Should You Add Compost Activator To Your Pile?A compost activator, also often called compost accelerator, is a product that helps to kick-start and speed up the composting process within your bin or tumbler. If you need help giving your compost that little nudge, then have no fear! Gnomes can live hundreds of years, but making compost shouldn't take that long. An activator contains key ingredients that are needed to balance out your compost pile and make it heat up so as to quicken the decomposition process.
What Is In The ActivatorThese products also contain microorganisms, much like topsoil does, as well as a high level of nitrogen. In a naturally balanced compost pile, both brown and green leaves and matter are needed to create both nitrogen and carbon, which act together to decompose your scraps. However, not every compost pile has the components it needs, and an unbalanced pile will break down at a much slower rate.Compost accelerators also contain natural energy sources and pH balancers to kick start the process. Think of a commercial activator as the spark that can start the fire when it's too windy to create one on your own. Some activators also contain moderate and high heat active soil microbes , which aid in heating your pile and keeping the process steady over time. Other activators boast organic calcium compounds to help neutralize organic acids that are created during composting. When Should You Use ItIf you are starting a compost pile and do not have a good mix of nitrogen producing and carbon producing organic matter , (say, during the winter, when finding green leaves is tougher than in early fall) you might just want to invest in some compost activator to get yourself started. Remember, you only need to add the activator in the beginning, because once your compost pile cooks up, it will stabilize itself and keep it going for the remainder of the season.If you're going to invest in an activator, make sure to find the most natural choice. After all, you are creating a natural garden using only homegrown, natural ingredients, so why not keep it one hundred percent pure. Natural activators work with the use of microbes and contain only organic elements, and are available online or at most good garden centers. They help to start a chemical reaction that would have been naturally started, had the right balance been present when beginning to compost. If you are happy with the rate at which your compost is decomposing, skip the activator. But if you are having some trouble getting your pile to cook or you have scraps that are difficult to break down, take the plunge. Take it from me – after all (and I hate to brag) I have been gardening for over a century! Happy gardening, Geefrank
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