Composting News: Maturity tests give conflicting results

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Composting News (CN), Pub. June 2005, Maturity Tests Give Conflicting Results by Ken McEntee (ed CN). An interview with Woods End about the problems using plant tests to interpret maturity of compost. Woods End has studied plant tests for 25 years and found the European cress/barley tests indicate maturity differently than the cucumbers tests do. A set of correlations (also available as part of the material) showed cucumber reacts positively to immature composts so long as nutrients are present. Plants belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family tend to grown in dank places, including raw manure and garbage piles. The controversy behind the story is that the USCC STA program selected only cucumber as its maturity plant.