrogspermacu...
PDF pages 86-87, Pamphlet IX Permaculture Techniques, p. 3.
Quote:
"Now let me tell you about composting
as against mulch. Every time you
compost, you decrease the nutrients,
sometimes to one 20th of the original.
Usually, though, you get about a 12th
of the nutrient out of compost that
you get out of mulch. So what have
you done by composting? You have
worked hard to decrease the nutrients
badly. Most of them go into the air.
Composting consumes them. We want
to get right out of composting. We
want to get back into sheet mulching.
In composting, you are taking a lot of
material, putting it into a small place,
and letting the whole of the decomposition
activity happen under hot conditions
which can be appropriate for
some things. When you mulch, you are
spreading those materials and letting
the process occur much more slowly
on the surface of the soil. Any leach
loss goes into the soil, and the general
level of activity spreads across the
whole of it. By the time the mulch has
reduced to compost, most of the action
has finished. If you want to get
maximum value out of what you have,
sheet mulch it. If you want to increase
your nutrient base, do it
efficiently."
End Quote
