%0 Research article
%T Forest nursery waste composting in windrows with or without horse manure or urea – the composting process and nutrient leaching
%A Veijalainen, Anna-Maria
%A Juntunen, Marja-Liisa
%A Lilja, Arja
%A Heinonen-Tanski, Helvi
%A Tervo, Leo
%D 2007
%J Silva Fennica
%V 41
%N 1
%R doi:10.14214/sf.305
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/305
%X In order to find the best management practices for forest nursery waste  composting, organic waste was composted without or with horse manure or  urea in six windrows for two years. The windrows were built in four  consecutive years during 1999–2002. In 1999, no extra-nutrients were  added to the windrow (N99). In 2000, urea fertilizer was used as a  nitrogen source (U00). Despite this, the process did not function  properly. In 2001, two windrows were built, one (H01) with and the other  (N01) without horse manure. Horse manure slightly accelerated the  heating process. Consequently, two windrows with more horse manure were  built in 2002. One was aerated passively (H02) as earlier windrows, and  the other was aerated forcedly (HA02). Horse manure and forced aeration  were needed to keep the temperature above 55°C for long enough to ensure  microbial hygiene of the material. The degradation of cellulose was  greater during the curing stage. Nutrient leaching was low, although the  additives increased leaching in conjunction with the inefficient  process. The results showed that forest nursery waste alone is  ineffective at raising the temperature of the compost, and degrades  slowly due to its low nutrient and easily available carbon content. The  best management practice for forest nursery waste composting is to use  horse manure and aeration to ensure the heating process. Environmental  contamination can be avoided by collecting the leachates. Further  research is needed to evaluate the usability of the compost.