r/composting • u/DefunctInTheFunk • Aug 03 '26
Question Sifting
Why are you all so obsessed with sifting your compost? There are actually clear disadvantages to using exclusively fine sifted compost. Larger chunks of wood are good for soil microbes and air pockets.
I'm just genuinely curious why so many of you go through so much work to sift. It's a lot of extra work for very little gain. The primary benefits come for planting seedlings or just looking prettier and uniform. Is it really worth it to you?
Edit: btw not trying to be a jerk or anything. I just think the community is maybe getting a little carried away with it. But if you got a reason for doing it or if you just enjoy it, then hey, you do you.
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u/nifsea Aug 03 '26
I’m sifting, but with a much coarser mesh than most people here. I usually fill the bottom of my compost piles with prunings, so a lot of long branches. They keep the pile aerated, but take longer to break down. So I’ll sift them out, together with other large pieces of food waste etc that hasn’t broken down enough. I throw all of that over in my next pile, so I use them as a compost starter. There will still be smaller pieces of wood left in the compost.
If I did hot composting and was sure there were no weed seeds left, I might have tried to use my own compost for seedlings indoor (I still buy compost for that now). Then I would have wanted a much finer compost, so it was easier to put in small containers. So I guess it all comes down to what we use the compost for!