Composting under a Five Star Polytunnel

We decided to custom build ourselves a polytunnel so we can see if composting under a Five Star Polytunnel, and keeping the bins dry will speed up the decomposition process.  We wondered if compost could be too dry, but it seems that the composting process works far better if it is dry and warm rather than wet and cold.

We compost everything we can at Five Star Polytunnels, we grow fruit and vegetables in three Five Star polytunnels all covered with XL Horticulture Superthermic  EVO Anti Condensation Polythene and on about 1/2 acre of  outdoor area. We sell our produce in a road side shop and can’t keep up with the demand. We grow organically although do not subscribe to the Soil Association. We add sawdust from the workshop, ash from our wood burner, all food waste, we are vegan so there is no animal waste product. We add spent crops, and some weeds, not couch grass, or  creeping thistle, but pretty much everything else without seed on it. To be honest we have a system of 6 beds side by side so we can ‘turn’ the compost, but truthfully, we hardly every get around to it. However on the occasions that we have, it is much lighter, dryer and easier to handle than uncovered wet compost. We generally use our compost within 6 months, if not sooner.

We operate a no dig system and add our compost to the top of the beds each year, just gently raking it in through the existing soil and we do this in and out of the tunnels, however  we did wonder if it actually made a difference so this year we ran a small trial on one bed outside as we interplanted the spinach and the cauliflower.

The difference was huge, half the bed struggled to get going and within two weeks the composted half was double the size, as is seen in the pictures.

If you would like to consider composting under a Five Star Polytunnel we are happy to help with a tunnel of a similar design, it seems like an expensive addition just for the compost but when you see how the application of a good compost can affect the yield, there seems to be no reason why you wouldn’t make the investment