The Layered Compost
What goes into the layered compost?
- Rice husk, - waste product from worker's kitchen
- Cow manure, - waste product from stables
- Ashes, - waste product from worker's kitchen
- Food waste from the Selva Negra Mountain Resort and from the farm, this consists mostly of vegetable waste, - waste product from the restaurant
- Mulch or leaf litter, - waste product from the hotel
- Sawdust, - waste from the carpentry shop
- The top layer is the algae from the ponds, - waste from cleaning estate ponds
As you can see all of the ingredients that go into our layered compost are the waste products of many of our other productions. Each one of the layers is about 12" high. In order to accelerate the transformation of all this compost, we add bacteria. We use the blood of the animals that are slaughtered for meat at the hotel to activate this bacterial activity. This will accelerate the process enough so that it can be ready in 3 months. Theoretically we could get compost from these bins 4 times a year, but due to the time required to fill and empty the compost bins as well as the time taken off for the coffee picking season, in reality we refill the bins only 3 times a year.
How much layered compost do we produce?
We produce a total of almost 4 million pounds of compost. Each bin can produce about 150,000 pounds and we have 8 bins giving us 1.2 millions per production. And since we get three productions a year we come up with a total of 3.6 millions pounds.
Where is it used?
We apply 5 pounds of compost per coffee tree, and we have about 4,000 coffee trees maximum per plantillo. We only have enough compost for about 180 manzanas of coffee trees; we have a total of 290 manzanas currently devoted to coffee.
The Worm Farm Compost
We started in 1993 with 50 worms that we bought from Unicafe in Managua. The worms were originally intended for use in the coffee pulp in order to transfer it into compost. But we received no instructions, had no idea how to do this, and we placed the worms on the pile of pulp. Some of them died and others just got out of there. We collected the survivors and placed them on cow manure, as it was also organic waste material and they loved it. For 5 years we worked with them only on the manure. First we simply had the manure on a pile, and then we move them to a hole in the ground, then into trenches. We read anything we could get our hand on, about how to grow them and multiplied them.
By the year 2000 we started adding or mixing some coffee pulp on the manure and the worms seem to accept this. We learned that we had to lower the acidity of the pulp by adding produce; we did this with some calcium. In that same year we got a visit from a gentleman from Mexico, he worked with the City dump and was a recycling expert. He gave us a lot of tips and with his input we designed our current worm farm. This is a building of 10 meters wide times 35 meters long. Inside we made 7 long canal type containers, each one of them has at the bottom a perforated PVC pipe to collect the irrigation water that the worms need for survival.
How does the process work
The worms are placed along with some coffee pulp onto the tile floor of the canal. Then every week they are fed with about 60 wheelbarrow loads of coffee pulp. Once or twice during the cycle they are fed with cow manure. The worms need 80% humidity therefore area watered twice a day. This process takes about 2 to 2 ½ months to complete. As the number of worms increases the process becomes a little quicker.
How much compost do the worms produce?
We have about 3 productions a year creating a total of approximately 1,140,000 pounds of compost.
Where is it used?
The compost produced from the worm farm is a more concentrated type of compost therefore we apply approximately 1/2 to 1 pound per coffee tree. Supplying us with enough compost for 262 manzanas of coffee trees.
Additional benefit
Another benefit of the worm farm compost process is the liquid fertilizer that is naturally created and collected. In addition to darkness, the worms need humidity to survive; therefore the canals are irrigated twice a day to keep the worms in ideal conditions. This water filters through all of the material that is becoming compost and is collected at the bottom of the canal in a pipe. This water, which is now a form of liquid fertilizer, is then applied to the coffee trees on the farm. We collect approximately 25,000 gallons of this liquid a year; we've been told that the liquid contains 37 different beneficial nutrients. This liquid is combined with water and eggshell powder to create a wonderful organic fertilizer. This foliage fertilizer is applied 8 to 9 times a year to the all 292 manzanas of coffee trees in the farm.
