plants grow in soil. we feed plants fertiliser. wait.. what's with that bag of mucky stuff called compost?
well compost is organic matter prepared for incorporation into the ground, vegetative waste is typically gathered into a pile and allowed to rot part way so that the easily decomposable matter is gone and the more resistant stuff is left behind. now that you know what it is, you'll go 'yuck! why do i want that in my soil??' well.. turns out that organic matter is beneficial for plant growth.
soils consist of 3 major components. they are the mineral component(sand, silt, clay), organic matter, and the pore spaces between these. organic matter is important for a number of reasons, but we'll just cover 2 of them.
organic matter increases the ability of soil to 'hold on' to nutrients. the acid groups that abound in organic matter are negatively charged, and hold on to positively charged nutrient ions like NH4+ and CA2+. this ensures that your fertiliser doesnt wash out immediately and go to waste.
secondly, organic matter helps maintain soil structure and increases porosity. porosity(the amount of pore space in the soil) determines how easy it will be for oxygen to reach the roots, the amount of water the soil can retain, and how easy it will be for the plant roots to grow. typically, an ideal soil has about 50% porosity. incorporating compost will help increase nutrient holding capacity and porosity for a happier plant!
and of course happier plants grow faster
which means we can eat them sooner ^^
but i digress ><
well compost is organic matter prepared for incorporation into the ground, vegetative waste is typically gathered into a pile and allowed to rot part way so that the easily decomposable matter is gone and the more resistant stuff is left behind. now that you know what it is, you'll go 'yuck! why do i want that in my soil??' well.. turns out that organic matter is beneficial for plant growth.
soils consist of 3 major components. they are the mineral component(sand, silt, clay), organic matter, and the pore spaces between these. organic matter is important for a number of reasons, but we'll just cover 2 of them.
organic matter increases the ability of soil to 'hold on' to nutrients. the acid groups that abound in organic matter are negatively charged, and hold on to positively charged nutrient ions like NH4+ and CA2+. this ensures that your fertiliser doesnt wash out immediately and go to waste.
secondly, organic matter helps maintain soil structure and increases porosity. porosity(the amount of pore space in the soil) determines how easy it will be for oxygen to reach the roots, the amount of water the soil can retain, and how easy it will be for the plant roots to grow. typically, an ideal soil has about 50% porosity. incorporating compost will help increase nutrient holding capacity and porosity for a happier plant!
and of course happier plants grow faster
which means we can eat them sooner ^^
but i digress ><
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