I always read or hear in articles and videos people saying that when a tea, ferment or some kind of home made KNF product goes ‘bad’ ie anaerobic that you should just throw it on your compost pile.
My concern/question with that is if the compost pile has passed the heating up ‘thermo’ stage won’t the added anaerobes be detrimental to the quality of the compost?
I soak horse manure and alfalfa in LAB for a few hours before giving it to my worm bins but yesterday I didn’t have time to apply it and this morning it had turned anaerobic so I dumped on my compost pile but then it immediately got me thinking… did I just fuck up?
I don’t see a compost going anaerobic like that . May stink as a result of what ya put on it but no damage done IMO gather it up and go for it ! It will only go anaerobic again if it’s sitting in stagnant water and becomes compressed to where all the air is squished out
I never thought this day would come.
I may or may not have 10 liters of manure tea that I mistakenly “bottled” under the impression the good bacteria was anaerobic since its liquid fertilizer… anyways I have this sulfury, nasty liquid. I kinda haven’t thrown it away because I want to still use it for something, anything. Mostly because I didn’t want to open those bottles ever again after the half second it took to reach my nose.
I should not have done that.
If my tea starts to smell, I add a tablespoon or so of molasses into my mixing beaker, add some water, shake it good, and add into you tea. The sugar feeds the good bacteria that are left.
They do not last forever, but a few more days.
The only thing I’v seen alive in a anaerobic media (test tube I forgot to dump)With a microscope was Protozoa and there was few when I popped It open the gas was a nice hydrogen sulfide aroma That escaped!
Ferments are usually anaerobic in nature. I make all my KNF inputs in sealed containers with an air lock. I can’t really see a completed ferment (pH less than 4.0) going bad IMO. I use ferments that are years old without concern.
I’ve personally never had a KNF product go bad but I know some people have for example leaving the fruit fermenting in an FPJ too long before straining and it goes to alcohol or letting the rice wash water go sour for an LAB etc but you are totally correct especially once super saturated they should last in a cool dark spot for years
Another thing I’ve also been wondering about compost for a while is: how serious does the chlorine in normal tap water affect the microbial life when wetting the compost pile. I always dechlorinate the water for my plants but how important do you think it is otherwise?
It shouldn’t make too much of a difference IMO. The allowable levels of chlorine are very low, a small handful of compost could render it ineffective.