Panelists:

• 00:00 VORS Introduction, Natasha Duarte

• 04:10 Session Introduction, Natasha Duarte, Moderator

• 16:48 Panelists opening statements:

  • Ham Gillett, GUVSWMD, So. Windsor/Windham Counties SWMD

  • Toby Alves, ECO Products

  • Corey Berman, UVM Recycling & Zero Waste

  • Zach Cavacas, Music Mountain Compost

  • Trevor Mance, Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

  • Elly Ventura, Vegware

• Zoom Room 1

  • 33:55 with Elly and Toby

  • 45:11 with Corey

  • 55:21 with Trevor

• Zoom Room 2

  • 1:05:57 with Trevor

  • 1:13:14 with Elly and Toby

  • 1:23:10 with Corey and Ham

• Zoom Room 3

  • 1:33:03 with Corey and Ham

  • 1:45:03 with Ham and Trevor

  • 1:50:07 with Elly and Toby

• 1:59:21 Full Group Wrap Up

Resources referenced and linked to in this session:

• A pdf of organized resource links put together for this session

• Flashcards with definitions

• Foodservice Packaging & Composting: Information for Composters (from Foodservice Packaging Institute)

• List of compostable products tested to disintegrate in today's systems (from CMA)

• Single-Use Foodware Public Database (from Center for Environmental Health; last update: 12-15-2021)

Jim Stiles brought his 1-year-old batch (the star of the show), as well as two larger test batches from last fall, and samples of last-fall and the-previous-fall leaf mold. Another participant brought a sample of wool that he had composted using a modified Johnson-Su process (fairly successfully). Jim also had a small amount of real commercial Johnson-Su compost for comparison.

The 1-year-old batch was basically 5 gallons that all last summer sat in a loose-weave seed bag inside a 5 gallon bucket with a drain hole. That drain hole was plugged with roots that had grown up into it in pursuit of the water and nutrients draining from that apparatus. This problem speaks to one of the problems with Jim’s experimental technique - he over-watered that system when it was outside last summer. In addition, the feedstock was chopped, recently weeded material from his garden (the only feedstock Jim could lay my hands on quickly).

The results of that experiment were the best Jim has yet seen from a cold-weather Johnson-Su system in Vermont. There was a substantial percentage of very-well-composted material that resembled real Johnson-Su compost. It was not as good as the commercial Johnson-Su compost, and not especially close to the real Johnson-Su compost made by David Johnson that Jim got his hands on (and in) about 5 years ago).

Next we delved into the two 20-gallon fabric pots that are holding some of my version 2 test. Jim made up these bags last fall from fallen leaves, shredded in a lawn mower. Along with the 5-gallon test unit, these spent the winter in my cellar. This is where/when Jim discovered the fact that he had been over-watering his micro-Johnson-Su-reactors (when they leaked black gooey water all over his cellar floor).

These two reactors were nowhere near as good as the 5-gallon reactor. However they were pretty darn nice (not-fully-mature) leaf mold. We compared this young Johnson-Su compost to the 6-month- and 18-month-old conventional leaf mold. They were not quite as nice as the 18-month mold, but at 6 months they were much closer to it than to the 6-month mold that had wintered outside.

This leaves Jim optimistic about the prospect for really good results with his version 2 micro-reactor setup and he thinks he will have some very good Johnson-Su compost about the time that leaves are falling this year, and perhaps some really fine Johnson-Su compost this time next year. Fingers crossed.

A side note - the commercial Johnson-Su compost Jim had came from an order placed by the Shelburne Farms Market Garden operation. They are going to use this compost in their field trial to try to reproduce the results from David Johnson's large-scale field trials in Arizona. In case you missed it, David's trials have been spectacularly successful (based on results released over a year ago). Bottom line is, by applying his compost as an inoculant at a rate of 2 lbs compost per acre (mixed into 20 gallons of water and applied in seed furrows when planting) provided comparable or better productivity than conventional fertilizer, and did so at lower cost (and higher profit).

It's not clear yet that David's latest results will scale across all row crops or in all locations/environments. If they do, it appears that we will have an option to managed rotational grazing for creating soil health profitably, this time for row cropping operations.

We are hoping to develop a Johnson-Su composting cohort and to reconvene for another hands-on workshop this Fall. Interested in Joining? Email Natasha@CompostingVermont.org