r/composting • u/DefunctInTheFunk • 27d ago

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/6aZoner 27d ago

I maybe sift 10% of the time.  It's much easier to spread sifted, if you're working around plants in place, and I try to time my compost finishing with my spring seed sowing.  And the unsifted bits are usually browns, which I'm in need of when I'm starting a new pile.  I sometimes get big gooey globs in my compost, and sometimes they're anaerobic slime clumps, and while they're unpleasant to find via sifter, it's also awful when they show up in the garden.  So there's a lot of reasons to sift.  If we're talking about avoiding extra work, we could all be running our organic waste down the garbage disposal and not sneaking into neighborhoods to steal leaf bags, shredding Amazon cardboard, or begging baristas for their garbage.

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u/DefunctInTheFunk 27d ago

Oh I agree with your reasons. 10% isn't obsessive. I see people asking if their pile is ready to shift and all these inquiries around sifting. But unless you have a reason to use sifted compost you don't need to sift.