There are different kinds of compost activator. The term varies, and it depends on who you talk to, or which book, website or product label you are reading. Compost activator can mean liquefied seaweed, microbes in a bottle, animal blood, blood meal, or more commonly urine fertilizing mixture. The nitrogen in urine (liquid organic fertilizer) supports microbes with a lot of food.
Other types of activators are compost from a previous batch, alfalfa meal, bone meal, fish meal, manure, cottonseed meal, horn meal, hoof meal, and others.
The common thread between the various types of compost activator is that all boost nitrogen into the compost pile. This is the idea that you want to take from this.
Most commonly compost activator is urine, mixed with water, and liquid seaweed. People collect it rather than waste it in the sewage system.
This nitrogen rich form of waste from every part of the human body is vitamin and nutrient rich. The technical term for this activator is Household Compost Activator.
Most composters, who use this formula, collect and mix the activator in doors. Pour it into a watering canister. Then they take it to the compost pile to be applied in a civil manner.
Urine has been determined to be the best organic fertilizer by Dr. Barbara Daniels in California, USA. This cultivation technology developed for use in inner cities on porches, balconies, and ledges for people who cant get to, or afford to import fertilizer. Her finding are recorded on the Journey to Forever website.
Dr. Barbara Daniels coined a second name for what we call compost activator. Her politically correct name for urine is Liquid Organic Fertilizer, (LOF).
Her methods have proven to work in growing rich fruit baring plants in cramped neighborhoods in inner cities around the world.
Her study to find what was the best way to grow the most amount of food with the least amount of water came to the conclusion that what she called liquid organic fertilizer was the best method.
Adding this compost activator, or liquid organic fertilizer to plants causes them to have a growth spurt in their early stages. This LOF also makes the plants very resistant to insects according to Daniels.
Daniels adds, that the use of this LOF acted as a activator causing the pots to warm quickly and speed the composting process way up. The small planters were made warm by the activator, which help plants grow better in their early stages.
In the case of other compost activators:
If activators such as blood, or blood meal cause odor that covering the pile with four to five inches of soil doesnt abate add super phosphate.
Gardeners, individuals, and families that are looking to cut down food costs, labor, and plant pests can benefit from the variety of compost activators that are available from various resources.
Even adding more than on type of compost activator can affect varying results in your compost pile or plant bed.
And often the cheapest resource is the most natural way to control pest and put good food in the hands of the marginalized and well to do alike. The same method that keeps these good people from having to share their food with insect and other small pests.
Further reading:
Human Urine Safe, Productive Fertilizer - by Carolyn Colwell
Organic food production in the slums of Mexico City - by Rodrigo A. Medellín Erdmann
