Composting is obviously a great health-booster for gardens and crops alike. However, there are many different types of composting, one such method that often piques curiosity is black bag composting.
This can lead to questions like “What is Black Bag Composting?”
Black bag composting is a type of passive composting which uses plastic bags to control the amount of oxygen used in breaking down organic materials. Fall leaves or organic material like food leftovers is placed in a black, plastic garbage bag and left to decompose for a period of 6 months to an entire year. The compost is then placed around the plants.
In this article, we will provide a complete guide and definition for black bag composting.
You’ll be able to learn the variations of this method of composting, and you’ll even find answers to some of the web’s most often-asked questions online. With so much to know.
Let’s get started right away!
What is Black Bag Composting?
As previously mentioned, there are many ways to compost. If you’ve ever seen your neighbor leaving dozens of full black garbage bags around, you may be wondering how that process is helpful, or worthwhile, to a garden.
The truth is, black bag composting is just one more way to improve on the composting process for those who want to make their own compost.
It involves taking different types of waste and converting that waste into organic, richly nutritious fertilizer in pretty large quantities.
All that is needed for a person to compost with this method is, of course, black trash bags! The ingredients you can use include:
Fallen Leaves
Rake these up from the yard and fill as many garbage bags as you need to! You’ll have a clean lawn, and your plants will soon have one of nature’s most natural, nutrient-filled compost to benefit from.
You can even find them on the street, like in the tweet above.
Food Scraps
After making a delicious meal, choose to put the food waste, and the organic material like meat or salad leaves or even bones into their own separate black bag.
Even old cat and dog food may work, depending on their ingredients. As these decompose, they form a great fertilizer, especially with the help of compost worms.
Hay – Hay
Another form of organic material that can make excellent compost if you bag it up and let it decompose. If you live on a farm, or anywhere hay is plentiful, gather some up and set it aside in black bags for your compost.
Pine Needles
Many who don’t live in a place with lots of traditional leaves, hay, or even enough food scraps to fill a garbage bag can still find ingredients for compost under pine trees!
With these ingredients, a gardener usually has all they need to create their own, home-made, cheap compost!
How to Black Bag Compost
Below we’ll give you a quick step-by-step guide on how to Black Bag compost!
1. Select a Method
The two methods available are aerobic, which uses oxygen and takes over a year to work, or anaerobic, which is quicker and uses no oxygen.
Select one based on how easy you’d like the job to be; anaerobic composting is considered faster and best for beginners.
2. Aerobic Composting
Fill your bag with any of the ingredients listed above, then simply poke holes in the sides of the black plastic bag. Every few weeks, make sure to turn the bag so that all of the ingredients are getting oxygen as they decompose.
3. Anaerobic Composting
Fill your bag with any of the ingredients listed above, but remember that you’ll need to seal the bag as tightly as possible to limit access to oxygen. Sometimes, double-bagging the compost is best in this scenario.
4. Layer the Compost
If you have more than one type of compost ingredient, such as kitchen scraps and brown leaves, the best plan is to layer them. First lay down leaves in the bag, then add kitchen scraps, then more leaves.
5. Add in Water
A quart of water, specifically when anaerobic composting with black bags, helps the composting process along and increases the nutritional value of the end result.
6. lace Bags in Sunlight
Sunlight will help the microbes that decompose the ingredients get to work. Make sure your bags are in a sunny spot while they decompose!
7. Check Progress
After around 8 weeks, you can open your garbage bags. You are looking for nothing but a mass of earthy-smelling crumbly material.
If you can still recognize the materials as leaves, needles, or food, it is not done decomposing and should be re-sealed and left for another few weeks!
In Conclusion
To sum it all up, Black Bag Composting is a type of composting that uses black bags to convert organic material into decomposed material that is beneficial for plants.
Ingredients that can be used are leaves, pine needles, hay, or food scraps.
The two types of black bag composting include aerobic, which allows oxygen to penetrate the bag, and anaerobic, which is done with water and takes less time while the bags are sealed.
Regardless of which method you choose, black bag composting is a great way to make compost.
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Nadine is a passionate gardening writer sharing practical tips, innovative ideas, and valuable insights on plant and soil care, In her spare time, she tries to convince her plants to grow by singing them catchy tunes.