Strategies to Address and Eliminate Smelly Issues in Compost Heaps

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Composting is a great way to reduce waste and create nutrient-rich soil for your garden, but dealing with compost odour can be a challenge. Here are some simple steps to help you troubleshoot and eliminate compost odour issues.

Firstly, it's essential to maintain a balance between greens (low carbon) and browns (high carbon) in your compost pile. A rough C:N guide is greens such as fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and grass clippings, and browns like dried leaves, straw, and shredded paper.

To prevent future odours, it's important to maintain the compost regularly, keep the pile aerated, dry enough, and balanced. Avoid packing scraps tight, as it can lead to a lack of air pockets. Instead, layer your materials thinly, and when turning, move the outside to the center and break up clumps, and toss in bulky dry pieces to keep air pockets.

If you notice a smell like ammonia or fishy, it indicates too many fresh greens. To fix this, stop adding fresh wet greens, turn the pile to introduce air, pull out wet clumps, break them up, add dry browns, and make air channels. If the smell persists, consider adding biochar or finished compost.

A soggy or muddy center indicates anaerobic decay, which can lead to a rotten-eggs smell. To fix this, add dry carbon such as shredded paper, dry leaves, straw, or sawdust, and make sure your compost bin has good drainage. Small holes near the bottom or tilting containers can help excess liquid run out.

If your compost pile smells like vinegar or sour, it means low oxygen and compaction. Aerating regularly by turning and fluffing helps remove odour. Use a pitchfork or garden fork, compost tumbler, or sticks or PVC pipe for aeration.

A musty/damp smell means the pile is overall too wet. To fix this, stop adding fresh wet greens, turn the pile and fluff the center, add a dry carbon layer and mix well, create drainage by adding coarse material at the bottom or poking holes, and leave the bin uncovered for a few hours on a dry day to let gases escape.

When spotting a smell, acting within hours is important to prevent the problem from growing. Keep tools near the bin like a pitchfork, a scoop of sawdust, and a jar of biochar to help you act quickly. Shredded paper should be sprinkled evenly and avoid glossy ink. Use sawdust sparingly to avoid slowing decomposition and avoiding sawdust from treated wood.

Using biochar, finished compost, and sawdust/wood chips can help reduce compost odour naturally. Biochar locks up odour molecules and keeps structure, finished compost adds beneficial microbes that outcompete odour-causing bacteria, and sawdust/wood chips absorb moisture and add carbon.

In summary, troubleshooting compost odour issues involves identifying the smell, rebalancing moisture and carbon, adding airflow, and preventing future problems with weekly checks. Small, fast actions give the best results in troubleshooting compost odour issues.

Here's a quick checklist for troubleshooting compost odour problems: