If you have a khambha or are planning to pick up one sometime now, here are a few quick tips to keep it running perfectly during this summer.
(Totally a beginner and don’t know how the khambha works? Watch this video before you follow my advice!)
- Staying cool with melons: Summer is the time when we indulge in a lot of fruits, especially melons. Ensure your compost pile is not too wet because of this and make sure you sprinkle extra remix powder (a magic powder which has microbes, is cocopeat-based and helps with the composting) on the days you are adding watery kitchen waste.
- Smaller the better: It will be better if you chop watermelon rinds or any other kitchen waste into smaller pieces before putting them into the compost pot so that they compost faster.
- Mango season is here: To put the seed or not to put the seed is the question. My advice is go ahead. Do so. But also be patient to transfer the seed into the next cycle once you harvest the compost. Mango seeds are compostable but take at least a minimum of 3 cycles to compost. So ensure you pick the seed from the pile and transfer it to the next cycle until you don’t see it anymore.
- Don’t forget to hydrate: If you are not having too many fruits and say you are adding just the ‘usual’ stuff, make sure your composting pile is not getting too dry in the heat especially if the pots are out in the sun. A dry pile slows down the composting process. To make sure that doesn’t happen, cut down on adding the remix powder or any other dry organic matter. Also sprinkle a bit of water occasionally to avoid it getting dry. My little secret?— rinsing off your curd vessel with water and pouring it into the compost pile! This helps speed up the process because of the microbes in the curd.
- Leaving it in: Unlike other summers this one is different because you haven’t packed your bags and gone for a holiday. This means the compost pot has not gotten a break and continues to get filled with more kitchen waste. Ensure that you rotate the 3 pots often and give the pile an occasional mix to aerate it. Composting is an aerobic reaction and the compost pile needs a good amount of oxygen just like us. Make sure that the pots are not filled to the brim too as this too would prevent the aeration process . Do try harvesting the compost to make way for more kitchen waste as well. If you think that the bottom pot needs just a little more time to compost but you are running out of space, transfer the bottom most pile to a leave-in pot to allow it to compost well as you continue to fill the khambha.
Happy composting!
