The kitchen garbage you throw away every day is priceless.

BGM:Feeling U-M80

-Tasha's preface-

Closely related to our daily life, there is a steady stream of rubbish. The rubbish, dirty and smelly, is often discarded without sorting.

However, the kitchen waste (referred to as "kitchen waste" for short) is actually a very excellent retting material! If handled properly, its effect is by no means inferior to that of all kinds of fertilizers on the market.

So, what are the simple and effective retting methods that are suitable for home retting? Our big hairy sister lives abroad and has rich experience of self-made fertilizer retting for many years. Let's have a look.

-the text begins-

Not long ago, I went back to my hometown to visit my parents. I didn't want to go to Dapai stalls or eat special snacks, so I wanted to accompany my father for a walk in the park and hills and accompany my mother to go to the vegetable market.

I picked out some fresh vegetables. She had a bench and I had a bench. According to her request, I separated what I could eat from what I wanted to throw away.

I was surprised that every meal was filled with a plastic bag. These plastic bags, also known as kitchen waste, my father went out for a walk after dinner and threw them into the big dustbin downstairs.

Their destination, like all rubbish, is unknown. It doesn't seem to matter to me where they went, but I really want to know where they went.

In the city where my own small home is located, many backyards will put a compost box like this.

Open the lid and put the kitchen waste in. It rotts quickly in hot weather and slowly in cold weather.

From the small opening at the bottom, you can dig up a lot of black soil-like things, and the food waste is eventually turned into it. A pinch crushing, the color is oil black, it is rich in organic matter at a glance.

Planting flowers and vegetables with this compost not only enriches the soil, but also reduces the amount of garbage, greatly relieving the pressure of landfills.

The sense of achievement in my heart is great when I see the food waste turn into fertile soil.

But this equipment also has its drawbacks. It must be kept outdoors, and it also attracts mice and mosquitoes.

Since the year before last, our local government began to implement a strict garbage sorting system. The government sent large green buckets to each family to store food waste packed in small degradation bags, and only sent a car to collect it once every two weeks.

This kind of big green bucket is easy to attract mosquitoes in summer because it fails to collect garbage in time.

The government also distributes small kitchen waste buckets in the kitchen to collect daily food waste and levies a monthly fee to collect and dispose of the kitchen waste.

In addition, users have to bear the additional cost of purchasing matching small degradation bags.

The bucket is too small to hold a watermelon peel and barely holds the dinner leftovers of four dishes and one soup. Sometimes one meal pretends to be dissatisfied, but two meals can't fit, and there are a lot of complaints for a while.

But at the beginning of spring, the government gives citizens a benefit: fertilizers made from collected food waste are distributed free of charge.

We know the final destination of the food waste we sorted out, and we also know where the money we paid was spent.

Look at this compost, is it very beautiful, is it very good-looking, do you want to rub it with your hands and feel the flow at your fingertips?

When the compost is mixed with the soil, it can increase the soil organic matter and improve the soil permeability. The loose soil is conducive to the root growth of plants.

But indoor balcony people want to make compost, just like making an ashram in a screw shell, where to start? Odorless, insect-free, efficient and fast, occupies a small area, is what everyone is most concerned about.

I have tried a variety of fertilizer retting methods enthusiastically, some failed, some successful, summed up the most practical 4, to share with you.

-soft shrimp shell retting fertilizer-

There are many plants blooming in summer, I use a meal of soft shrimp shell and head, put it in a large plastic bottle, in a sunny day above 20 degrees, exposure, regular deflation, a week can be used. If you don't deflate, it will be very dangerous. if you spray a small thing, it will be a big problem if it bursts and hurts people.

Pour out the liquid and water the flowers, dilute it, even if it has a taste, go with the wind, and then you can continue to pour water into the retting system, inexhaustible.

These are the flowers I watered with soft shrimp shell water.

-bean dregs retting fertilizer-

Everyone should have heard how smelly bean dregs is, but mix it with earth at 1:1, or a little more soil, and then cover it with a layer of 10cm soil, and you can hardly smell it.

I wear plastic gloves and stir and knead them with both hands to make sure that every grain of soil is mixed with bean dregs. In this way, the contact area is increased, and the fermentation is more complete.

Sun exposure in 30 degrees weather, to prevent Rain Water from dampening and cooling the fermentation, you can cover the bag or cover the lid.

In order to prevent odor, you can put EM bacteria that help fermentation, according to the proportion on the instructions. I put it outside, so even if I stink, it doesn't affect me, so I didn't put it.

Open the lid every day and breathe. Under aerobic conditions, the fermentation will be accelerated. But maintaining high temperature is a prerequisite for successful fermentation. This is the same as making hair noodles and steamed buns.

After 3 weeks, when the fever is no longer continuous, a large amount of bean dregs is obviously missing, which can be regarded as the completion of fermentation. When the fermentation is completed, the good soil rich in nitrogen and phosphorus will be developed.

On the left is the soil before mixing bean dregs, and on the right is the fermented soil of mixed bean dregs. The feel is different, the color is also different.

This is what I planted with poached bean dregs. It was basically unfertilized and only watered.

-Kitchen waste, daily soil-

When the soil has raised a crop of flowers, it is necessary to raise the soil in order to lay a solid foundation for the next flowering season.

I used to have a layer of soil and a layer of kitchen waste, which was good and wet. I would also cut the banana peel and orange peel and bury it on the edge of a basin with plants. I watered it normally, and it rotted off in less than 2 weeks, leaving the soil unusually loose and black.

These are the flowers I normally water and grow in the soil.

But when winter comes and the weather gets cold, we have to move indoors. There is not enough sunshine, the site is limited, and the equipment is not easy to buy, so we have to mess around on our own.

-indoor retting in winter-

A large flowerpot is placed in a locker with a lid, and kitchen waste is placed in a large flowerpot. There is a hole in the bottom of the flowerpot, and the liquid seeps out of the hole and flows into the large cake box at the bottom of the flowerpot to catch the liquid.

Every once in a while, pour the liquid into a mineral water bottle to ferment. It takes about a week at 22 degrees at room temperature.

Remember to open the lid and breathe every day, otherwise it will spray all over your body like opening the champagne at the victory party.

The fermented liquid watered the flowers with water, and the remaining fiber dregs can be mixed into the soil. When the temperature is above 20 ℃, it will soon rot in the soil, which greatly increases the organic content and fertility of the soil.

Although this method is clumsy, it is suitable for a closed environment and is practical and effective.

This is a soil nourished by kitchen waste, dark and soft, not only for plants to take root, but also to provide nutrients for the whole flowering season.

The snow in Canada melts, the new flower season begins, and I am ready to try again.

Family composting is a process of thinking that is greatly inspired. When you encounter mountains, you build bridges with water. Its significance, in addition to beautifying the courtyard, more importantly, protects the environment and relieves the pressure on the earth on which we live.

In addition, while waiting for success, I gained patience and paid more attention to my life and family.

Therefore, family retting is really a thing worth trying and promoting, which is of great significance and endless fun!

Picture and text: Li Damao

Editor: nan Candle

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