Its from a nearby mangrove area, the woods nearby a lake thats connect to the sea.
It smells like fresh plant/roots. Is it safe to introduce its microlife into the compost? Be it the microorganisms or bugs, its got a lot of insects in there, can you tell if they are beneficial or could be potential pests?
Got some dried brown leaves from the same soil, are they safe?
by Easy_Rough_4529
4 Comments
Throw it inside a gallon Ziplock bag and microwave for 3 minutes. LSU Agricultural department has a YouTube video on this.
You don’t need to add anything to your compost pile, it already has everything it needs if you’re doing the right recipe of greens to browns. There isn’t any danger adding the soil nor the leaves to your compost, the little critters are the decomposer organisms that turn it from food scraps and plant waste to finished compost.
What type of composting are you doing? Thermophilic, mesophilic, vermicomposting?
There likely isn’t any need to innoculate with local microorganisms until the very end of the process, when the source material is no longer recognizable. In the early stages, the type of migroorganisms are hard to control for, and what dominates entirely depends on the conditions and material already present in your pile.
If you’re filling your pile with local woody material, it’s likely already getting the native innoculants. If your pile is open at the bottom, it’s attracting local decomposers. If none of these things are true, then wait until the compost is finished, and then try mixing a bit of local material to innoculate, though there is still no guarantee it will come to dominate your pile. The only way that would happen is if you’re spreading the finished material into the local landscape.
Imo, it’s safe to throw in your compost pile. Even if there are 100 bugs that you normally don’t want , but they’ll probably be gone by the time you use your compost.