Quick answer

Is my compost ready?

If you can still recognize food scraps, it is usually not ready. Finished compost looks dark and crumbly, smells earthy, and contains little you can identify from what went in.

A test that settles it: seal a handful in a plastic bag for three days. Open it. If it smells sour or rotten, the material is still working and needs more time. If it smells like soil, it is done.

Tough stragglers like eggshells, corn cobs, and avocado pits lagging behind do not mean the batch is unfinished. Screen them out, use the fine material, and toss the holdouts into the next pile.

Using unfinished compost is not dangerous, but it can tie up nitrogen in the soil while it keeps breaking down, which briefly starves the plants around it. When in doubt, give it two more weeks.

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