How Many Stages and How Long does It take to Ferment Organic Fertilizer

The fermentation process of organic fertilizer compost generally takes 45-60 days. This is because the initial warming stage and high temperature stage of composting will kill plant pathogens, insect eggs, weed seeds and other harmful microorganisms, but the main role of microorganisms in this process is to metabolize and reproduce, producing only a small amount of metabolites, which are unstable and not easily absorbed by plants. In the later stage of cooling, microorganisms will decay organic matter and produce a large amount of metabolites that are beneficial to plant growth and absorption. This process takes 45-60 days.

Composting through this process can achieve three purposes: first, harmlessness; second, humification; third, it produces a large number of microbial metabolites, such as various antibiotics, proteins, etc.

Heating stage, high temperature stage, cooling stage, maturation and holding stage

The fermentation process of organic compost is simple and can be divided into the following four stages

Heating stage

In the early stage of composting, the microorganisms in the compost are mainly mesophilic and aerobic bacteria, the most common being non-sporulating bacteria, sporulating bacteria and molds. They start the organic fertilizer compost fermentation process, violently decompose easily decomposable organic matter (such as simple sugars, starch, proteins, etc.) under aerobic conditions, generate a lot of heat, and continuously raise the compost temperature from about 20°C to 40°C, called the heating stage or mesophilic stage.

High temperature stage

As the temperature rises, thermophilic microorganisms gradually replace the mesophilic species and play a dominant role. The temperature continues to rise, usually reaching above 50°C within a few days, and enters the high-temperature stage.

During the high temperature stage, thermophilic actinomycetes and thermophilic fungi become the dominant species. They strongly decompose complex organic matter (e.g. cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, etc.) in the compost, accumulate heat, and the compost temperature rises to 60-70°C, or even up to 80°C.

Most thermophilic microorganisms also die in large numbers or enter a dormant state (more than 20 days), which plays an important role in accelerating the maturation of compost. Improper composting has a very short high temperature period or does not reach high temperature at all, so composting is slow and does not reach semi-mature state for more than half a year or six months.