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Soil tests for compost and field: putting the two together

How can we interpret soil tests and fertility recommendations for compost use?

When you get your soil tests back, they often include information about fertilizer use. But how does this translate to compost use? In this video, the CAV technical service team looks at what soil tests tell you (and what they don't), what the numbers mean, and how to "translate" the information for getting the most out of your compost. Special guest Wendy Sue Harper teaches the soils and composting session for the Vermont Master Gardeners training and the compost biology session for Master Composters and is an expert in the fields of ecological agriculture, soil science, and composting. Her business, WSH Consulting in Monkton, VT, provides educational and technical services to the farming and gardening community.

Review of soil microscopy keys. A short accompanying pdf can be found here.

A review of soil microscopy keys from the longer microscopy talk with Lynn Fang. A short accompanying pdf can be found here.

Lynn Fang presents the microscopy introduction “As Above, So Below: A Whole Systems Perspective on Soil Ecology.” One in a series of Compost “Tea Talks" (a play on "coffee talks") - online trainings and discussions to support community-oriented on-farm food scrap composting. A short accompanying pdf can be found here.

Curious about the invisible world of soil microorganisms? In this recording of the August 2023 Compost "Tea Talk" - titled “As Above, So Below: A Whole Systems Perspective on Soil Ecology” - special guest Lynn Fang, a soil scientist who runs the Soil Sessions Community Microscopy program at LA Compost (https://www.lacompost.org/soil-sessions), shares a whole systems perspective of how aboveground design and management practices influence soil health, structure, and microbial ecology, and vice versa.

0:00 Introduction to the session
2:30 Lynn Fang presents “As Above, So Below: A Whole Systems Perspective on Soil Ecology”
25:06 Q&A and discussion
35:00 More microscopy photos and videos discussed
39:58 Review of microscopy keys
44:12 Q&A and discussion.

A short accompanying pdf can be found here.

Vermont Organics Recycling Summit (VORS) session on Composting & Heat Recovery

Opportunities and challenges of compost heat recovery systems.

You're finally reaching those hot composting temps and realize that you could do a lot with all that heat if you could capture and redirect it... Have you been wondering how to do this? In this video, special guest Brian Jerose of Agrilab Technologies explores the opportunities and challenges that come with different scales of compost heat recovery systems, from do-it-yourself to state-of-the-art.

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with five more content modules

Your First Year

Get to know the basics of composting. Definitions, materials and recipes, principles of good management, and more. Content to get you going and to come back to as you iterate and improve.

Your First Year
Year Two and Beyond

Learn to make improvements based on experience. Evaluate your first finished compost and consider how to adapt your system and practices when your farm model changes, or respond to the unexpected.

Year Two and Beyond
Troubleshooting Tips

Strategies and solutions for head-scratching eventualities, from low temperatures to frozen piles to keeping wildlife out, plus deliberations for more experienced composters, such as whether to add an aeration.

Troubleshooting Tips
Advanced Topics

Specialized content and advanced topics of the trade, including meeting your compost under a microscope and capturing heat through Compost Aeration and Heat Recovery (CAHR) systems.

Advanced Topics
Learning Forum

A forum for any practitioner to pose questions and quandaries for the CAV On-Farm Composting technical team and other experts to address. Find an answer or ask a question to help your on-farm composting get even better.

Learning Forum