What is Brown Gold?

Brown Gold is a Compost made using Aerobic Composting with BTM Technology. Compost is mixture of decaying organic matter, such as leaves, grass clippings, kitchen waste manure etc. used as fertilizers".

Is it a fertilizer or not?

Brown Gold will add nutrients to your soil, so it is a form of fertilizer. But it is more than just a fertilizer. Compost works as a soil conditioner and fertilizer supplement when it is mixed into your soil. You will certainly not have to use as much of other chemical fertilizers once you begin using compost with the good microbial activity i.e. Brown Gold, regularly and you may do away with chemical fertilizers eventually.

How Brown Gold conditions the soil?

When oxygen and moisture are available to soils containing Brown Gold, Mother Nature's soil organisms become energized, have a population explosion and further decay Brown Gold, turning it into humus. The humus is what we want. It is the end product of our composting efforts. It is the humus, which actually provides some of the plants nutrients and improves the plant's ability to utilize other available nutrients. The humus content also regulates the soil's ability to both retain water and to release excess water. It will provide sandy soils with improved water retention properties, yet it will improve drainage in clay soils. After just a few years of incorporating Brown Gold into your soils, acidic soils will be less acidic and alkaline soils will be less alkaline. In other words, by annually mixing compost into your soils to create humus, your soils pH factor will tend to be neutralized.

Fastest Method of Composting

BTM contains aerobic and anaerobic micro-organisms of the following three groups

1.Psychrophile
2.Mesophile
3.Thermophile

The fastest method of making compost makes optimum use of the heat generated initially by the mesophilic microorganisms, then by the thermophilic microorganisms and then again by the mesophilic microorganisms during the last few days of the decomposing process. The decomposition or stabilization of organic matter by biological action has been taking place in nature since life first appeared on our planet. In recent times, man has attempted to control and directly utilize the process for sanitary disposal and reclamation of organic waste material, and this process has been termed composting and the final product of composting has been called compost.

Aerobic Decomposition (Composting)

When organic material is decomposed in the presence of oxygen the process is called "aerobic". In aerobic stabilization, living organisms, which utilize oxygen, feed upon the organic matter and develop cell protoplasm from the nitrogen, phosphorus, some of the carbon, and other required nutrients. Much of the carbon serves as a source of energy for the organisms and is burned up and respired as carbon dioxide (CO2). Since carbon serves both as a source of energy and as an element in the cell protoplasm, much more carbon than nitrogen is needed. Generally about two-thirds of the carbon is respired as CO2, while the other third is combined with nitrogen in the living cells. If the excess of carbon over nitrogen in organic materials being decomposed is too great, biological activity diminishes and several cycles of organisms may be required to burn up most of the carbon. When some of the organisms die, their stored nitrogen and carbon become available to other organisms. The utilization of the nitrogen from the dead cells by other organisms to form new cell material once more requires the burning of excess carbon to CO2. Thus, the amount of carbon is reduced and the limited amount of nitrogen is re-cycled. Finally, when the ratio of available carbon to available nitrogen is sufficiently low, nitrogen is released as ammonia. Under favorable conditions some ammonia may be oxidized to nitrate. Phosphorus, potash, and various micro-nutrients are also essential for biological growth. These are normally present in more than adequate amounts in compostable materials and present no problem.

There is no accompanying nuisance when there is adequate oxygen present. A great deal of energy is released in the form of heat in the oxidation of the carbon to CO2. As the organic material is in a pile, temperature of the material during fermentation rises to over 70°C. If the temperature exceeds 65°-70°C, however, the bacterial activity is decreased and stabilization is slowed down. When the temperature exceeds about 45°C, thermophilic organisms present in BTM culture, which grow and survive in the temperature ranging from 45°-65°C, develop and replace the mesophilic bacteria in fermenting the material. Only a few groups of thermophiles carry on any activities above 65C. The high temperatures will destroy pathogenic bacteria and protozoa, hookworm eggs, and weed seeds that are detrimental to health and agriculture when the final compost Brown Gold is used on the land.

Aerobic oxidation of organic matter produces no objectionable odour. Turning the material at intervals for adding oxygen is necessary to maintain an aerobic condition which is done using Windrow Turning Machines while production of Brown Gold.

The causal organisms of faecal-borne bacterial diseases, may be present in manure & also the faecal-borne protozoan diseases. And there is danger of spread of these diseases if proper decomposition of waste is not carried out.

Scott demonstrated in an experiment on composting studies in China that aerobic composting destroys the causative organisms of faecal-borne diseases, if temperatures in the thermophilic range are maintained or a sufficient time and all of the material is subjected to these temperatures.

The pathogenic bacteria will be rapidly destroyed when all parts of a compost pile are subjected to temperatures of about 60 °C seems quite evident, since, these organisms are unable to survive temperatures of 55°-60°C for longer than 30 minutes to 1 hour. When the piles start to become anaerobic, the temperature falls, and aeration by turning or by other means is necessary to maintain more uniformly high temperature. The environment is necessary for the satisfactory control of these diseases. So the final Brown Gold is free from pathogens.

Carbon-Nitrogen Relationships

The C/N ratio represents the relative proportion of the two elements viz Carbon & Nitrogen. Actually, the ratio of available carbon to available nitrogen is the important relation because there may be some carbon present in a form so resistant to logical attack that its presence is not significant.

As was pointed out earlier, the decomposition of organic matter is brought about by living organisms, which utilize the carbon as a source of energy and nitrogen for building cell structure. More carbon than nitrogen is needed, but if the excess of carbon is too great, decomposition decreases when the nitrogen is used up and some of the organisms die; their stored nitrogen is then used by other organisms to form new cell material, and in the process more carbon is burned up. Thus the amount of carbon is reduced to a more suitable level while the nitrogen recycled. When the energy source, carbon, is less than that required for converting available nitrogen into protein, organisms make full use of the available carbon and get rid of the excess nitrogen as ammonia. This release of ammonia can produce a loss of nitrogen from the compost pile if the ammonia escapes to the atmosphere, and it should therefore be kept to a minimum.

A C/N ratio of 20 has been widely accepted as the upper limit at which there is no danger of robbing the soil of nitrogen and the C/N ratio is a critical factor in composting. Efforts are made to keep the moisture as high as is satisfactory, and the C/N ratio and structural texture of the pile as good as possible while making Brown Gold compost.

Moisture Content

In practical aerobic composting, however high moisture content must be avoided because water displaces air from the interstices between the particles and thereby gives rise to anaerobic conditions. On the other hand, too low moisture content deprives the organisms of the water needed for their metabolism, and consequently inhibits their activity.

Placement of Materials for Composting

Windrow placed directly on the ground or on a paved area is the method used for the aerobic decomposition for making Brown Gold. It is desired to maintain the composting process aerobic by relatively frequent turning for aeration which is done using windrow turning machines. The material in aerobic compost piles should be loosely stacked to allow as much space for air in the interstices as possible & this care is taken while Aerobic Composting of Brown Gold

The following analysis shows the ranges of values, on a dry basis, in which the chemical characteristics of most finished composts generally lie; these ranges are rather wide because different initial materials will yield final composts of widely varying chemical characteristics & Brown Gold proves best to these contents.