How Nitrogen Affects Compost

Video Transcript

"Nitrogen is another important element in compost. Sources of nitrogen are green grass and manure. The microorganisms in the compost use nitrogen for the protein part of their body, it builds their body. If you have too much nitrogen in your compost, the microbes will die. If you have too little nitrogen, the compost won’t heat up. And so it won’t got through the process of breaking down the organic matter and you won’t have enough microorganisms and it won’t get hot and it won’t kill the seeds and grasses that you have in there, and it won’t compost basically. You can get manure at local stables or horse ranches or goat ranches and so many gardeners get their manure from these places that some of these places keep large piles of the manure that they have rotting right there on the site, and they even have large front loaders that will- you can buy a pick up truck up there and they will load a yard for you. And they may or may not charge a small fee for it. It’s become somewhat of a commercial business. And if you’re lucky you might know a ranch owner or a farmer that would just appreciate having his stables and barn cleaned out. Chicken manure is excellent. Bat manure is very high in nitrogen. "