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Use compost and digestate safely

Finished compost and digestate return nutrients to your soil. Use them with simple hygiene rules, because cold compost and digestate may still carry pathogens.

How

1. Use hot, cured compost on vegetable beds; keep cold compost for ornamentals and trees unless well aged.
2. Digestate: digestion may not kill all pathogens and parasites. Wear gloves, mix it into the soil, and follow the manufacturer's harvest interval (one manufacturer says stop applying 3 weeks before harvest and wash produce).
3. Example digestate rates from one manufacturer: diluted 2 to 10 L per m2, undiluted 1 to 5 L per m2.
4. Cover or fence digestate tanks; early digestate can attract mosquitoes.
5. Record what went where in your waste log so the food module can track soil fertility.

Safety: Wash hands after handling compost, castings and digestate.

Do these first

• food-1

Sources

1. Hot vs cold composting. University of Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture, accessed 2026-11
2. Micro-Scale Biogas Production: A Beginner's Guide. National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) ATTRA, accessed 2026-11
3. Biodigester user manual (B2C, 2021). Sistema.bio (manufacturer), accessed 2026-11

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